Considering I can probably get into Sram Rival AXS for around $900.00 +/-  not sure that I'd want to take the chance on a cheaper chinese electro set.  I would on the other had try out the mechanical LTWOO graevel   1X12 set that TraceVelo loved.

If we're comparing against SRAM, LTWOO's ERX is actually lighter than even SRAM Force for the same parts.
https://www.pandapodium.cc/2023/04/30/shimano-105-di2-killer-l-twoo-erx-groupset-first-look/

For the record, I'm not referring to performance purely based on the post mount > flat mount fitment, but more that this will be a fully internally routed frame with cable calipers and performance will be nowhere near what it was on the old frame. Also, it'll look ugly. 

I tend to agree. Even if I can devise a scenario where everything "theoretically" works out, there is a lot of risk something turns out not quite right.

There are tons of compatible frames out there languishing in the basements of people and city bike co-ops. Those parts are probably better suited to a frame of-the-period.

And if you already have the velobuild frame, I can enthusiastically recommend LTWOO's R9 11-speed hydraulic groupset as a cheap option to finish the shift kit. ZRACE, Onirii, and Zeroing make great cranks. And SROAD makes unbelievably lightweight cassettes.

The rims' tire bed profile looks like a tubeless compatible design. The bead seat has those shelves/shoulders required for tubeless. I would say maybe roll the dice and throw in some tubeless tape and set them up tubeless anyways.

I have discovered the secret to getting good front shifting out of the LTWOO RX shift lever paired with latest-generation Shimano "switch" front derailleurs (i.e. Ultegra R8000)

Normally the installation instructions for the Shimano FD tell you adjust cable tension until two markings on the front derailleur are aligned when the derailleur is shifted into big ring. When following these directions and pairing with an LTWOO shifter, the shifter's front derailleur trim settings don't work, they are too far away from the outer and inner limits, and therefore cause the derailleur cage to touch the chain when trimming.

I have now realized that the solution is to simply increase the cable tension way past Shimano's suggested set point. Then, you adjust the lower and upper limiter screws on the front derailleur to set the outer and inner limits of shifting. With this higher tension, the trim stops will now be be much closer to the outer and inner shift stops, making them useful again.

How hard/easy was it to route shifting cables through the headset on this frame? How do you like the full internal routing on this frameset in general?

The frame was easy. I actually have more issues with the handlebar.

The headset routing looks pretty much the same as the Tarmac SL7’s. A cable routing kit is essential though, I can vouch for the one Trace Velo uses. Once set up correctly, shifting has been surprisingly smooth. I had a hiccup where I routed the front brake hose on the medial end of the left side headset cable housing guide, and the shift cable on the leftmost/lateral side of it. This caused the brake hose and front shift cable to cross under high steering angles. I fixed it easily by swapping them around. Beyond that, you get a lot space to work with in the bottom bracket area. There’s a door below the bottom bracket, and the T47 BB threads themselves are very open, making it easy to maneuver inside if the BB is not installed. Other plus of the threaded system is you can take out the BB pretty easily if you need to redo cables. The bike also comes with a cable stop for the downtube if you don’t want to internally route your shift cables.

The handlebar, on the other hand, is tough. The tube sections are small, so the bend at the stem/bar junction is very tight and difficult to route. The exit hole is also pretty tight, it’s hard to get the brake hoses to make the turn if you have a routing tool attached. It’s doable but there’s a lot of frustration involved. In general I think the bar would benefit from having a wider/deeper junction and maybe some sweep, like how the Vision 4D bars have.

Alright, I've added some action shots and I'll provide my review here.

You can find a spreadsheet of my build at this link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1z20zeKtriG4WqEXxRvezuxrfo9ZRBZkz3rY3xrKfrCU/edit?usp=sharing

Re: version and weight, I have the standard exceed in midnight blue, size large, with 380mmX130mm barstem. When I first built it up, it weighed about 16.6lb (incl. pedals & cages). I have since gotten that down to 16.2lb by swapping out some parts and cutting down the seatpost. Check the spreadsheet for detailed weights.

Re: seatpost slipping, I have experienced problems with that myself, as well as creaking. I have gone into more detail on weight weenies, but basically the seat post as a lot of slop between the seat tube, and it makes it so the compressor has to do pretty much all stabilization. This is not an uncommon problem, and while most manufacturers put in a chunky compressor to solve this problem, Seka's is small and flimsy for weight saving. Furthermore, Seka's stock seatpost is VERY long, so at even normal post heights, you will hit the seat tube cutout changing the post angle, and this messes up the interface with the compressor. So you NEED to cut the post, both to avoid damaging your frame, and to ensure a proper interface. I have addressed this issue with lots of carbon paste, putting 3M protective film on the surface that doesn't touch the plug to take up that slack, and overtorqueing the screw a bit, and since dialing this in, I haven't experienced problems with slipping.

Re: Flex, my previous bike was a Tarmac SL5, bikes in general have gotten much stiffer since then. This bike feels stiffer yet more vertically compliant compared to my Tarmac. When I first got the bike, I sensed a lot of fork flex under braking. Since then I've tightened up the headset and haven't noticed it. Either I've gotten used to it or it was the headset. I do not experience fork chatter under braking like you do with some really flexy front ends.

Re: Price, preorder was $581USD, remaining was $1290USD. This is the final price billed to my card, which includes shipping/customs fees.

Re: Elves falath evo or Seka, I would choose Seka. Take this all with a grain of salt since the Seka--being a semi-aero bike--has a different design philosophy/goals to the Evo, and I've never even seen an Elves in real life. But, based on all the build videos I've been watching from the usual youtubers, I really do not like the Falath Evo. I don't think it fulfills the goal of being an aero bike very well. If you really look at the tubes, lot of the design doesn't make sense aerodynamically:

The leading edge of the downtube is a semi-square face, when you want a rounded one. Same goes for the seat tube gusset. All leading edges on the Seka are rounded.

There's huge gaps between the seat tube cutout and the tire, even when running a 32mm tire. The Seka also has gaps, but they're smaller, not to mention that Seka isn't intending to shroud the wheels as much as the Evo is.

The Evo's headtube--the most aerodynamically sensitive area on the bike, is the widest I've ever seen, which runs counter to how western brands like Cannondale are doing everything possible to make the headtube as narrow as possible to minimize the frontal cross section. Seka's is much narrower, and even has an hourglass profile to minimize it even more.

I don't think the way the Evo's integration of the headtube with the top tube improves aerodynamics. TT bikes do it because the base bar is always designed to run slammed with the stem flush to the top tube. I think the way the Evo executes it actually presents more frontal area compared to a conventional, lower top tube.

The Evo's super-narrow downtube does next to nothing to shield the water bottle. I'm of the opinion that every aero bike should be designed with round standard bottles in mind. The reality is that sane people not racing a TT will ride with round water bottles, and the water bottle will spoil all the airflow coming off that narrow down tube on the Evo. In contrast, the Seka's downtube gently flares out as it approaches the bottle to shield it a bit more. The shielding isn't perfect (as on most bikes), but at least it's considered on the Seka.

All in all, I would not be surprised if someone put the Seka and Evo in a windtunnel (with 2 water bottles on each bike), that it turns out the Evo is not actually faster than the Seka.

Lastly, I think the fact that Seka is willing to show off their carbon under clearcoat while Elves paints over EVERYTHING says that either Seka's paint and finishing is just a tad better, or that Elves may even be trying to hide imperfections in layup. Seka's paint isn't exactly phenomenal (soft, scratches easily, comes with subtle scratches/swirls in the clearcoat), but it's very special to see the carbon underneath.

Coulmain made the point that for average riders, "aero optimization" doesn't really matter. My counter to that is that a) all of these un-optimized features add up, and b) if it doesn't really matter, then don't bother with an aero bike, or at least not one that postures as a super-aero bike. You pay for "aero features" in weight, comfort, impact resistance, and added engineering/manufacturing complexity that trickles down to cost. I think Coulmain weighed in a 52cm at over 1200 grams. If that's a 52, what could a 56 be? 1300g?!! Meanwhile a 52cm Seka Exceed Std is about 950 grams I think. That means the Evo is ~20% heavier! I have a hard time believing the Evo's aero gains--if there are any, are enough to offset that much of a weight penalty.

Are all the shifting "complaints" due to the Campagnolo style shifting vs. Shimano? Or is the thumb trigger really hard to use?

I think more the former rather than the latter. As far as Campag-style thumb shifting goes, the ergonomics are about as well-designed as they can be. Some users have reported that the mechanism binds a bit and is hard to press, but that's not a problem I've experienced.

My explanation is that thumb shifters will always have these problems because you only have 1 thumb wrapping around the shifter, (versus 4 fingers on the other side), meaning that thumb shifters will always require the user to move their thumb and loosen or change their grip to shift, while paddles near the brake lever let you maintain grip with your remaining fingers. Furthermore, shift paddles near the brake lever are reached by extending the finger rather than contracting it, while LTWOO's thumb shifters are positioned behind the thumb so they can be reached from the drops, meaning the thumb would have to be contracted to reach it. But, there is no way to contract your thumb to reach the button from the hoods, because the thumb is already contracted to grip the hood. This means you have to move your hand.

Maybe there is a mythical thumb shifter design that avoids this problem. I've thought of something like two small thumb levers connected by a bracket under the hood body. One near the brake lever pivot (like on the old Shimano Sora) so that your thumb can extend to shift from the hoods, the second near where the current lever is, but with a smaller profile designed to be exclusively operated from the drops. One can dream.

Hi all,

I ordered a Magene QED P325 power meter a few months ago and wanted to share some disappointing news. I've always noticed the chainring had a bit of runout, but didn't think much of it. It wasn't until I put an Ultegra derailleur on that the problem became really noticeable, and it's pretty much impossible to set the front derailleur now. I've tried making a warranty claim, complete with a video of the runout, but the Magene email support punts me to the dealer support, and the Magene official store on aliexpress claims this amount of runout is normal, and refuses to send a replacement.

I've uploaded a video to youtube () titled: Magene QED P325 chainring runout, which clearly demonstrates the problem, and I use the video to estimate that the magnitude of the chainring runout is 0.9mm. Clearly unacceptable.

Even more frightening, the Magene website page on warranty says: If products purchased from other official Magene channels (for example, AliExpress, Amazon, etc.), the warranty policy of that channel shall prevail.

From this, I get the sense that Magene is basically putting me at the mercy of their Aliexpress dealer for all warranty claims. 

I think it's really disheartening to see Magene let customers down like this at the warranty step. Magene postures as a premium brand, with premium prices for the China-components market. I paid $500 for this crankset. You would expect at least a modicum of warranty service. All this warranty claim would take is sending a replacement chainring, which I've seen on AliEx for $75. Why they refuse is beyond me.

If you are thinking about buying from Magene, I seriously would reconsider and think about the warranty service you've seen people receive.

There are many alternatives to Magene power meters and cranks. There is Sigeyi. There is XCADEY. An XCADEY power meter and crank is a similar claimed weight as the QED and costs about $100 less.