Specialized Levo SL Kids Review: First Look at a Kids EMTB | Electric Bike Report

Frame and fork

The Specialized Levo SL Kids rolls on an aluminum frame that is made in a single size. The Turbo SL 1.2 motor receives a protective housing that enables it to take serious abuse, and the battery is hidden in the down tube.

Specialized went with a hard-tail design for a couple of reasons. First, it helps to keep cost down because full-suspension frames require more development time and resources, are more expensive to build, and include what is usually a fairly expensive component—the shock. Second, as this is Specialized’s first eMTB for kids, it makes sense that they would start with something more affordable before going nuts with a top-of-the-line S-Works full-suspension eMTB. That said, it’s a safe bet that they are working on a full-suspension version. After all, they will need to one-up themselves in 2024, right?

The Levo SL Kids comes in a single size, and while Specialized is known for offering more different sizes in their e-bikes than most manufacturers, the fact that they say the Levo SL Kids will fit riders from 4 feet to 5 feet tall doesn’t trouble us for a few reasons. First, kids are remarkably adaptable. Second, they grow like a viral meme. Parents wouldn’t be thrilled to buy one of these only to turn around and sell it a year later once their child outgrew it. Third, in addition to raising the saddle periodically, other changes can be made to the Levo SL Kids’s fit, like a wider bar or longer stem to help extend its useful life.

Also notable is that the frame design adopts modern views on geometry for trail bikes and e-bikes, as well as offering an unusually low standover height for an e-bike that doesn’t offer a step-thru design. And for anyone wondering why Specialized doesn’t offer the Levo SL Kids in a step-thru design, that’s because to do so would increase the e-bike’s weight substantially in order to maintain the frame stiffness necessary for the e-bike to handle well on technical terrain.

The RockShox Reba Air 100mm fork is considered a short-travel fork in the mountain bike world, the sort of fork put on a cross-country race bike. But that classification is based on a rider who likely weighs more than 140 lbs. and probably stands more than 5 feet 4. For a teen who stands 4 feet 8 and weighs 100 lbs., a 100mm fork will give a rider plenty of insulation from even the hardest landings.

And as we observed earlier, many kids’ bikes spec a suspension fork with a coil spring, not an air spring. The Reba Air can be dialed for the rider’s weight as well as rebound damping and high-speed compression. A fork with a steel spring offers a very crude preload adjustment, and nothing more. The difference this will make in the rider’s experience is substantial. It could mean the difference between a kid liking the eMTB and not.