Hey mate how has the wheels been doing? I've been thinking of getting a pair too, has the spokes been working well? still trued even after the settling in period? Would you recommend it?

Yeah still runs very true even after hitting 2 pretty big potholes

if you use the wrong sized batteries you can't really blame ltwoo. To be fair, 14500 lithium batteries are super niche, and there doesnt seem to be a clear standard. if you're not using exactly the right form factor, it wont work / it will break.
Taking a step back, it's the airlines regulations that are to blame, because 2 small batteries like that in their housing are never going to catch fire, but having to source such batteries locally is a major pain.

I wouldn't switch to wheeltop. i've had lots of problems with ltwoo, you should find the right batteries so you get to enjoy other ltwoo problems, not just battery ones. rear derailleur dying for no reason is a fan favourite, and i also enjoy having to change coin batteries in the shifters quite often, as well as the buttons not shifting properly, half because of the battery, half because the buttons stop working properly. There's also the questionable braking, half ltwoo s fault, half user error. My favourite part is when there's a mixed responsibility, so that you never quite know why you fix something when it's fixed, and you're never quite sure why something isnt working properly.
Enjoy, because when it's working, it actually works well. You learn to appreciate when it does

yeah will see what I can do battery wise… got refunded for the holder and get a new one as well as some new 14500 that are even smaller (if I can find some with measurements). Read up on the whole Wheeltop thing and guess I‘ll just give LTwoo another go…

Yes I agree, it seems that apidura even has two bag sizes

most non chiner brands offer multiple sizes but i guess that drives up production cost + 99% of asian market easily covered by only offering small sizes. Don‘t forget that most of these brands still sell most stuff in chiner

Wow rockbros made an apidura copy

looks good but only usable on small frames

Good to know!

Beautiful build, and definitely super cheap. The only thing that feels strange to me is the weight, but I guess I have to get used to these numbers now. With Chinese products it’s becoming easier and easier to reach “featherweight” builds.

As for the wheels, if you want to lower the weight a bit, I’d suggest taking a look at Kore wheels https://it.aliexpress.com/item/1005010280328183.html. You might be able to shave off a little more weight.

Weighed everything when I had it apart a few days ago when mounting the eR9, so I might have miscalculated, once it‘s running again I will take it to a shop and have it weighed as I‘m rather curious myself. 1,6kg for frame, fork and seatpost, 300g cockpit, 1,4kg wheels, 1,2kg group, 735g crankset, 430g casette, 250g chain, 500g tires, 70g tubes, 240g rotors comes in at 6,8kg which leves plenty of room for the bits and bobs i couldn‘t remember the rough weight of, so imo it‘s a pretty realistic weight. Will update once I have it weighed tho!

Was really considering the Kore wheels but as I weigh 82kg and plan on doing some bike packing I didn‘t want to risk pushing the max weight too hard and the 130kg of the Tagoola ones made more sense to me. Also I got them for 290€ incl. shipping and duty

The build is now finished! (Has been for a few month ) Price was ~800€ for the initial build but as it has been upgraded since then it now stands at around 1400€, which I would still consider very budget (especialy as no other upgrades are planned and I would rather build a second/third bike but more on that later ).

Now to the build:

• As a framset I used the Ceccotti RF32 which I bought from Sequel Bike Store. Easy communication regarding the color and stem (that is wrapped in the fake Supacaz Tape, very nice quality for the price) variant I wanted and after around 3 weeks I received the frame. Finish and paint are very nice, all surfaces that need to have been reamed and the layup looks very clean, atleast everywhere I can see without an endoscope. Only down side is, that I received the wrong seatpost clamp and cover but after contacting the seller I quickly got send the correct one. Overall I'm very happy with the frame as I really dig the design and the geo suits me perfectly!
   
• The wheelset I got initially are these Koozer CX1800 alloy wheels which are very cheap but also somewhat heavy. Apart from that, they have been very good, even spoke  ) and haven't gone out of centre even though I hit a few potholes rather hard... A few weeks ago I decided to upgrade to a pair of Tagoola Cure R24 in the standard weight which I'm absolutely in love with! The bearings need some extra grease but apart from that they've been aweswome thus far
   
• Until a few days ago I used the LTwoo R9 (couldnt embed links past this point ) which is probably one of the better budget groupsets I have used, even running these very cheap (and very heavy) Goldix Casette with a KMC x11 Chain. Now I'm running the LTwoo eR9 with what I have mostly had problems with, apart from the assembly, as seen in the eR9/eRX topic... Haven't given up on it yet, but I have postponed the plan to sell my R9 as I will keep it as a backup until proven unnecessary
   
• The Cranks I'm using are the ZRACE Unchained and they are great! Finish is just aweswome and combined with chainrings and the Onirii PD-06 pedals it weighs just 735g! The pedals come with a very nice feeling pair of cleats, which is rather unusal for the pricepoint (which is incredible in it's own way as the quality of the pedals is astonishing). While on the topic of power train I would like to mention the Sidebike S17, with which I've had no problems thus far. Best thing about them, apart from the stiffnes, is that they accomodate my wide (and very flat) feet very well without having to size up!
   
• Brake discs are the Meroca XR and they work great, where sliightly warped when I got them but after the first longer ride they run true.
   
• As a saddle I used a cheap carbon slab but am now waiting for a RYET RT06 to arrive as I have amped up the distances I ride and past 80km it just hurt too bad... (who could have guessed )
   

As mentioned the current set up (seen below (still with a halfway mounted R9), might take pictures outside sometime soon) cost ~1400€ and weighs in at 7,6kg bottle cages and pedals included which I think are pretty decent numbers. We'll see how it goes regarding longevity and the eR9 but I'm optimistic


Now that this build has finished I'm building up a fixie for the city using the Intro7 FS-01GT as a base. If any of you have any experience with fixie stuff on ali, especially regarding wheels with track hubs and 32mm wide >=50mm deep carbon rims I would really appreciate some input! Once that's done I would love to build up a Gascycle 02 gravel bike but that probably won't happen until the end of this/start of next year, as that'll also be a sub 1/1,5k build some recs reagrding budget gravel wheels that are 40-50mm  deep and ~40mm wide would be aweswome! I will however create another topic for that once the time comes anyway.