LTWOO ER9 & ERX - Electronic groepsets

[jonathanf2]

Ouch! Hopefully 80 Design Store will sort you out quickly!
Just wondering, you mentioned that FD is still fine. Does it still shift with dead RD? Could it be that RD is somehow stuck mechanically? I remember seeing TraceVelo had this issue on his eGR, I think!?

It doesn't seem like a mechanical issue. Whenever I try to upshift, it just flashes a red light. The FD shifts fine. I tried several hard resets, swapped batteries and switched the plugs around. My other ER9 bike is running like a champ. Thankfully I have several bikes in case one goes down!

[elmtree]

Flashing the red light means it thinks it's at the end of its travel when it's working. Could it be that the end stop is being depressed because some stuff slipped?

[Serge_K]

It doesn't seem like a mechanical issue. Whenever I try to upshift, it just flashes a red light. The FD shifts fine. I tried several hard resets, swapped batteries and switched the plugs around. My other ER9 bike is running like a champ. Thankfully I have several bikes in case one goes down!

hihihi, welcome to the club. I wish i had good news.
My 3 dead RDs would make a weird noise and refuse to upshift, and i was never offered solutions. I managed to get 2 warranty replaced, and not the 3rd one, at which point i gave up and made plans to buy them new. One of my friends bought a spare RD for 150 eur on AliX as insurance policy, so he can keep riding if his RD dies. His and mine are the only that havent died from the batch of 5 we ordered last year.
I'm still riding with mine, i've put almost 9k km on it. The charging port is half broken because it's a bad design (worst case i charge the batteries in a dedicated lithium charger which i already have), but other than that, the group works super well, so assuming i can source groups at a good price (c.400 usd for shifters & FD/RD + brakes), then what i plan to do is order than AND a spare RD, because in the west, 150 EUR is basically a visit to the bike shop, so it's a good insurance policy.
That logic quickly breaks down if the price of the group goes up.

[jonathanf2]

Flashing the red light means it thinks it's at the end of its travel when it's working. Could it be that the end stop is being depressed because some stuff slipped?

It's pretty much stuck now at the lowest gear. It just won't shift. I might tinker with it some more to see if I can get it to wake up, but it just makes a click sound, but nothing is happening.

hihihi, welcome to the club. I wish i had good news.
My 3 dead RDs would make a weird noise and refuse to upshift, and i was never offered solutions. I managed to get 2 warranty replaced, and not the 3rd one, at which point i gave up and made plans to buy them new. One of my friends bought a spare RD for 150 eur on AliX as insurance policy, so he can keep riding if his RD dies. His and mine are the only that havent died from the batch of 5 we ordered last year.
I'm still riding with mine, i've put almost 9k km on it. The charging port is half broken because it's a bad design (worst case i charge the batteries in a dedicated lithium charger which i already have), but other than that, the group works super well, so assuming i can source groups at a good price (c.400 usd for shifters & FD/RD + brakes), then what i plan to do is order than AND a spare RD, because in the west, 150 EUR is basically a visit to the bike shop, so it's a good insurance policy.
That logic quickly breaks down if the price of the group goes up.

The 80 Design Store messaged me. Unfortunately (for me), it's National Day in China and it's a week long holiday starting Oct 1st. They'll get back to me next week. As long as I can get a warranty replacement, I'll be fine.

[mrpercussive]

It's pretty much stuck now at the lowest gear. It just won't shift. I might tinker with it some more to see if I can get it to wake up, but it just makes a click sound, but nothing is happening.

The 80 Design Store messaged me. Unfortunately (for me), it's National Day in China and it's a week long holiday starting Oct 1st. They'll get back to me next week. As long as I can get a warranty replacement, I'll be fine.

Could it be the shifter button getting stuck? Like I had an issue where the spring wasn't strong enough to push the buttons back out. It was like two Phillips screws, take the buttons out, stretch out the springs and put them back together and my problems were solved

[mrpercussive]

So I went and impulse bought some Zrace XG calipers for my Ltwoo ER9 groupset. Was wondering since the pistons are both 22mm but the Ltwoo ones are ceramic and Zrace is aluminum... has anyone here swapped them to see if they're interchangeable? Lol

Got the Zrace calipers in and put them on. I think this is like a 3rd gen? Unlike Tracevelo who has two separate ports where the hose goes into and Fiveminutevelo where the there is one main port and one half port for the second piston... Mine only has one port so they've machined it differently and now the fluid gets distributed to both pistons after the ONE port from the hose. Pistons are still the same black alloy ones. I haven't had a chance to bed in the pads and ride them yet so we'll see but initial impressions is that they are feel better than the stock Ltwoo calipers with the lever feel. Overall looks to be pretty well made and really looking forward to giving this a go!

[jonathanf2]

Got the Zrace calipers in and put them on. I think this is like a 3rd gen? Unlike Tracevelo who has two separate ports where the hose goes into and Fiveminutevelo where the there is one main port and one half port for the second piston... Mine only has one port so they've machined it differently and now the fluid gets distributed to both pistons after the ONE port from the hose. Pistons are still the same black alloy ones. I haven't had a chance to bed in the pads and ride them yet so we'll see but initial impressions is that they are feel better than the stock Ltwoo calipers with the lever feel. Overall looks to be pretty well made and really looking forward to giving this a go!

FYI - Looks like you're running 140mm disc in the rear? If you are, be careful with tightening the caliper bolts. The alloy screw holes is very soft on the ZRace XG calipers and can possibly strip.

[jonathanf2]

Could it be the shifter button getting stuck? Like I had an issue where the spring wasn't strong enough to push the buttons back out. It was like two Phillips screws, take the buttons out, stretch out the springs and put them back together and my problems were solved

Nope, shift buttons click just fine. It's definitely the RD that's not responding. I'm just going to wait for the 80 Design Store to respond and hopefully get a replacement.

[mrpercussive]

FYI - Looks like you're running 140mm disc in the rear? If you are, be careful with tightening the caliper bolts. The alloy screw holes is very soft on the ZRace XG calipers and can possibly strip.

Good to know... thanks for the headsup!

[jonathanf2]

Good news. I was able to wake up my ER9 RD after repeated hard resets pressing the RD button. I restored the RD back to factory default and re-indexed the gears. Though I'm a bit paranoid riding it again. I'm considering ordering new batteries, but I'm using the same batteries on my other ER9 bike with no issues. So I'm wondering if this RD is just a bit wonky? I think I'll still ask the 80 Design Store for a replacement. It's too risky to use the RD if it's prone to dying mid-ride, though there's no guarantee the new RD will be any better.

[jonathanf2]

I decided to order some new batteries from Nitecore. They do have US warranty service for their batteries and they appear to be well-built. They're a bit more spendy than what you'd find on Ebay, but hopefully this should at least eliminate any potential battery issues with the ER9.

https://nitecorestore.com/collections/batteries?sort_by=best-selling&filter.p.m.battery_info.battery_size=14500

[amacal1]

I decided to order some new batteries from Nitecore. They do have US warranty service for their batteries and they appear to be well-built. They're a bit more spendy than what you'd find on Ebay, but hopefully this should at least eliminate any potential battery issues with the ER9.

https://nitecorestore.com/collections/batteries?sort_by=best-selling&filter.p.m.battery_info.battery_size=14500

Just don't get any with the usb-c charging feature. (1) I can't see any benefit in this use case, (2) I could theoretically see some potential issues.

[rockerplates.de]

I decided to order some new batteries from Nitecore. They do have US warranty service for their batteries and they appear to be well-built. They're a bit more spendy than what you'd find on Ebay, but hopefully this should at least eliminate any potential battery issues with the ER9.

https://nitecorestore.com/collections/batteries?sort_by=best-selling&filter.p.m.battery_info.battery_size=14500

well it depends, if they are able to handle high discharge rates, go for it, but 3 Amps is not really high discharge.
I once again recommend batteries for vapours, they usually need high discharge capabilities......

[Serge_K]

well it depends, if they are able to handle high discharge rates, go for it, but 3 Amps is not really high discharge.
I once again recommend batteries for vapours, they usually need high discharge capabilities......

Come on now, have you modeled anything you say? have you calculated the amps that high discharge vape cells that are meant to work for mere minutes crank out vs the current draw of these derailleurs that are meant to work for thousands, thousands, thousands, and many thousands more actuations?

[jonathanf2]

Just don't get any with the usb-c charging feature. (1) I can't see any benefit in this use case, (2) I could theoretically see some potential issues.

I just bought their regular (non-USB) 14500 battery with 1000mah. Their 850mah batteries were sold out and I figure I might as well spend extra over the 650mah battery. Nitecore batteries have a 1 year US warranty if they crap out. I'll report back on their performance when I get them.