Levo SL Gen 1 Official Levo SL Thread

[DarrenCC]

A bit of an update - got a Manitou Mezzer to replace the stock Rhythm 34. The 34 wasn't bad, but I was hankering for bit more travel and big hit capability. Plus, I am a fan of the dual positive airchamber setup after running it on my Kenevo's Lyrik for a year or so.

First run was yesterday. Damper is a bit firm, but the fork is STIFF, composed, and plush when it gets rough. Going to tweak the settings a bit for small bump, but I like it so far. Oh and it's only 80 grams heavier than the stock fork after steer was cut. I can also adjust the ride height internally from 180mm to 140mm, and I may play with that as well. Got the fork for $800 which was the kicker given it's capability View attachment 29542 !

How are you finding the mezzer a year on? I’m very tempted to replace my 34 with this

 

[jcmonty]

How are you finding the mezzer a year on? I’m very tempted to replace my 34 with this

It’s great. Easy to service and tune at home. I haven’t compared it to latest and greatest from fox and rs, but really the only fork I would consider other than this is the ext era

 

[Madog]

How are you finding the mezzer a year on? I’m very tempted to replace my 34 with this

Just to chime in here. I went from the Fox 34 to a Lyrik (SL Carbon Comp). Upgraded the Lyrik to a charger 2.1 damper. Found a good deal on a Mezzer Expert so decided to give it a try. I am very impressed with the Mezzer. Plush yet supportive and easy to setup and adjust. Very happy with this fork.

 

[Rich the gasman]

So had my SL nearly a year and dare I say it hasnt missed a beat. After a nightmare with my old Ff eeb so nice to be able to drive places and not worry if the bike is going to switch on or not breakdown. Mate in LBS says there seems to be an uptake on the SL now and are the most reliable eeb that they sell. ???

 

[Mtbvkk]

Long term review

 

[onkelshort]

Well, if you are satisfied with the way your suspension is performing then thats great! I am still not understanding how adding volume spacers makes your shock "feel stiffer", especially when you are climbing (unless you are hitting all kinds of sharp edged rocks and at a pretty fast speed - high shaft velocity). Also, why would you not want to use the climb switch? If you were bottoming out before you added the spacers, it sounds like you needed more air pressure, LSC, LSR not volume spacers. I have learned a lot about suspension setup from the videos below. Good luck!

The volume spacer will make your shock characteristic more steep. That gives you the advantage to give more stiff feeling in the back of the travel without loosing sensitive feeling for low force / small bumps. It is a little bit explained in the first vid around 5min. You can of course tune certain areas of your damping with what you suggested, but that will cause other areas to not function that well as before. Therefore I went with the volume spacer.
If you just simply raise the pressure you will not have a sensitive shock feeling any more.
if you modify just LSC and LSR you will get a slow reaction from your suspension.

It is the complete setup and I was only surprised, that I do have to add that many volume spacers as I am not that hard / agressive of a rider.

Cheers, Tim

 

[KnollyBro]

The volume spacer will make your shock characteristic more steep. That gives you the advantage to give more stiff feeling in the back of the travel without loosing sensitive feeling for low force / small bumps. It is a little bit explained in the first vid around 5min. You can of course tune certain areas of your damping with what you suggested, but that will cause other areas to not function that well as before. Therefore I went with the volume spacer.
If you just simply raise the pressure you will not have a sensitive shock feeling any more.
if you modify just LSC and LSR you will get a slow reaction from your suspension.

It is the complete setup and I was only surprised, that I do have to add that many volume spacers as I am not that hard / agressive of a rider.

Cheers, Tim

If I am understanding you correctly, in using the word "steep" when referring to the characteristic of an air shock, you are referring to progressiveness or ramp up when the shaft speed is high? If so, what type of trails do you ride and when are you experiencing such fast shaft speed that you would notice the ramp up? I have never heard of anyone using so many volume spacers unless they are doing big drops or going really fast over very rough terrain with lots of sharp edge hits which I would call pretty aggressive riding for the average sized rider.

 

[Lightme]

Just got my SL back from the LBS. Mullet, GX AXS, EXT Era 170mm, Magura MT7, 220m rotors, 165mm cranks, Cascade Link. So good. Thank you very much @Christian for the advice.

 

[CjP]

Weapon mate. Your gonna love it!

 

[Loamranger]

@Lightme, nice build. I’m going to try Mullet on my XL sized test bike, mainly to slacken a bit.

What size is you SL and do you have a weight, thanks?

 

[DarrenCC]

Apologies if this has been covered, what’s the deal with getting firmware updates for the SL? The shop I bought from is definitely not local, is it worth getting it done and who has paid/been charged what and where? Cheers

 

[ridingintheoc]

Apologies if this has been covered, what’s the deal with getting firmware updates for the SL? The shop I bought from is definitely not local, is it worth getting it done and who has paid/been charged what and where? Cheers

View attachment 60036

My local shop did mine for free. I was surprised because it was not the shop where I purchased the bike.
It was well worth taking the time to do the update. The motor feels much more smoother.

 

[onkelshort]

If I am understanding you correctly, in using the word "steep" when referring to the characteristic of an air shock, you are referring to progressiveness or ramp up when the shaft speed is high? If so, what type of trails do you ride and when are you experiencing such fast shaft speed that you would notice the ramp up? I have never heard of anyone using so many volume spacers unless they are doing big drops or going really fast over very rough terrain with lots of sharp edge hits which I would call pretty aggressive riding for the average sized rider.

Yes you are understanding correct, I meant the gradient of the characteristic. And this was exactly my question in the first place. I am wondering why I need so much volume spacers, so that the X2 feels somehow stable, because I am NOT riding extreme trails with huge jumps.
So I guess I am alone with this setup
But I think, too, that it is pretty strange to use 3 out of 4 possible volume spacer. I am not that heavy either. So big mystery to me, but whatever works. After all the shock feels great. It is sensitive and responsive with great feedback. So everything I expect from a shock.

 

[Lightme]

@Lightme, nice build. I’m going to try Mullet on my XL sized test bike, mainly to slacken a bit.

What size is you SL and do you have a weight, thanks?

Thanks. It’s an XL, weighs around 19.3kg apparently. Doesn’t feel that heavy though.

 

[freerideandi]

Ride anyone a Öhlins TTX Air in his Levo SL and can tell me his Rebound setting?

 

[squeegee]

Ride anyone a Öhlins TTX Air in his Levo SL and can tell me his Rebound setting?

6 clicks in from full open

 

[KnollyBro]

Yes you are understanding correct, I meant the gradient of the characteristic. And this was exactly my question in the first place. I am wondering why I need so much volume spacers, so that the X2 feels somehow stable, because I am NOT riding extreme trails with huge jumps.
So I guess I am alone with this setup
But I think, too, that it is pretty strange to use 3 out of 4 possible volume spacer. I am not that heavy either. So big mystery to me, but whatever works. After all the shock feels great. It is sensitive and responsive with great feedback. So everything I expect from a shock.

I am not sure what you mean when you say "that the X2 feels somehow stable". It has been my experience that people can get used to riding any suspension setup if they are not asking too much of it. Do you ever come close to using full travel or bottoming out your shock? In the end, if you are satisfied with the way your shock is working, it doesn't really matter how its set up as long as you are not damaging it and you don't try to do anything beyond your capabilities.

 

[freerideandi]

6 clicks in from full open

ok and what do weight or what pressure do you ride?

 

[squeegee]

ok and what do weight or what pressure do you ride?

I weigh 175lbs and run 190 psi

 

[onkelshort]

I am not sure what you mean when you say "that the X2 feels somehow stable". It has been my experience that people can get used to riding any suspension setup if they are not asking too much of it. Do you ever come close to using full travel or bottoming out your shock? In the end, if you are satisfied with the way your shock is working, it doesn't really matter how its set up as long as you are not damaging it and you don't try to do anything beyond your capabilities.

Yes of course. I am using 90-95% of my travel (fork and damper). I am asking pretty much from my suspension. The x2 is really the first damper I had these problems. I have been riding cane creek damper with HSC HSR LSC LSR and so on and have never had setup problem.

"that the X2 feels somehow stable" --> better support in the mid travel (not rushing through the travel)

Now I am stopping annoying everyone with this topic. Thanks for the replies!

 

[gbarfoot]

Swapped the fork for a Zoke Z1 coil. 44mm offset and 160mm travel. Awesome fork. Put a 220mm rotor on the front and moved the 200mm to the back.

 

[Ben_H]

Has anyone updated yet? Trying to work out if it’s worth the trip to the bike shop as would prefer to take it to Berkshire Turbo (about 1.5 hours away). The time is the first concern, the bigger concern is I’ll buy another bike whilst I wait…..

 

[wolfbane1967]

A good Sunday ride here in Sweden
Levo SL carbon expert

 

[gimmick_82]

Hi folks,
yesterday I swapped my fork on my SL and was surprised that the lower ball bearing of the headset sits directly in the carbon frame. So there is no metal sleeve or something like that ... is that ok so..? Is that normal?

and one more question: on the seat stay there is a screw on which, I guess, there should be a fastening for the brake line, (picture). Is that always missing on the SL? Or should there be such a fastening as on the Levo...
K.r.gimmick

 

[Ben_H]

Hi folks,
yesterday I swapped my fork on my SL and was surprised that the lower ball bearing of the headset sits directly in the carbon frame. So there is no metal sleeve or something like that ... is that ok so..? Is that normal?

and one more question: on the seat stay there is a screw on which, I guess, there should be a fastening for the brake line, (picture). Is that always missing on the SL? Or should there be such a fastening as on the Levo...
K.r.gimmick

View attachment 61649

Pretty certain that my bike has a bracket attaching the brake line to the frame using that screw. There are two brackets and two screws from memory.

 

[CjP]

Hi folks,
yesterday I swapped my fork on my SL and was surprised that the lower ball bearing of the headset sits directly in the carbon frame. So there is no metal sleeve or something like that ... is that ok so..? Is that normal?

and one more question: on the seat stay there is a screw on which, I guess, there should be a fastening for the brake line, (picture). Is that always missing on the SL? Or should there be such a fastening as on the Levo...
K.r.gimmick

View attachment 61649

My SL doesn’t have that bracket, my two Kenevo’s I had did have them.
Also no sleeve in the headset.

 

[Grizzy]

Question for anyone using their garmin and power display:

Does power show my power, the bikes power, or both combined?

Im wanting to use my bike for training base miles (cause its more fun than 4 hr road rides) and want to make sure Im doing enough work.

If anyone has experience or tips I'd be all ears.

 

[jcmonty]

Question for anyone using their garmin and power display:

Does power show my power, the bikes power, or both combined?

Im wanting to use my bike for training base miles (cause its more fun than 4 hr road rides) and want to make sure Im doing enough work.

If anyone has experience or tips I'd be all ears.

It shows the power you are making . Easy to to convince yourself is turn off the motor and pedal around

 

[Johnathan]

Hi all
Anyone know if the ECU from the Kenevo SL will work in a Levo SL?

 

[p3eps]

Hi all
Anyone know if the ECU from the Kenevo SL will work in a Levo SL?

Yes, someone has tried the Mastermind TCU from a new Levo on an SL... however Specialized are not selling them at the moment unfortunately.