Not sure I will be asking that question when mine is sorted. Would be surprised if it was like that. If mine failed again I would be tempted to try and get it repaired with better bearings or get a price and decide.
Levo Gen 2 have brose fixed the motor issues yet ?
- Thread starter nobbyq
- Start date
Probably nothing to stop it spinning if chain broken ? . Like oiling chain and forgetting to switch motor off good way to lose a finger.
Grannyjones
Member
I use Trail or Turbo nearly all the time, 50% each really, hardly ever use eco unless it's easy and flat (not often on my rides). Does this effect the linespan of the motor ?
Berkshire don't have a monopoly. According to Chris, Specialized has stock of motors and batteries. Shops who say there is a delay are passing the buck. They don't want to hold stock of what they consider items Spesh should supply. A few motors are a lot of capital for a LBS to hold and keep rolling with failures.
Yes, it's far from ideal having a failure, but every motor has reported issues. Spesh has more proportionately reported failures than other brands, as they sell more. I don't think the current situation is ideal and different customers are getting different experiences from their LBS. However, have you heard Spesh blame Brose or pass the buck? They didn't design a bike to break. They are standing by their product despite its having issues.
As for rolling Warranty, the 2.1 isn't 2 years old yet so no-one has had any experience of a 2-year-old motor warranty claim. One would assume if that motor was changed at 1.5 years they would honour a period for it, but they can't send a guarantee for that else people would just purposefully break a motor or abuse it up to 2 years and get a new one and get another year out of it or whatever.
As I've said before on a MOTOX bike you'll be lucky to get 3-month warranty max on everything on a brand new bike. As the Brose 2.1 motor ages, it will become cost-effective to have third parties service the motors. At present there is no need to as they are getting replaced under warranty so there's no market for it. If a sprag clutch fails in 4 years on that motor and Spesh won't warranty it, maybe third parties can deal with this cost-effectively.
I've dinged around 4 mechs, had two cassettes, 2 chains and two new rims over the last two years and it cost me more than £1200. The motor arguably shouldnt be another cost, and to date it hasn't been. Just time. Keeping an eBike is expensive and time-consuming, but balanced against the fun, I'll take it. How much does your car, out of warranty, cost..? Yes this is a known issue. But I believe you would never be paying full retail for a new motor. Spesh do trust their LBS' opinion.
On the 1.2 I haven't heard of anyone having to pay full whack for a motor replacement. Also, they have what's called 'Rider Assist'. Even if you are way out of warranty there is a sliding scale of subsidisation for a component replacement that's not a wearing part. Speaking to DA at the Livestream he said if you spanked your frame into a tree and it snapped, you would never pay full price for a new frame, unless say it was 10 years old. Don't quote me on that number, but you get the drift. It's all case by case through your LBS. Spesh are on your side, trust me..Your LBS may pass the buck.
So, if you've had a motor replaced at 1.5 years and it fails on day 731, I am almost certain you won't be asked to pay for it. They are not looking to not deal with a warranty claim, unlike every single car warranty company I have dealt with in the past.
Is the situation ideal..? No. But are they honouring their agreement to you in so much as they can with a product? To me yes..I hate having a broken bike over a riding weekend but this a new sport and everyone is learning as they go a bit..
Don't worry about failure until it happens. If it does...Then rest assured Specialized is on your side and don't accept a LBS saying there's no stock (in the UK anyway). I get it they don't want to shell out for a motor they don't feel they should be invoiced for and claim back but apparently Spesh have a long invoice settlement on warranty items. Why buy in 3 motors when you feel you should be provided them, or order them as required so as not to assign capital to warranty claims and claim Spesh are out of stock, and the shop is too busy to deal with the £38 Spesh give you to change the motor as there's more lucrative workshop stuff to be done. As Chris, says it's all about the long game but some LBS' are about the short term..
I guess some LBS' are being lazy, money must be tight at the moment. But it's certainly not down to Specialized's warranty stock on the Levo (at the time of writing). It's too easy to blame Spesh if said LBS can't deliver the more lucrative workshop time or capital to hold stock.
Go buy a bike, enjoy it.. Happy riding
Yes, it's far from ideal having a failure, but every motor has reported issues. Spesh has more proportionately reported failures than other brands, as they sell more. I don't think the current situation is ideal and different customers are getting different experiences from their LBS. However, have you heard Spesh blame Brose or pass the buck? They didn't design a bike to break. They are standing by their product despite its having issues.
As for rolling Warranty, the 2.1 isn't 2 years old yet so no-one has had any experience of a 2-year-old motor warranty claim. One would assume if that motor was changed at 1.5 years they would honour a period for it, but they can't send a guarantee for that else people would just purposefully break a motor or abuse it up to 2 years and get a new one and get another year out of it or whatever.
As I've said before on a MOTOX bike you'll be lucky to get 3-month warranty max on everything on a brand new bike. As the Brose 2.1 motor ages, it will become cost-effective to have third parties service the motors. At present there is no need to as they are getting replaced under warranty so there's no market for it. If a sprag clutch fails in 4 years on that motor and Spesh won't warranty it, maybe third parties can deal with this cost-effectively.
I've dinged around 4 mechs, had two cassettes, 2 chains and two new rims over the last two years and it cost me more than £1200. The motor arguably shouldnt be another cost, and to date it hasn't been. Just time. Keeping an eBike is expensive and time-consuming, but balanced against the fun, I'll take it. How much does your car, out of warranty, cost..? Yes this is a known issue. But I believe you would never be paying full retail for a new motor. Spesh do trust their LBS' opinion.
On the 1.2 I haven't heard of anyone having to pay full whack for a motor replacement. Also, they have what's called 'Rider Assist'. Even if you are way out of warranty there is a sliding scale of subsidisation for a component replacement that's not a wearing part. Speaking to DA at the Livestream he said if you spanked your frame into a tree and it snapped, you would never pay full price for a new frame, unless say it was 10 years old. Don't quote me on that number, but you get the drift. It's all case by case through your LBS. Spesh are on your side, trust me..Your LBS may pass the buck.
So, if you've had a motor replaced at 1.5 years and it fails on day 731, I am almost certain you won't be asked to pay for it. They are not looking to not deal with a warranty claim, unlike every single car warranty company I have dealt with in the past.
Is the situation ideal..? No. But are they honouring their agreement to you in so much as they can with a product? To me yes..I hate having a broken bike over a riding weekend but this a new sport and everyone is learning as they go a bit..
Don't worry about failure until it happens. If it does...Then rest assured Specialized is on your side and don't accept a LBS saying there's no stock (in the UK anyway). I get it they don't want to shell out for a motor they don't feel they should be invoiced for and claim back but apparently Spesh have a long invoice settlement on warranty items. Why buy in 3 motors when you feel you should be provided them, or order them as required so as not to assign capital to warranty claims and claim Spesh are out of stock, and the shop is too busy to deal with the £38 Spesh give you to change the motor as there's more lucrative workshop stuff to be done. As Chris, says it's all about the long game but some LBS' are about the short term..
I guess some LBS' are being lazy, money must be tight at the moment. But it's certainly not down to Specialized's warranty stock on the Levo (at the time of writing). It's too easy to blame Spesh if said LBS can't deliver the more lucrative workshop time or capital to hold stock.
Go buy a bike, enjoy it.. Happy riding
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Nobody knows mate, there's no data to support that either way..Just enjoy it...!
Exactly yes specialist motor repair services will hopefully provide fast repairs. A service industry that will experience growth both in demand and opportunity. There aren't many obstacles, parts are available.
Brose Bearings Archives -
PLB20121: left-hand crankshaft bearing.
PLB20122: right-hand crankshaft bearing 34x47x7mm.
PLB20123: inner crankshaft bearing.
PLB20124: crankshaft belt drive gear bearing.
PLB20125: crankshaft small needle roller bearing.
PLB20126: Drive gear sprag bearing.
PLB20127: crankshaft sprag bearing.
Genuine Brose belt kit to change a damaged belt. This kit include the original Brose belt, gasket, bolts, seals and instructions. The belt is the new 2020 model, more robust than the original. Please, select the Brose motor model (S-T, or S Mag).
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Grannyjones
Member
I suppose I'll just have to be ready to get the analogue bike back out during any downtime when/if the motor on the E Bike fails. I'm definetely glad I never sold the analogue bike when I bought the E as it's always worth keeping as backup.
I went out on analogue Nicolai yesterday 3 times in past year i was ok till I went off road it was hard going and no fun. Hopefully Levo only down for a week.
congerball
Active member
I was basically told don’t worry when the warranty runs out, If it goes after warranty period Specialized will look after you, they want to keep you as a customer ? That’ll do for me.
“don’t worry, be happy” as Bob would say ?
“don’t worry, be happy” as Bob would say ?
I mean they don't have a monopoly on access to motors and batteries for Warranty, rather than a Monopoly on bikes themselves.
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lumpy
🚁 CHOPPER 🚁
yeah, I'm not worried either
I think the issue is that not all shops can afford to offer the service as it takes considerable resources. Its not just Specilized, but to become a Shimano service centre, or a Bosch one, or step up your EBike game takes a lot of cash.
When I worked in the snowboard industry, Burton, who are pretty much the Specialized of the snowboard world, would only open up access to certain parts of their product line if shops hit order numbers of certain lower end products - e.g if you wanted to sell some of their top end, or "cooler" stuff, you had to place a minimum order of more basic products to qualify to order them. This caused a lot of issues for smaller retailers - I would be surprised if this wasn't the case in the bike industry as its a pretty common business model across the retail industry.
I do know that certain shops get first access to certain bikes/products due to the size of orders they put in - e.g a certain shop I know of that shifts a hell of a lot of Levo's/Kenevos (not Berkshire) has already got on order the new bikes being released by Specialized next year (and no they won't tell me what they are) whereas another LBS that is much smaller but still sell mainly Specialized are being told they can't have an allocation yet as they are not sure how many coming into UK, and they cant take the risk of ordering a big number without assessing demand . Specialized are doing nothing wrong here, it's the same with most brands, they are going to go with the orders of the big retailers who are guaranteeing big purchase numbers over the smaller guys first.
To give and idea of scale, the first shop I mentioned, pre ordered nearly 200 Kenevo's before they where announced or the shop even new the specs last year, and pretty much have a standing agreement with Specilized that they will take that number of bikes blindly as a preorder of any new EMTB they release. They sold that first 200 odd within a month of getting them in stock.
My LBS has just been bought out by a larger chain, they are all of a sudden able to get hold of a lot more bikes, and run a full Specialized demo fleet of EMTB's, because despite always having been a Specialized dealer they now have the financial backing to go all in, so to speak. They used to only stock one of each model in each size, whereas now they can pretty much get you anything.
Its a good and a bad thing, the lbs I mentioned I have used for decades for maintenance, but never really made a big purchase from them as they never had the stock of what I wanted, now they are part of a bigger group they have far more stock of what I want and its likely I will buy my next EMTB from them if its not consumer direct, but on the flip side its no longer the kind of shop it used to be where you could just wonder in and talk crap over a cup of tea with them, so its a better shop, but lost a bit of its soul in the process. At the end of the day I am just glad to have a decent LBS that is likely a lot more financially viable, but I do fear for the old school shops that have been around for years.
When I worked in the snowboard industry, Burton, who are pretty much the Specialized of the snowboard world, would only open up access to certain parts of their product line if shops hit order numbers of certain lower end products - e.g if you wanted to sell some of their top end, or "cooler" stuff, you had to place a minimum order of more basic products to qualify to order them. This caused a lot of issues for smaller retailers - I would be surprised if this wasn't the case in the bike industry as its a pretty common business model across the retail industry.
I do know that certain shops get first access to certain bikes/products due to the size of orders they put in - e.g a certain shop I know of that shifts a hell of a lot of Levo's/Kenevos (not Berkshire) has already got on order the new bikes being released by Specialized next year (and no they won't tell me what they are) whereas another LBS that is much smaller but still sell mainly Specialized are being told they can't have an allocation yet as they are not sure how many coming into UK, and they cant take the risk of ordering a big number without assessing demand . Specialized are doing nothing wrong here, it's the same with most brands, they are going to go with the orders of the big retailers who are guaranteeing big purchase numbers over the smaller guys first.
To give and idea of scale, the first shop I mentioned, pre ordered nearly 200 Kenevo's before they where announced or the shop even new the specs last year, and pretty much have a standing agreement with Specilized that they will take that number of bikes blindly as a preorder of any new EMTB they release. They sold that first 200 odd within a month of getting them in stock.
My LBS has just been bought out by a larger chain, they are all of a sudden able to get hold of a lot more bikes, and run a full Specialized demo fleet of EMTB's, because despite always having been a Specialized dealer they now have the financial backing to go all in, so to speak. They used to only stock one of each model in each size, whereas now they can pretty much get you anything.
Its a good and a bad thing, the lbs I mentioned I have used for decades for maintenance, but never really made a big purchase from them as they never had the stock of what I wanted, now they are part of a bigger group they have far more stock of what I want and its likely I will buy my next EMTB from them if its not consumer direct, but on the flip side its no longer the kind of shop it used to be where you could just wonder in and talk crap over a cup of tea with them, so its a better shop, but lost a bit of its soul in the process. At the end of the day I am just glad to have a decent LBS that is likely a lot more financially viable, but I do fear for the old school shops that have been around for years.
This is in fact the conundrum of bike shop life.... However I've watched our small LBS that I adore get increasingly grumpy and less service oriented in recent months with the demands of the covid market put on them. They are getting ready to expand and I hope, staff up and provide more of the personal service and time that we used to get when making a big decision. My Specialized dealer on the other hand has been great throughout.
My 2020 comp has recently developed a grinding/scraping noise when the cranks are rotated in reverse with the chain removed from the chainring. Until a couple of rides ago it was completely smooth. You can feel a slight vibration through the crank arms and pedals during the parts of the rotation when the noise happens. I've been really careful about avoiding water anywhere near the motor area (carried across stream crossings and very limited cleaning (mostly air compressor then damp cloth). It's pretty quiet but I tried to capture it in this short video. The motor still seems to deliver power ok, but I'm a bit worried about getting caught out miles from anywhere if it failed. I've taken it into my LBS where I purchased it back in March (Oct 2019 motor build date) and am waiting to see what they hear back from Specialized.
InjuredMTbiker
New Member
Yes, you have the updated one.
InjuredMTbiker
New Member
There is mention of the UK having alot of brose failures because of wet. I am in the US in California, where it is dry conditions and not even that hot on the coast most of the season. I have seen the group that I ride with (all Levos) experience the belt failure. They call it the Gate (belt) and seems to be the carbon models, since they don't dissipate the heat, like the alloy. Word in late Q4, Brose made some modifications and deliveries out of manufacturing started in Feb. The is a good video (minus the guy's experience at the Specialized store) that goes over this. Lots on comments worth reading, including a couple Specialized reps. It's on Youtube:
J200George
Member
^^^ I perhaps picked up on dates wrongly earlier. You are saying that from February 2020 motors were produced by Brose with the Kevlar belt mod? (Or whatever the fix was to minimise the spike in failures). If that’s the case then my reaction above to the poster whose motor failed, and was a January build was a bit previous. Hopefully you are correct and we should see feb built motors in Levo’s later in the year when the older spec motors are used up.
when I come to buy I’m not accepting a motor build before Feb then,... assuming we don’t start to get regular reports of failures in the newer modified motors.
when I come to buy I’m not accepting a motor build before Feb then,... assuming we don’t start to get regular reports of failures in the newer modified motors.
I'm not sure you will be able to demand a motor built after a certain date Good luck on that mine went Friday. Saying that why are they still supplying motors that are prone to failing or maybe can't keep up with demand or the modification
If you’re buying it you can demand what you like , if they refuse go somewhere else !
J200George
Member
To be fair I think I am naively anticipating a situation where my lbs has a Levo actually on the floor in stock. The world has changed though but I will be having that conversation when they do open up again.
Yes I was in halfords other day very few bicycles etc in stock. I could not get a Levo in Scotland last year at all when I wanted one in may tried loads of places so had to go further afield.
Grannyjones
Member
I still ride analogue whenever I'm with my mates (as they don't have E Bikes) they can't even keep up with me on analogue so would be rediculous on E Bike.
As I switch between the two very regularly it doesn't feel shocking when I go back to the analogue and also prevents me from taking the off-road uphill speed of the Levo for granted!
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Grannyjones
Member
The Levo's will be doing more miles than most other EMTB's due the 700 Wh batteries on them, I woulder if partly the cause of the higher reportings of Brose motor failures is just the higher usage ?
I've had no problems with mine yet after 5 weeks and 700 miles but I'm dreading it failing!
I've had no problems with mine yet after 5 weeks and 700 miles but I'm dreading it failing!
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Yes your right there I'm always solo or as I said if I go with someone take manual bike . Out this afternoon on it . Not many Ebikes up here yet.
1 year on 2600 miles serious climbing first motor went Friday. Despite what I'm hearing on this site I'm told there are no mods to motor I will be getting .
Grannyjones
Member
All the reports of them failing at sub-1000 miles had me worried, 2600 isnt too bad at least that's enough riding to justify the hassle of taking it back to the Bike shop, would hate it to ruin a ride though
Yes I was lucky had a 25 mile ride Wednesday 2 big hill climbs and all ok. Then went out gate of house Friday squealing like a pig.
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