Earlier this year, Specialized unveiled the all new Turbo Levo R, and with it claimed to have invented a whole new genre of electric mountain bike that it dubbed ‘electric rally’: a full-sus e-MTB in every way, but lighter and more nimble with shorter travel (140mm at the front and 130mm rear) for those who value ripping up singletrack just as much as powering up super steep inclines. Now there’s an all new Ultralight version, that sheds an impressive amount of weight from the already fairly svelte Levo R for even more precision and agility on the trails.
Even the other really top-end versions of the Levo R weigh well over 20kg, so the 18.8kg overall bike weight Specialized has achieved here is pretty impressive. A key weight-shedding decision can be found at the battery, as Spesh have specced the Ultralight with a smaller 600Wh battery instead of the 840Wh unit on other Levo R builds. This alone saves over a kilo, but you are compromising range here. Still, almost 3.5 hours of riding time is promised from the 600Wh battery (it’s 4.4 hours with the bigger battery), and you can always add a range extender for bigger days out.
That is paired with the S-Works 3.1 Motor with 850 Watts peak power and 111Nm of torque – it’s like “an intuitive extension of you”, boasts Specialized…
Elsewhere, there are more weight savings at the brakes, where Specialized have gone for fancy Trickstuff Direttissima, 4-piston brakes rather than SRAM’s Motive. A 180mm rear brake rotor with a 200mm rotor upfront shaves a little more weight, as the other models have 200m front and rear.
You’re also getting a lighter, mechanically actuated dropper from BikeYoke as opposed to the electronic S-Works electronic RockShox Reverb, with a polished silver finish to match the brakes. A bespoke carbon shock extension and ‘titanium hardware’ across the frame will save further weight – although the carbon frame itself is the same as on most of the other Levo R builds.
Finally, the wheels are Roval Control SL VI with carbon spokes and the tyres are Specialized’s Trail Control, that are a bit lighter than the Purgatory Grid tyres on the other S-Works Levo R builds.
Of course, all this lightweight tech won’t come cheap, meaning you’ll have to fork out £11,999 if you want to make the Turbo Levo R Ultralight your own. That’s actually not even close to the most expensive model in the range, though, with the top-of-the-range S-Works Turbo Levo 4 LTD coming in at a whopping £16,999 – the more expensive models come with bigger 840Wh batteries and a couple of other upgrades focused on performance rather than weight-shedding. If your budget doesn’t stretch to five figures, Levo R models start at £6,799.
We’re still on the list to get hold of a Levo R, and will hopefully have a review on the site soon.
