Specialized S-Works Turbo Levo 4 LTD for 19,999 euros: Honestly, who needs that?

Your bank balance reads like an international telephone number, and while your chauffeur warms up the Bentley, you relax in the infinity pool. Whether it's a weekend at a finca in Mallorca or a sundowner on a superyacht - exclusivity is not a privilege for you, it's standard. But there is still a gap in your garage between the classic car, the Bugatti and the Learjet: the Specialized S-Works Turbo Levo 4 LTD fits perfectly into this gap. With a price tag of exactly 19,999 euros, it is no mere piece of sports equipment, but the ultimate status trophy for the trail - the most expensive production eMTB that you can buy for money (and you have enough of that).

Decadence on two wheels

While the general public is still debating inflation and gas prices, Specialized is asking the all-important question: Rolex Daytona or e-bike? For the price of a well-equipped small car, you don't get a means of transport, but a statement. The S-Works Turbo Levo 4 LTD is the answer to the question of how much luxury you can squeeze into a carbon frame before common sense finally gives up the ghost.

Exclusivity down to the smallest (carbon) fibre

What makes this bike so outrageously expensive? It starts with the paintwork. The "Astral Blue" finish is so exclusive that it sparkles in the sun like the sapphires on the Côte d'Azur. But beneath the dazzling surface lies high-tech that will make even technology connoisseurs click their tongues.

The centrepiece is the new Specialised 3.1 S-Works motor. With a brute 111 Newton metres of torque and 850 watts of peak power, it pushes you up the mountain as if you had rented your own gravitational wave. The bike is equipped with an 840 Wh main battery so that you don't run out of juice on the way to the mountain station. And because you don't take off on a private jet with a half-full tank, Specialized also includes a range extender. Naturally, the 12A Smart Charger charges the battery faster than your butler can stir a martini.

Components from the poison cabinet

The equipment list reads like a "Who's Who" of the bike industry. At the front, the exclusive FOX Factory Podium upside-down fork with 160 mm travel - a technical work of art that attracts more attention than a parked Bugatti in front of the casino. At the rear, the FOX Float X Factory shock with the new GENIE technology for a driving experience that filters out bumps as efficiently as a tax-saving model filters out your gross/net difference.

The brakes are applied with the Trickstuff Maximathe most powerful and exclusive brake on the market. The massive 223-millimetre rotors stop you as precisely as if you were dropping the anchor of your yacht in Portofino harbour. The crowning glory is the Cane Creek Electric Wings - Titanium cranks that are so delicate and yet indestructible that they could even pass as an exhibit in the Museum of Modern Art. They are accompanied by the ecstatic whirring of the Industry Nine Hydra wheelswhose freewheel is as finely toothed as the movement of a Patek Philippe

Conclusion: Do you need it?

Who asks for a Patek Philippe? The Specialized S-Works Turbo Levo 4 LTD is not a bike for bean counters. It's a collector's item for people who want the best because they can afford it. It's the "supercar" of E-MTBs - unreasonable, excessive and damn desirable. So the next time you're flying over the Alps in a helicopter and see a flash of blue on the trail below: That's not the burning up remains of a meteorite. That's just the Specialized S-Works Turbo Levo 4 LTD. So, needs that? My goodness, of course not!

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