Specialized Turbo Levo SL electric mountain bike looks like the most fun you can have on two wheels

Specialized produces lightest-in-class e-MTB for those who like to stay nimble on trails and descents

Specialized Turbo Levo SL
(Image credit: Specialized)
Duncan Bell
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Specialized is arguably the biggest name in bikes but Turbo Levo SL, its new electric mountain bike, is deliberately slimmed down and has less power than its previous excursions into e-MTB. Why? To make it more fun, and more akin to a non-motorised riding experience. It's putting the 'wheeee!' back in to E. Or something.

• Six reasons to buy Specialized Tarmac SL7

E-MTBs have been received, if anything, even more enthusiastically than standard e-bikes. And little wonder, given that they remove the more arduous elements of the sport – ie: slogging up hills – while enhancing the fun bits. However, this has resulted in a some monstrously hefty and powerful rides that, while great fun in their own right, don't feel at all natural. Levo SL is intended to address that.

Specialized Turbo Levo SL

(Image credit: Specialized)

To that end, Specialized has packed a 240W power plant with a 3.5-hour ride time – range extender batteries can add a further 90 minutes – into a 'superlight' bike that weighs as little as 17.35kg. That's the heft of the range-topping S-Works version of the Levo SL; the entry level Comp tops out at 19.4kg in its largest frame size. All models save 'up to 4kg' compared to Specialized's previous e-MTBs, the Levo and Kenevo. 

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Specialized Turbo Levo SL Comp
(Image credit: Specialized)

The Levo SL comes in five varieties. In ascending order of priciness, we have Comp, Carbon, Expert Carbon and S-Works. There's also a no-holds-barred Founders Edition, but there's only 250 of them, and we don't have a pic of it. Soz.

Okay so, clearly, even 17.35kg is not 'superlight' in the great scheme of things. However it is unusually skinny for an electric, as they routinely come in at over 20kg.

Modelled closely on Specialized unpowered Stumpjumper bike, the Levo SL offers 150mm of travel, a shortened wheelbase – the chainstay distance is actually the same as a Stumpjumper – and enough power to 2x 'rider amplification' and a top assisted speed of up to 20mph (US) or 25kph (boring old Europe). 

Another real killer feature is that after the top speed is reached, the Levo SL puts up no resistance, unlike many earlier e-bikes. So you transition seamlessly from electrical acceleration to staunchly old-fashioned leg power.

Specialized Turbo Levo SL

Mission Control

(Image credit: Specialized)

Specialized's excellent Mission Control app lets you adjust power settings, view ride and bike data and set timers

As noted, there's 150mm of suspension travel, front and rear, while the supplied/recommended tyre size is 2.3-inches. The spec and design all point to removing the stabilisers, so to speak, from your ride and making everything feel a lot more real. That could be either exhilarating or terrifying, depending on your experience level and riding style, but it certainly won't be dull. 

Our mud-spattered colleagues at BikePerfect described the Levo SL as 'one of the fastest and most fun e-bikes we’ve ridden, if you don’t need epic battery life or totally effortless climbing,' which sounds alright to us.

• Buy Specialized Levo SL at Specialized UK – on sale now from £4,999

• Buy Specialized Levo SL at Specialized USA – on sale now from $6,525

Duncan Bell
Duncan Bell

Duncan is the former lifestyle editor of T3 and has been writing about tech for almost 15 years. He has covered everything from smartphones to headphones, TV to AC and air fryers to the movies of James Bond and obscure anime. His current brief is everything to do with the home and kitchen, which is good because he is an excellent cook, if he says so himself. He also covers cycling and ebikes – like over-using italics, this is another passion of his. In his long and varied lifestyle-tech career he is one of the few people to have been a fitness editor despite being unfit and a cars editor for not one but two websites, despite being unable to drive. He also has about 400 vacuum cleaners, and is possibly the UK's leading expert on cordless vacuum cleaners, despite being decidedly messy. A cricket fan for over 30 years, he also recently become T3's cricket editor, writing about how to stream obscure T20 tournaments, and turning out some typically no-nonsense opinions on the world's top teams and players.

Before T3, Duncan was a music and film reviewer, worked for a magazine about gambling that employed a surprisingly large number of convicted criminals, and then a magazine called Bizarre that was essentially like a cross between Reddit and DeviantArt, before the invention of the internet. There was also a lengthy period where he essentially wrote all of T3 magazine every month for about 3 years. 

A broadcaster, raconteur and public speaker, Duncan used to be on telly loads, but an unfortunate incident put a stop to that, so he now largely contents himself with telling people, "I used to be on the TV, you know."

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