Turbo Levo drivetrain swap/replacement

bennylikesbikes · Saturday at 9:08 PM

Hi guys,
I’ve got a 23 gen 3 Turbo Levo that’s going to need a drivetrain swap soon.
I am thinking about just doing the whole thing at once to get away from having to replace other related components down the road.
Does anybody have any good recommendations on which and where to get a complete drive train that would work for this bike? I have been out of the bike game for a while now and I’m just getting back into it and there’s a whole boatload of new parts since I was last riding regularly. Most of what I can find online is the SRAM Eagle line, which seems too top of the line to be an affordable version.
Finances are kind of tight for me right now, and it would be cool to get away with doing it as cheap as possible, and make upgrades later when circumstances permit, perhaps after the replacement drive train wears out.
Thank you for all your time and inside people!
Best regards,
Benny

Money Pit · Saturday at 10:04 PM

I just changed my levo drive train to a shimano 11 speed linkglide setup and it's a million times better than the sram sx crap that was on it originally.

Wholeheartedly recommend!

bennylikesbikes · Saturday at 11:43 PM

Money Pit said:
I just changed my levo drive train to a shimano 11 speed linkglide setup and it's a million times better than the sram sx crap that was on it originally.

Wholeheartedly recommend!

Nice. I'm going to look into that specifically.

Did you do the whole thing - derailleur, shifter, cassette, chainring, chain?

If you don't mind me asking, how much did it (the parts) run you out the door?

Thanks for the reply, friend!

Happy trails,
Benny

Bndit · 2025-01-26T07:47:10+0000

If you can get away with 43 tooth smallest gear, I would go with 10-speed Linkglide. It lighter, cheaper and most importantly, shorter derailleur.

Money Pit · 2025-01-26T10:55:23+0000

bennylikesbikes said:
Nice. I'm going to look into that specifically.

Did you do the whole thing - derailleur, shifter, cassette, chainring, chain?

If you don't mind me asking, how much did it (the parts) run you out the door?

Thanks for the reply, friend!

Happy trails,
Benny

I did derailleur, shifter, cassette and chain. The original chain ring has been fine with it.

As for cost. I got the derailleur and shifter for £72 from a site called banana industries. I got the cassette from sprockets cycles for £74. Then I got the chain from amazon for £20.

Rode this week allover Innerleithen and Glentress and it never skipped a beat. Felt great and dropping from 12 speed to 11 had no impact on my climbing ability.

I think the cassette weighed almost the same as the sram nx caseette that was on it.

Just realised you are based in the US so prices are likely different but I imagine you can get it for a good price also.

cozzy · 2025-01-26T11:44:40+0000

Bndit said:
If you can get away with 43 tooth smallest gear, I would go with 10-speed Linkglide. It lighter, cheaper and most importantly, shorter derailleur.

You can run the cues 11/48 10 speed cassette,despite Shimano saying 43 max. Been running this for over a year.
10 speed all in £150.
11 speed was about £275 i vaguely recall.
But like you say, the short cage mech is the bonus.

Money Pit said:
I did derailleur, shifter, cassette and chain. The original chain ring has been fine with it.

As for cost. I got the derailleur and shifter for £72 from a site called banana industries. I got the cassette from sprockets cycles for £74. Then I got the chain from amazon for £20.

I got a mech from them recently. Convinced it was a scam site or fakes, but it all appears decent and very cheap.

Money Pit · 2025-01-26T18:27:02+0000

cozzy said:
You can run the cues 11/48 10 speed cassette,despite Shimano saying 43 max. Been running this for over a year.
10 speed all in £150.
11 speed was about £275 i vaguely recall.
But like you say, the short cage mech is the bonus.

I got a mech from them recently. Convinced it was a scam site or fakes, but it all appears decent and very cheap.

Yeah it's definitely a legit part. Just didn't have the packaging like a retail item would.

bennylikesbikes · 2025-01-26T22:58:44+0000

Bndit said:
If you can get away with 43 tooth smallest gear, I would go with 10-speed Linkglide. It lighter, cheaper and most importantly, shorter derailleur.

I like the sound of that. I never ride in the granny gear, and I'm honestly wondering how someone could. It's so slow that it's hard to balance and any hill so steep that it demanded such a ratio would be gravitationally impossible to climb.

Good advice, cheers!

bennylikesbikes · 2025-01-26T23:01:26+0000

Money Pit said:
I did derailleur, shifter, cassette and chain. The original chain ring has been fine with it.

As for cost. I got the derailleur and shifter for £72 from a site called banana industries. I got the cassette from sprockets cycles for £74. Then I got the chain from amazon for £20.

Rode this week allover Innerleithen and Glentress and it never skipped a beat. Felt great and dropping from 12 speed to 11 had no impact on my climbing ability.

I think the cassette weighed almost the same as the sram nx caseette that was on it.

Just realised you are based in the US so prices are likely different but I imagine you can get it for a good price also.

Interesting. I am going to look at Banana Industries tonight... I have long been waiting for more competition in the drivetrain market!

Thanks and cheers friend!

bennylikesbikes · 2025-01-26T23:01:55+0000

cozzy said:
You can run the cues 11/48 10 speed cassette,despite Shimano saying 43 max. Been running this for over a year.
10 speed all in £150.
11 speed was about £275 i vaguely recall.
But like you say, the short cage mech is the bonus.

I got a mech from them recently. Convinced it was a scam site or fakes, but it all appears decent and very cheap.

Sweeeeeet

Turbo Levo drivetrain swap/replacement

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