• The brake bleeding process is exactly as depicted in the official bleed guide video on youtube. I used the same EZmtb brake bleed kit that Trace Velo used, which has the adapter needed to screw into the caliper. The brake lines and brifter bodies came filled with light blue oil, which I flushed out and replaced with shimano mineral oil. Really easy bleed, no more difficult than any of the shimano brakes I've done. I did unscrew the free throw adjustment screw before bleeding; after the bleed was done the brakes were firm but needed to be pulled back quite far to make contact with the rotor, and screwing in the free throw screw about 3 turns reduced the throw a lot while not negatively affecting rotor/pad clearance as far as I could tell (no rubbing).
• I used a housing ferrule with a plastic sheath to protect from the sharp edge on the cable exit of the rear derailleur as depicted in tsneidin's post previously. The shift indexing is VERY sensitive to cable tension; a quarter turn of the barrel adjuster yields very noticeable differences in shift performance.
• The b adjustment screw on the rear derailleur is almost useless. I'm using a 46 tooth cassette and have the b screw backed out almost all the way.
• The clutch isn't as strong as the ones on Deore or GRX rear derailleurs, but still seems adequate for a 1x setup. It's certainly stronger than the first gen Sensah SRX clutch which dropped my chain quite a few times.

• The brifters are quite petite. I have average sized hands and if the brifters were any smaller I wouldn't be able to get my entire palm on the top of the hoods. The shape is quite nice though, and there's support in the brifter body everywhere there's contact with the hand or fingers; overall quite comfortable.
• The braking is excellent, easily on par with the 105 disc brakes on my other bikes. I haven't experienced any rattling from the brake piston retaining clip either.
• The force required to downshift is greater than upshifting, and I often have to use 2 fingers to comfortably downshift. The downshift lever/paddle has a moderately thin section near its top and I'll be keeping an eye on that section for any signs of fatigue.
• The ability to dump 3 gears up + 4 gears down is amazing, I use it quite a lot when slowing down/speeding up or cresting a hill. Probably my favorite feature to be honest. It is hard to dump all 4 gears with the thumb shifter from the top of the hoods, much easier to do in the drops, but I can get 3 gears reliably which is enough for me.
• I'm temporarily using flared bars (~16 degrees of flare) until the actual bars I ordered arrive. The brifters are ok at an angle but I think they'll be more comfortable in a level, non-flared position. Something to think about when choosing bars, as this is nominally a gravel groupset and all gravel bikes seem to come with flared bars these days...
• The compression nuts on the brake calipers seem to be anodized so I don't think they'll be susceptible to the corrosion problems that Trace Velo had. I do live in a much drier environment, but I plan on riding this bike quite a bit in the winter so it is a concern.

Just spotted Sensah Empire HRD 11 speed for sale on Aliexpress. Price is $249 for shifters, disc brake calipers, and derailleurs. Looks promising!

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805841249421.html

It seems like there are 3 new Ryet saddles in total: T50 that is seen in the photos above, X6 and X7p. Not a fan of how X7p looks like, starts out nice and narrow, but then goes full triangle mode and gets real wide real fast. T50 looks nice and solid all around, although the pressure relief channel is bit narrow. X6 has similar shape to T50, but has wider relief channel and different looking mesh (not sure how it affects comfort). I kinda want to buy X6, but gotta see how comfortable is that different looking mesh. One interesting point across all three saddles is that they are advertising 1cm extra rail length.

T50: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005843482948.html
X6: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005871294163.html
X7p: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005871242590.html

I have a 11-34 12 speed on the way in blue. https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805628739141.html?

I already have a 11-32 12 speed SROAD with 600 miles on it and no problems.

Cassete arrived and installed. The blue is INTENSE and not as dull or muted as the pictures. Getting a rasp in 8th gear that throws off shifting for everything else if I tune it out via microadjust. Replacing my rear derailleur hanger and I will retune to see if that eliminates the noise.

Would you say the Spedao/SRoad cassette is still the better version for a lightweight all-steel cassette? I was hoping the Ztto cassette would be an improvement.