recos for reliable chinese groupsets (FD-RD-shifters-brakes)?

[jonathanf2]

Sensah Official Store on AliEx. At least if you have any issues, you can hopefully get direct support from them.

[00Garza]

If you’re going rim brake, you can get 105 11s groups on Ali for cheap.

Shimano 105 R7000 Groupset 2x11s Road Bike Set Front Derailleur Rear Derailleur SS GS Shifter Cassette HG601 Road Bicycle Set
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mMuNriu

[Serge_K]

That is cheap indeed!

How are people buying stuff over 200 euro on AliExpress shipped to Europe? Most of the listings I see say "can't be shipped to your location". Is there a workaround?

[rasch]

I guess it's sth for FR. I can order to PT and BE. Above 150 there are likely customs though.

[kwantani]

Java Fuoco looks about right. From USA, I paid around ~usd1k for the bike, around ~usd250 for shipping. I understand in EU shipping is higher. Keep in mind, other than the 105 12psd mech group, the crankset and wheelset is kind of heavy (50mm deep aero carbon rim, steel spokes), the bike will be around 9-9.5kg.

Thanks for the answers so far.
- On second hand Ultegra: labour intensive, and probably out of budget. if it were my bike though, agreed 100%.
- On Portugal decathlon arbitrage: love the idea. it's 400 eur more in france, looks like. If it were 1100 or 1200, it'd be a deal hard to pass on. At 1400, it's not bad, but it's not great. The tyres are probably trash, the cassette is 32 not 34, for some reason they put 48-34 and not 50-34, i dont see the point of that; it's 10 speed. But yeah, a full carbon bike w 28C tyres & hydro Shiamano group, turn key, for that price, with the backing of decathlon, this isn't bad at all.
- On group buy: i'll keep it in mind!
- On Ltwoo R9 2x11, i'll have a look at that! What's a good price for that w / w/o shipping? Are the shifters compatible with Shimano FD/RD?
- On Java Fuoco - i clicked on the link and saw c.1200 eur bike (good) and c.450 eur shipping to France (not good ). What are you guys seeing?

[bichler.bua]

That is cheap indeed!

How are people buying stuff over 200 euro on AliExpress shipped to Europe? Most of the listings I see say "can't be shipped to your location". Is there a workaround?

Hi Serge, I was under the impression you were aware of Sensah, so I did not bring it up. I do agree with jonathan and I can recommend Sensah.
Running three groupsets from Sensah, a 2x11 on my trainer, a 1x11 on a "monsterbike" and a 2x12 on a Velobuild VB-R-099.
All completely mechanical, shifting not as smooth as Shimano but working fine.

Mechanical disc brakes, of course hydraulic disc brakes are superior but mechanical works (running TRP Spyre-C, Juin Tech F1 and Onirii BR-05 - recommend compressionless housing).
I have been eying their HRD for a while, pairing it with a Shimano FD and RD sounds very appealing.

No issues with shipping groupsets from AliExpress to Europe, Germany, so far and indeed prices are incl. shipping when advertised so be the seller.
Local taxes might apply, in many cases shipments pass customs without taxes (at least in my experience) because the tax declaration on the outside is...how would you call that...creative?

[Serge_K]

I'm not touching mechanical disc brakes again.
On the French ebay site, there are lots of people selling 105 shifters and hydraulic calipers for about 230 euro, which is probably going to be hard to beat.
I don't want to touch thumb shifters as they just feel prehistoric in my mind (right or wrong), and so that leaves the sensah team pro hrd but it must be very new because I'm struggling to even find it.

I got a quote on Alibaba for the Sensah team pro HRD shifters + calipers for 223 USD. Given that's before shipping, and with Shimano 105 shifters + calipers at around 230 eur in france, doesn't make sense to take on the brain damage of shipping + risk of beta testing unfinished products without customer support.

Further edit:
TEAM pro model: Compatible with Shimano 105/5800/6800, Shimano cable ratio; 2*11 speed, (aluminum alloy hand change + clip), $180 set.
TEAM pro model: Compatible with Shimano 105/5800/6800, Shimano cable ratio; 2*11 speed, (carbon hand change + clip), $197.15 set.
Aka, shifters only (no calipers), still not competititve vs Shimano 105 11s second hand in France (or brand new but taken off a bike and sold on French second hand websites)

[jonathanf2]

I'm curious, do the Sensah HRD shifters not ship direct to France? If not, that sucks.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805962675647.html

Though you can't go wrong with 105 hydraulic shifters. Another option is finding Ultegra hydraulic shifters and pairing them with hydraulic LTwoo or ZRace XG calipers. I tend to prefer the Ultegra carbon levers and higher quality shift cables.

[Serge_K]

"This product can't be shipped to your address. Select another product or address. "
And then you find other listings where the shipping cost is just insane, like 200 usd item and another 150 in shipping, which makes no sense given item weight.
Technically it might be that France is applying the law more than other EU countries. I think stuff over 200 eur is supposed to be attached to a EROEI number (or something along those lines), which involves registering yourself at national / EU level as some kind of "i order stuff online and my name is X". The thing is, it's only an assumption, because there's nothing on the platform that effect.
It wasn't always like this, i feel 2 years ago that problem didnt exist.

[rasch]

Well it's easier to simply ask someone in a country nearby to send it to you or simply to use some mail forwarding service.

In any case as I told u since the first post, it's not worth it . People save sth like 30 euros or so. Especially us in Europe which can have good pricing in these items.

[mirphak]

I'm not touching mechanical disc brakes again.
On the French ebay site, there are lots of people selling 105 shifters and hydraulic calipers for about 230 euro, which is probably going to be hard to beat.
I don't want to touch thumb shifters as they just feel prehistoric in my mind (right or wrong), and so that leaves the sensah team pro hrd but it must be very new because I'm struggling to even find it.

I got a quote on Alibaba for the Sensah team pro HRD shifters + calipers for 223 USD. Given that's before shipping, and with Shimano 105 shifters + calipers at around 230 eur in france, doesn't make sense to take on the brain damage of shipping + risk of beta testing unfinished products without customer support.

I have just installed the 12s teampros on my roadie/gravel, with grx 810 back and front . Still haven't found the time to give it a decent ride but the impression is very good. Very sharp breaking performance and crisp shifting.

[rovescio]

A little bit of searching for 2x11 hydraulic shifters+brakes for a build:
all in USD
Sensah Team Pro HRD shifters: $197
Sensah Team Pro HRD shifters+brakes: $226 (my impression is that basically all the hydraulic brakes on market are very much good enough)
105 shifters+brakes: $200 used if lucky, $280 NOS

You can somewhat go cheaper going for RS505 and RS685, which are a gen before R7020. Heard the brake compatibility becomes weird tho.

edit: Microshift Centos shifters: $168, for campy thumb lever lovers.

[coffeebreak]

Shimano 105 R7020 hydraulic shifters + disc calipers aren't too far away from Sensah hydros. I know people had good experience with Sensah but at the current prices that 105 7000 series is going, I'll never recommend Sensah to anyone

Here's one for US$240 - whatever coupon you may have

https://a.aliexpress.com/_m0nKGik

[Serge_K]

Shimano 105 R7020 hydraulic shifters + disc calipers aren't too far away from Sensah hydros. I know people had good experience with Sensah but at the current prices that 105 7000 series is going, I'll never recommend Sensah to anyone

Here's one for US$240 - whatever coupon you may have

https://a.aliexpress.com/_m0nKGik

Thanks. This shows at EUR 265, but you probably had a reduced price during the first five days of August. The sale is over and a lot of items are back at higher prices. Wish I had seen the price available yesterday.

Either way it's interesting that sensah is charging so much. I've had lots of problems with their empire stuff. Their FD is garbage. I've had a RD just die. I'm probably forgetting a problem or two. They're not Shimano. And yet, they almost price like they are.

[jonathanf2]

Thanks. This shows at EUR 265, but you probably had a reduced price during the first five days of August. The sale is over and a lot of items are back at higher prices. Wish I had seen the price available yesterday.

Either way it's interesting that sensah is charging so much. I've had lots of problems with their empire stuff. Their FD is garbage. I've had a RD just die. I'm probably forgetting a problem or two. They're not Shimano. And yet, they almost price like they are.

With mechanical, indexing with Shimano is much more precise and even tightening the clamping bolt is far easier. All these Chinese groupsets place the shifter clamp bolt in a hard to reach location. Another thing I don't like about Sensah/LTwoo mechanical is that inserting the steel shift cable is really convoluted. Shimano's implementation is far more user friendly.