Speedo 10-52T and YBN chain, not agressive at all, definitely more XC.

I'm very happy with my 268, so i'm looking at this 301, given how similar it looks.
I also compared it to the VB GF 002 (I have one) and to a supersix road and a supersix gravel.

Take-aways:
301 geo v similar to 268, 301 tad more aggressive in stack & reach, but wheelbase is a tad longer. Together, a tie?
301 definitely NOT a gravel bike.
301 very similar to a supersix, except the supersix has a much longer wheelbase (both supersix are gravel territory when it comes to wheelbase, which i find surprising).

I'm wondering how the 301 would fare with 32C front, 34C rear, as a bomb proof bike for the mountains (not freaking out about potholes, post winter dirty roads, old chunkier asphalt, and the occasional dirt segment is appealing to me, even if i don't like the idea of the extra weight from bigger rims & tyres, and higher drag from a big ass fork. There are forest roads i avoid because of road surface, cracks, dirt sections, slope, on my 25mm supersix rim brake w carbon rims. The 301 would steamroll over all of that.

What's your experience with LT as far as their custom painting/decals?  I'm close to pulling the trigger on this frame, and have some ideas for the design but just wondering about how well they will execute.  If their frame painting is crappy, then I'll probably just keep it simple and go black stealth.

And did you go with their cockpit (stem, bars)?  If so, how do you like it?  And if not, do you have any Aliexpress recommendations?

Thx in advance!

Strange. I'm no engineer but I wonder, given that steel is steel, why rotors would perform drastically differently. Maybe hardness / durability, heat dissipation, resistance to warping and what not, but I would have thought a steel rotor is a steel rotor, outside of "extreme" use (super long descent, heavy rider...).
I don't have enough experience with disc brakes myself to have formed a view from experience.
Given the prince difference between my rotors and what Shimano charges though, there would have to be quite literally a magical difference in performance for me to try Shimano ones.

I'm nearly an engineer and steel is definitely not just steel. The same steel alloy can have a factor of 4-5x difference in yield strength depending on how it is processed. A very famous example of variation in material properties is the ductile-brittle transition temperature. This transition temperature changes with the specific alloy of steel used. I'm not sure what properties make a good brake rotor but if you forced me to take a stab in the dark, I'd guess hardness is quite important. Again, this can have a very large spread across different steel alloys and even a pretty large spread within how those individual alloys are processed.

That’s what I fitted on mine and I am happy with it, although I don’t have any contemporary references. It’s easy to fit and dial in, very nicely finished, I wouldn’t hesitate to get another one.

Does anyone have any experience with the ltwoo TX? It seems like a killer deal compared to sram and shimano, but there's almost no reviews or information about the groupset.

I'm pretty tired of hearing the usual bike shop talk about how everything other than sram or shimano sucks and breaks. Microshift has been pretty much flawless for me, and ltoo's road and electronic sets seem to be quality. Part of me wants to take the gamble, but I've honestly already overspent on this hardtail and a ~$60 gamble just isn't in the budget.

If anyone has tried it, or really any other mechanical ltwoo groupset I would love to hear your insight.