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Re: Is an Chinertown build really worth it?
I'm a glutton for punishment and I like to be different, so chinese builds are perfect for me! 
February 10, 2025, 02:17:49 PM |
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Re: TT-X42 Full Bike with Carbon and Wheeltop
Hello. I was a little ambitious - it's possible if you go with L-Twoo ER9 instead. Add another $150 USD or so for the Wheeltop groupset - maybe you could fit it within budget if you managed to time the coupons perfectly. Here's a similar build from individual parts (though the wheels and crank are probably a bit better)
February 24, 2025, 01:23:25 PM |
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Re: Dura Ace bike for 2600$ from Sava
Flights to China are easy to find for 400€ return. Just rock the bike a bit around the local segments and bring it back home as you forever old bike.
February 25, 2025, 01:34:56 PM |
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Re: LTWOO ER9 & ERX - Electronic groepsets
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mq5ZADl For reference, i could pull the trigger on this group (no cassette) for 630 eur, and i'd expect to pay customs fees (<100 eur?). With the new ERX costing 650$ on Panda podium, the price difference is arguably in favour of shimano, because if you buy ltwoo, you "have" to budget a spare RD. All the bikes i've installed ER9 on have had a RD die. Note: i just bought another bike for a friend in parts. Aliexpress is becoming very confusing. Prices are much higher than over the summer (10-20% higher), and there's now a lot of volatility over time (if you buy stuff when there is no sales campaign, prices are often much higher, so you really need to time your purchases, even if you forget to use the coupons, and depending on where you ship in europe, prices are increasingly diverging. And there's quality fade i can point to specifically. Also, as of 2 days ago, it was impossible for me to buy an er9 group on alix, they wouldnt ship it, claiming issue with the 150 eur EU rule. Problem being, you can buy wheels on alix and other stuff that's way above that 150 threshold, so, go figure the logic. Everything ltwoo also has prices jacked the F up in the last weeks. I used to pay 150 eur for a spare RD, now if i find one that can be shipped, it's much more. Very confusing stuff, and i'm the highest tier there is on aliexpress, so i know my way around the platform quite well. March 04, 2025, 08:10:52 AM |
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Re: LTWOO ER9 & ERX - Electronic groepsets
I just received my new eRX from 80 Designer Store. The new shifter ergonomic is such an improvement, in my opinion. It's actually heavier than the old eR9 by almost 15gr for each shifter. I'll take the 15gr penalty for improved comfort. Kind of curious how the new eR9 would weigh compared to the new eRX. It seems like an odd choice if eR9 ends up being lighter than the eRX. I can confirm that the new shifter can be paired with my other eR9 RD and FD. It's funny I can pair two different sets of shifter for one RD and FD, at the same time. March 07, 2025, 05:36:16 PM |
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Re: LTWOO ER9 & ERX - Electronic groepsets
VAT can't be excluded on Aliexpress for France. So lame. Well... Death and taxes... Fairness / level playing field... It's not lame. I can't say I like it, but it's something you can order from the toilet to your door in one click. It's competing against bike shops and legit online retailers, subject to VAT, taxes, customer friendly return terms, warranty and so on. I'm all in favour of cutting out middlemen that add little to no value. However, if you start cheating taxes, it's not fair anymore. The concept of tariffs isn't crazy either. Unfortunately we know that public money is mostly spent poorly, but in spirit, i support the idea of being taxed a little bit on such purchases so that the money goes towards something useful. Idk if it's creating a bit of industry, bike paths, bike events, bike handling / maintenance classes, but in the spirit of fairness, we shouldn't be able to buy shit abroad and pay no VAT / taxes when businesses around us are subject to both taxes and VAT. Now obviously if there was the option not to pay VAT, i'd pick it, but the idea remains  Do you think that the new version can compete with a Shimano 105 or Ultegra Di2 groupset ? We've broken 4 or 5 ER9 RDs, i stopped counting honestly. But we got early versions. I think the consensus is that when it's working (ie not broken) and well calibrated, it's great. Caveats: price and relative value. The new ERX on panda podium is 650$, for eg. At this price point, compared to 105 di2, for eg, well... The idea is that i recommend ltwoo if and only if the relative value is a no brainer. And that's a function of jurisdiction, time and so on. Racing performance: i don't race, and i avoid shifting in shitty situations. So I'm not changing 3 cogs, switching to the big ring, out of the saddle, uphill, suddenly, and panicked. aka, the sort of thing that you do when you race. It's important to flag, because i heard very recent horror stories of pros racing ltwoo er9/erx groups and getting dropped chains, mechanical failures and the likes. I am not saying that ltwoo can't be used for racing, but dropping chains under peak torque is scary and dangerous, and it's not like my previous bikes (shimano 105 mech & sram red mech) would necessarily perform flawlessly under such conditions either (in fact my sram red FD was always a POS). So, i'm not testing that, and the reality is very few people will really have good intel on that. Bottom line: if there's a signficant price gap vs shimano / sram, and if you're going to be kind to the kit (it's absolutely a SKILL to know how to shift for best shifting performance, whether you're on LTWOO or shimano/sram), ltwoo probably makes sense. If not, then you have to think a bit harder as the answer becomes less clear. And i guess, let's mention weather proofing and niche uses like ultra distance racing, bike packing, and that sort of things. If you're going to do exotic stuff like commute in the rain every day or spend 3 weeks in the Atlas mountains with a sleeping bag, then you're probably risk adverse enough to consider bomb proof setups, and not this. cassette / chainring: you can use anything. from experience, 11s seems to shift better than 12s, which makes sense: same width, narrower cogs, more accuracy needed on 12 than 11 to shift well. I recommend 11s on these groups. If you're on 2x, 12s is a bit of a gimmick to sell new bikes. 11s has cheaper parts and is more dependable, easier to calibrate. Do expect to spend a significant amount of time over several rides to really dial in the shifting. And if you knock the derailleurs, or drop a chain or something like that, expect to re-calibrate stuff. It's not plug and play. To be fair, a friend bought an sworks SL7 with ultegra di2 (might be DA, even), i think he fixed a puncture, knocked the derailleur, and hasn't re-calibrated his gears properly either, so his bike makes clicking noises. So his experience is that di2 is not plug and play either. Last piece of rant: in europe, the battery for di2, which is a plastic sleeve with 2 batteries in it, just that, on sale, is over 150 eur. Shimano, from the bottom of my heart, go fuck yourself. March 08, 2025, 12:28:48 AM |
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Re: LTWOO ER9 & ERX - Electronic groepsets
I just had a chat with Ltwoo Official Store. They said they were selling the new version and are sorry somehow received an old one. They said I could return or exchange and get a new version. I may go ahead and try to do that since I'm not installing this on a frame right now anyway. More like they were hoping you wouldn't notice!
March 31, 2025, 11:56:11 AM |
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Re: LTWOO ER9 & ERX - Electronic groepsets
Been speaking directly with 80 Designer Store over the last week or so and sounds like they are sold out of the new version ER9 which would have been my preferred option. I received my eRX groupset a few weeks ago but only got around to installing on Saturday. It is the full v.3 groupset and I have to say I am very impressed so far. Installation was relatively straightforward, I had a few issues bleeding the brakes but I think they were self-inflicted! The finish and quality of the all components is fantastic, very premium and looks a huge improvement over the original design, particularly the front derailleur. I put 100km on it over the weekend and was very happy. The brakes are as good as any I have ridden and the shifting was almost always fast and crisp. I had a few slow shifts but think that is more the fact I didn't install a new cassette with the groupset and used one that has a few 1000kms on it. The ergonomics on the hoods is great too, not quite as big as mechanical 105 but bigger than Sram Rival, perfect for my medium hands. All though all has gone well for me so far, I feel this is still something that I wouldn't recommend to someone and that is more because I don't have full confidence in warranty and support rather than the quality of the product. Will try to add more thoughts as I get more miles. April 14, 2025, 03:34:39 AM |
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Re: LTWOO ER9 & ERX - Electronic groepsets
A friend broke his er9 shifter, he crashed on it, so ordered and installed a new one (vs a batch from 2023, probably one of the first ones). The bleed screws are now bigger, and the shift buttons click more (feels like the new button has more travel for it to click and the button is less rigid (which makes sense if you have to travel more for one click). Newer ER9 RDs have died much less frequently than the 1st batches. They modified the tab / spring system in the battery very early on after people reported the tabs made the battery die. Given LTWOO designs and manufactures everything in China, and all the above, it's evident that they make changes to the product on the fly, unlike Shimano or SRAM who have strict product releases schedules for lots of reasons, from marketing to the fact that they aren't on the factory floor, but on another continent. There's no list tracking the changes that i know of. I assume that when they make a change, it's for the best. So, all else equal, probably best to buy new stock than old. Especially if it's like Aliexpress from a "reputable" store (not one with a random name full of numbers, I guess) vs second hand on ebay or something like that. We can also assume that Chinese groupsets will converge faster with Shimano SRAM because users are guinea pigs and it's in their interest to do iterative updates constantly, so it may take them 1y to address 20 reported problems, when it may take 3y for Shimano to do the same. We also shouldnt be surprised that Chinese groupsets fail more at first, for the same reason. It's easy for them to modify something that breaks, so makes sense to spend less time testing prototypes ahead of releases. Dick move, sure, but rational. After 11k km on the er9 (i'm on my 2nd RD), i need to do maintenance on my calipers, my front brake is noisy (disc rub), something must have moved and i wonder if the pistons are getting sticky, my rear brake is weak (I changed the hose and used a basic one, i think it's the problem), and my right shifter is shifting worse, in the sense that if i dont click exactly in the right place, sometimes it doesnt shift. If i were racing, i'd have to look into it immediately. But i dont, so i'm not losing sleep over it. Edit: my front pads were dead, i was starting to brake with the metal from the pads, instead of the compound ON the pads  I reset the pistons, changed the pads, re-centered the caliper, used a tiny shim when tightening the caliper in position on one side, and my front brake works well again, w/o rub. No sticky pistons or anything, was just user error, like it usually is...One thing i'm unsure about, is that out of the saddle, i get a tiny bit of rub. Idk if it's because the fork is soft, the steel spokes are soft, the rim is soft, or i'm just a cow. Doesn't bother me, and the bike's comfortable, but I wonder. I might try a friend's carbon spoked wheel this summer to see if it's the wheel or the fork, I'm curious, not that it matters either way, performance wise, afaik. May 14, 2025, 10:32:08 PM |
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