Snap and there it is. Carbon fiber broke on my Levo. 🙃

[Doomanic]

All anecdotal but every Levo owner I ride with regularly has had at least one motor, most have had several and all are now on Bosch or Mahle motors.

 

[mustclime]

All anecdotal but every Levo owner I ride with regularly has had at least one motor, most have had several and all are now on Bosch or Mahle motors.

Guess it’s what you see people riding, where I ride there are a lot of cannondale e bikes, they have both Bosch and Shamano drive units depending on models and I have seem they both have had issues. The Bosch eat bearings and shamano’s circuit boards seem to have issues.

 

[Redlemon]

Just wondering , you have a source to prove that statement? How about a number per 1000 units?

Sorry to burst your bubble, but the Brose motors on Turbo Levos are not the most reliable out there, it's well known. I don't think shops would stock motors if the system was reliable.

A friend is on its 3rd motor, Specialized replaced the 3rd one for free even if out of warranty.

Great service/warranty, great motor, bad reliability.

 

[dirtdinner]

The specialized SL motors seem to have great reliability. I wonder why the difference

 

[Redlemon]

The specialized SL motors seem to have great reliability. I wonder why the difference

Full power = Brose
SL = Mahle

 

[mustclime]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but the Brose motors on Turbo Levos are not the most reliable out there, it's well known. I don't think shops would stock motors if the system was reliable.

A friend is on its 3rd motor, Specialized replaced the 3rd one for free even if out of warranty.

Great service/warranty, great motor, bad reliability.

Another one, what’s the most reliable drive unit? Please don’t say Bosch or Shimano. Bosch bearings leak and rust and ep801’ s leak water into the circuit boards and shut down. You want a bulletproof drive unit, get a Yamaha x3… if they fail, they are rebuild able.

 

[Dax]

You want a bulletproof drive unit, get a Yamaha x3… if they fail, they are rebuild able.

Best buy one quick: Yamaha to stop selling e-bikes amid 'significant softening of the market' and 'challenging business environment' - MBR

 

[Lexle]

All anecdotal but every Levo owner I ride with regularly has had at least one motor, most have had several and all are now on Bosch or Mahle motors.

I had 2 defect Mahle SL Motors..

 

[Doomanic]

All motors fail to a greater or lesser extent but the Brose in the Levo was a serious offender. Spesh even increased the warranty to 4 years for a while.

 

[Redlemon]

Best buy one quick: Yamaha to stop selling e-bikes amid 'significant softening of the market' and 'challenging business environment' - MBR

Yamaha ebikes were outdated from the beginning, the fact that they need to discount them 60% and throw in a second battery for free is all you need to know about these bikes.

Yamaha motor contract with Giant is most likely the largest motor contract in the whole industry as Giant are selling ebikes by the millions, they have almost 30% of the total ebike market share (2022) and Yamaha is not pulling out of this market.

Bosch Gen 4/5 or Yamaha PW-X3/Giant Syncdrive Pro 2 are probably the best two options for reliability, but Bosch is ahead on power & range.

Can't wait to see what Brose & Yamaha are going to release next year to compete with Bosch (and DJI?).

 

[Mikerb]

All motors fail to a greater or lesser extent but the Brose in the Levo was a serious offender. Spesh even increased the warranty to 4 years for a while.

The Levo was well ahead of the competition in so many ways back in 2018/19 but had several flaws. I bought a comp in 2019 and with an IT/electrical back ground I dealt with the electrical flaws ( mostly to do with water damage) very early on and never had any problems with it.
What I could not fix was the fact it used a belt in the motor rather than meshed gears and whilst that made the motor much quieter than others it meant that pedal strikes needed to be a voided at all costs. Initially pedal strikes would cause wear on the belt and the belt debris could start to clog the sprag bearing. A more serious strike or continued minor strikes would eventually destroy the belt and or the tensioner. I ride mostly forests which are rock free so rarely if ever had a pedal strike and my Levo remained problem free for over 1000 miles before it was stolen!!
Yes....it had the same issue as every other motor in terms of risk of water ingress past the cranks seals but I am able to avoid any deep water on most of my local terrain and I never use a hose or pressure washer on my bikes except for the wheels/tyres.
I had 4 years warranty on my motor but never needed it. My mate bough a base Levo at the same time as me and still has it with nearly 4000 miles on the clock. Not much of it is original though! Better shock, better fork, better brakes, better tyres, different bars, saddle,stem..........not because anything broke but because original kit was crap!!

 

[electricbogaloo]

I'm not sure if the pedal strikes are the issue here. Its probably more stress for the belt riding turbo uphill while being heavy on uneaven terrain. Because if it was just people having pedal strikes on trails there wouldn't have been so many failed motors. Most emtbs do not get ridden on trails where you regularly encounter pedal strikes.

 

[Mikerb]

I'm not sure if the pedal strikes are the issue here. Its probably more stress for the belt riding turbo uphill while being heavy on uneaven terrain. Because if it was just people having pedal strikes on trails there wouldn't have been so many failed motors. Most emtbs do not get ridden on trails where you regularly encounter pedal strikes.

equally possible especially if in too high a gear. Regardless it was a stronger belt that was the main upgrade for later Brose motors together with what Spesh described as removing the errant max peaks of watt output.

 

[RustyIron]

Most emtbs do not get ridden on trails where you regularly encounter pedal strikes.

Ahdunno bout dat, hoss.
A ride with no pedal strikes is like... riding with my grandma.

 

[RustyIron]

What I could not fix was the fact it used a belt in the motor rather than meshed gears

That sure seems as if it would be superior. I'm reminded of motorcycles back when I was a youngster. The Europeans all had transmissions with primary chains, which were theoretically stronger and more robust. But then with some kind of Asian magic, the Japanese starting building bikes with little gears. You'd think that they would just fall apart... but they didn't. They were stronger, lighter, faster, and more reliable. One thing's for sure: motorcycles today are light years better than what we had back then. I think it's similar with modern eMTB's and those that we had just a few years ago.