LTwoo rim brake / mechanical 2024 refresh

[raisinberry777]

From LTwoo's 2024-25 catalogue, looks like all the rim brake levers will be refreshed to match the design of the hydraulic levers (with the Campagnolo-style thumb shifter than the older Shimano Sora-style thumb lever in the awkward spot).



Mechanical derailleurs getting a refresh too - different graphics but hard to see what's changed mechanically.



R9 gets the holographic decal treatment



More minimal design continues down through the product line:



A slight graphical refresh on the gravel rear derailleurs but looks mostly the same



Still no sign of an electronic rim brake lever so Wheeltop likely to be the only Chinese player in that space for a little while unless Sensah springs a surprise.

[raisinberry777]

New mechanical rear derailleurs coming too:

[lavistaa]

A pity there's no sign of increased cassette clearance. I'd like to see a 2x which gets to 36 at least.

[toxin]

Do ltwoo have unique cable pull ratios?

Those derailleurs are all definitely exactly the same thing with different stickers

U can just use the gravel mech if u need more range

[jonathanf2]

Do ltwoo have unique cable pull ratios?

Those derailleurs are all definitely exactly the same thing with different stickers

U can just use the gravel mech if u need more range

Ltwoo uses the Shimano 11/12 speed pull ratio. Though Shimano mechanical shifters have dropped in price significantly. I don't think I'd even opt for Ltwoo or Sensah at this point for mechanical.

[Alex Jones]

Kind of disappointed by this refresh, seem to be mostly a cosmetic refresh and the internal were not change. You cannot do the gear dumping into harder gears like the hydro version and Campy. Was so excited to have a rim brake Chinese Campag clone, but this is not it 

[TribesMan]

Wait, these do not use the same thumb shifter as the hydraulic R9 and RX?

[00Garza]

Wait, these do not use the same thumb shifter as the hydraulic R9 and RX?

They do. For some odd reason they chose not to show them in the pics.

[Gloopann]

They do. For some odd reason they chose not to show them in the pics.

The reason isn't odd, it's to make the uninitiated people buy the product because it looks just like a regular set of shifters on the pictures

[TribesMan]

But if it is the same style thumb shifter as Hydro R9/RX why could you not shift multiple gears at once as Alex Jones mentioned?

[Alex Jones]

But if it is the same style thumb shifter as Hydro R9/RX why could you not shift multiple gears at once as Alex Jones mentioned?

My guess is they kept the internals of the shifter and just changed the lever design. Probably costed too much to engineer the shifting mechanism into the mechanical mold or maybe it has some patent reason. I was so excited to see them at first thinking I could finally get Campy slam shifting with Shimano hardware on rim brakes (always wanted it ever since I used a Campy shifter). Imagine my surprise when I received them, and they would only do 1 shift into the harder gear

[raisinberry777]

It's a shame they did not learn from Campagnolo's mistakes on how to optimise lever ergonomics for a single shift down. This is very much like Campagnolo's early Powershift levers (the 2011-2014) which are pretty generally disliked for the same reason - the lever is in the same position as the Ultrashift levers but can only do the first shift to a harder gear (which L-Twoo seem to have done here). When they revised it in 2015 to be more like the EPS thumb lever (which sits much lower and is angled in) it significantly improved the ergonomics (I'd even say they're one of my favourite mechanical shift levers of all time).

[TribesMan]

My guess is they kept the internals of the shifter and just changed the lever design. Probably costed too much to engineer the shifting mechanism into the mechanical mold or maybe it has some patent reason. I was so excited to see them at first thinking I could finally get Campy slam shifting with Shimano hardware on rim brakes (always wanted it ever since I used a Campy shifter). Imagine my surprise when I received them, and they would only do 1 shift into the harder gear

Maybe there is just a mechanical blockage inside the new style brake levers. Similar to what campy did in Ekar.
I almost doubt they could mount old mechanism inside the new style levers, because the position of the downshift lever is completely different in new vs old.

[Alex Jones]

Maybe there is just a mechanical blockage inside the new style brake levers. Similar to what campy did in Ekar.
I almost doubt they could mount old mechanism inside the new style levers, because the position of the downshift lever is completely different in new vs old.

It is possible, but I doubt it. I looked at the internals of the R9 Hydro vs R9 Mechanical and the shifting mechanism/gears are completely different. The R9 Hydro has something more akin to Campy Ultrashift mechanism while the R9 Mechanical has something more akin to Campy Powershift internals (think 2015 Veloce). The Campy Powershift levers only did 3 up and 1 down.