Levo SL Gen 1 Eco vs Turbo - difference with the same settings

[p3eps]

Those of you who’ve read some of my posts will know my story. I bought a Trek Rail 9.9 at the end of January and had it for 2 weeks when the Levo SL was announced.
I used my 30 day satisfaction guarantee to swap it for the Levo SL expert - as I wanted a ‘little bit’ of assistance rather than loads!

Since then, I’ve been changing my Mission Control settings every few rides trying to find the optimum setting for me.
Up until this weekend I’ve been running Eco @ 15/25, Trail @ 30/80 and Turbo @ 100/100 (mine is still on a Firmware where the middle setting with 2 lights is Trail and not Sport!). I ride in Trail 99% of the time.
Eco is for emergencies, when the battery isn’t going to last long enough... and Turbo is for if I need extra assistance on some
Technical climbs. I want to ditch the handlebar remote... so having the perfect setting would remove the need for it.

I read quite recently that Eco / Trail / Turbo all have different characteristics even if they are set the same... so I thought I’d test this out for myself.
I haven’t been on my bike much this month, as I pulled a muscle in my back playing golf a few weeks ago. It’s now feeling much better, but still not 100%... so I decided now was a good time for this experiment.

The route was at Pitfichie in Aberdeenshire - about 25 miles from my house. It’s exactly 10 miles and just under 500m elevation - approx 7 of them are fire road (with lots of hills), 1.5 miles of technical climbing, and 1.5 miles of single track downhill.
On my Stumpjumper, this takes me about 1hr and 20 mins, and on the Trek Rail it took 45 mins.

Yesterday, I set Eco to 35/80 and did this route. I started with my battery at 100%

As you can see, it took me 1 hour exactly... with 56.58mins of this as my moving time. I stopped in 2 places for a drink of water.
My battery was at 64% when I reached the car.

Today, I set Turbo to 35/80 and did the same route again. My battery was fully charged for this one too.

This one took me 51.34mins, with 50.41mins moving. I only stopped for 1 drink this time. The reason being that there was a guy sitting at the top, and I knew if I stopped, I’d have ended up ruining my experiment and having a chat... so I just kept going!!
At the end of this one, my battery was at 52%.

So - what’s the conclusion?!
To me, it was obvious when riding in Turbo that it was going to use more battery as it accelerated quicker. The motor seemed to kick in much quicker and also seemed to be louder. It also had more over-run when I stopped pedalling. The easiest way to describe it would be as more aggressive.
If anything, my legs were a bit more tired today (Turbo) after my first ride in a few weeks... yet it was still 6mins and 17secs quicker. Over a 1 hour ride, that’s quite a significant difference.
It also used 12% more battery. Again - a significant difference over a 10 mile ride.

I tried my best to make sure it was a fair test. I was pushing pretty hard on both rides, and was pedalling most of the time with the exception of some downhill parts. I had similar clothing on both rides, so would have weighed the same... and the conditions were identical on both days.
Hopefully the Garmin data for Power and Cadence etc shows that both rides were very similar.

 

[p3eps]

Good tests. I like to see my graphs just like you do. I will say that I use Blevo because it shows my input watt hour and the bikes. So for rides to work on Monday I’m sluggish from Jameson. And on Wednesday I’m halfassing to save energy for the Wednesday DH trail and Thursday I crush it because I can. And each day I can see the metrics from my legs and the bike which helps me see if a weekend of wine effects me differently than Jameson.


I still do not trust the garmin metrics blevo is different. But garmin just came out with v6 so maybe that improved things. But I’d put my money that garmin made update was to mitigate being held ransom again.

Whether Garmin is accurate or not, the time, distance and battery levels speak for themselves regarding the difference between Eco / Turbo when using the same numbers.

Garmin’s servers are down again - I wonder if they’ve been hacked again?

 

[rsmagee]

Really interesting stuff. Cheers!

Just one point, you can change modes without the bar remote by just pressing down on the mode indicator. It’s just cycles though the three

 

[paquo]

now i use the eco for what used to be trail because there is no overrun in eco and shifting is better
50/100 ,30/100, 75/100

 

[apac]

It sounds like that in turbo the motor is pulling more 'peak' amps From the battery. Peak amps only last a second or two as the motor accelerates to get to a more efficient nominal amperage. As said above, the over-run is more noticeable due to getting more peak power being allowed by the motor controller.

 

[randycpu]

@Specialized Rider Care

Can you comment on the algorithm that seems to make the bike perform differently with Eco and Trail using the same settings?

 

[55plusmxinsanity]

Simply, the acceleration setting for each mode is different. My guess is 0-60-100.

 

[Specialized Rider Care]

Hi all, thanks for the question. There should be no difference between the modes if you have set them the same, no hidden differences between algorithms. If you look at the average speed & work you've done (work or calories burned) between the two rides I agree there is a significant difference which aligns clearly with the battery consumption change - you'd need to export the fit files and analyse them back to back to understand whether this was you doing something different or the bike mode making the difference. If you've tried something like Golden Cheetah (freeware) to analyse the rides the bike mode, power consumption etc are all there in the developer fields and accessible to view.

 

[Acc]

Specialized Rider Care

How can you answer questions on this thread but not other threads? On the "warranty extension and firmware update" thread people have been asking for weeks if MY21 bikes are going to come with 2019 build motors? Also is Specialized putting used motors on MY21 bikes?

 

[randycpu]

Hi all, thanks for the question. There should be no difference between the modes if you have set them the same, no hidden differences between algorithms. If you look at the average speed & work you've done (work or calories burned) between the two rides I agree there is a significant difference which aligns clearly with the battery consumption change - you'd need to export the fit files and analyse them back to back to understand whether this was you doing something different or the bike mode making the difference. If you've tried something like Golden Cheetah (freeware) to analyse the rides the bike mode, power consumption etc are all there in the developer fields and accessible to view.

@Specialized Rider Care :
Thank you for your response, and for the pointer to GoldenCheetah!!

 

[p3eps]

you'd need to export the fit files and analyse them back to back to understand whether this was you doing something different or the bike mode making the difference.

I didn’t have Mission Control open at the time, so am not able to export a FIT file.
My Ride History in Mission Control only has a handful of rides... as I record them on my Garmin rather than using my phone.

Looks like I’ll have to try this again another weekend!

I can’t understand why there’s a 6min difference between the rides if there is no difference between the modes. If anything, I was more tired on the second ride, and would have expected to be slower.