) so this should be the same groupset that anyone ordering on ali would get.The good:
-Ease of setup: I built the whole bike up in less than 3 hours in my basement with nothing other than simple tools and a torque wrench. The whole bike, not just the groupset install.
-Brakes: Easy to bleed, good feel, pads are quiet, no long lever throw like reported by some. Lines calipers and shifters come pre-bled, like shimano (this saved me big time).
-Shifting: Spot on, indexed it once and haven't touched it since
-Shifter Ergonomics: The hoods have a great shape, they are smaller than AXS hydro hood. More upright than shimano Di2 hoods (just different, not good or bad).
-Shifting from the drops: The thumb shifter is awesome from the drops.
-Derailleur Clutch: I hit some monster pot holes at 30mph and the chain stayed on and barely touched the chainstay. Ill take that as a win.
The not so great:
-No manual
-Shifting "resistance": Initially the shifters were really tight. Had I not seen Trace Velo's video on how to loosen an allen screw under the shifter to loosen this up, the shifting action would have been very stiff
-Shifting from the tops: The thumb shifter is a bit of a pain from the tops. You have to move your whole hand backwards to shift.
-Squeeking: when excercising the brake levers, they squeek. Fixed with a bit of oil
-Adjustment to shifting paddle: There is a set screw for where the shift paddle sits. With it backed out, it sits on the brake lever, it can occasionaly not return to home, causing issues when shifting the other direction. If the set screw is moved too far in to move it off the brake lever, the shifter paddle doesn't function quite right.
-Brake adaptors: They work, just would be nice to have a standard shimano or sram setup.
Details/other notes:
-bleed kit required is a shimano MTB or 6800 generation top reservior, and a sram style syringe, that screws into the caliper.
-Dumping gears campy style is fun
-Haven't played with the brake lever reach yet
-Works well with the ali express 11-46 12 speed cassette I bought. No idea what the spacing is like compared to shimano or sram.
-Derailleur has a large "sweet spot" It is not super picky about indexing. I have swapped wheels that are different manufacturers and the indexing is fine even if I have to adjust the upper and lower limit screws.
-On install, all I did for bleeding the brakes was a shimano "lever bleed". Your results may vary, you might also need a longer front hose if you have a 61cm frame.
I am almost done editing a review for Youtube and will post it in this thread when it is done!
