Specialized Santa Cruz Experience Center — Local services in Santa Cruz

Demo-ed the S-Works Turbo Levo. The new Specialized Experience Center is next to Patagonia on River st. near the Golf Course Dr. trailhead to Emma McCrary in Santa Cruz, so after a ride I dropped by the day before my reservation. I was impressed by the design of the place: open space, wood, many bikes on display. Chad was wearing a mask and invited me in to pre-pay and get the seatpost height and suspension dialed in so I wouldn't have to wait during my precious 4 hours I would have the bike the next morning.

I arrived a few minutes before the place opened--though probably this is more important on a weekend as it wasn't crowded--and after a quick tutorial in the parking lot of the e-Bike controls I was off. Across the street and down one block is access to the bike path on the levy of the San Lorenzo, and the trailhead is less than 5 minute ride away. The 410% boost mode was frankly more than I needed, so I only used eco and the middle setting on the way up.

The first thing I noticed was that, unlike other e-bikes I have ridden the S-works Turbo did not continue to provide power for a bit after I stopped pedalling. This had made me surge before I had come out of a turn, and overshoot a stop, in the past--but this new tech is so responsive I could do slow technical root stair climbs, which required stopping and pivoting, or clocking my pedals to avoid a pedal strike, and the bike stayed just wear I meant it to be. In fact, for a DH MTB weighing in the upper 40s (and I am over 200 lbs) I couldn't believe how nimble and well-balanced it was when coming almost to a complete stop to get the bars between trees, or to hop onto a different better descent angle at a switchback on the steep trails down from upper UC. Chad said that the battery was inside the lower part of the downtube, right in front of the motor, so their weight is below axle giving the S-works a planted sure-footed feel, especially when negotiating slow techy stuff.

The Turbo Levo ALSO excels at speed, particularly on descents, so I found myself increasingly confident and returning to downhill runs I had not taken in a couple years. The suspension removes all the break ruts on flowy berms and, perhaps because I am also heavy, seemed to follow me better in jumps so without thinking about it I never feared that I would lose my footing on a flat in mid-air. I discovered the main use for the Power Boost mode during a long fire road climb back up to the top of a run: it turned a 25 minute workout into a 10 minute joy ride, where you could get air uphill and had to consider a line at speed on corners. So fun!

My own mountain bike is a lighter taller closer to xc bike and I am going to try to the Turbo Levo SL on my next demo, as I probably don't need the power, if I am only using it to fly uphill. My impression was that eco was like the middle setting on other bikes I had ridden, and middle was like boost. All the power you could ever want from an e-bike...but don't think you can't get a workout. I rode straight the whole 4 hours and looped 3 different downhill runs, plus all the small techy stuff in between. If you ascend 4K ft and go over 30 miles you will be plenty sweaty and panting afterwards and sore the next day. Instead of coasting, the beast drives you to just hit everything that...

This experience center is pretty amazing. TLDR: I rented a bicycle from the team and was sold on the experience offered by the team; the experience helped inform my decision to purchase a new E-MTB from Specialized at a local dealer.

In a little more detail, I rented a Kenevo SL from the crew. They had it charged up for me and ready to go when I arrived at the shop when it opened. They carefully explained how to use the controls of the bike and they also dialed in the suspension for my weight and riding style before I took off. They even encouraged me to rip the bike down some staircases to get a feel for how it handled before sending me on my way.

I had a fantastic riding experience. The bike was flawless and I could write a separate review on that alone, but suffice to say that the bike was well maintained / set-up.

When I got back to the experience center, I was greeted warmly and we had a nice chat about the bike and how it handled on various terrain. They offered me some nice electrolyte-filled beverages to help recover from a strenuous ride. It truly was quite the Experience, as advertised in the name of the business.

I wouldn't hesitate to go back again and rent another bicycle. Either for fun, or to help inform a purchase decision. This Experience Center is an absolutely fantastic way to get people on bikes they wouldn't get a chance to ride otherwise. Thank you to the local team for putting on a great experience, and to Specialized for offering this type of shop in the first place....

Wow. What an experience. I cannot thank the specialized experience center and the wonderful folks that work there enough. The level of knowledge and detail that is demonstrated combined with the most professional customer service skills are by far incomparable to any other bike shop I’ve ever been to. Thank you to Chad Kriz who not only explained everything I needed to know about mountain bikes (I had no previous experience) and took time out of his busy day to take me on a trail and show me the ropes so I wouldn’t hurt myself, but who also spent 6 hours on the phone trying to locate a store that had the bike I wanted in stock. He didn’t have to do that, but he did, because he is obviously fiercely dedicated to his customers. and their experience. Now I have the sickest stumpy ever and it’s all thanks to this upstanding employee!! Thank you, Chad! I also want to thank Clay who went above and beyond when my bike wasn’t shifting correctly. He took time to not only wash my bike down (learned the hard way you have to wash your bike every so often:/) but also explained exactly what was happening and went above and beyond to make sure my bike was working properly. Thank you, Clay! Both Chad and Clay have put in the time to help me understand how to take care of my bike and helped answer any questions I had in a non judge mental way. I can’t thank them enough and will 10/10 be recommending the experience center to anyone and everyone in the market for a...