Price is the same which one would you pick?

[Stefan Mikes]

(I cannot say anything except Specialized e-bikes are so sexy, don't come with Bosch motors, and all discussion on Purion/Intuvia/Kiox/Nyon is unnecessary when you have a TCD(-W) or just a smartphone)

 

[Prairie Dog]

Specialized is more lively but every ride you'll be wondering when the motor will die. Then it gets replaced under warranty and the cycle continues. So long as each motor dies within 2 years of each replacement, you're stuck with no excuse to burn it. Unless specialize throw a major hussy with brose and can't replace the motor. Oh, and you'll always feel like the sad cousin - heavier than an sl but less capable than a kinevo.

Giant will be rock solid reliable , do you want a rock? If you're into that, and you have a decent dealer, then go for it. Just be aware warranty runs out at 2 years on motor, even if it's replaced at some stage. The app and interface will seem primitive compared to a specialized , but when you've got a few thousand kn of greasy dirt under the wheels ....life is good.

By chance I was speaking to a buddy of mine yesterday and he recently had the motor on his Levo Comp Carbon replaced on warranty after it was smoked. After hearing this, my choices for an e-MTB are now down to a Trance XE + Pro 29 (2) or a Trek Rail 5. Price point and specs for both are similar with the Trance sporting the slightly larger battery. Both dealers are out of town but the Trek shop that has the Rail in stock is less than 150 km drive from my home. I would have to arrange out of province shipping for the Trance.

 

[BarryS]

By chance I was speaking to a buddy of mine yesterday and he recently had the motor on his Levo Comp Carbon replaced on warranty after it was smoked. After hearing this, my choices for an e-MTB are now down to a Trance XE + Pro 29 (2) or a Trek Rail 5. Price point and specs for both are similar with the Trance sporting the slightly larger battery. Both dealers are out of town but the Trek shop that has the Rail in stock is less than 150 km drive from my home. I would have to arrange out of province shipping for the Trance.

 

[Prairie Dog]

Nice review. Thanks for sharing. The Trance is certainly a viable contender in a pretty tight market. I'm sure that both bikes in my frame size won’t be sticking around very long at their respective shops so I may have to bite the proverbial bullet soon. I'm partial to the Trance as I think it represents a better value overall but the Rail shouldn't be overlooked. Yamaha's reliable motor is another plug for the Trance.

 

[FlatSix911]

I would wait for the new Trance XE + Pro ... a far better bike for the long term.

 

[PDoz]

Nice review. Thanks for sharing. The Trance is certainly a viable contender in a pretty tight market. I'm sure that both bikes in my frame size won’t be sticking around very long at their respective shops so I may have to bite the proverbial bullet soon. I'm partial to the Trance as I think it represents a better value overall but the Rail shouldn't be overlooked. Yamaha's reliable motor is another plug for the Trance.

Don't buy the trance just because of the yamaha motor - bosch is just as reliable and I'm in a bad mood with giant electrics today ( hopefully just another water in connector issue, but possibly my 4 th dead evo screen in 3 years)

I'd base a decision between those two on the vibe at the lbs , or their reputation if you know it. Both are perfectly good bikes. A year ago I'd have said giant, but the trek geometry is improving and they really do build a more robust bike than giant. The 3 local guys who bought trek when I bought my giant 3 years ago have had relatively trouble free run .

You talk about value - all these manufacturers build to a similar price point. If giant is offering better spec at the same price point, then there will be cost cutting elsewhere - often in difficult to see places like suspension bushes / bearings , or dealer support. Or poor electrical connectors......

Please take this with a grain of salt, I'm taking my bike to the lbs today for her 3 rd birthday service - replacing all the suspension and wheel bearings again, servicing suspension, and checking wtf is going on with this gremlin. So it'll be there for a couple of weeks and there is an orbea / specialized dealer nearby....I still love my giant , but am starting to be distracted by lust for other bikes

 

[Prairie Dog]

Don't buy the trance just because of the yamaha motor - bosch is just as reliable and I'm in a bad mood with giant electrics today ( hopefully just another water in connector issue, but possibly my 4 th dead evo screen in 3 years)

I'd base a decision between those two on the vibe at the lbs , or their reputation if you know it. Both are perfectly good bikes. A year ago I'd have said giant, but the trek geometry is improving and they really do build a more robust bike than giant. The 3 local guys who bought trek when I bought my giant 3 years ago have had relatively trouble free run .

You talk about value - all these manufacturers build to a similar price point. If giant is offering better spec at the same price point, then there will be cost cutting elsewhere - often in difficult to see places like suspension bushes / bearings , or dealer support. Or poor electrical connectors......

Please take this with a grain of salt, I'm taking my bike to the lbs today for her 3 rd birthday service - replacing all the suspension and wheel bearings again, servicing suspension, and checking wtf is going on with this gremlin. So it'll be there for a couple of weeks and there is an orbea / specialized dealer nearby....I still love my giant , but am starting to be distracted by lust for other bikes

Thanks for the great advice and objective POV, @PDoz! Your reputation precedes you. The Trek/Giant dealer is in Calgary about an hour or so away so I can always take a half day and check the Rail 5 out. I have dealt with them in the past but not recently. They have no inventory of the Trance, at this point in time, and I’ve been told it would be late March before they can expect any new arrivals. I’ll likely call them up and have a chat before making any decisions.

The other Giant dealer is one Province over in BC and they do have one of the new models in stock so it would be an online order.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Prairie Dog: Go for Specialized Turbo Levo Comp. You will experience the sense of superiority, similar to one gained by R&M owners
(I'm digging my own grave now. Attribute that to the excellent Spanish wine I'm drinking now)

 

[RandallS]

Thanks for the great advice and objective POV, @PDoz! Your reputation precedes you. The Trek/Giant dealer is in Calgary about an hour or so away so I can always take a half day and check the Rail 5 out. I have dealt with them in the past but not recently. They have no inventory of the Trance, at this point in time, and I’ve been told it would be late March before they can expect any new arrivals. I’ll likely call them up and have a chat before making any decisions.

The other Giant dealer is one Province over in BC and they do have one of the new models in stock so it would be an online order.

If you go to BC, you get their extra taxes.
BC = Bring Cash...

 

[Prairie Dog]

Not if I have it shipped to my location. When I purchased our Creos at a slightly reduced price, the shop in Penticton also picked up the cost of shipping which left me with just paying the GST. They were great to deal with and I was looking forward to doing so again but they sold their last Trance. I could wait until their new stock arrives and, in all likely hood, could receive another discount as a past customer. I'm not sure if the Giant dealer in Kelowna would be as accommodating though. With e-bikes in high demand I'm not even sure I could score a similar out-of-province deal.

 

[RandallS]

If you were shopping in Penticton, you were probably dealing with the same place i was talking to last July. They weren't moving on price and shipping was on my own dime. I understood their point of view as they were the only shop in western Canada that had the bike I was considering, in my size. Then I changed my focus on the type of bike and found one locally, but it was the last one from what I could tell.

 

[PDoz]

Thanks for the great advice and objective POV, @PDoz! Your reputation precedes you. The Trek/Giant dealer is in Calgary about an hour or so away so I can always take a half day and check the Rail 5 out. I have dealt with them in the past but not recently. They have no inventory of the Trance, at this point in time, and I’ve been told it would be late March before they can expect any new arrivals. I’ll likely call them up and have a chat before making any decisions.

The other Giant dealer is one Province over in BC and they do have one of the new models in stock so it would be an online order.

March is a short wait to get the benefit of a relatively close dealer plus the bike of your choice. An hours drive is what I regularly do for my ( awesome) " local" giant dealer.

If you get a discount from a distant dealer, what you are really getting us them washing their hands . I would not buy an ebike without knowing I had local support.

Let me tell you a story.......

A couple of weeks before my warranty ran out my yamaha started to develop an intermittent fault - we think it was a torque sensor error. Subtle, and the lbs couldn't reproduce it but their software was supporting my gut instinct. They approached giant under warranty, but my usage readout flagged a suspicion from giant that I had derestricted the bike and warranty was under threat. I hadn't , and suspect my speed sensor had been wrongly reading for a few thousand km....plus a disproportionate amount of my riding is spent with minimal assistance following my kids. Anyway, the lbs sat down with me for a difficult chat and then had a very long phone discussion with giant that resulted in me getting a brand new 2020 motor, replacement wiring harness and evo screen. More than the bike was worth, and I'm 100% certain that without such a good lbs relationship my bike would gave been retired and used for parts - there was a really nice 2019 trance on the showroom at a seriously discounted price.....the jury is still out on if all that hard work really was a favour To make matters worse, that dealer only sells giant, norco, and merida. The competition across the road sells the orbea and specialized I'm lusting after. The giant dealer is awesome.......

 

[Prairie Dog]

Prairie Dog: Go for Specialized Turbo Levo Comp. You will experience the sense of superiority, similar to one gained by R&M owners
(I'm digging my own grave now. Attribute that to the excellent Spanish wine I'm drinking now)

The entry level Levo was near the top of my list until a friend told me about the fried motor on his comp carbon. It left me feeling somewhat uncertain about the bike especially after reading PDoz’s post. The more svelt Levo SL with its proprietary motor is quite a bit out of my price range but is definitely a dream ride.

Pass me that bottle of vino Stefan.

 

[RandallS]

Since we've gone all winey here, I too am enjoying a nice Spanish Rioja.

This the beginnings of a multinational dinner of Penne Carbonara and salad, followed by an evening of another instalment of a police procedural German series, set in Venice, based on a series of novels by an American author. English subtitles of course, but it's somewhat disconcerting watching something in Venice where everyone is speaking German. My german speaking wife also comments on the subtitles, saying "they didn't actually say that". For those that may care, it's the Inspector Brunetti series.

Ok, where am i going with this?
Canyon (German online brand) say they are coming to Canada this Spring.
Their bikes look pretty sweet, and I think are priced similarly. But no local shops...

 

[PDoz]

The entry level Levo was near the top of my list until a friend told me about the fried motor on his comp carbon. It left me feeling somewhat uncertain about the bike especially after reading PDoz’s post. The more svelt Levo SL with its proprietary motor is quite a bit out of my price range but is definitely a dream ride.

Pass me that bottle of vino Stefan.

I just dropped my giant at the local shop and then walked across the road to drool on a levo sl.

IMHO, the alloy sl is a very tempting package. I can only just lift my Giant up above my head to put it on my vertical bike rack - those 23 kg are heavy kg. Occasionally, after a huge day of riding I'll remove the 3 kg of battery to lift my bike up. The levo sl feels like my giant without the battery!

I'm not excited about dropping back to fox flloat 34's ( I LOVE my fox performance e 34's on the giant) , but that's the sort of thing I can upgrade if needed.

What I really need is a test ride on an sl to see if my knees can cope with the lower assistance. Perhaps next week.

One thing I've learnt in the past 3 years is that initial purchase price is a very small part of the joy of ownership. These things are expensive to buy, but they're also expensive to own. Chains / cassettes / tyres / brakes and bling , servicing the suspension and linkages - the $ rapidly add up, and to be honest a $1-2 k initial price difference can be lost within a couple of months. The best example is cassette choice - shimano 10-11 speed cassettes are a LOT cheaper to replace than sram 12. Brake pads - I've worn through a pair of pads in a big day of down hill fun ( ski lift assisted trying to keep up with my daughter suicidal stupidity that will never again be repeated ) . My bike chews through pads because is under braked - shimano 2 pot , so relatively small pads. I probably should bite the bullet and fit some shimano 4 pot 520's , the extra pad life will repay the cost of upgrade within a year.

That levo sl was REALY nice to lift up.......if they offered the alloy with expert level components I'd probably have already bought one. I just can't get my head around buying an sl then sinking an extra 20% on forks, and a range extender.

 

[Browneye]

Canyon is based out of San Clemente, near YT Industries. At least for north america. I never went and looked at them, but their direct-sell website paints a pretty picture. I did not know they were German.

 

[RandallS]

Canyon is based out of San Clemente, near YT Industries. At least for north america. I never went and looked at them, but their direct-sell website paints a pretty picture. I did not know they were German.

Koblenz is HQ.
Nice city - was there in the fall of 2017 on a river cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

The entry level Levo was near the top of my list until a friend told me about the fried motor on his comp carbon. It left me feeling somewhat uncertain about the bike especially after reading PDoz’s post. The more svelt Levo SL with its proprietary motor is quite a bit out of my price range but is definitely a dream ride.

Pass me that bottle of vino Stefan.

If you fry your Levo motor then your local Specialized bicycle store will replace it under the extended warranty (the brand is truly great). As I say: it is surprising me anyone spends big $$$ for R&M e-bikes, and the buyers still can be found inb4: "You never rode an R&M Stefan so you have no right to talk badly on our wonderful leaky Rohloff Homages or Delites with paint chip right from the factory!"

(The vino's really good. Bought in a tiny store, owner of which is in love with Spain, and he picks delicacies from small family farms).

Vino y oliva.

 

[Browneye]

Koblenz is HQ.
Nice city - was there in the fall of 2017 on a river cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam.

Canyon - had I known they were based out of Germany when I was shopping to buy, I may have given them more attention. The sales guy at YT mentioned them, otherwise I would never even have heard of them. They didn't have any stock to sell, weren't getting any in, and were slow to follow up. Oh well. Someone in the know mentioned they had 'old specs' in the geometry department. They just dropped off my radar.