I set my alarm for 5:30 am this morning. After a quick coffee, I was off to meet August and Aaron at the bottom of the Rapaki Track by 6 am. The plan was to take the Turbo Levos out and smash out a good lap of the Port Hills before work.
If you're unaware, the Turbo Levo is a pedal-assist mountain bike made by Specialized. Learn more about how the Turbo Levo works here. You can also see the range here. The Levo will assist up to 25 kmh, which basically becomes the speed limit on the road. You just lightly pedal and the motor will keep you at a comfortable cruise. Head winds, false flats, doesn't matter, you can pretty easily sit on 25 kmh the whole way, it's great.
The usual Rapaki climb probably takes 35 minutes but can be done on the Levo in less than 15 minutes, easy. And when you get to the top, you're still fresh for the Traverse Track! Aaron takes the Levo on morning rides all the time and said the cool thing about the Levo is that you don't have to eat breakfast. There you go, #thepowertoskipbreakfast.
We were on both the 29er and 6Fattie wheels. The 6Fatties just plow through the rock gardens on Traverse, with tons of confidence. While all the 6Fatties are capable of running both wheel sizes, the 6Fattie tyre lends itself well to the pedal-assist bike. While the motor and battery weight is nice and low on the frame, the extra 10kg it carries work well with the 3.0" tyres.
At the end of the Traverse, we did the usual lap down Brakes Free and Sesame Street in Vic Park. These things rip. The extra kg's actually give it a planted feel and the handling isn't any different than a regular bike. They're not watered down or anything, they can shred. The Dazza's roots were cake on my 6Fattie. We also did that top bit of Rad Sick before going down Sneaky Ridge onto Bridges.
It was a great ride. We were at the shop by 8 am, even with all my stopping to take photos and capture video along the way. I've done that same lap before from the shop and back and did it in 1 hour 10 minutes. The Levo lets you cover so much ground in a short amount of time. It's the perfect bike for early morning pre-work rides. It's awesome. Let us know if you'd like to demo one.
