Pete checks in on his Specialized Turbo Levo Pro Carbon that has been in constant use since the end of the summer and has just had a firmware update for yet more power.
Otherwise unchanged since the last review, but with yet more miles on the clock, Pete’s Specialized Turbo Levo Pro Carbon gets a 22% bump in power to 810W, with torque rising from 101 to 105NM.
Photos by Pete Scullion.
Key features:
- Fox 38 Factory GripX2 160mm fork
- Fox Float X Factory w/ Genie
- SRAM XO AXS T-type 12-speed drive
- Specialized 3.1 motor
- Specialized 840Wh battery
- SRAM Maven Silver brakes
- Roval Traverse HD carbon wheels
- Bikeyoke Revive Max 3.0 dropper
- £10,299.00 RRP
- Specialized.com
As someone who’s quite content winching a bike up all manner of filthy climbs to reap the rewards they bring, the concept of more power often doesn’t light my eyes up like it might do others. The arms race that has begun with ebikes isn’t something I watch with feverish excitement either.
So you can imagine how I felt about a software/firmware update for a bike that already felt too powerful coming from Specialized for my Levo 4 Pro Carbon. I was happy to be proven incorrect though and dutifully set aside my campaign on War Thunder to allow the update to take place.
Specialized claimed that the update would take thirty minutes and would require 20% battery on the bike and a charged phone. In reality, the update took less than half this time (13 minutes) and barely used any battery on the bike or phone. Easy peasy.
Regardless of the headline numbers of 22% more power etc., the change was immediately noticeable and entirely for the positive. The application of power now felt like an extension of my legs, rather than a bolting horse that I was attempting to control.
Technical climbs went by in a breeze, the Genie shock working overtime to keep the back wheel in check but doing so flawlessly. One of the two gripes I had with this bike had been solved. Yes, I think 90Nm was fine, and personally, if I was buying an ebike, I’d likely go mid power, but this bike now made sense. No firmware was going to solve the frame stiffness though…
In all the latest update makes the Levo 4 a much better bike to ride, especially on the ups and the swoopy, traversing trails where the power feels like the MCU slogan ‘It’s You Only Faster’ as the bike powers off. It’s a classy update that doesn’t latch onto the arms race, but makes an existing machine that much better.
Beyond the updated gubbins, the Levo 4 remains a very capable bike, stymied by an overly rigid chassis, bar and wheelset. Props to the designersthough for making the battery particularly easy to remove. 5mm allen key bolt, pop the cover off, pull the battery out. Easy.
Even with the thicker rotors of dinner plate proportions, the Mavens are definitely at the limit of their powers with a 24kg bike that can go this quickly. Everything else continues to run as it did back in the middle of last year’s summer. It has been used for everything since and has rarely put a foot wrong. Whether it’s laps of the woods, big hill days, photoshoots and everything else, as long as I remember to charge the bike, it’s kept going forwards.
