Perhaps I have been lucky? I originally set up my front derailleur on 50 X 36 front chain-rings and I had absolutely no problems aligning and adjusting the front derailleur. A year or 2 later I changed the rings to 48 X 32, and it was just as easy to move, align, and adjust my front derailleur.
(Time wise, It was by far more difficult to procure a 2X front 32 tooth chain-ring that fit my crank spider, than to adjust the front derailleur.)
I just set up the EDS TX for the first time and I must say I also found the process to be much easier than I expected. Mine was setup using a BigRock RS crankset with Leoseek PM spider and 12s Ultegra rings, mixed with a 10 speed Sensah (Sunshine) cassette and YBN chain - a temporary setup until the final wheels arrive for the build.
This was my process:
1) unscrew all limit screws (FD and RD) to ensure they weren't stopping the derailleur from moving
2) set front derailleur alignment using the
Campagnolo front derailleur alignment tool (strongly recommend these for setting up any front derailleur), then tighten up the front derailleur.
3) set cassette (in this case, 10 speed)
4) go through initial calibration for RD. Ensure derailleur is in smallest cog position (which will only happen when front derailleur is in big chainring, unless you've used the DrEDS app to turn the gear protection off)
5) some cogs needed fine tuning, I adjusted the setting to be partway between the current number and the 'reference' nu-mber in the app (not sure what this is - maybe the default?) - this just takes a little trial and error
6) once you've got it shifting onto the largest cog set the b-screw (or what they call 'rear derailleur tension screw G') to be 8-10mm below the largest cog.
7) do the initial calibration for the FD. Set the initial calibration on the large chainring - move the FD out until it's about 1mm past touching the chain. In my case, this was 6 taps of the micro-adjustment after it had stopped touching.
test the trim positions of the FD. There's one for the top and bottom half of each chainring. In my case, setting the initial position properly was enough to get it to work well in all gears without further fine tuning.
First impressions from the garage
1) Bolts don't seem to be particularly well made. Be careful with them
2) Shifter buttons not as nice as Shimano or SRAM, but they're not bad.
3) Front shifting is definitely slower than Shimano, but it works fine
4) Not sure I can tell the difference in performance between casual mode and racing mode
5) No guidance is given for front derailleur positions if you're going to fine tune it. RD is obvious enough but FD seems illogical (which position correlates to which number?)
Other notes:
- I didn't use the support bracing screw on the front derailleur - but I'm using it with a clamp-on adapter
- I assume mine came with the new hoods, they were pretty easy to get off to adjust the position
- overall the shifter and lever feel quite nice, it's only the buttons that are lesser than Shimano/SRAM
- would be nice if it had a top button like Shimano/SRAM
- I paid ~380USD for mine from AliExpress during 11.11 sales - I'd say that's about what it's worth.
- It's still the easiest solution for anyone who wants 12 speed electronic rim-brake shifting and doesn't have a frame that supports Di2 (otherwise I'd suggest getting 12 speed Di2 instead)
- the manual is pretty useless. Just using the app is easy enough for setup
- with the price of the disc brake system it's very hard to recommend it over Shimano/SRAM alternatives. Only the rim brake system makes any financial sense (and that's mostly due to the lack of alternatives - or lack of availability of alternatives).
The bike it's going on will eventually have a 12 speed, 11-34 cassette going on when the right wheels come. If I was a little braver I'd consider trying the 52-36 chainrings out with a 10-36 XDR cassette to get massive range. Maybe some day.
Pic of the setup (for now):
