Levo Gen 3 Specialized Gen 3 2022 Levo Megathread!

[faberle]

Possible route causes are multiple, including :
- pivot bearings
- wheel hub bearings
- Faulty motor

 

[beutelfuchs]

get your bearings replaced by @Bearing Man

 

[SteveSSS]

14 months old Expert build, subtle cracking and grinding noise only when pedaling, but not slipping, seems to be coming from motor. Anyone else experience this?

I had this, motor bearings went a couple of weeks later. Mine was out of warranty, it may be worth getting it looked at under warranty.

 

[BikingBad]

14 months old Expert build.
Middle of a ride yesterday, about 6 miles in, bike powered off. Tried unplugging/plugging the power plug several times, no change. Pushing the power button, sometimes nothing happens and sometimes “S” logo comes up for about 3 seconds and then shuts down. Got home, swapped out the battery with a fully charged spare, same thing, does not power on.
What do you guys think is happening?

 

[cañonaco]

14 months old Expert build.
Middle of a ride yesterday, about 6 miles in, bike powered off. Tried unplugging/plugging the power plug several times, no change. Pushing the power button, sometimes nothing happens and sometimes “S” logo comes up for about 3 seconds and then shuts down. Got home, swapped out the battery with a fully charged spare, same thing, does not power on.
What do you guys think is happening?

The Mastermind battery may be failing, you can charge it with a cable through the update port

 

[beutelfuchs]

Check & clean the plug. Its magnetic and I had it few times that it catched little strings of metal. Barely visible but enough to produce the behavior you describe.

 

[BikingBad]

The Mastermind battery may be failing, you can charge it with a cable through the update port

Thanks, it seems the TCU without a screen has a battery but TCU with a screen does not have a battery. I connected the TCU (with screen) to a USB power source and 2 messages popped up, one about motor not connected, another about battery not connected. Just dropped off the bike at LBS, now I wait.

 

[iXi]

Anyone think my motor is on the way out, it's making a strange sound when pedalling at a higher cadence, nothing at low cadence and also makes the sound when the motor is off. I've attached a dodgy video as reference

 

[beutelfuchs]

bearings are done. Time for get a new motor.

 

[iXi]

bearings are done. Time for get a new motor.

Ah shit thanks. 4000ks, that's pretty shit. Got 12000ks put of my shimano motor and was still going when I sold it.

 

[beutelfuchs]

Sometimes I got to that point after a way below 1000km

 

[iXi]

What do you reckon as it's out of warranty, a new motor from spec or getting it rebuilt?

I know I get another 2yrs warranty from spec but what has been the success rate of a rebuild holding out.

 

[Dave_B]

Is anyone running the Vivid Air on their Levo? If so, how you getting on with it?

 

[Ou812]

Is anyone running the Vivid Air on their Levo? If so, how you getting on with it?

My mate has had one on his for a few months now, he keeps saying it’s the best shock he’s used. He got the Levo specific tuned one from TF tuned, only thing he’s done to it was remove one of the tokens as it came with 4 installed.

Edit: FWIW, it’s the shock that I wanted to use but it wouldn’t fit on my frame with the Cascade long link kit. I didn’t want to go back to the stock size shock so I went another direction.

 

[Ribinrobin]

Is anyone running the Vivid Air on their Levo? If so, how you getting on with it?

I swapped out my ext coil for it and love it.

 

[Henrik]

Is anyone running the Vivid Air on their Levo? If so, how you getting on with it?

Yes, me. Did a short ride on it. Long ride tomorrow. Have one in my Kenevo too, and its really, really good.

 

[Dave_B]

Had my first ride today on the Vivid Air.
It is night and day better than the SD Ultimate Coil. The bike came alive!

 

[irie]

4 months.

 

[andymmiami]

I'm new to internal cable routing and I just picked up my 22 Levo Comp Alloy. I am in the process of upgrading my mech shifter from the SX stuff to wireless AXS GX parts and I wanted to ask how were you all going about removing the old cable sleeve? Were you cutting it just short enough so it tucks into the frame or are most people yanking it out of the guide tubes all together?

 

[Ou812]

I'm new to internal cable routing and I just picked up my 22 Levo Comp Alloy. I am in the process of upgrading my mech shifter from the SX stuff to wireless AXS GX parts and I wanted to ask how were you all going about removing the old cable sleeve? Were you cutting it just short enough so it tucks into the frame or are most people yanking it out of the guide tubes all together?

Just pull it out, the levo is all internally sleeved so it just comes right out.

 

[16Rally]

I'm new to internal cable routing and I just picked up my 22 Levo Comp Alloy. I am in the process of upgrading my mech shifter from the SX stuff to wireless AXS GX parts and I wanted to ask how were you all going about removing the old cable sleeve? Were you cutting it just short enough so it tucks into the frame or are most people yanking it out of the guide tubes all together?

1st, my 2022 Levo Comp Alloy was equipped with GX level shifter & derailleur form the factory.
2nd, as mentioned in the post above, I just pulled out the shifter cable housing and plugged the holes on both end using small rubber plugs. I had already run AXS for a year on a different bike and was certain that I would not be going back to a cable shifted drive train.

 

[mike172]

Is there some sort of check list that exists for dampening rattles on the Gen 3 Levo?

Had a motor and battery replaced earlier in the year and slowly trying to diagnose a horrendous rattle that occurs over braking bumps.

Fork and shock replaced, all bearings good, all linkages tight, the rattle feels like its a loose battery in the frame so going to spend some time with gorilla tape trying to shim the spacer and battery against the frame. I had done this prior to the battery replacement so wondering if thats why I don't remember the bike doing it (had it about 3 years now I think).

Only other thing it might be is pedal kick back or shock noise, but dont think they would cause this kind of noise.

 

[James_MTB]

Is there some sort of check list that exists for dampening rattles on the Gen 3 Levo?

Had a motor and battery replaced earlier in the year and slowly trying to diagnose a horrendous rattle that occurs over braking bumps.

Fork and shock replaced, all bearings good, all linkages tight, the rattle feels like its a loose battery in the frame so going to spend some time with gorilla tape trying to shim the spacer and battery against the frame. I had done this prior to the battery replacement so wondering if thats why I don't remember the bike doing it (had it about 3 years now I think).

Only other thing it might be is pedal kick back or shock noise, but dont think they would cause this kind of noise.

Check the motor mounting bolts.

 

[Dave_B]

Check under the TCU for cables and stuff rattling around. I pack mine out with bubble wrap or foam.

 

[andymmiami]

I’m struggling with finding the ideal dropper for my Levo. My current collar to rail length is 10.75 inches. Approximately 273 ish mm. I’m on an s4 levo so the insertion depth of a dropper is allegedly 255mm.

The current 170mm transx dropper has to be raised so much im missing on potential dropper length but the next size up of around 200/210 mm has me concerned. It looks like the one up 210 has an overall length of 297mm which means the post would be around 40mm above the collar. Currently my post is 45mm above the collar so that doesn’t seem like that would benefit me to run the one up since it doesn’t look like it can insert enough.

I know pnw makes good droppers and theirs is 200mm and should get me closer on the insertion length. So far that seems to be the best idea but I wanted to know what have you all done to make a dropper work?

I read there is a limit screw on the seat tube. Can it be remove and if so does that gain any meaningful insertion depth or does that create more problems than it is worth?

Does anyone have a s4 and also a pnw dropper and if so. How far were you able to actually insert the dropper?

 

[andymmiami]

Just pull it out, the levo is all internally sleeved so it just comes right out.

Thanks. Pulling out the cable sheathe ended up being super easy. Setting up my used axs gx stuff also ended up being super easy and it shifts great now. I’m still getting used to the wireless shifting. For what it’s worth I did buy the optional shift trigger replacement to give the shifter a more traditional / natural layout to my old mechanical stuff and it feels better than just rolling my thumb up or down on the ramps.

 

[andymmiami]

Also, in the process of upgrading my cassette from the nx to the gx on my 22 levo alloy base I needed to get a new free hub driver as the included hg doesn’t work on the gx cassette that needs the xd driver.

I did some digging for part numbers and the base levo hub is made by bear pawls. I contacted Alex Rims and we were able to get "HFH-0019" the 6 pawl free body and an upgraded steel 12x148mm axle for my hub since the turbo levo could benefit from it. Install went easy and I now have a 6 pawl freehub on my base levo.

Evan was the person that was able to help me from Alex Rims. His email is [email protected]. Incase anyone in the future wants to do a similar upgrade.

The reason I went down that rabbit hole instead of just buying the specialized specific xd free hub is because the bearpawls one is a 6 pawl design over the one sold by specialized that’s only a 3 pawl design. I know the brose motors masks the utility of lower entanglement angle hub but I figured it had to be stronger or might feel better in some instances. At the end of the day it ended up costing within margin of error the same as if I had purchased the free hub from specialized. The 6 pawl one works well and I’m happy.

 

[Chicane]

I’m struggling with finding the ideal dropper for my Levo. My current collar to rail length is 10.75 inches. Approximately 273 ish mm. I’m on an s4 levo so the insertion depth of a dropper is allegedly 255mm.

The current 170mm transx dropper has to be raised so much im missing on potential dropper length but the next size up of around 200/210 mm has me concerned. It looks like the one up 210 has an overall length of 297mm which means the post would be around 40mm above the collar. Currently my post is 45mm above the collar so that doesn’t seem like that would benefit me to run the one up since it doesn’t look like it can insert enough.

I know pnw makes good droppers and theirs is 200mm and should get me closer on the insertion length. So far that seems to be the best idea but I wanted to know what have you all done to make a dropper work?

I read there is a limit screw on the seat tube. Can it be remove and if so does that gain any meaningful insertion depth or does that create more problems than it is worth?

Does anyone have a s4 and also a pnw dropper and if so. How far were you able to actually insert the dropper?

I have an S4 with a Oneup 210 without issue. I'm 6', but have longer than average legs. I have around 40-45mm exposed. I can measure later for the exact number.

 

[andymmiami]

I have an S4 with a Oneup 210 without issue. I'm 6', but have longer than average legs. I have around 40-45mm exposed. I can measure later for the exact number.

I’m also 6 feet tall but typically run a 31/32 pants length size. Funny enough I just bought a 210 one up v2 today on Facebook marketplace for $50 so I’ll see how it pairs up. What I didn’t account for is that the distance from the collar to the rails at full drop on my current dropper is about 65mm but on the 1up it’s 33mm so that alone should make a huge difference in drop for me.

 

[Norbert Mk]

Had my first ride today on the Vivid Air.
It is night and day better than the SD Ultimate Coil. The bike came alive!

I also changed from noisy (clunking noise on the descends) and slightly caveated x2 to Vivid air and I'm so happy.
It tracks the ground as good or better, is silent, has better support, no more pedal strikes and has the HBO which I love.
Currently I have only 3 bands in it, and oh! it's tuned for the frame!
Paired with the new zeb ultimate 3.1 it's simply awesome combo, now I'm happy with the Levo and bike is finally silent.
I think it's perfect.