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The BLEvo app – how good is the alternative to Mission Control?
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About the BLEvo app in a nutshell:
- In contrast to the Mission Control app, BLEvo is only suitable for the Specialized e-bike models Turbo Levo, Turbo Kenevo, Creo SL and Levo SL and costs a one-time fee of 10.99 €.
- You can use the app to adjust settings on your Specialized Levo, view performance data such as motor power and speed and navigate. In addition, the app can be used to adjust the motor support to your heart rate or pulse. Tuning is also possible with a trick.
- Combined with the Levociraptor Gen2 tuning chip, the app detects accidents such as falls and contacts emergency services.
- Neither the Blevo nor the Mission Control app offers an anti-theft feature. For this, you are better off with the GPS anti-theft system BikeTrax for e-bikes.
More and more e-bike riders appreciate the advantages of good e-bike apps. That’s why every well-known e-bike manufacturer would love to have its own app. Most of the big names have already implemented this and as a rule, they offer their apps for download free of charge.
Unfortunately, even the best component or bike manufacturers are rarely good software developers. This is also evident in the Mission Control app from Specialized. You can read why it is not such a great success in a separate article.
Many owners of Specialized e-bikes therefore tend to turn to the alternative “BLEvo”, an e-bike app from an independent developer. What it can do, why it’s so popular and where it has its limitations will be discussed below.
Do you want to know more about how companies can develop their own e-bike apps and what advantages and disadvantages different approaches have? Then read our article “E-bike app developer: hire in-house or outsource? Neither!”.
What is BLEvo all about?
The BLEvo app in Android and iOS version comes from the independent Italian software developer Paolo Dozio. The motto is ambitious: “Transforms your Levo into a smart Levo”. Whether the app keeps this promise will be revealed later.
But let us say in advance: BLEvo is not suitable for every Specialized e-bike, but only app-compatible for the Turbo Levo, Turbo Kenevo, Creo SL and Levo SL models. Incidentally, they all have a Brose motor, which Specialized supplements with its own software.
Unlike the Mission Control app from Specialized itself, the BLEvo app is not free. To use it, a purchase price of €10.99 is due. That’s not that little for an e-bike app. However, you get all the functionalities of the app for an unlimited time. This means that you don’t have to make any additional in-app purchases.
Fun Fact: Why is BLEvo called BLEvo? It’s quite simple: It is made up of the acronym “BLE” for “Bluetooth Low Energy” and the e-bike model “Levo” from Specialized. According to his own statements, Paolo Dozio decided to develop the application when he bought his first Levo with Brose motor and missed some functions as well as key features in the Mission Control app.
How you can use BLEvo
You can download BLEvo from the Google Play Store and the Apple AppStore. You can then, for example, connect to your ebike Specialized Turbo Levo and optionally connect BLEvo with a heart rate band.
Overview of the app’s functions
BLEvo offers you various functions when riding a Specialized e-bike:
Configure your e-bike
Like the Mission Control app, you can use BLEvo to make settings on your Specialized Levo or other bike from the brand. You can configure parameters individually in order to adapt them to your needs and optimise the ebike’s performance.
Performance data
BLEvo shows you various performance bike data on a bike monitor. This includes, for example, peak power, engine output, battery status or speed. The data can be saved in a FIT file and TCX file.
Smart HR
When you activate Smart HR, the assistance percentage of your Specialized bike is adjusted automatically based on your heart rate.
Smart Power
Smart Power works similarly to Smart HR. However, it is not your heart rate that determines the motor power, but the force with which you pedal, i.e. biker power. If your selected wattage is exceeded, the motor provides more power.
Tip: With both Smart HR and Smart Power, athletes can ensure that they are working hard, but that the engine starts before the heart rate enters the anaerobic range or there is a risk of over-acidification of the muscles.
Navigation
You can also use a navigator function of the BLEvo app. If you don’t feel like looking at the display, simply make use of the voice messages and voice feedback.
Tuning
Finally, BLEvo can be used to increase the maximum motor support of your e-bike thanks to the “automatic speed multiplier setting” and to ride significantly faster than the “Road Code” speed of 25 km/h. The trick behind it: You reduce the wheel circumference of the rear wheel via the app.
Crash detection
If you combine the BLEvo Ap with the Levociraptor Gen2 tuning chip, you benefit from the following safety feature: as soon as the tuning chip detects an accident, the app sends an SMS automatically with your GPS location to predefined emergency contacts.
Attention: At first, the prospect of your Specialized e-bike suddenly being twice as fast may sound great. But there are several reasons why we strongly advise against tuning:
- Apart from fines, there can be serious consequences, especially in the case of accidents.
- Normal e-bikes are not designed for speeds far above 25 km/h. This is why tuning can promote wear and tear and greatly reduce the service life of your e-bike.
- Manipulating the maximum speed will void the warranty.
- The more e-bike riders circumvent speed limits, the higher the risk that the regulations for the use of e-bikes will be tightened. This means that you might soon need a licence plate, a driving licence and your own insurance – no matter how many km/h you are travelling.
You can find out more about tuning in our article “E-bike tuning: possibilities and risks”.
Differences between the BLEvo App and the Mission Control App
So what is the difference between the BLEvo app and the official Specialized app?
The following differences stand out:
- Larger range of functions: The Mission Control app focuses on a few main functionalities: You can adjust settings on your Specialized Turbo Levo or other Specialized, track routes, use a diagnostic feature for information about the bike’s condition, and automatically adjust motor and battery power to the planned ride time or distance. The BLEvo app has a wider range of features – although we do not recommend using all of them. However, neither app offers theft protection.
- Chargeable:One downer: The BLEvo app is not free, unlike Mission Control. Given what it offers, however, 10.99 € is a fair price. Besides, freelance app developers have to make a living. So it makes sense that they don’t give away their creations for free. Specialized, on the other hand, can afford to offer customers additional services such as apps for free. After all, a good free app is an advertisement for their own products.
- Higher functionality:Now we come to the key difference: the BLEvo app is not only more versatile, but it also works better than the Mission Control – based on user reviews, it even works much better.
Tip: You can get answers to questions about Paolo Dozio’s app in a dedicated BLEvo forum. All FAQs can be found in the forum in English.
How good is the app in practice? – Reviews
The feedback on the Mission Control app is mixed in both the Google PlayStore and the AppStore. The situation is quite different for the BLEvo app. It receives an impressive number of 5-star ratings in both stores.
The intelligent support provided by the Smart Power and Smart HR functions is particularly popular with e-MTB riders. But the navigation function and the many setting options are also convincing.
In addition, there is a decisive factor: many e-bike apps from manufacturers look promising at first glance. In practice, however, the connection with the e-bike does not work or it breaks off repeatedly during a tour.
This makes the app practically worthless. With the BLEvo app, this problem seems to occur extremely rarely.
There is only one disadvantage that comes up frequently: the not fully developed usability. In fact, the design leaves a lot to be desired. This makes operation unnecessarily complicated in some cases.
It’s a pity, but just as good e-bike manufacturers are not automatically good app developers, good app developers are not automatically good designers.
Advantages and disadvantages of BLEvo
Overall, the following advantages and disadvantages of the BLEvo app can be noted:
⊕
- many functions
- innovative features that other apps do not have (especially Smart HR and Smart Power)
- high functionality
⊖
- design and usability could be improved
- chargeable
The PowUnity app – an alternative for your Specialized Turbo Bike
We’ve already mentioned it: there are functions that neither the Mission Control app nor BLEvo offer. One of them is efficient theft protection. Because e-bikes are very popular with thieves. But a bike lock alone is not enough, no matter how good it is.
GPS Tracker BikeTrax for Specialized e-bikes with Brose motor
With the BikeTrax GPS tracker and the PowUnity app, you get highly efficient theft protection, regardless of whether you ride a Turbo Levo with Brose motor or another model:
- The GPS tracker is invisibly mounted inside your e-bike motor.
- If someone tries to steal your e-bike, the PowUnity app alerts you on your smartphone. This way, you may still be able to prevent the theft by intervening yourself or by alerting the police.
- But even if you don’t succeed at first, the chances of getting your e-bike back are great. Thanks to real-time tracking throughout Europe, you can send the location of your bike directly to the police via the app.
- In addition, the PowUnity app automatically records all your routes without you having to press a button or make any special settings. And you can also export the recordings to Strava or Komoot, for example.
From 2023, our app will have even more functions. Then you will be able to use it as a bike display, view speed and performance data and plan maintenance directly via the app.
And to e-bike manufacturers who cooperate with PowUnity, we offer a white label solution of the PowUnity app.
Conclusion on the BLEvo app – more than just an alternative
With an e-bike or drive of a certain brand, you are limited in your app choice. In many cases, there is only one app for your smartphone and perhaps an additional tuning app. If this app is not fully developed, you are out of luck.
But if you ride a Specialized Turbo Levo, Kenevo, Creo SL or Levo SL, you are lucky. In this case, you don’t necessarily have to use the Mission Control app. With BLEvo, you benefit from a well thought-out application that has many useful functions and also works really well in practice.
So that you don’t have to do without efficient theft protection in addition to navigation, bike monitor and Smart Power, we recommend the PowUnity app and the BikeTrax GPS tracker.
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