Saw an aliexpress review of these flexing under load while climbing. Has anyone experience that? I want to like these but don't want to buy junk.

Seriously just don’t buy them. Mind was kind of difficult to fit into certain freehub bodies. The shifts through the 3-tooth jump between cogs were horrific. The treatment on the aluminum cogs started wearing immediately. And the tooth broke through normal use. The weight is cool but they’re borderline unusable. It’s junk.

What's the difference between the QED chainrings, and the optional chainrings supplied with the PES? I'm trying to understand by Magene's QED video.

Are the QED rings similar to SRAM Red's one-piece design?

As a follow-up:

The QED crankset was launched in 3 versions. 1) A standalone crankset with the integrated chainrings, no PM, 2) crankset with the beloved spider-based PM and bolt on chainrings--the exact same PM and rings as on the PES, and 3) with integrated chainrings and Stages/4iii-style P325-model PM in the crankarms, dubbed the "QED P325".

You can watch my unboxing on the P325 model video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt1B119gEiA&t=157s&pp=ygUKbWFnZW5lIHFlZA%3D%3D

Wheelbuild has been phenomenal. 1320g for a set of 50/55mm deep/28mm wide wheels, steel spokes. I'm planning to make a dedicated post detailing the adventure soon, as well as some tips and tricks. Lots of time invested though.

First off Gene, interesting website. I'm perplexed, but intrigued. You seem to have a lot of ambitions.

Serial numbers are not a new innovation. All bike frames have serial numbers. All fancy wheels have serial numbers. All groupsets have serial numbers. Anyone can record their bikes' serial numbers, and even share them with their states' stolen-bike registry where you can post the serial number of stolen bikes, and bike resellers like pawn shops are supposed to check against it. Most places don't check, because there isn't really enforcement, and because it's more trouble than it's worth in most peoples' opinion.

It simply doesn't work. In part because US laws basically don't punish criminals who steal less than $1000 or so in value. And police aren't even interested in investigating bike thefts for bikes that are worth more, because they aren't worth that much compared to other crimes like home burglaries and car thefts.

The other issue is that the VIN system literally costs money, we pay car registration fees which in-turn pays for the record-keeping that makes the VIN system useful. The VIN system works fairly well in cars because they are an order of magnitude more in value, so people are willing to spend a little more for the extra time it costs to deal with the VIN system. People are evidently not motivated to pay $20-50 yearly to register their bike to a bike registry system, because pretty much every past effort has failed.

The premise a bike will get stolen before a 70k SUV with the keys in the the ignition would, is also simply not necessarily true in the US. Depending on the city you're in, car theft is a much bigger problem in the US in terms of total monetary value stolen, and similarly the criminal justice system is not responding to increases in car thefts (see "Connecticut Kia Boys" on youtube). There is also a fairly large black-market for exporting high-value cars that circumvents the VIN system entirely.

I appreciate the thought of trying to prevent bike theft. But this idea barely works well for cars, has been tried before in bikes, and it isn't the answer.

It shouldn't break like that if it's a decent grade of well machined alu.  But it probably isn't, hence the result.  If you have an all alu cassette, then the smaller cogs are vulnerable.  But big cogs after very little riding is a sign of poor quality.

Yeah this is my take on it as well. SRAM’s alu cogs don’t break like this. And we have abundant 32 and 30t mtb chainrings that don’t break like this. I know that Alu inherently will wear fast, but it shouldn’t wear this fast.

I’ll also note that the treatment on the alu cogs was wearing incredibly fast.

Preorder is now available on Panda podium, $1880 USD for the standard version and $2380 USD for the ultralight version... Pretty expensive..

This is pretty much in-line with SEKA's pricing for the exceed. When you consider you're getting similar spec to an SL8 or a Super-Six Evo for half the price, not bad. It's easy to balk at the price until you put up a spreadsheet of prices and weights and realize there just aren't more cost effective options.

Warranty, of course, is going to be the sticking point. It's easier to stomach losing $600-1000 over shit warranty. $2000 not so much. Thankfully I've had a good experience with SEKA on my end, hopeful that PP and tavelo provide a similar level of service.

I have a set of Avian falcons, very much worth the price. Super light, quite stiff, available in your spec.

The SPEEDAO 1-piece cassette is a design that's been sold under a lot of different brands including S-ROAD and ZTTO. It's a solid unit, I've bought 3 of this specific kind of cassette in HG guise, used them for road, CX, and commuting. It's a solid-performing ultralight cassette for the price. I'll echo the sentiment that they aren't as refined, but I haven't managed to put noticeable wear into any of my units so far.

Contrary to nicklej, I actually prefer the HG design. In the XD/XDR design, the cassette is clamped to the splines (near the hub) by the threads, and all static forces are cantilevered off these splines. (you could argue that some force transmits through the sleeve, but since this is a sliding component, it will only transmit force if the cassette flexes into it--potentially causing wear and creaking)

There's also the issue that the soft aluminum threads on these XD/XDR bodies are super-fine and susceptible to cross-threading. OEM SRAM MTB cassettes are manufactured with super tight sleeves that are almost impossible to turn without using a lot of force, making it very hard to feel the engagement of the threads. I've watched a couple bodies get damaged in this way. The GOLDIX XDR cassette that I've used doesn't have this tight-sleeve problem, interestingly. 

The other issue is that since XD/XDR is a system of moving parts, arguably the manufacturing tolerances of the system need to be stricter in order for the system to work properly. The HG cassette is much simpler to manufacture in comparison. When you're buying cut-rate equipment on AliEx, it's generally safer to buy the design that has fewer moving parts and lower demands on precision.

Lastly, HG splines do not really wear with these one piece cassettes. The main reason HG splines wear is that when you use cassettes with loose cogs (and fail to tighten them properly, which everyone does), the force applied to the spline is only distributed along the width of a single cog. One piece cassettes have solid engagement splines spanning the the width of ~2 cogs on each side. This means all forces are transmitted to the freehub splines over a much wider area compared to single cogs. I've been using one-piece cassettes for around 8 years now (SRAM Red before the SROAD cassettes), all freehubs I've put these one-piece designs on look virtually brand-new.

If you don't have a pressing need for a 10T cog (i.e. 1X bike with large demands for range) I can't really recommend pushing for XD/XDR, but I also won't recommend against it.