LTWOO ER9 & ERX - Electronic groepsets

[Dark17]

https://youtu.be/Di0D_2SENxs?si=iFIInItlrhTJtqbZ

Yikes...

Looks like I'll be going mechanical 105 or Ultegra for the meantime lol

[jonathanf2]

While I enjoy Luke's channel, a lot of his bike issues are from user error. He's pretty much the average Joe with a YT channel when it comes to bike assembly.

He did fray his own battery connector!

[kbernstein]

While I enjoy Luke's channel, a lot of his bike issues are from user error. He's pretty much the average Joe with a YT channel when it comes to bike assembly.

He did fray his own battery connector!

He has in the past, at least twice reported about issues that were his fault before reaching out to the brand and figuring it out... Quite sad but it reflects the average user experience.
I'm still leaning more and more towards ER9 instead of 105 for my next build, even at equal pricepoint

[Sebastian]

I'm still leaning more and more towards ER9 instead of 105 for my next build, even at equal pricepoint

Same here. I was so hoping that er9 would be as good as it seemed. These issues make me hesitate a bit but I still I'm gonna give it a go. Let alone the fact that I can reuse my 11sp components for now. I don’t need to upgrade to 12sp like with Shimano. I don’t need to use proprietary flat top chains like with Sram. I can fine trim the LTWOO RD to work perfectly with whatever cassette. All this makes it very tempting.

[patliean1]

While I enjoy Luke's channel, a lot of his bike issues are from user error. He's pretty much the average Joe with a YT channel when it comes to bike assembly.

He did fray his own battery connector!

YouTuber Peak Torque recently gave me this advice: Don't make YouTube your only or primary source of income.

When you start relying on YouTube to pay your bills, it's almost impossible to be completely unbiased. And you have the potential to start rushing out videos without doing your due diligence. Case in point.

[PLA]

Love me a bit of YouTuber jealousy/rivalry! Keep it comin'!

[Sebastian]

YouTube or traditional cycling media, anything but a long term review can only ever show part of the full picture and should be treated as such. But I agree that especially YouTubers tend to get prematurely overexcited when receiving a product for review. And the need to put out as much content as possible certainly doesn’t help I imagine.

[Wrighty]

I have had a complete nightmare with the eRX groupset.  Managed to get the grand total of 1 mile on it before the rear derailleur stopped working, not a problem as these things happen.  Dealing with L-TWOO support is another matter... You basically get a small window of around 5 to 10 mins at around 8AM UK time where they read and may reply to your message and then that's it, they are gone for another 24h.   It's taken 6 weeks to get them to agree to send me a replacement rear derailleur.  In that time I have ordered a 105 Di2 groupset from China, waited for delivery, uninstalled the eRX and installed the Di2 and ridden 120km. 

Cannot recommend, the replacement still isn't here

[jonathanf2]

All these bad reports are really starting to tarnish LTwoo's reputation and is probably inadvertently affecting other Chinese groupset manufacturers (like Sensah). If anything they should be wooing the hardcore cycling enthusiast market, but it seems like they're just pissing everyone off who really wants to give them a chance.

[Wrighty]

So sorry to read about your plight. It seems to be a common theme for the erx/er9 groupset. Shame really. Shame on ltwoo.

I think it points to a lack of testing, there’s clearly issues with this group set and at almost the same price as 105 Di2 it’s honestly pretty disappointing.  I was willing to give them a go but once bitten twice shy.  I won’t be installing this group set so it was just a waste of £600 ish.

I have a small ish (11k subs) non-cycling YouTube channel and I was really tempted to blast them on it as I was seeing positive reviews from the likes of Tracevelo and Kline concept which was completely at odds with my experiences but in the end I decided I just wanted to ride my new bike and couldn’t be bothered with the drama.

[PLA]

All these bad reports are really starting to tarnish LTwoo's reputation and is probably inadvertently affecting other Chinese groupset manufacturers (like Sensah). If anything they should be wooing the hardcore cycling enthusiast market, but it seems like they're just pissing everyone off who really wants to give them a chance.

my thoughts exactly. i was so close to pulling the trigger on er9 and mix/match it with some other stuff i had lying around, but after a bit more reading these bad reports on here and on a few more english and german forums, instead decided to go down a di2 105/ultegra frankengroup route.

[Takiyaki]

All these bad reports are really starting to tarnish LTwoo's reputation and is probably inadvertently affecting other Chinese groupset manufacturers (like Sensah). If anything they should be wooing the hardcore cycling enthusiast market, but it seems like they're just pissing everyone off who really wants to give them a chance.

I think thats a bit too far. L-Twoo has generally made good stuff; I don't think one bad product, especially one at the bleeding edge of bike tech, throws all that away.

I'm personally still not quite sold on electronic groupsets. Yes it's more annoying to get mechanical stuff setup right but it seems a lot more failproof.

[PLA]

Wasn't di2 introduced like 15 years ago? Not exactly bleeding edge lol.

[neobiker]

Just saying you can get Shimano 105 di2 with cransket, chain and cassette for 768€ here: https://www.bike-components.de/en/Shimano/105-Di2-R7150-Groupset-2x12-34-50-p88663/

So maybe 100€ difference with LTWOO tax included.

[Sebastian]

True. But one of the key selling points of LTWOO er9 for me is the flexibility it offers. I wouldn't have to upgrade my drivetrain components. I keep my lightweight 11sp cassette. I keep my chain. I keep my powermeter crankset and I only upgrade to electronic shifting. In my country, the cheapest offer for LTWOO er9 is 460 EUR. Nothing else can match that.

105 Di2 at that kind of discount is tempting, but I'd have to upgrade to 12speed and downgrade some of my drivetrain components.
There's also super cheap offers for Sram Force etap upgrade kits. But again, I'm stuck with 12 speed, I need a different freehub body, different cassette, different chain, different chainrings. So all in all these options are always significantly more expensive.

If you build a bike from scratch and have no other components lying around, I agree that LTWOO is a lot less tempting, however.