LTWOO ER9 & ERX - Electronic groepsets

[rasch]

You can get the er9 for less. You can get a crankset for much less. At this price you're in Chinese carbon crankset territory, which is hundreds of grams lighter than Shimano. A 50 euro cassette is an ultra light which is dura ace level weight. You can get 2 rotors for 10 bucks, that's what I use, as approved by peak torque. AliExpress in Europe includes VAT. Also worth noting that it can be tough to get the exact spec you want from Shimano, across crank arms, chainrings and cassette sizes.

Well you can also get 105 di2 under 1000eur. I just made a high level comparison.
It's worth what is worth and each person is free to take their own decisions. And it's good that it's like that... Else if we all liked yellow what would be of blue.

Ali doesn't include vat above 150euro so if you get the er9 you don't pay vat (unless you get them under 150 euro on ali, and for that I would also try it ahah). As for the weight approach it's an argument maybe for some people.

I actually think the biggest value of these Chinese electronic groupsets is on the flexibility of adapting it to current system being it 10, 11, 12 speed or other.

 I prefer an iPhone to a Xiaomi top specs. Even if the iPhone is 14 and the xiaomi was launched yesterday. 

Anyway happy to hear reports and to follow the topic.

[rockerplates.de]

When I put together my build, I got er9 for 460 EUR and combined it with a used crankset and a lightweight Aliexpress cassette & chain. 105 Di2 actually gets more expensive when you buy individual parts and not a full groupset. But I simply didn't need a complete groupset as I had various parts lying around. The cheapest offerings to put together a 105 Di2 mini groupset was something like 650-700 EUR IIRC. To me at the time, that was enough to go the cheaper route. Knowing what I know today, I'd probably get a Sram Mini gruppo which sometimes can be had for around 650ish EUR and be done with cables entirely. My wheels don't have an XD freehub but Sram should work just fine with regular cassettes/chains and chainrings as well. No definite need for flattop chains and 10tooth cog cassettes, I think.
Wheeltop seems interesting as well but I don't see the point when it's basically (almost) as expensive as Western brands.

well, it will only effect the market if the prices of the chinese go down for us, or if they are able to get any well known brands oem them stuff for them in their entry levels...this would immediately hurt the big ones and they would lower their surely healthy margins.
But currently i do not see any of the chinese in this position. Maybe ltwoo will take a big step and do all the legal work, liczens etc but they still have the problem with their flatmount solution....so oem would probably need to buy it without the brakes ( i have asked for a smaller gravel project , but ltwoo told me, only with brrakes) But oems have been watching the whole story and are disappointed as we are..

[jonathanf2]

The cassette speed flexibility is a big thing going for the LTwoo and Wheeltop Chinese groupsets. I really wanted to go with an 11-34t cassette on my climbing bike, but I didn't like the cog spacing of the 11 speed version and the Shimano 12 speed 11-34t cassette are quite heavy. I went with the ER9 and a Goldix 12 speed 11-34t lightweight cassette which is sub 280g. Plus the small cog spacing is similar to the 11 speed 11-32t cassette. I also swapped out my LTwoo brake calipers and went with the ZRace XG brakes which come in at about 95g a piece. I am curious if Wheeltop licensed the flat top caliper design?

I don't recommend the ER9/X for those unable to troubleshoot their own problems. I am running 2 ER9 groupsets currently, but I'm fairly methodical about my bike building and troubleshooting. If any issues are going to arise, it's all based on the RD from my experience which is basically the brains of entire system. The shifters, FD, cables and battery holder (w/springs) are all fairly solid. Also I haven't heard as many issues from the EGR, so perhaps the next iteration of the ERX/9 will have a bit more reliability. It looks like you can get the updated ER9 components individually from the LTwoo "official" store.

[amacal1]

Also I haven't heard as many issues from the EGR, so perhaps the next iteration of the ERX/9 will have a bit more reliability. It looks like you can get the updated ER9 components individually from the LTwoo "official" store.

The eGR thread has been dead quiet. Maybe they haven't sold as many units? I have an eGR and so far it's been great. Though, I don't use it frequently for actual gravel riding, so I have no real commentary on durability other than I'm about 2months and 500 miles in on it with pretty rough roads and it's been flawless with exceptionally low battery drain. Survived at least one 40 mi ride in the rain, at least.

[Pedaldancer]

Interesting about the arguments pro ER9 or ERX

Basically these electronics are all almost new and a lot of them failed. That's not even about reliability (which is about aging).. this is a design flaw. Those who are lucky and have a functional system, should not blame all the failed parts. There's definitely something wrong.
The root cause may be to high tolerances in the parts for the water ingress for example.  But there seems to be different failures.
Would you buy a car like that?. don't think so..

[00Garza]

The eGR thread has been dead quiet. Maybe they haven't sold as many units? I have an eGR and so far it's been great. Though, I don't use it frequently for actual gravel riding, so I have no real commentary on durability other than I'm about 2months and 500 miles in on it with pretty rough roads and it's been flawless with exceptionally low battery drain. Survived at least one 40 mi ride in the rain, at least.

I'm curious about this group as well. I guess no news is good news?

[toxin]

well the egr looks basically like the new erx design with a clutch and no fd so I'd assume it'd be a bit more trustworthy

[jonathanf2]

Has anyone tried pairing an EGR RD with an ERX/9 setup? I wonder if it's possible to combine the two setups or has LTwoo software locked the groupsets?

If the EGR has improved weather sealing and more reliable hardware, I'd love to run a 2x gravel setup. I'm not fond of 1x gravel.

[lantz]

I don't understand how you can defend this groupset like that. It's crap and A LOT of the people here that have bought it have problems with them. It's not an isolated incident like you make it out to be.
3 (or is it 4 by now) out of 5 groupsets that become defective is not a coincidence. It's a bad product and should not have come to market like this. That combined with the terrible support of Ltwoo should be a warning to not buy this stuff.

I understand that you had a bad experience, and yes, there's risk here, to be sure. But there's also a *lot* of information in the last year, adjustments to the product, and a much more stable series of reports about performance after the initial batch.

I'm not defending it, I'm just saying that it's not as black and white as you and the german retailer here is making it seem. A *lot* of folks have had great experiences with it. We're on a forum for trying cheap alternatives to western products and all the tinkering and nuance that comes with that - this is that, to me. There's no comparison of a 105 mech set against the eRX as they have different functions and features and any western electric gruppo is going to be out of range for some folks that are interested in the value that this gruppo can offer.. If someone is interested in trying this product out, it's okay for them to take the full scope of anecdotes available, including yours and including mine.

[lantz]

well the egr looks basically like the new erx design with a clutch and no fd so I'd assume it'd be a bit more trustworthy

Well, building a gravel bike with the eGR in a couple of weeks, so I'll let ya know. Haha.

[rockerplates.de]

I understand that you had a bad experience, and yes, there's risk here, to be sure. But there's also a *lot* of information in the last year, adjustments to the product, and a much more stable series of reports about performance after the initial batch.

I'm not defending it, I'm just saying that it's not as black and white as you and the german retailer here is making it seem. A *lot* of folks have had great experiences with it. We're on a forum for trying cheap alternatives to western products and all the tinkering and nuance that comes with that - this is that, to me. There's no comparison of a 105 mech set against the eRX as they have different functions and features and any western electric gruppo is going to be out of range for some folks that are interested in the value that this gruppo can offer.. If someone is interested in trying this product out, it's okay for them to take the full scope of anecdotes available, including yours and including mine.

Well, i just inform about the problems we have with the factory regarding customer service and the way they treat problems. sorry to say it is black for us.....so i do not make anything "seem" to be...

[hsaus]

Had another small issue with my eR9 groupset today. There was suddenly a crunching sound from the rear derailleur in all gears. Turns out that the B tension screw had worked its way out and the upper jockey wheel was touching the cassette.

Identifying the problem and fixing it was quick and easy (screw it back in), and I've applied some Loctite to hopefully prevent it from happening again. But it's not something I've experienced on other groupsets.

[jonathanf2]

I was having few minor bugs on my 2nd ER9 groupset, but I think I've ironed them out. I think the issues might be related to the batteries I'm using. For some reason, this set of EBL 14500 batteries purchased from EBay doesn't show the accurate battery status. It just reads 100%. My other ER9 bike is now using the same batteries and the battery status is also at 100% regardless if I've rode the bike. This wasn't an issue before I swapped the batteries. Though battery life and power drain seem more steady, so I'll keep using them for now.

If anyone knows of another set of batteries that can be purchased in the US, I'm open to suggestions.

In terms of functionality though, both ER9 bikes are working properly with no other issues. In terms of shift speed while using continuous high shifting, it's definite much smoother than either my GRX or previous Ultegra setups. That's on both 11 and 12 speed cassettes. Honestly I don't think I'd want to deal with shift cabling moving forward.

[kenderu]

If anyone knows of another set of batteries that can be purchased in the US, I'm open to suggestions.

https://liionwholesale.com/collections/batteries/products/vapcell-14500-purple-white-10a-button-top-1000mah-battery-genuine?variant=31261628137541

I'm using these batteries and no issues with it for the past 7 months.