I've mostly finished my build and opted for mechanical shifting. In hindsight, I wish I'd invested a bit more in wireless, as the process turned out to be quite challenging. The handlebar holes were particularly difficult, and using a soft cable cover (neoprene) only created more issues. Now, I'm dealing with a seized seatpost. It seems there's excess carbon inside the seattube, forming a lip that initially prevented the seatpost from fitting properly. I managed to remove the lip by turning the bike upside down, but now the seatpost is stuck. I've tried WD-40 without success and gently tapped it with a mallet, but I'm concerned about damaging the frame or seatpost.

Any ideas?

I have a set of Winspace R33 23 edition wheels. The front wheel went out of alignment fairly quickly (within the first 300km). I visited my local bike shop, and they charged me £75 for the service. They had to remove the rim tape and reapply it, which is just so unnecessary.  I had to contact several bike shops, but none were willing to work on carbon spokes. In line with what Petr mentioned, dealing with this hassle isn't worth it. It's likely the same situation with one-piece carbon wheels. If I had been aware of the maintenance costs beforehand, I might have avoided these wheels altogether. Dealing with proprietary parts, expensive repairs, and unnecessary hassle is something I could do without.

Been a while since I built up a bike... not done an internally routed one before. Seems fairly straight forward but just wanted to check especially with those who have successfully built one of these.

The bike came with two teflon cables already inside the frame ( white cables) one for rear brake and rear mech, but not front mech and not front brake. They are just about long enough so the ends protrude out of each end of the hole - what's the deal with these. Are they to use as guides or can I use them as cable housing? They're not long enough to reach the bars so i'm a bit confused here. I could extend with a bit of compression less housing but this doesn't sit right with me.

Will the bars allow 2 x cable housing internally on each side? The inside seems a bit tight using RISK compressionles housing.

The exit holes for the rear mech and rear brake has no grommet. Is this right? Just seems a bit cheap...

I received my Model S last Friday (I opted to pay a bit more to avoid taxes), making it a total of 18 days from the order placement, which is quite reasonable. Initially, I was informed there would be an additional 5-day wait due to opting for a color that was out of stock. Here are my first impressions:

The rear triangle and fork don't seem to be the stiffest. This makes me wonder, especially since I have two other Chinese bikes that I've somewhat retired – one being a 2016 HM66 Hongfu and the other a 2017 Workswell endurance bike. I'm considering doing a comparison video and sharing it here. My usual ride is a 2018 Cannondale HM, which is noticeably stiffer, but then again, it was significantly more expensive.

The paint job is exceptional; it's hard to find any faults. The handlebar has surpassed my expectations; it's plenty stiff. There are definitely some rough edges inside the frame. I haven't finished building it yet, but I can feel some rough work between the top down tube and the head tube. The bottom bracket went on smoothly, the only component I've fitted so far.

I'm still waiting on some parts and pondering over the groupset. My plan is to build it with an Ultegra 11-speed mechanical groupset, as I didn't want to invest too much and see this more as a budget build, aiming for around £1200. I'll likely use a mix of Ltwoo R9 shifters, Ultegra R8000 & R8100 components, Elite wheels, etc. I'm not entirely sold on Chinese groupsets just yet.

What's the general feeling towards ltwoo erx in spring 2024? I've been tempted to pull the trigger on a number of occasions but too many of the YT influencers saying it's not a finished product, has inherent problems etc ( maybe ltwoo aren't paying them enough to endorse). Aliexpress have a sale this week, never been a better time to buy however I value reliability over anything.