JAMIE’S SPECIALIZED TURBO KENEVO SL COMP
MONTH 1: Risk taker Jamie likes to roll the dice when it comes to his annual longtermer
£7,000 / 29in / specialized.com
Looking back through the longtermer introductions of the past few years, there’s a common theme running throughout – riders choose a bike they know all about, something that suits their riding. Pretty smart. I tend to do the dumb thing though, and pick a bike that I know, that I’ve never ridden before and have no expectations of.
From my first longtermer, Whyte’s quirky E-120, through to Marin’s even quirkier Mount Vision (the one that looked like an e-bike), it’s the thrill of the unknown I enjoy. I want to come at a longtermer with disinterest, and figure out what’s good or bad about it while
I’m along for the ride.
And so on to the Specialized Turbo Kenevo SL. I know e-bikes and I know regular bikes, I’ve ridden hundreds of them over the years. But what I don’t know much about are low power e-bikes – a quick lap on the Lapierre ezesty with its removable Fazua motor, and a few days on the Turbo Levo SL are all I’ve experienced in this new realm. The Kenevo SL remains a complete unknown to me.
I’ve got some big questions for it, which I’ll get to in a minute when
WHY IT’S HERE Diet e-bikes: the best or worst of both worlds?
I’ve made some proper introductions. Specialized released the Kenevo SL early in 2021 but you had to be a high flyer or a big debtor to afford one because the £12,500 S-works version and £8,750 Expert were all that was available in the UK. Now though, Spesh has a ‘budget’ model – I use that term loosely – the Kenevo SL Comp you see here, at £7,000.
For that dosh you get mid-tier Fox suspension with a Performance level shock and Oem-only 36 Rhythm fork. Normally at this point I’d compare this to my favourite electrical yardstick, the YT Decoy, and point out you can get a Fox Factory level e-bike from the Germans for less money. But here it doesn’t apply, because there really isn’t much competition from the big brands – if you want a lightweight e-bike you’re going to have to pony up the money.
How light are we talking? The SL Comp shares the S-works backbone and e-bike gubbins, which means you get a full carbon frame bolted to a motor that weighs just 1.9kg. To put that in some perspective, the SL motor and its meagre 320Wh battery weigh less than a regular Turbo Levo motor. This helps the SL Comp achieve its headline weight of 19.4kg, it’s not feather-light but it does rather split the difference between an e-bike and a regular enduro bike.
Now here’s the rub, you have to take a serious power and battery hit to achieve that kind of weight. The Specialized 2.2 motor from the Turbo Levo generates 565W max power and 90Nm of torque, while this little thing inside the Kenevo SL gets just 240W, and less than half the torque, at 35Nm.
So now to the questions. Is that enough power, or is this Kenevo SL a poor compromise that satisfies neither my lust for all the power, nor my desire for the lightest whip around? Do you throw away all the advantages of a lightweight e-bike by getting the budget model and piling the pounds back on again? Who the hell will I go riding with, if most of them ride full power e-bikes, or regular bikes? Oh, and is it actually any good? Stay with me for the next 12 months and I’ll try and figure it out.