Electric Overlanding: Specialized Levo X Adventure

James Moore · 2026-06-10

The biggest shifts rarely come from new technology. They come from new ways of seeing the world. What happens when we stop focusing on bikes, and instead think about the possibilities they create? That's the question we set out to answer during seven days in California, with two E-Mountainbike readers and a new Specialized bike that challenges how we think about innovation. We're standing on a beach with two readers and Ben from Specialized. It's freezing cold. Grinning like idiots, we hop across the sand as the first rays of morning light hit the coastline. A waterfall crashes straight into the Pacific. Nobody says much. They don't have to. The look in everyone's eyes says it all: We're exactly where we're supposed to be. ### A Once-in-a-Lifetime Invitation The idea started a year earlier. Specialized invited me to California to experience a prototype of a new bike concept. Sleeping bags, campfires, and the Sierra Nevada. Somewhere between dusty trails, wrong turns, and stories about bears around the fire, a thought took shape. I called Ben, Brand Voice Leader at Specialized: "You don't know it yet, but you're going to launch this bike together with E-Mountainbike. And we're going to do it in a way that neither Specialized nor any other bike brand has ever done before." Instead of a traditional press launch, we wanted to bring real people. Not journalists. Not influencers. Not pro athletes. Readers. So together, we created an invitation: Specialized is at the beginning of a new chapter. One that expands our understanding of what's possible on a performance eMTB, and challenges the way we think about innovation itself. And you can be part of it long before the rest of the world even knows it exists. What happened next surprised even us. Thousands of readers started the application process, and many never finished it. We could have made it easier, but that wasn't the point. We were looking for the right people. In the end, more than 300 readers invested over an hour into their application. Two made it through: Jonathan from Idaho and Sasha from Ecuador. Together, we'd explore San Francisco and California on two wheels, ride where mountain biking was born, camp in the wilderness, go behind the scenes at Specialized, spend a night at founder Mike Sinyard's house, and keep returning to the same question: What does innovation really mean? ### How Big Is Your World These Days? The smell of freshly fried dumplings drifts through the air. Chopsticks circle around the last dumpling balanced on the rack. For hours we've been wandering through San Francisco. Chinatown. North Beach. One side street then another. No destination, no schedule, just following whatever catches our attention. At some point, we realize how unusual that feels. And how good it feels. We live in a world with more options than ever before, yet somehow our worlds keep getting smaller. Apps plan our routes. Social media tells us what adventures are worth having. Our dreams arrive neatly packaged and ready for checkout. We know which bike to buy, which trail to ride, and which photo we're supposed to post afterwards. But do we still know how to explore? Jonathan puts it perfectly: "Mountain biking has shrunk from its roots." Mountain biking used to be about discovering something new. Today, many of us ride the same trails, visit the same trail centers, and return to the same bike parks over and over again. That's not to say they're bad. It's because they're familiar. Because they're safe. Because we already know what's waiting for us. > "Mountain biking has shrunk from its roots." - Jonathan ### What Electric Overlanding Really Means Electric overlanding isn't just about having a motor. It's about expanding your range, both physically and mentally. With the Specialized Levo X, we covered over 100 miles of California terrain, from coastal highways to mountain passes. The bike's motor gave us the freedom to explore farther, climb higher, and see more than we ever could on a traditional mountain bike. It's not about cheating the ride; it's about redefining what a ride can be. We camped under the stars in the Sierra Nevada, where temperatures dropped to 40 degrees Fahrenheit at night. We woke up to the smell of pine and coffee, then hit trails that wound through forests and across streams. The bike handled everything we threw at it, from loose gravel to steep, rocky climbs. ### The Real Innovation Innovation isn't just a new battery or a lighter frame. It's about creating experiences that change how you see the world. For us, that meant stripping away the noise of everyday life and focusing on what matters: connection, adventure, and the people you share it with. So here's the question for you: Are you ready to step off the beaten path? To trade familiar trails for unknown ones? To see where the road takes you, without a plan? Because that's where the real adventure begins.