Specialized Turbo Levo Review, 2024

Intro

Specialized is one of the biggest bike companies in the world and as one of the market leaders, even though they weren’t the first company to make an eMTB, they were among the first to find a really great formula for motor size (and placement), battery size and suspension travel. And with their development resources, they’ve overtaken most other brands with the depth of their knowledge, as well as the depth of their offerings. It may be that no other bike company on the planet offers as many different e-bikes as Specialized does. We will be looking at just one of them in our Specialized Turbo Levo Carbon Comp review.

So why offer so many different e-bikes? Well, the Turbo Levo comes in two different versions, in broad strokes—the standard Turbo Levo and the Turbo Levo SL, with the latter shaving off several pounds from the equivalent Turbo Levo, but also giving up some power and range. Within the Turbo Levo model, Specialized offers it in six different builds, that is, six different versions with increasing quality and performance. We’re looking at the Turbo Levo Comp, which, while not nearly the most expensive version, is nonetheless a significant investment at $13,900, and is one of Specialized’s best-performing eMTBs. The Turbo Levo Comp is built with a carbon fiber frame while the Turbo Levo Alloy and Turbo Levo Comp Alloy are all built with aluminum. The Turbo Levo line begins at $8900 and goes up to $24,200 with the top-of-the-line S-Works model.

Here at Best Electric Bikes we take some effort to delineate between all-terrain e-bikes and eMTBs. All-terrain e-bikes are great for exploring dirt roads, unpaved paths and the like, while an eMTB is meant to handle difficult singletrack trails at grades that an all-terrain e-bike would balk at.

An eMTB is nearly as different from an all-terrain e-bike as an e-bike is from a regular bike. From the suspension to the motor to the drivetrain and brakes, not to mention sizing and handling, these e-bikes are a breed unto themselves. With these e-bikes, the question isn’t, “Where do you want to go?? It’s, “Where don’t you want to go?”

While we wouldn’t ever discourage anyone from buying the e-bike that strikes their fancy, we will observe that this is an e-bike aimed at someone who has been riding mountain bikes for some time and wants to add an extra dollop of fun. But for anyone who has decided that they want to ride an eMTB, the Specialized Turbo Levo Comp is a sterling example of what someone can look forward to: a powerful motor, a battery that will last all day and a carbon fiber frame that reduces weight and provides terrific handling.

Let’s take a look under the hood.

E-Bike Category: eMTB

Who the Specialized Turbo Levo Comp Electric Bike Is for: This eMTB is aimed at riders who want to explore difficult singletrack trails and ascend steep terrain.

Specialized Turbo Levo Comp E-Bike Specs

• Battery: 48V, 700Wh
• Expected Range:
• Charger: 48V, 4A
• Motor: 48V, 565W brushless, geared hub motor, producing 90Nm of torque
• Pedal Assist: 3 PAS levels
• Throttle: N/A
• Display: LED, mounted in top tube
• Headlight: N/A
• Taillight: N/A
• Frame: Carbon fiber, 150mm travel
• Fork: 160mm travel Fox Rhythm 36
• Fenders: N/A
• Kickstand: N/A
• Handlebars: 6061 Alloy, 780mm
• Grips: Specialized Trail Grips, lock-on
• Drivetrain: 12-speed SRAM GX Eagle 11-50t cassette
• Brakes: SRAM Code 4-piston hydraulic disc brakes, 200mm rotors (220mm front on L/XL)
• Pedals: Not included
• Saddle: Specialized Bridge Comp
• Tires: Specialized Butcher Grid Trail 29×2.6-in. front, Eliminator Grid Trail 27.5×2.6-in. rear

In-Depth Specialized Turbo Levo Comp Review

Specialized Turbo Levo Comp Review: Comfort, Handling, and Ride Qualities

Admittedly, riders who are considering an eMTB aren’t terribly concerned with comfort, per se. More relevant than how comfortable this e-bike is, is the question of what its suspension can handle. The Specialized Turbo Levo Comp features a carbon fiber frame that offers 150mm of travel, while the Fox Rhythm 36 fork offers 160mm of travel as well. Mountain bikes and eMTBs are classified according to how much travel they offer. Bikes with 120mm or less travel are considered race bikes. Those with anywhere from 125mm to 150mm of travel are considered in the trail category; a fork with 160mm of travel enters the realm of enduro/freeride. Trail is a kind of catch-all category for riders who want to ride hard and maybe catch some air, but aren’t pulling backflips. With so much travel, this is a go-anywhere, ride anything eMTB.

We often talk (write) about how nimble an e-bike is, its ability to thread through crowded bike paths or busy urban environments. An eMTB, due to the nature of winding singletrack trails, is as agile an e-bike as someone is likely to encounter.

Many of the e-bikes we review come in just one size. That can be a problem for people outside the meat of the bell curve of height, say 5 feet 5 inches up to 6 feet. Specialized places a greater emphasis on good fit than nearly any other big manufacturer. As a result, they offer the Turbo Levo Comp in six sizes. No, that’s not a typo: six (6). They have determined that their XS can fit a rider as small as 4 feet 11 inches, while the XXL can fit someone as tall as 6 feet 8 inches. In terms of on-the-bike comfort where reach and saddle height are concerned, it would be hard for a rider to find a brand more dedicated to fit.

While the Specialized Turbo Levo Comp will do well on most any terrain, people looking for an e-bike to handle especially rocky conditions, like those found in the Sierra Mountains, or on OHV trails, will appreciate this eMTB. With 160mm of travel front and 150mm rear, this is an e-bike that will offer exceptional control in difficult terrain.

Specialized Turbo Levo Comp Review: Motor, Battery, and Drivetrain Performance

With a 565W motor that produces a potent 90Nm of torque, some readers may think this motor isn’t especially powerful. The great majority of e-bikes we review here at Best Electric Bikes feature hub motors that require more power than mid-drive motors do to deliver riders up to cruising speed. The Specialized 2.2 motor is a powerful mid-drive motor that gives the Specialized Turbo Levo Comp the ability to climb ultra-steep terrain with complete control.

Mid-drive motors add power at the crank, before the drivetrain. Just as gears multiply a rider’s effort, the gears provide the same multiplication to a mid-drive motor’s power. There’s no easy way to draw an equivalence between the amount of wattage in a mid-drive motor and the wattage in a hub drive motor, largely due to the drivetrain itself.

That said, the 565W of the 2.2 motor delivers an enormous amount of power for the rider; more impressive is the 90Nm of torque. We’re impressed when a hub motor produces 90Nm; a mid-drive motor that produces that much torque will climb like no e-bike with a hub motor.

This is a Class 1 e-bike with a maximum speed of 20 mph and no throttle. Considering the kind of terrain this e-bike is suited to conquer, 28 mph on those trails would be foolhardy, if not downright suicidal.

We often see batteries roughly equivalent in watt/hours to the wattage output of the motor, so a 500W motor will have a roughly 500Wh battery. In the case of the Specialized Turbo Levo Comp, the 700Wh battery will provide more range than many riders could exhaust in a single day. Even bigger riders in challenging terrain riding in turbo mode should manage at least 20 mi. of range. On eco, in gentler terrain, more than 50 mi. is reasonable.

The drivetrain found on an eMTB bears little in common with what we see on most e-bikes in the $1000-$2000 price range. Rather than a 7-speed drivetrain, we see a 12-speed drivetrain on the Turbo Levo SL Comp. An eMTB is meant to take in terrain that an all-terrain e-bike can’t handle. Aside from the additional five gears, the range of those 12 gears is much greater. Most 7-speed drivetrains have a 200 percent range (14-28t cogs), while the 12-speed SRAM GX Eagle drivetrain has a more than 400 percent range (11-50t). Such a drivetrain, when combined with the SL 1.1 motor, can help riders climb hills that are difficult to hike up. Good times.

Specialized Turbo Levo Comp Review: Braking, Safety & Warranty

The brakes spec’d on the Specialized Turbo Levo SL Comp are some of the very best that SRAM produces, the Code. This is a 4-piston, hydraulic disc brake with 200mm rotors front and rear, except with the L/XL and XXL sizes, which get a massive 220mm rotor for extra stopping power.

One of the benefits to these brakes is that they are powerful enough to scrub boatloads of speed should a rider realize they’ve let the bike accelerate too much. And talk about stopping quickly. With four piston, these will stop on a dime and leave change.

Anyone with questions about safety is encouraged to consider that this e-bike is so well made that the major consideration isn’t whether this e-bike will hold up under its intended use, but rather just how much trouble the rider is willing to get into. There isn’t much this e-bike can’t do, short of the Red Bull Rampage. That’s as it should be for an e-bike that goes for $13,900.

Specialized offers one of the best warranties being found on e-bikes. It covers the frame and fork for the lifetime of the e-bike. They offer a two-year warranty on the motor and battery. However, they do refer owners to the manufacturer of all components for warranties on those parts, which is generally one year. Fortunately, Specialized dealers are experienced in expediting such fixes. Also, the warranty not only covers the original owner, but it also extends to subsequent owners for up to two years.

Specialized Turbo Levo Comp Review: Recommendation/Final Verdict

For the experienced mountain biker who has decided to, uh, electrify their riding, the Specialized Turbo Levo Comp is a terrific eMTB. The carbon frame is overbuilt to the point that riders need not worry about fragility should they crash. Even after building the frame so that it can take industrial abuse, this is a surprisingly light eMTB. It weighs just a tick over 50 lbs., at 51 lbs. 3 oz. Most of the e-bikes we review weigh more than 70 lbs. in order to produce that much power and range.

The components are of a quality level that any experienced mountain biker will find suits their riding and doesn’t hold them back, and same for the 160mm/150mm of travel in the suspension; it’s enough to get someone into trouble, and back out of it.

It’s difficult to stress how much we respect the work Specialized puts into offering multiple sizes in each of their models. Producing six different sizes demands a big investment in tooling, but that extra investment on their part translates to better handling and ultimately a better experience for the rider.

The bulk of the e-bikes we review come from direct-to-consumer companies who produce some of the most cost-effective e-bikes on the market and we are constantly impressed with how much e-bike some of them can offer for $1500-$2000. Those bikes are built with an eye to making a dollar go as far as possible, which is a fine perspective. The Specialized Turbo Levo Comp takes a completely different approach, putting rider experience and performance first. What we especially like about the Turbo Levo SL Comp is that for $13,900 the buyer gets 80 percent of the performance found in the $24,200 S-Works version; they feature the same motor, battery and suspension—in other words, the Comp most of the fun for a bit more than half the cost of the top-of-the-line model.

As if all that isn’t reason enough to find this e-bike compelling, let’s consider Specialized’s Mission Control smartphone app. Mission Control allows riders to tune the performance of the motor as well as how the PAS levels function. It even allows a rider to set parameters on the front end of a ride and then have Mission Control tailor the motor’s output to make optimal use of the battery. Riders can also track their ride on GPS as well as upload ride data to an app like Strava.

A e-bike like the Specialized Turbo Levo Comp is a particular sort of e-bike, meant to do one thing well—riding technical singletrack. Anyone looking for something versatile enough to ride offroad, commute to work and run the odd errand would be better served by a different e-bike.

Spending more than $10k on a bike can seem like crazy talk. In the 1980s, it was hard to spend more than $30,000 on a car, while today it’s hard not to spend at least that much. So it goes with eMTBs. They didn’t exist just ten years ago, so it’s understandable that many people are still suffering sticker shock at what someone can spend on an eMTB. Specialized produces a version of the Turbo Levo with an alloy frame that picks up a couple of pounds in weight but sheds $5000 in cost, bringing it in at $8900. Still pricey, yes, but a significant savings.

The question for the prospective buyer has less to do with price than use. It’s unlikely that anyone seriously considering an eMTB is also considering a $2000 all-terrain e-bike. More likely is that the rider is considering one of the higher-end all-terrain e-bikes like those from QuietKat or Eunorau. Hunters and anglers looking to get into wild places will find offerings from those companies better suited to adding a rack or pulling a trailer. The rider who likes ripping down singletrack and flying off ledges several feet high will want an eMTB like the Turbo Levo Comp.

Thank you for reading through our review of the Specialized Turbo Levo Comp. Still have further questions? Wondering how it compares to a similar e-bike we’ve reviewed? Let us know in the comments below!