recos for reliable chinese groupsets (FD-RD-shifters-brakes)?

[bichler.bua]

That is cheap indeed!

How are people buying stuff over 200 euro on AliExpress shipped to Europe? Most of the listings I see say "can't be shipped to your location". Is there a workaround?

Hi Serge, I was under the impression you were aware of Sensah, so I did not bring it up. I do agree with jonathan and I can recommend Sensah.
Running three groupsets from Sensah, a 2x11 on my trainer, a 1x11 on a "monsterbike" and a 2x12 on a Velobuild VB-R-099.
All completely mechanical, shifting not as smooth as Shimano but working fine.

Mechanical disc brakes, of course hydraulic disc brakes are superior but mechanical works (running TRP Spyre-C, Juin Tech F1 and Onirii BR-05 - recommend compressionless housing).
I have been eying their HRD for a while, pairing it with a Shimano FD and RD sounds very appealing.

No issues with shipping groupsets from AliExpress to Europe, Germany, so far and indeed prices are incl. shipping when advertised so be the seller.
Local taxes might apply, in many cases shipments pass customs without taxes (at least in my experience) because the tax declaration on the outside is...how would you call that...creative?

[jonathanf2]

I'm curious, do the Sensah HRD shifters not ship direct to France? If not, that sucks.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805962675647.html

Though you can't go wrong with 105 hydraulic shifters. Another option is finding Ultegra hydraulic shifters and pairing them with hydraulic LTwoo or ZRace XG calipers. I tend to prefer the Ultegra carbon levers and higher quality shift cables.

[rasch]

Well it's easier to simply ask someone in a country nearby to send it to you or simply to use some mail forwarding service.

In any case as I told u since the first post, it's not worth it . People save sth like 30 euros or so. Especially us in Europe which can have good pricing in these items.

[mirphak]

I'm not touching mechanical disc brakes again.
On the French ebay site, there are lots of people selling 105 shifters and hydraulic calipers for about 230 euro, which is probably going to be hard to beat.
I don't want to touch thumb shifters as they just feel prehistoric in my mind (right or wrong), and so that leaves the sensah team pro hrd but it must be very new because I'm struggling to even find it.

I got a quote on Alibaba for the Sensah team pro HRD shifters + calipers for 223 USD. Given that's before shipping, and with Shimano 105 shifters + calipers at around 230 eur in france, doesn't make sense to take on the brain damage of shipping + risk of beta testing unfinished products without customer support.

I have just installed the 12s teampros on my roadie/gravel, with grx 810 back and front . Still haven't found the time to give it a decent ride but the impression is very good. Very sharp breaking performance and crisp shifting.

[rovescio]

A little bit of searching for 2x11 hydraulic shifters+brakes for a build:
all in USD
Sensah Team Pro HRD shifters: $197
Sensah Team Pro HRD shifters+brakes: $226 (my impression is that basically all the hydraulic brakes on market are very much good enough)
105 shifters+brakes: $200 used if lucky, $280 NOS

You can somewhat go cheaper going for RS505 and RS685, which are a gen before R7020. Heard the brake compatibility becomes weird tho.

edit: Microshift Centos shifters: $168, for campy thumb lever lovers.

[coffeebreak]

Shimano 105 R7020 hydraulic shifters + disc calipers aren't too far away from Sensah hydros. I know people had good experience with Sensah but at the current prices that 105 7000 series is going, I'll never recommend Sensah to anyone

Here's one for US$240 - whatever coupon you may have

https://a.aliexpress.com/_m0nKGik

[jonathanf2]

Thanks. This shows at EUR 265, but you probably had a reduced price during the first five days of August. The sale is over and a lot of items are back at higher prices. Wish I had seen the price available yesterday.

Either way it's interesting that sensah is charging so much. I've had lots of problems with their empire stuff. Their FD is garbage. I've had a RD just die. I'm probably forgetting a problem or two. They're not Shimano. And yet, they almost price like they are.

With mechanical, indexing with Shimano is much more precise and even tightening the clamping bolt is far easier. All these Chinese groupsets place the shifter clamp bolt in a hard to reach location. Another thing I don't like about Sensah/LTwoo mechanical is that inserting the steel shift cable is really convoluted. Shimano's implementation is far more user friendly.

[coffeebreak]

Yup! Using a ball headed hex key is the only way. But even that is painful especially for LTWoo which is far worse than Sensah which itself is worse than Shimano. At least the hoods on Sensah are more pliable and soft. LTwoo's are hard.
Ditto for cable routing (shifter cable) its hard to describe but the shifter cable takes this route inside Sensah shifters : ¿
There is a very peculiar angle at which you must insert the cable and then offer prayers so that it takes the intended route.

As for indexing, my front shifter was terrible. Never got the FD shift well. I described my issues in detail elsewhere. I am fully convinced it does not handle the high cable tension as good as Shimano's. Rear one is okay but not up to the levels on even 105, forget about Ultegra. The 105 R7000 is much crispy and precise. The cable brake R7000 shifters can be had for $90-100 - unbeatable value, a no brainer.
Do it once, do it right. Don't be me. I replaced my LTwoo 10 speed groupset with Microshift Sword too.

No experience with derailleurs though since Shimano is plenty cheap anyway but as Serge mentioned I am sure they are garbage too. Definitely not worth the price even after coupons.

P.S.
Btw, the R7100 2x12 shifters aren't too expensive too at under $300 - https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806808810316.html

The full 7100 mechanical groupsets have become expensive in last few weeks. About a couple of months ago they were trending at $450 ish range. Should wait for 11/11 sale I guess.