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Anyone buying?

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woodsguy

woodsguy

Ride Red
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Huntsville
First Name
Rob
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Vaughan
www.specialized.com

S-Works Turbo Levo

The all-new Levo delivers the unbelievable power to ride more trails through an unequaled combination of ride quality, usable power, and ride anywhere r...
www.specialized.com www.specialized.com
 
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15,000 will get you in the game!! Plus pedals.
 
We have two of the Specialized Turbo Comos. They were a fraction of the price of that bike, but we love them. Ride them all the time.

We need that motor to get up some of the hills around town here in NB since we aren't serious cyclists anymore. E-bikes are very popular here, I suppose for that reason. And they are getting cheaper. I've seen some nice new ones around $2,000.

But yes, bicycle prices are ridiculous when you compare them to motorcycles. At least the bike above has a motor, I've seen some $12,000+ bicycles that do NOT have a motor in them. Hard to justify, but people buy them all the time. I see folks riding around town on them frequently.

Crazy to think when you can pick up a used motorcycle that will take you across continents for $3,000 or something. But I guess its just like any hobby. Fun to throw dough at it.
 
@Jarrett how do they work? Is it a throttle like a m/c or just the bike sense you need help and assist?
 
woodsguy said:
@Jarrett how do they work? Is it a throttle like a m/c or just the bike sense you need help and assist?
Click to expand...
They have all flavors. The ones we have are pedal-assist with levels.

Off is no assist
Level 1 is 33% assist
Level 2 is 50% assist
Level 3 is 100% assist

So you can tailor your ride a bit. If you want a workout, leave the motor off. Or put it on Level 1 only. If you just want to easy cruise around, leave it on Level 3.

When I ride I do all the above. I don't shift gears as much as I did on a non-powered bike, but I do constantly adjust the power level setting to get the ride I want. When I'm going up the 15%+ grade hills of NB, I definitely have it on Level 3. The same hills the bikes will coast down at 40 mph. They have good brakes on them as well.

I rode another brand the other day that had 5 levels of assist and the 6th level is full throttle control just like an electric motorcycle.

If I remember correctly, these are the legal standards for the bikes in the US. Think its:

Class 1 pedal assist to 20 mph
Class 2 throttle up to 20 mph
Class 3 pedal assist to 28 mph

The bikes we have are pedal assist to 28 mph, meaning when the onboard speedo hits 28mph, the motor cuts and you are on your own if you want to pedal the bike faster than that.

But of course, you can mod them to do more than that. There is one out there called the Ariel X-Rider or something like that, which has full throttle up to 36 mph or so. Saw a couple ripping through the streets of NB on them the other day. They kind of make an e-bike for everyone and every purpose at this point. The line is getting very blurry between e-bike and electric motorcycle at this point.
 
I guess I am old fashioned but I will not purchase an E-bike until I am physically unable to do the rides I like to do under my own power. After all I am doing this for the exercise!
 
Yeah, that's a common misconception with e-bikes, that you can't get exercise on them. Simply not true.

Sure, if you are a serious cyclist and do 100 mile rides for fun like I used to do, no reason to get one. But for folks that just like to ride a couple of times a week on a bicycle, you can get plenty of exercise on them. The ride intensity is totally up to you. You just typically go farther/faster than you would on a non-powered bike.

I like it. I can go ride for 2 or 3 hours on Sunday morning in the big hills, get plenty of exercise and not be wasted the rest of the day when I get home.
 
I know you can get exercise on an E-bike but it is more time intensive to do so at an equivalent level with a person powered bike. The level of exercise on an e-bike is dictated by the level of assist the user selects. I ride with folks on e-bikes that used to ride regular bikes and they admit a loss of fitness since becoming "spoiled" by the assist. I do agree that riding an e-bike is far better than not riding at all.
 
I often think an electric mountain bike is what I need to compliment my Africa Twin rather than a dirt bike. There's quite a few mountain bike trails near me. I'm too fat and out of shape to do it the hard way these days...
 
The cost has to come down. For $15k I can buy a nice motorcycle or even a decent car. Even $5k is over my price limit.
 
We have Turbo Levo's and they are game changers. They way I have mine set is it doesn't do the work for me, but the assist allows me to continue riding hard technical areas I wouldn't be able to with the extra age and weight but less strength. Specialized has done an amazing job of almost hiding the assist by bringing it online and off again in such a smooth and natural way, you just don't notice it in low power or medium. You really notice the assist in high power.

What is interesting is how my heartrate is still getting hammered on the Levo just like it did on my older 29'r, but I can go a bit faster and further which makes it more fun and thus more enjoyable.

Overall I think these things are just going to get better and better with more and more adoption.
 
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