New Specialized Turbo Kenevo charges up & down any mountain with 180mm travel

When Specialized launched the Turbo Levo, there were immediately riders that wanted something bigger. So here it is, a motor assist version of the Specialized Enduro, and it’s called the Turbo Kenovo.

It’s a 27.5 ripper with a bit slacker geometry than the Enduro, but with the same BB height. It gets an Ohlins TTX coil shock with Rockshox Lyrik and SRAM Code brakes. Oh, and it gets 180mm of travel front and rear, which is 20mm more than the new Enduro.

Why a long travel e-MTB? Well, imagine if you wanted to do a sick 20 minute run again and again. You could arrange friends and a truck to shuttle you, which sometimes takes 40 minutes to drive up and a whole lotta BS to organize. Or buy an expensive lift ticket and wait in the queue. Or you could just ride up the same mountain and have way more fun. That’s what we did at the launch event this summer, and it was awesome.

The Ohlins TTX handles the extra weight of the bike with ease. The motor’s assist eliminated any concern over the FSR design’s active nature…I really didn’t notice any bobbing under pedaling up the hills, even when standing to get up a couple steep sections (yes, it still requires some work to ride uphill).

Up front is a Rockshox Lyrik with big 200mm rotors.

It’s all brought down from full speed by the new four-piston Code brakes, with 200mm rotors in the back, too.

It comes with their new Wu post, which changes the angle of the saddle as it drops. It gets 125mm of stroke, but the saddle’s tail actually changes position by 150mm thanks to a dual cylinder system.

The frame uses Specialized’s hydroformed M5 alloy tubing, similar to the non-carbon Levo, with internal routing for anything headed back from the handlebars, including the stealth-routed Wu.

The heart of the system is the latest Turbo 1.3 motor, which has plenty of juice to power this monster and its rider up any trail. Wide 27.5×2.8 tires provide the traction.

We covered the motor and battery tech in great detail in our post about the Levo Carbon, but the short of it is this: You can adjust the settings through their companion app to customize the output for each setting (low, medium, and turbo). The motor completely disengages when coasting so there’s no parasitic drag, and it eases into power smoothly (but quickly), so it’s easy to keep traction on the tricky bits. No, you can’t roost dirt and destroy trails.

When switching modes, the only indication is the lights on the battery. After a second, it returns to showing battery level in a counter-clockwise countdown. It’ll also relay battery life info to compatible ANT+ cycling computers and to the Mission Control smartphone app.

The controls are simple and sleek. Plus/Minus buttons change assist level, and the real standout feature is a Walk Assist button. Push it, and it’ll power the wheel along at 2mph so you can easily walk up any sections too gnarly to ride up. You know, like those steep, techy, awesome sections that you just wanna hit again.

The “Turbo” button is on the front of the control and provides immediate access to full power.

Specialized wanted to keep a traditional rear gearing setup rather than the larger steps of SRAM’s e-bike specific drivetrain, so you’re getting a modern 1×11 wide-range setup. There’s only one model, so to keep price (somewhat) in check, they used a SRAM GX1 drivetrain with Praxis cranks. Retail is $7,500 / €6,299.

Specialized.com