I'm planning to give my LTwoo R9 hydro shifters another try, especially since I received a pair of ZRace XG brake calipers that are surprisingly small/light.

Make sure to set the olive as close to the barb as possible on these. They have a design flaw where the hose blocks one of outboard oil port if the hose is sticking out at all.

I just became aware of the counterfeit eeBrakes and eeWings available on AliExpress. Reports on the brakes are mostly positive. Has anyone tried, or heard of anyone trying the eeWings cranks?

US $395.99 | Handmade Titanium Crankset MTB Crank ARMS Immortal Ti Crank Mountain bike Crank arms Road Bike Crankset Titanium MTB Parts
https://a.aliexpress.com/_m0tPT52

Sick cranks but the welds in those pictures look disgusting 

Awww shit. Mine are doing the same and I didn't catch it. I think I am going to send them a message to complain, this is pretty unacceptable

I'll think about it. Part of me is just lazy to bleed the brakes, hence why I haven't done the install yet! 

So this might sound like a bodge, but I actually have gotten away with bleeding using just the cone at the top. None of this syringe bleeding business that is demonstrated in the videos. I have gotten effective bleeds just by hooking everything up, putting a bleed cone at the top with oil, and squeezing the brakes a few times until the bubbles stop coming out. It takes a couple of sessions to get to 100% bled, but you get completely usable brakes after the first session, and then the few bubbles trapped in the caliper come up after a couple of shakedown rides. SUPER easy.

Do their rim brake shifters still have plastic arms + internals as seen in Trace Velo video? How is the shifting? Debating between Sensah Team Pro and Ltwoo R9 shifters

Yes, the shift lever arms on the R9 are plastic. To boot, they are riveted in, making them irreplaceable. In terms of weight, this doesn't actually change anything, and I actually think the shift smoothness/crispness is decent, despite me running full-internal routing on the shift cables.

I'm not sure what you mean with the internals being plastic--AFAIK all the mechanical shifting bits are stamped steel, and the brake hydraulic housing (edit: I meant hydraulic piston assembly) is machined metal. Really, you get what you pay for, and with the LTWOO stuff you definitely are trading quality in for weight.

I think it's important to do the cost analysis--put all the parts, weights, and their costs in a spreadsheet, and compare. At the time I bought my stuff, ultegra groupsets were scarce, and I couldn't find them as a set without the cranks, which was important to me since I needed a crank-based power meter. When I ran the math, the R9 groupset was going to be less than half the price of going to Ultegra R8000 hydraulic for comparable weight. This math can change even more dramatically if you compare bundle deals, You can get a full Ultegra build kit for ~$1000USD, which is about exactly what I spent on my R9 groupset + power meter crank + ybn chain + sroad cassette + onirii rotors + bottom bracket.

In the short months since, it seems market pressures have eased dramatically and you can now easily find parted-out ultegra groupsets on AE for pretty cheap. For example, you can easily find R8020 brifters+calipers for $500 and a derailleur set for $120USD. At that point, the LTWOO R9 Carbon+ZRACE brifter set is only saving you ~$200, and I really do believe that Ultegra is bringing $200 worth of added value in terms of quality.

So in summary, I really think the LTWOO R9 set should be reserved for aggressively minimizing costs, and it will do that job well. If you can afford the extra $200 though, I would spring for the Ultegra set

Anyone have experience with those ultralight 7 gram cages?

I bought this calipers this week. If they look good I'll swap out my ltwoo brakes. 

Nothing performance wrong with the ltwoo. I just don't like how much they weight and look. Everyone weighs the ltwoo without brackets which is wrong. With flat mount calipers you can mount without brackets but ltwoo you must use brackets.

Actually just did the same. I noticed the price on the set from ZRACE dropped to $45 for the anniversary sale. Weight of the calipers alone is supposedly 100g lighter compared to LTWOO. I suspect the ZRACE mounting hardware is also lighter. Fingers crossed!