Groupset News

[kbike]

Wow a lot of info thanks stiffweenies.

Jonathan think I replied to your yt comment before seeing all the updated info.  So I'm probably wrong with that comment.


As for the groupset. I've jumped on the mechanical groupsets fast and even frames. This is going to be a huge wait and see.  Simply for after purchase support will be huge.  I can rig or modify with mechanical but with electronic not as simple.  Most issues would fall in the wait for support and replacement.  I stopped talking about the rx cause I felt like I was r&d or support. They want to offer products with no guidance. Really feels like you only get help  when someone else figures it out for them.  To be fair it's not only l twoo the China products with crap support isn't going to fly with me anymore.

til I see consistent consumer happiness I cannot jump on more expensive products.  I see a bunch of high priced products but I just can't for now. 

[StiffWeenies]

Wow a lot of info thanks stiffweenies.

Jonathan think I replied to your yt comment before seeing all the updated info.  So I'm probably wrong with that comment.


As for the groupset. I've jumped on the mechanical groupsets fast and even frames. This is going to be a huge wait and see.  Simply for after purchase support will be huge.  I can rig or modify with mechanical but with electronic not as simple.  Most issues would fall in the wait for support and replacement.  I stopped talking about the rx cause I felt like I was r&d or support. They want to offer products with no guidance. Really feels like you only get help  when someone else figures it out for them.  To be fair it's not only l twoo the China products with crap support isn't going to fly with me anymore.

til I see consistent consumer happiness I cannot jump on more expensive products.  I see a bunch of high priced products but I just can't for now.

Good call. There is absolutely a gamble in playing this game and I wouldn't recommend anyone who simply wants something that 'just works' become a guinea pig for these small companies, especially when international customers have to pay a markup on top of navigating language barriers and awful customer support.

L-TWOO and others have the mentality that they can just fix problems on the fly without taking a reputational hit which is just a recipe for disaster as we've seen from the Seka/Cycling100 debacle. The sad thing is that they'll only consider doing something about it when a big influencer calls them out.

[RDY]

Looks like one to try in 6-12 months once they've worked out the kinks - and probably reduced price.

Surprising to hear Cade praising the brakes.

[hazzer19]

The official press conference wrapped up yesterday and media first impressions are trickling in

Thanks for the info!

[cramy]

Here the presentation video of the L-twoo elec

[RDY]

Here the presentation video of the L-twoo elec

Call me crazy, but I think they'd have better spent their cringe inducing CGI animé short budget on further testing and prototyping, so the first iterations work better ...

[hazzer19]

[StiffWeenies]

Utter cringe aside, I suspect that Sergey is the same guy pictured in this article from Nov '18.

Crazy to consider how 4.5 years ago, the company was showing their first road groupset in the R7 10s at Taipei Cycle '18. Back then, L-TWOO was just coasting along in a secondary position behind Sensah. It was only when the company received Series B financing from Hillhouse in Feb '21 and Series C financing from SCGC in May '22 that R&D investment kicked into high gear. Hopefully this VC money gravy train doesn't run out anytime soon because the alternative is stagnation like Sensah who've seemingly raised no money since Dec '18.

[jonathanf2]

This actually gives me more appreciation for LTwoo considering the pace of their development, but maybe they need to be less ambitious and make sure every product release is rock solid. Jumping straight into electronic groupsets without fully ironing out the kinks from their other product lines leaves a bad impression. For example, the carbon levers snapping on the hydraulic levers and/or not fixing the lack of drop shifting on the mechanical shifters should be fixed. What's the point of having all these product releases if they riddled with flaws?

[StiffWeenies]

This actually gives me more appreciation for LTwoo considering the pace of their development, but maybe they need to be less ambitious and make sure every product release is rock solid. Jumping straight into electronic groupsets without fully ironing out the kinks from their other product lines leaves a bad impression. For example, the carbon levers snapping on the hydraulic levers and/or not fixing the lack of drop shifting on the mechanical shifters should be fixed. What's the point of having all these product releases if they riddled with flaws?

Think of them like a startup company. They're rushing to be first so they can corner a portion of the market that is too small to be shared with Sensah and Wheel Top. The latter has been taking their sweet time but it's not like their MTB offering was flawless either. This aggressive approach leads to a vicious cycle where YouTubers and influencers who are also fighting to be the first for views end up buying those heavily marked up sketchy listings of first batch units that inevitably happen to be the most defective (e.g. Trace Velo).

[raisinberry777]

Think of them like a startup company. They're rushing to be first so they can corner a portion of the market that is too small to be shared with Sensah and Wheel Top. The latter has been taking their sweet time but it's not like their MTB offering was flawless either. This aggressive approach leads to a vicious cycle where YouTubers and influencers who are also fighting to be the first for views end up buying those heavily marked up sketchy listings of first batch units that inevitably happen to be the most defective (e.g. Trace Velo).

Yes, the influencers now appear to be more like beta testers. Difficult for them too because it's hard to get excited about half-baked products - the excitement tends to be more in the possibilities with refinement than in the products available now. The RX groupset was a good example of this - seems like there's potential following refinement, but there's no way I'd buy them as is right now.

For electronic, big steps in reliability would have to be made before I could consider it. Given the lack of availability of spares locally, I have no desire to be stuck waiting 3-4 weeks for a part to ship if something goes wrong. With mechanical it's a much less risky proposition given it can be swapped with Shimano.

Also haven't heard any talk yet about the software, which is a little concerning.

[jonathanf2]

LTwoo has an app already for use on their MTB wireless shift controller. It's called the "Blueprint Electric" app and it's available at least for Android, but I haven't checked yet for iOS. I'm guessing this will be the app they'll use or at least something similar.

LTWOO Ae 3-13S MTB Bicycle Speed Controller Kit:
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805084047033.html

BTW - This controller kit is very similar to the Archer Components RD controller:
https://archercomponents.com/

[StiffWeenies]

revised EDS OX

[RDY]

Utter cringe aside, I suspect that Sergey is the same guy pictured in this article from Nov '18.

Crazy to consider how 4.5 years ago, the company was showing their first road groupset in the R7 10s at Taipei Cycle '18. Back then, L-TWOO was just coasting along in a secondary position behind Sensah. It was only when the company received Series B financing from Hillhouse in Feb '21 and Series C financing from SCGC in May '22 that R&D investment kicked into high gear. Hopefully this VC money gravy train doesn't run out anytime soon because the alternative is stagnation like Sensah who've seemingly raised no money since Dec '18.

Hopefully they got him a rather better workstation setup by now.

[patliean1]

I don't think anyone is expecting the new LTWOO groupset to be as good as Di2/eTap. However, like most budget alternatives, customers seem to still expect 80-90% performance/quality for only half the price. Time and time again this expectation only leads to buyer's remorse.

It's the very reason I prefer a 2nd-hand Shimano Ultegra/105 mechanical groupset versus the stuff from both LTWOO and Sensah. Small moving pieces and components leave more room for failure than, say, a static Chinese bike frame.