WheelTop EDS TX Full Wireless Groupset (Chinese SRAM)

[jonathanf2]

Attached is my carbon Wheeltop EDS TX groupset. I might actually try this on my ER9 R088 road bike instead. The whole setup feels pretty lightweight. 

[empathetic togue]

has anyone tried full chinese 13 speed with Wheeltop TX or GeX?

I have 1 x 12 GeX on my gravel bike and am thinking about buying a 13 speed MTB cassette and chain off aliexpress, the advantage being i can keep using the HG freehub.

Interested to know how good the shifting quality is.

[Russ68]

has anyone tried full chinese 13 speed with Wheeltop TX or GeX?

I have 1 x 12 GeX on my gravel bike and am thinking about buying a 13 speed MTB cassette and chain off aliexpress, the advantage being i can keep using the HG freehub.

Interested to know how good the shifting quality is.

I considered 13 speed for my road bike build, as the TX can handle it and 13 speed cassettes are available. But I canned the idea as 1) it wasn’t clear what chain to use 2) no guarantee of shifting quality and 3) cassettes much heavier than the lightweight Ztto 12 speed I selected.

So I’m also interested in anyone whose tried 13, but for me it will be a future upgrade, not current choice 🤔😉

[evilcherry]

Is there any definite answer on mixing and matching a EDS TX Front derailleur to a GeX Set?

[jonathanf2]

Is there any definite answer on mixing and matching a EDS TX Front derailleur to a GeX Set?

Doesn't work. Wheeltop seems intent keeping the groupsets separately. If you want to mix-n-match, you'll have to go LTwoo eGR + eR7/9/X FD and 2 prong battery holder.

[78Staff]

New user here, picked up the TX and the OX kits during the BF sales...  Install for both was a bit finicky, and I relied more on internet info mostly rather than trying to sort out the poorly translated manuals, etc.  In the end it's all working well (mostly see below for TX battery issues).

The OX was obviously much more simple to get going since only 1x... I was impatient and set it up as soon as I got it, which I probably should have waited b/c I had new wheelset arriving with SRAM XD driver to replace my HG freehub SRAM setup... Switching it over from HG 12sp to XD 12sp a few days later was harder than I expected - for some reason it just did not want to reset the calibration to account for the high gear being further over in the spacing. But I eventually got it worked out.  Only oddity is it does seems a bit louder in the lowest gear 52t than the GX mechanical it replaced, but I've got it aligned as best I can - any further room on the high side and it would overshift into the spokes.

The TX, well it was more complicated.  Since I have a pretty vanilla Shimano GRX 11sp, I had hopes it would not require very much fine tuning, but the reality I had to fine tune every gear up by 20 or so. I thought maybe my initial calibration was off, but I re-did it several times lining up the high gear, but basically had the same results.  But, I did eventually get it all working pretty good.  The Front Derailleur I actually didn't have any issues with, so I guess I got lucky, as that seems to be a common complaint.  BUT, the Rear Derailleur battery would never charge higher than 40% .  After some  back and forth with WH US support, they decided it was a likely a bad battery, so the replaced (well, they are in the process of replacing I guess I should say) the RD.  So of course I had to send mine back, and they were supposed to ship the replacement as soon as they got tracking update on the return one, but it's been over a week and no derailleur, and no tracking .  I'll follow-up Monday I guess.

Anyway, I wound up buying a new road frame to build out, so actually will be moving the TX over to it I think and putting the mechanical GRX back on the Gravel Bike, so I'll see if I can get better results setting it up on the road frame - will still be Shimano 11sp since I already have all the parts for it - but I could see swapping it over to 12sp down the road assuming the TX parts hold up well.  If not then I'll likely look for a good deal on a 105 DI2 kit I guess.

[78Staff]

The TX, well it was more complicated.  Since I have a pretty vanilla Shimano GRX 11sp, I had hopes it would not require very much fine tuning, but the reality I had to fine tune every gear up by 20 or so. I thought maybe my initial calibration was off, but I re-did it several times lining up the high gear, but basically had the same results.  But, I did eventually get it all working pretty good.  The Front Derailleur I actually didn't have any issues with, so I guess I got lucky, as that seems to be a common complaint.  BUT, the Rear Derailleur battery would never charge higher than 40% .  After some  back and forth with WH US support, they decided it was a likely a bad battery, so the replaced (well, they are in the process of replacing I guess I should say) the RD.  So of course I had to send mine back, and they were supposed to ship the replacement as soon as they got tracking update on the return one, but it's been over a week and no derailleur, and no tracking .  I'll follow-up Monday I guess.

So, they did ship it, but it appears any replacement or warranty parts come from China, not the US warehouse where they stock new full kits .  It has made it to US, but will likely be another week or so before it gets to me .

[Lotnik]

Who is the supplier of the Wheeltop in the EU? I believe it was an EU website but I can't find it now.

[78Staff]

So, they did ship it, but it appears any replacement or warranty parts come from China, not the US warehouse where they stock new full kits .  It has made it to US, but will likely be another week or so before it gets to me .

Surprisingly it arrived Wed, so once it hit the US it got here pretty quick.  Synced up fine and charges to 100%, so hopefully the original one was just an anomaly.  But have decided to go ahead and make the switch to 12sp since I had to buy a new crank anyway - but am still waiting on the crank (was supposed to be here Wed but no sign of it yet) to complete the install on the new frame.

[jonathanf2]

After setting up my Wheeltop EDS TX groupset, I have to say it was not fun. The biggest issue is dialing in the front derailleur. FD tuning makes very little sense and I had to use the "unauthorized" web based Wheeltop app for FD micro adjusting. The groupset is less hassle physically installing on a bike, but tuning takes 2-4 times longer compared to LTwoo. LTwoo at least gives precise control for tuning everything. No stupid random numbers. You see the RD and FD move in real-time for perfect tuning. Also Wheeltop RD protection seems half implemented since it only protects the two smallest cogs when in the small chainring, but you can still cross chain in the big/big chainring setup. With LTwoo, you can accidentally cross chain (if you FD shift in the big or small cog), but RD protection is active for both big/big and small/small.

I'll report back once I get more ride time in. Though I'm heavily leaning towards LTwoo if I had to pick a Chinese road groupset.

[glepore]

While I'm happy with Wheeltop, I totally agree that the RD protection thing makes no sense. I disabled mine, but would like to have the option to block out big/big as my chain length doesn't allow it (long story) and I occasionally misshift there. Programable protection would be the bomb.
I hear stories about fd issues, mine was plug and play-x68w/ sram gxp crank.

My issue with ltwoo is the weird calipers, you have to use multiple adaptors on an x68. Guess you could swap them out easily enough, I ended up with Campy calipers on my Wheeltop for looks and weight.

[jonathanf2]

I hear stories about fd issues, mine was plug and play-x68w/ sram gxp crank.

My issue with ltwoo is the weird calipers, you have to use multiple adaptors on an x68. Guess you could swap them out easily enough, I ended up with Campy calipers on my Wheeltop for looks and weight.

I have the Wheeltop FD setup, but it's just weird. Instead of 1-2mm between the cage and chainring teeth, it's more like 5mm on my setup. If I lower the cage less than 5mm, the chainring rubs the top of the FD cage. Also I don't really care for the auto trim feature since big/big RD protection isn't even implemented. I would have preferred being able to tune the FD similar to RD, instead of having to use the that funky FD screw.

Actually the Wheeltop brake calipers are the best part of the whole groupset! If I don't get along with the EDS TX in the next few weeks, I'll throw on my spare ER9 groupset and keep the WT calipers in-place. 

[78Staff]

I also had good success with the TX FD setup, at least initially.  It was probably 95% perfect, and I should have just left it alone lol.  But I decided to drop it down a bit, align it a bit better and in the process got it all out of whack somehow... took about 30 minutes of fiddling, tweaking the screws, tweaking the angle, etc to get it right again.  Oddly enough, it was the outer front of the cage that was causing my issues.  But I finally got it sorted.  Kinda the same story on the rear, was almost perfect, but did have some quirks, so I went to adjusting and basically wound up just starting all over on the rear again .  I think the root of my RD issues are the oddball instructions for the initial adjust for the smallest cog - the whole "cage lines up with sprocket" translation which really doesn't make sense to me, so I try to line up the upper jockey wheel to smallest cog instead.

The gaps seem to get sorted out easily enough, but I occasionally get a chatter on an upshift, ie ch ch ch shift - which is AAF as it's not consistent.  Not sure if it's a gear value that needs adjusting, or if it's a B-screw issue, or what.  new chain, new cassette, so not a wear issue (unless it needs to "wear in" a bit maybe...

On both my sets (TX and OX) I do find I have to run a shorter chain that the comparable cable based setup it replaced, otherwise I get some chain droop in on the smaller end, and it seems it likes a larger b-screw gap tham other brands as well.  Or maybe I'm just doing it wrong lol...

[glepore]

I also had good success with the TX FD setup, at least initially.  It was probably 95% perfect, and I should have just left it alone lol.  But I decided to drop it down a bit, align it a bit better and in the process got it all out of whack somehow... took about 30 minutes of fiddling, tweaking the screws, tweaking the angle, etc to get it right again.  Oddly enough, it was the outer front of the cage that was causing my issues.  But I finally got it sorted.  Kinda the same story on the rear, was almost perfect, but did have some quirks, so I went to adjusting and basically wound up just starting all over on the rear again .  I think the root of my RD issues are the oddball instructions for the initial adjust for the smallest cog - the whole "cage lines up with sprocket" translation which really doesn't make sense to me, so I try to line up the upper jockey wheel to smallest cog instead.

The gaps seem to get sorted out easily enough, but I occasionally get a chatter on an upshift, ie ch ch ch shift - which is AAF as it's not consistent.  Not sure if it's a gear value that needs adjusting, or if it's a B-screw issue, or what.  new chain, new cassette, so not a wear issue (unless it needs to "wear in" a bit maybe...

On both my sets (TX and OX) I do find I have to run a shorter chain that the comparable cable based setup it replaced, otherwise I get some chain droop in on the smaller end, and it seems it likes a larger b-screw gap tham other brands as well.  Or maybe I'm just doing it wrong lol...

Yeah, its jockey wheel to small. Its a poor translation. Hopefully Rotor will fix some of that. The chain length thing is cage length dependent, so it depends on what you're coming from.
As to the occasional slow shifts on "upshift" (assume you mean to larger cog) mine did that initially, usually on cogs 5-6-7, microtuning like 5 steps helped and going to a goldix cassette from ztto solved it.

[jonathanf2]

That was quick! I removed the Wheeltop EDS TX groupset and reinstalled my V1 LTwoo ER9 groupset. It took about 30 minutes to get the LTwoo FD calibrated correctly and everything now runs smoothly! I'll bin the Wheeltop for now and use it on a future build. LTwoo's app is on a whole other level when it comes to fine tuning.

These are some things I noticed with the EDS TX that really bugged me. For one, I needed a longer chain from my LTwoo setup. The slightly bigger Wheeltop RD cage required it. Even after initial calibration there were some quirks with the FD and even the RD. Sometimes it wouldn't shift correctly in certain gears. The FD calibration to me just was a headache. My level of expectations for these Chinese electronic groupsets is to meet or exceed mechanical Ultegra R8000. I can't say Wheeltop even matches the mechanical setup.

Also something I noticed with my GeX gravel setup and the EDS TX compared to the LTwoo equivalents is that drivetrain feels slightly more sluggish in actually riding. Maybe it's just the faster shifting and better ergonomic shifters, but Wheeltop doesn't feel enjoyable to me. I can dump gears with LTwoo, the FD responds when I need to shift and I don't have to think about it.

Given the choice, Wheeltop is just not there. Thankfully I didn't pay for the groupset! LTwoo is definitely the way to go for Chinese electronic groupsets.