Levo Gen 2 2021 Turbo Levo Owners Thread


cb700

New Member
Sep 11, 2020
20
8
San Rafael, CA, USA
Thanks. Im just trying to decide on the color, I thought the green was much darker than it appears in your photos. Have choice of green or red. Does the wrap change the color?
I have the Oak Green like @Bencab The green doesn't photograph well IMO (though true to a degree also with the red.) I would definitely recommend viewing them in person if you can. That should help you make a choice.
 

backstep

Member
Sep 11, 2020
18
8
Valencia, Spain
I have the Oak Green like @Bencab The green doesn't photograph well IMO (though true to a degree also with the red.) I would definitely recommend viewing them in person if you can. That should help you make a choice.

Thank you. Unfortunately due to where I live and Covid I have to buy my first ebike unseen via mail order. I dont like the dark army green dusty look much which is what I see in the photos. The red looks quite orange, wish it was just red. Or the nice black in the non-comp version. Any advice as owner of one?
 

willeco

Member
Jul 28, 2020
105
88
Halle
Thank you. Unfortunately due to where I live and Covid I have to buy my first ebike unseen via mail order. I dont like the dark army green dusty look much which is what I see in the photos. The red looks quite orange, wish it was just red. Or the nice black in the non-comp version. Any advice as owner of one?
Post #18 shows the red in detail...
 

cb700

New Member
Sep 11, 2020
20
8
San Rafael, CA, USA
Thank you. Unfortunately due to where I live and Covid I have to buy my first ebike unseen via mail order. I dont like the dark army green dusty look much which is what I see in the photos. The red looks quite orange, wish it was just red. Or the nice black in the non-comp version. Any advice as owner of one?
After seeing it in person, I wouldn't characterize it as orange, but rather a 'bright' red. If you gravitate to a bright flash color, it might be the one for you, it is beautiful IMO. Here is a youtuber with one. You can see it in video here: James Goodsell
 

JBel

New Member
Aug 8, 2020
9
13
CA
I purchased the Levo Comp in the Redwood. My wife got one in the Oak Green. Both bikes look great. If I had to repurchase them I would probably get the Oak Green only because the black motor casing blends in with the green and it is really hard to tell it is an ebike.
 

JBel

New Member
Aug 8, 2020
9
13
CA
My wife and I received our 2021 Turbo Levo Comps recently. I got the Redwood in a medium and my wife got a small Oak Green. I received my bike about a month before we could get hers.

Before we rode the bikes I changed the tires to Maxxis DHF front and Maxxis Agressor rear. We ride them with about 27 psi. These tires have worked well for us on our other bikes (Spot Mayhem 130). I usually set them at 20 to 25 lbs on the Mayhems.

For my first ride I rode the Comp 31.5 miles with 4300 feet of elevation. A one-word description is Incredible. Since this was a test ride, I used all three modes in all types of terrain. I was less interested in keeping my heart in a training range and/or conserving battery and more interested in seeing what the bike would do. I was riding out of the Central Valley, California in the Sierran foothills. Terrain ranges from flat to 35% gradient inclines with hard pack, loose gravel/sand, rocky washed out areas, sandy stretches, single track and wider 4 wheel drive roads.

There are fast downhill sections, constrained canyons with many berm to berm turns, lots of little jumps, and a few large jumps (what I consider large – not what a good rider would consider large). Note, I am a moderately aggressive rider but not crazy. In my mid-60s I want to have fun, push some limits, but live to ride another day. I only have 3.5 years of experience riding real mountain bikes. Thankfully, my crashes have only been loss of skin and one new helmet.

On flat and downhill runs we generally turn the mode to off unless speeding up for a jump. Lately we are doing 20 mile rides with 2,000 to 3,000 of elevation and we are only using 20-25% of the battery. We rarely use Turbo unless we have exhausted ourselves. Using Eco and some Trail we can generally keep our hearts in a training range for several hours. One thing that we both note is that we get much more of an upper body workout than on our lighter carbon bikes.

We both ride up hills that we just cannot do on our Mayhems. I am sure that better and stronger riders could do them. I have not been able to. The gradients I climbed on the Comp were up to 30% (according to my Garmin) and were rather easily climbed. There is a 35% hill that I have been unable to climb but will keep trying it. It has a lot of loss soil and I always spin out. When riding in non-assisted mode the bike pedals nicely. On flats and downhills it pedals very easily.

When on assisted mode the motor noise is very, very low. You don't even think about it. I jump small jumps (<20 feet horizontal). The bike performed similarly to my Mayhem. However, due to the weight (50.0 lbs vs ~28 lbs), the Comp feels much more planted in many situations. The Mission Control app was great. I changed the default settings to 35-50, 50-70, and 85-100. I did this after watching a guy named Marshall Mullin explain how the settings work at These settings work well but I need to play with other variations. I use the 100% Acceleration Response but 0% Shuttle settings. I will be testing these settings. I will be lowering the Eco setting to 20-50% to see how that works.

The Fox 36 And rear shock were fine. I set them up as per Fox online instructions. They were a little harsh on very rocky trails. However, this should be fixed when I adjust the rebound settings. The dropper post is very good. I like my BikeYoke Revive on my Mayham a little better (it seems smoother and the remote seems more responsive) but the X-fusion Manic seems to work well and I have quickly adjusted to it. The LBS mounted the mode switch such that the dropper remote lever hit the electrical cable when using the remote. This would soon cause a break in the control wire. A 2mm hex adjusted it properly.

The brakes work well. The shifter and drive train were fine and relatively smooth. My Mayhem is a 6 build with SRAM Eagle XX1 but the lower level Shimano SLX components work nicely enough.

The seat is surprisingly very good. I had no discomfort after 31 miles. It seems much better than my WTB seat (Mayhem) which wears on me after 15 to 20 miles.

Overall, we are very pleased with the bikes. It was extremely fun to be able to ride hills that previously were not possible for me and to able to do many more downhills in the same amount of time I usually ride. Additionally, my wife enjoys the rides because she is not playing catch up with me. My wife is a very cautious rider but I have noticed that she is attempting downhills that she would not previously consider. She says that the bike feels much more planted and secure. Which is just what you would expect from a 50 pound bike.

We said we would not consider ebikes until we were in our 70's. However, young people convinced us to try them. It has definitely been a good thing.
 

Bencab

Well-known member
Feb 13, 2020
190
483
California
Thanks. Im just trying to decide on the color, I thought the green was much darker than it appears in your photos. Have choice of green or red. Does the wrap change the color?
No, the matte wrap does not change color but it add a little bit of gloss.
 

Singletrackmind

Active member
Sep 17, 2020
471
425
San Diego, CA
What is your height weight if you don’t mind. I don’t have a don’t have a bike now to have a preference so I ordered a size large based off of the specialized calculator but I later read that they “run small” so now I’m thinking I got the wrong size? I’m 91kg (200lb), 180cm (almost 6ft)
I'm 6ft even, 185lbs with a 32" inseam. Bought a large and overall fits well, could have easily got an extra large. I prefer a bike thats more agile versus having a longer wheelbase. Compared geometry to my 2 clockwork (analog) bikes and the spesh large aligned with 5mm on almost every dimension of my Canyon Torque and Yeti sb4.5.
 

Daipew

New Member
Sep 26, 2020
3
8
San Diego, CA (USA)
Just picked up my 2021 Sage Comp. This year the handlebars are thicker. The mounts that come with the Turbo Connect Display do not fit next to the stem so you can have the TCD mounted center over the stem like intended. You can put it further down the handlebars, but not ideal. Anyone know if there is a new mount?

I know the TCD also works in Garmin mounts. Does anyone know one of those that might work?
 

cb700

New Member
Sep 11, 2020
20
8
San Rafael, CA, USA
Just picked up my 2021 Sage Comp. This year the handlebars are thicker. The mounts that come with the Turbo Connect Display do not fit next to the stem so you can have the TCD mounted center over the stem like intended. You can put it further down the handlebars, but not ideal. Anyone know if there is a new mount?

I know the TCD also works in Garmin mounts. Does anyone know one of those that might work?
This Garmin 010-12563-02 Edge Mountain Bike Mount works on my 2021 Levo Comp.
 

salko

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Aug 29, 2019
1,275
867
SLO
This Garmin 010-12563-02 Edge Mountain Bike Mount works on my 2021 Levo Comp.
S-works comes with Deity Copperhead 35 stem which has even wider 55mm bar clamp, can you please measure dimension below on your Garmin 010-12563-02 Edge Mountain Bike Mount? Thank you!

1601225640706.png
 
Last edited:

cb700

New Member
Sep 11, 2020
20
8
San Rafael, CA, USA
S-works comes with Deity Copperhead 35 stem which has even wider 55mm bar clamp, can you please measure dimension below on your Garmin 010-12563-02 Edge Mountain Bike Mount? Thank you!

View attachment 41002
Here it is mounted on 2021 Turbo Levo Comp stock handlebars. The mount comes with rubber padding attached to the mount piece and an extra ring of padding. You won't need the extra padding (for thinner bars).

977F9DE8-00FD-4EE7-9278-B2EBE993030C.jpeg
 

salko

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Aug 29, 2019
1,275
867
SLO
Here it is mounted on 2021 Turbo Levo Comp stock handlebars. The mount comes with rubber padding attached to the mount piece and an extra ring of padding. You won't need the extra padding (for thinner bars).

View attachment 41018
This stem bar clamp width looks more like ~40-45mm, so I'm now pretty sure this Garmin mount will not fit S-works stem if I want my Garmin device to be on the center of the stem :/
 

JBel

New Member
Aug 8, 2020
9
13
CA
Just a note about two problems I just had.

I have 165 miles on the Levo. While riding on bumpy terrain I heard a rattling. I found that the back brake rotor was loose and could be moved several millimeters each direction. After the ride I cleaned our bikes and charged the battery. Later on I pulled the back wheel. If you do this remember to turn off the friction adjustment lever.

I found that the lock ring holding the rotor in place had come loose and could be turned by hand. It appears that this item had been improperly torqued when the bike was built. At 40 Nm (29.5 ft-lb) of torque this part should not become loose that quickly (if at all). I torqued the ring correctly and reassembled the wheel.

Then, I went to test the bike. I pressed the on switch and got the “beep” and the lights ran up and down and then faulted to a blue light, off light, off light, red light. And then the bike shut off. I tried a factory reset with the same result. This light combination means “Battery Not Found”. This seems to belie the fact that the power is needed to tell me that the battery is not found. Maybe there is a secondary coin battery that powers this.

Never-the-less, I finally found that charge port door was not actually closed although it appeared to be solidly closed. Not until I opened the door all the way and then shut it again did the error code go away.

So, you could be riding, bang the door just a little bit, and then receive a battery not found code. Check to make sure the door is completely closed and not slightly ajar.
 

JBel

New Member
Aug 8, 2020
9
13
CA
I'm 6ft even, 185lbs with a 32" inseam. Bought a large and overall fits well, could have easily got an extra large. I prefer a bike thats more agile versus having a longer wheelbase. Compared geometry to my 2 clockwork (analog) bikes and the spesh large aligned with 5mm on almost every dimension of my Canyon Torque and Yeti sb4.5.

Hi. I am 5' 9" (175 cm) an 165 lbs. My inseam is 32". I have medium frame and find that it is good for me. My first mountain bike was a large frame and with a dropper seat was too large.
 

Singletrackmind

Active member
Sep 17, 2020
471
425
San Diego, CA
Hi. I am 5' 9" (175 cm) an 165 lbs. My inseam is 32". I have medium frame and find that it is good for me. My first mountain bike was a large frame and with a dropper seat was too large.
Good point about the dropper post. When possible, definitely should test ride a bike (even if its only in a parking lot) to get an idea of how the frame stacks up.

On my large Levo, have the seat positioned almost as far back as it can go. Imperative to get the right size frame. Although it is possible to make some minor tweaks on sizing such as stem length, spacers under stem and handlebar rise, get the wrong size frame and you are toast.

Have to remember if you increase bar height by adding spacers, reach will decrease. Get too long of a stem and it impacts handling. Bars that are too high will have adverse effect when climbing/bars too low adversely impact when descending.

With all that being said, frame & component sizing is still a natter of personal preference. Also, a large for one brand may be a size medium for another brand. My Yeti Sb4.5 is size Large, Canyon Torque is a medium and frame geometry is very close. I like having a slightly smaller frame on my dh/enduro mtb and the size large Yeti sets up great for a trail/all mountain mtb. I ride a 56cm Wilier road bike and have an XL Specialized Sirrus hybrid.
 

kawamaha

Member
Apr 1, 2020
68
54
Monaco
anyone got the 2021 base model or has some info about the 35 silver TK fork?
on the sram site I found:
"Plush coil spring or highly tunable Solo Air spring"

please someone tell me it doesn't come with coil forks :eek:
anyone with a base model can answer my question now?
thank you
 

Ivan

Member
Dec 29, 2018
44
34
Australia
Hey All,
I have about 150km's on my 2021 Levo and have an experience to offer for those on a Small or Medium sized frame (these sizes come with a 40mm stem, as opposed to 50mm on the larger sizes).

After getting the bike and doing one ride I trimmed the bars to 750mm, which has been my preferred width over many different bikes now. After a few more rides, I still didn't feel comfortable in corners or rough technical sections, as I had trouble getting a good feel for the level of front tyre grip and and I felt like a bit of a passenger on the bike rather than being in control. Many times I ended up off the line I wanted to ride, or drifting wide in corners. I felt a bit disconnected from the front wheel.

Today I swapped out the 40mm stem for a 50mm stem that I had and I am really happy with the difference. In corners and just general riding I feel like my steering inputs are having much more of an effect and in corners I feel back in control. It is surprising that such a small change has had such a big effect. I have ridden steep or rough tech yet but I am very confident in the change from todays ride on my local trails.

Obviously this change is a bit personal in terms of fit, and won't be the same for everyone, but if you are feeling like I was then maybe try a 50mm stem.

For reference I am 174cm, and fairly experienced on a bike.
 

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