Chinertown
Chinese Carbon Road Bikes => Road Bike Frames, Wheels & Components => Topic started by: jonathanf2 on May 05, 2025, 01:01:24 AM
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Sensah (also known as Sentyeh or Shuntai) is getting ready to showcase their new electronic groupset. Not much info yet, but it should be on display at the Shanghai Bike Show this week. It's said to be a 14 speed groupset, but no word yet on other specs. I did find a CG renderings of the shifter and rear derailleur. ;)
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Thanks for sharing! Interesting to see the Chinese brands try to push the tech now in front of the established brands.
Just curious: where are you finding these infos?
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Looks nice :)
At 14 speeds a lot of people will be using this as 1-by...
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I have mostly only bad things to say about sensah mechanical 11s, but very curious about this.
Given that everything bike related is made in china, will the freehub body standard change at some point to accommodate wider cassettes? it would make sense, right? Like, with a 1cm wider body, you could add a few cogs, and you "just" need to made frames wider at the back, and rear wheels wider? Other than a wider frontal area / drag, would there be downsides? Heel strike on the chainstays maybe?
I dont like the trend of adding narrower and narrower cogs, everything just gets trickier to index, more prone to poor shifting, chains last less and so on.
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Damn I'll have to start thinking about my next project :-)
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The 14 sp thing has to be a marketing tagline, just like 3-14 sp from wheeltop. They just give you the ability to set that, but obviously, it will be primarily meant for what's currently out there. A 14 sp casette and chain with current standards would be absolutely awful, especially without direct mount udh.
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(https://i.ibb.co/DPPwWdq5/Image-20250505201429.png) (https://ibb.co/DPPwWdq5) (https://i.ibb.co/XGrSbB1/Image-20250505201500.png) (https://ibb.co/XGrSbB1) (https://i.ibb.co/fzbLys7d/Image-20250505201507.png) (https://ibb.co/fzbLys7d) (https://i.ibb.co/dw4RPnzg/Image-20250505201515.png) (https://ibb.co/dw4RPnzg) (https://i.ibb.co/B5vVwtTL/Image-20250505201520.png) (https://ibb.co/B5vVwtTL) (https://i.ibb.co/v691tvzY/Image-20250505201526.png) (https://ibb.co/v691tvzY) (https://i.ibb.co/ycd971jY/Image-20250505201535.png) (https://ibb.co/ycd971jY) (https://i.ibb.co/1JnNfq2p/Image-20250505201544.png) (https://ibb.co/1JnNfq2p) (https://i.ibb.co/twVmjdCV/Image-20250505202034.png) (https://ibb.co/twVmjdCV)
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46t max cog, and what looks like a clutch, this is definitely a 1x/gravel system. They have it set up 1x in Shanghai as well. Looks like they took once again took significant inspiration from sram in multiple places, which is w/e tbh. Still sceptical about the implementation of 14sp
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I have mostly only bad things to say about sensah mechanical 11s, but very curious about this.
Curious about your experience. I have three Sensah mechanical groupsets installed.
Two of them I do not ride a lot, a 1x on a monster cross project and a 2x11 on my indoor trainer.
Third one is a 2x12 on a Velobuild VB-R-099 that I have put miles on and I have to say it works quite well for mechanical disc.
I also like the shape of the hoods - so I am positive about Sensah.
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Curious about your experience. I have three Sensah mechanical groupsets installed.
Two of them I do not ride a lot, a 1x on a monster cross project and a 2x11 on my indoor trainer.
Third one is a 2x12 on a Velobuild VB-R-099 that I have put miles on and I have to say it works quite well for mechanical disc.
I also like the shape of the hoods - so I am positive about Sensah.
I installed sensah mechanical 11s semi hydro on 4 bikes. 1 RD died for no reason within 1000km, sensah refused to even hear about it, and the FD are absolute trash. Since then, 1 bike has been upgraded to ltwoo full hydro mechanical (with campy style thumb shifters), and my buddy is so much happier. In fact he's Italian, he did ride campy as a semi pro, and he openly recommends the ltwoo group (caveat: not a long term review). 1 bike i put a shimano 105 FD and it's day and night, and the other 2 bikes are barely ever used, so the lack of upgrade isn't an endorsement of sensah.
to be fair, when it's not broken, and set up properly, the RD / shifting does work well.
But overall, an overwhelmingly poor experience. Few things are more irritating than a gravel ride with a FD that doesnt work properly.
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Few things are more irritating than a gravel ride with a FD that doesnt work properly.
Thats the reason why I really dont like 2-by on my gravel bikes.
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46t max cog, and what looks like a clutch, this is definitely a 1x/gravel system. They have it set up 1x in Shanghai as well. Looks like they took once again took significant inspiration from sram in multiple places, which is w/e tbh. Still sceptical about the implementation of 14sp
definitely looks like it would be aimed towards a budget red xplr
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The 14 sp thing has to be a marketing tagline, just like 3-14 sp from wheeltop. They just give you the ability to set that, but obviously, it will be primarily meant for what's currently out there. A 14 sp casette and chain with current standards would be absolutely awful, especially without direct mount udh.
Selectable cassette speed isn't a marketing tagline, it's basically a main feature over Shimano and SRAM. Being able to throw any speed cassette allows so much more freedom. I'm already running a mix of 11 and 12 speed groupsets with LTwoo electronic and can still use some of my older 10 speed cassettes if need be.
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Curious about your experience. I have three Sensah mechanical groupsets installed.
Two of them I do not ride a lot, a 1x on a monster cross project and a 2x11 on my indoor trainer.
Third one is a 2x12 on a Velobuild VB-R-099 that I have put miles on and I have to say it works quite well for mechanical disc.
I also like the shape of the hoods - so I am positive about Sensah.
I've built several bikes using Sensah shifters, though I opted to use the Team Pro shifters which are Shimano compatible. I actually like how the shifters work, mainly since you can shift smoothly into the big cogs while climbing. That's one advantage they have over Shimano shifting. I built a gravel bike for a family member using Team Pro shifters and LTwoo R9 front/rear derailleurs. That bike is still running smoothly with no issues. I hate LTwoo mechanical and Campy style shifting, there's no way to properly wrap your hand around the hoods especially for hard climbs or sprints.
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Thats the reason why I really dont like 2-by on my gravel bikes.
I'm very much against 1x for road, but for gravel, I agree. The gravel bikes i built were meant to be 1 bike to rule them all, and so, 2x, and it was a total fail. For gearing alone, 1 bike to do both road and gravel is going to do both poorly.
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A few more photos of the shifter and derailleur in "exploded" view and another photo of the 14 speed cassette. Battery is confirmed removable, USB type-C charging and with a 1500km range (about 932mi). Launch date should be in the next 2 months. ;)
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A few more photos of the shifter and derailleur in "exploded" view and another photo of the 14 speed cassette. Battery is confirmed removable, USB type-C charging and with a 1500km range (about 932mi). Launch date should be in the next 2 months. ;)
Any word on possible cost?
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Selectable cassette speed isn't a marketing tagline, it's basically a main feature over Shimano and SRAM. Being able to throw any speed cassette allows so much more freedom. I'm already running a mix of 11 and 12 speed groupsets with LTwoo electronic and can still use some of my older 10 speed cassettes if need be.
don't play dumb, the 14 speed thing is a marketing tagline. I have simply no confidence it will be good in practive. The 3 speed thing is also a marketing tagline, nobody will be running that.
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Any word on possible cost?
I'll try and find out through my contact if they don't announce it. Ballpark estimate should be similar to Wheeltop and LTwoo groupsets.
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A somewhat fleeting look by Pandaman (China Cycling) from the Shanghai Bike Show (along with the usual assortment of the weird, wacky and wonderful):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb8y1Vp0md8 (groupset at 3:30)
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don't play dumb, the 14 speed thing is a marketing tagline. I have simply no confidence it will be good in practive. The 3 speed thing is also a marketing tagline, nobody will be running that.
Think outside the box. The applications for variable speed derailleurs go beyond just regular bikes. There are folding bikes, mini velos, commuters, cargo bikes, etc. that can benefit. A 3 speed cassette weighs less than 70g. A folding bike with no shift cables, 1x chainring and 3 speed cassette sounds pretty reasonable. If 14 speed cassettes are doable why not? No one is harping about SRAM going 13 speed, so what's the difference?
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Think outside the box. The applications for variable speed derailleurs go beyond just regular bikes. There are folding bikes, mini velos, commuters, cargo bikes, etc. that can benefit. A 3 speed cassette weighs less than 70g. A folding bike with no shift cables, 1x chainring and 3 speed cassette sounds pretty reasonable.
fine w/e
If 14 speed cassettes are doable why not? No one is harping about SRAM going 13 speed, so what's the difference?
because sram are using direct mount UDH to expand get enough room to fit an extra cog on the outer side of the cassette, WITHOUT AFFECTING THE DIMENSIONS OF THE REST OF THE CASSETTE. 12sp was done the same way, adding a cog to the inside of the cassette, but there is no more room to add another cog there, and even if you could, it would make chainlines even worse than they already are.
So in order to make 14sp cassette for this derailleur, you would have to fit 2 more cogs inside the same width as a 12sp cassette. In order to aciheve that you have to:
- Tighten the spacing between the cogs, which would make shifting performance much more sensitive to imperfections in setup and require thinner chain plates, which would negatively impact chain durability,
- Make the cogs narrower. The reduced volume of material negatively impacts durability and gives you less room to work with to shape shifting ramps and worsening shifting performance
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don't play dumb, the 14 speed thing is a marketing tagline. I have simply no confidence it will be good in practive. The 3 speed thing is also a marketing tagline, nobody will be running that.
Jonathan posted a picture of a 14 speed cassette above. I'm curious how this will work.
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fine w/e
because sram are using direct mount UDH to expand get enough room to fit an extra cog on the outer side of the cassette, WITHOUT AFFECTING THE DIMENSIONS OF THE REST OF THE CASSETTE. 12sp was done the same way, adding a cog to the inside of the cassette, but there is no more room to add another cog there, and even if you could, it would make chainlines even worse than they already are.
So in order to make 14sp cassette for this derailleur, you would have to fit 2 more cogs inside the same width as a 12sp cassette. In order to aciheve that you have to:
- Tighten the spacing between the cogs, which would make shifting performance much more sensitive to imperfections in setup and require thinner chain plates, which would negatively impact chain durability,
- Make the cogs narrower. The reduced volume of material negatively impacts durability and gives you less room to work with to shape shifting ramps and worsening shifting performance
To be fair, Campagnolo managed a 13 speed cassette which works just fine without needing UDH (even works with 12-speed flattop chains). Apparently there's already a wheeltop(?) 14-speed cassette sold on complete builds, which seems to work fine as well (however, I think using a proprietary freehub body and a narrower hub design).
Since owning one, I'm a huge fan of 1-by drivetrains on race bikes. Using a 13-speed cassette, I'm really not missing anything! Gear spacing is no issue (at least with my 13 speed setup), and lowest ans highest gears are spot on. If there's a new option for that, maybe even with 14 cogs, that would be great in my opinion!
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For gearing alone, 1 bike to do both road and gravel is going to do both poorly.
Preach! I feel like this is rarely considered in terms of 'one bike to do it all', it's that you have to compromise on gearing one way or the other. Obviously this is different for everyone's preferences with gearing, but like you, I have a strong preference for 1x on gravel, but feel like 2x is still the better choice for road (on 12 speed at least). I wouldn't particularly enjoy my 1x gravel gearing on the road bike (especially since I'm on the 10-50 12 speed cassette), and I definitely hated having 2x on a gravel bike.