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Spent the day at Cannock Chase today.
https://electricbikereview.com/specialized/turbo-levo-hardtail-comp-6fattie/
This looks like the bike but i think that's the faster/better version, the one i had was the SL version, so lighter and smaller battery
From the second i jumped on it i felt very at home, it's a Ford Focus of bikes, everything is where it's supposed to be, the steering is simple, the brakes are competent without being astounding etc. But it's a nice easy bike to get used to.
Cannock has everything from flat trails, to berms, to sweepy swoopy stuff and rocky bits. We also went over to Stile Cop and hit some of the DH trails, which again, the bike did really well.
The astounding part is that it's better than the sum of it's parts, everything on it is basic, even the tyres, which are a Specialized Ground Control and shouldn't have been as good in the slop as they were. Even the 29er wheels, which i've been a little 29er curious about were not even noticable and didn't distract me in any way.
Only minor fault i could comment on is that it doesn't have the kick of power the bigger bikes seem to have, but that's counteracted by not being as heavy and riding more like a normal bike to me. Ace.
Some of the DH trails were a bit droppy and rocky, but it didn't care and really, neither did I. I completely enjoyed it.
Lots of trails chasing the small boy (on the Liv ebike) and Couchy on his Trek Rail, trying to stay ahead on some and trying not to get dropped on others. We both failed to match the small lad, but we held our own and were far from humiliated. I think my cornering was on decent form and i was still working on certain aspects of my riding and think i was doing OK.
Did it convert either me or the lad to the Ebike fold.. Nope.. but you can sure as heck see the appeal of them, it was like being on an 1199 compared to a CB500 of a manual bike. Enlightening just how quick they are. But it does change the ride from a nice day out, to a flat out pinning it fest, corner to corner, tree to tree, berm to berm, pinned.... everywhere.
Sounds like you had a good time
Yeah we had a fab day out, but I love bikes so not a massive shock there
Didn’t think they made an SL HT..
Specialized don't seem to do an sl hardtail, they seem to do the levo hardtail that you linked to in the op,or this Tero
https://www.specialized.com/gb/en/turbo-tero-3-0/p/188111?color=317386-188111
Which seems to have a motor that sits somewhere in the middle between the sl motor and the full fat levo motor.
What made you hire that for the day, versus something more your style (based on bikes you have considered in previous posts on here), it looks pretty much like a hybrid MTB.
I've just asked him to link me to it.
What made you hire that for the day
I didn't. It belongs to a mate who has a Trek Rail as well as that HT. We don't see eachother enough really and the right day for both came up but was booked with 4 other mates (who all never turned up) all on ebikes, so made sense to borrow his.
The bike is my commuting bike, standard apart from 140mm Judy forks and tubeless’d.
It went well for a basic HT, good fun fast day out regardless of the bikes 👍
I didn’t.
Ah right,the thread title said demo ride,so I assumed you had chosen to demo the hardtail.
Thanks for link. Good that it rode better than a sum of the parts I guess ! 😁
Yeah i think certain trails and of course certain bikes suit eachother well/better and Cannock really suited the HT and flattered both me and it. I certainly don't think i want a £2500 Specialized HT Ebike... but it sure did pretty well.
It did make me think that i worry about things like tyres etc more than i need to 😀