SPECIALIZED TURBO LEVO FSR COMP

£4,500 Stealthy, user-friendly take on powered riding

It’s not just the hidden battery and lack of a head unit that set the Levo FSR apart – Specialized’s latest Turbo trail bike is a subtle, silent but seriously fun and well-packaged ride.

The frame

It’s a tribute to Specialized’s cunning integration of battery and Brose motor that the Turbo Levo FSR just looks like their Stumpjumper FSR trail bike would in the early stages of pregnancy. The battery is held in securely and silently with fork-style 15mm through-axles, and can be recharged in situ. While the Comp gets a smaller-capacity cell than the Expert (460 vs 504Wh), battery management is a strong point, as we’ll see later.

Specialized’s classic ‘FSR’ four-bar linkage suspension is carried over, complete with custom-tuned Fox Float shock with ‘Autosag’ for easy set-up. Apart from 25mm longer stays and a slightly slacker head angle, the geometry is within a few millimetres of the human-powered Stumpjumper FSR 6Fattie.

The kit

You get the same stout-legged RockShox Yari RC fork too, but with 140mm instead of 150mm of travel, SRAM GX 1x11 gears and Guide R brakes (biting onto 200mm rotors front and rear). Specialized provide the finishing kit – a 750mm bar, 60mm stem, multi-position Command Post IRcc dropper and Henge saddle. The broad-rimmed plus wheels are from Specialized’s Roval brand, and they even get oversize ‘Torque Caps’ on the front hub for max fork/wheel stiffness.

Unusually for an e-bike, there’s no display on the bar, which leaves you free to fit lights, GPS units, etc. You can buy an add-on wireless controller for £50 or slave it to a Garmin Edge GPS computer, but otherwise you’ll need to use the basic +/- power mode control switch fitted to the side of the battery, within easy reach. A ring of LEDs around it shows remaining battery life/charge status. Alternatively, you can control power levels and speed of power delivery via sliders on Spesh's free ‘Mission Control’ smartphone app. This will even let you enter your planned ride distance or time so the controller can pace the power it uses, and it has navigation and Strava-linked ride data features too. We did have occasional connection and location glitches, but overall the adjustability is a massive bonus.

The ride

Crucially, our test bike had the latest firmware, which addresses the slow, low-powered pick-up complaints levelled at previous Turbo Levos. Despite theoretically giving a 90Nm torque max, which is considerably more than the other motors, it’s still more subtle in response than the ‘Scalextric trigger’ Bosch bikes. The wheels are also the heaviest on test by a big margin, which dulls acceleration. As a result, both Shimano and Bosch bikes will drop the Levo in a straight full-gas drag race. The Brose motor has a broader bandwidth when it’ll assist than the Bosch unit though, in terms of torque and cadence, which makes it more usable on technical climbs or firsttime trails. While the slight run-on after you stop pedalling can catch

you out, it’s great for surging up steps without clobbering your pedals.

Praxis Works’ Cadet crank arms are much stiffer and stronger than the city-bike offerings generally found on e-bikes. The full-size 30t chainring also reduces chain wear compared to the tiny primary drive cogs of the Yamaha and Bosch motors. Specialized’s app lets you tune the different power levels to your taste rather than relying on presets. A 75 per cent ‘Trail’ setting became our favourite set-up, with a decent battery life and power balance plus a top note of ‘Turbo’ when needed. Even at full power the beltdriven Brose motor is almost silent, which is lovely if you’re cruising over sunset moors or don’t want folk to notice you’re ‘cheating’.

There’s very little trace of the motor and battery weight in the handling, too. The reach is short for a large bike but it’s longer than everything here but the Focus and the back end isn’t excessively long. Good weighting of the front end and cockpit means there’s no trouble slamming it into corners in a shower of roost or holding it straight through rock gardens. The 3in tyres sit on broad rims too, so there’s plenty of side-load support and security when things get silly. The heavy-duty ‘Grid’ carcass means you can drop tyre pressures low to offset an otherwise wooden ride feel.

All but the most aggressive riders will want to remove one or two of the three volume spacers in the Yari fork to stop it feeling spiky through big hits. Conversely, we’d suggest running the rear shock slightly higher than the recommended Autosag pressure or adding volume spacers to stop it running out of travel with a thump once you start really ragging the Levo. Otherwise, while it’s not the liveliest-feeling bike, the ‘RX Trail Tune’ of the shock and the big tyres create an impressively smooth and well-connected rear end that carries speed over the roughest terrain.