All my Aliexpress MTB purchases reviewed.

[Isildur]

Righto. So my L-Twoo set arrived

I guess I'll know in a few weeks! Updates to come...

So, my L-Twoo GRT Drivetrain set arrived today. I gotta say, at first look and inspection of the parts, I'm pretty impressed.

I will qualify this with the fact that I've never owned a "road based" set in my life, but have plenty (30 odd years) of MTB parts experience (my mates tend to lean to me when asking about issues, parts and tech nerdery).

The calipers, while certainly heavy by feel, are very well finished, and definitely use Shimano compatible barbs and hoses. They have even put a nice finishing (starting?) touch of a removable barb in each line, so as not to have the line fluid willy-nilly during transport.

The Brifters look and feel the part, well finished and with a very nice feel on the hoods. The only drawback from the whole kit is the clamps on the brifters, they seem like they're made from a cheap bi-chromium plated metal, not the usual nice finish on MTB parts.

The clutched derailleur seems to be very well put together. No strange looseness (yet) and the clutch seems perfectly balanced. It's full time, no switch or adjustment (I'm sure removing the outer plate would achieve this), but this derailleur is the part I'm most impressed with. If I didn't know anything about brands, I'd put this on the same peg as SLX or GX level kit.

Waiting for some last final bits to arrive before I can make the change from flat-bar commuter to drop-bar Ali machine, and being my first drop bar setup will no doubt end up with a post or two in my favourite COFY thread. But initially I'm very impressed!

Now to learn how to wrap these strange downward curved bar thingos...

More updates to come...

 

[cokeonspecialtwodollars]

Now to learn how to wrap these strange downward curved bar thingos...

More updates to come...

I'm sure that there are plenty of tutorials to guide you but pay particular attention to the wrap direction, go the wrong way and your tape will want to unwind/loosen as you ride.

 

[Labcanary]

Righto. So my L-Twoo set arrived

So, my L-Twoo GRT Drivetrain set arrived today. I gotta say, at first look and inspection of the parts, I'm pretty impressed.

I will qualify this with the fact that I've never owned a "road based" set in my life, but have plenty (30 odd years) of MTB parts experience (my mates tend to lean to me when asking about issues, parts and tech nerdery).

The calipers, while certainly heavy by feel, are very well finished, and definitely use Shimano compatible barbs and hoses. They have even put a nice finishing (starting?) touch of a removable barb in each line, so as not to have the line fluid willy-nilly during transport.

The Brifters look and feel the part, well finished and with a very nice feel on the hoods. The only drawback from the whole kit is the clamps on the brifters, they seem like they're made from a cheap bi-chromium plated metal, not the usual nice finish on MTB parts.

The clutched derailleur seems to be very well put together. No strange looseness (yet) and the clutch seems perfectly balanced. It's full time, no switch or adjustment (I'm sure removing the outer plate would achieve this), but this derailleur is the part I'm most impressed with. If I didn't know anything about brands, I'd put this on the same peg as SLX or GX level kit.

Waiting for some last final bits to arrive before I can make the change from flat-bar commuter to drop-bar Ali machine, and being my first drop bar setup will no doubt end up with a post or two in my favourite COFY thread. But initially I'm very impressed!

Now to learn how to wrap these strange downward curved bar thingos...

More updates to come...

I was reading back on your previous posts about this. Are you using the m8100 calipers you mentioned? The hoses in the Ali groupset will be straight-straight (lever-caliper), whereas the m8100 will be straight-banjo. You can get banjo attachments from the likes of eBay and most certainly AliExpress. I haven't tried it myself, though I may have a couple in the parts box if you need them in a hurry.
Edit: or you could replace the straight-straight hose with Shimano straight-banjo hose if access at the lever is easy enough. It probably defeats the purpose of cost savings with the Ali kit though...

Follow the park tool handlebar wrapping guide on YouTube.

 

[Isildur]

I was reading back on your previous posts about this. Are you using the m8100 calipers you mentioned? The hoses in the Ali groupset will be straight-straight (lever-caliper), whereas the m8100 will be straight-banjo. You can get banjo attachments from the likes of eBay and most certainly AliExpress. I haven't tried it myself, though I may have a couple in the parts box if you need them in a hurry.
Edit: or you could replace the straight-straight hose with Shimano straight-banjo hose if access at the lever is easy enough. It probably defeats the purpose of cost savings with the Ali kit though...

Follow the park tool handlebar wrapping guide on YouTube.

Yeah, the plan is to use the M8100 calipers. The L-Twoo set comes with the Brifters disconnected, and the calipers/lines with a fresh cut, plugged with a fancy stopper and new olives, barbs and lever end compression fittings in the bag. It's all directly shimano compatible, so from the looks, I'll be able to just unplug the XT lines from their levers, and connect into the L-Twoo brifters. Leaving me with some fresh olives & barbs if I need to shorten the lines - which I probably will.

Thanks for the offer of spares, I've got a tonne in the shed though. Always have a few olives, barbs & lines for any brake set I have.

Cheers for the Parktool link too, I'll have a read up and see how it goes!

 

[dancaseyimages]

Yeah, the plan is to use the M8100 calipers. The L-Twoo set comes with the Brifters disconnected, and the calipers/lines with a fresh cut, plugged with a fancy stopper and new olives, barbs and lever end compression fittings in the bag. It's all directly shimano compatible, so from the looks, I'll be able to just unplug the XT lines from their levers, and connect into the L-Twoo brifters. Leaving me with some fresh olives & barbs if I need to shorten the lines - which I probably will.

Thanks for the offer of spares, I've got a tonne in the shed though. Always have a few olives, barbs & lines for any brake set I have.

Cheers for the Parktool link too, I'll have a read up and see how it goes!

Sometimes I wonder if we will see peoples sheds full of bike parts on pickers one day.

 

[Isildur]

Yeah, hopefully by the time they come, the junk in my shed will have aged into valuable antiques.

 

[Labcanary]

Yeah, the plan is to use the M8100 calipers. The L-Twoo set comes with the Brifters disconnected, and the calipers/lines with a fresh cut, plugged with a fancy stopper and new olives, barbs and lever end compression fittings in the bag. It's all directly shimano compatible, so from the looks, I'll be able to just unplug the XT lines from their levers, and connect into the L-Twoo brifters. Leaving me with some fresh olives & barbs if I need to shorten the lines - which I probably will.

Thanks for the offer of spares, I've got a tonne in the shed though. Always have a few olives, barbs & lines for any brake set I have.

Cheers for the Parktool link too, I'll have a read up and see how it goes!

Plug and play, sweet!

 

[Mr Crudley]

Fahn 'ell, one of the more colourful AliExpress reviews.

Those bitter memories of the Korea vs. China wars must still run deep.

 

[rockmoose]

Sometimes I wonder if we will see peoples sheds full of bike parts on pickers one day.

They already do, quite often. Mike is a bicycle man, and some of the collections of very early cycling parts are pretty cool.

 

[Isildur]

Update on the L-Twoo install. The wet weekend allowed for some decent shed time. Thanks to all for the links and advice on bar wrapping, made it much easier for a first time drop-bar dude - after 30 years riding MTBs

The L-Twoo gear went on with ease, and a few notes from the experience:
- The pull ratio is *definitely* different from 12sp MTB. Given the SRAM X01 derailler was already on the bike, I lost nothing by trying. First 3-4 gears were great, then it all went to total pot!
- The L-Twoo Derailleur is clutched solidly, but unfortunately no switch or holding pin, so getting wheels in and out is a bit tricker and more effort than the "big 2".
- Shimano brake calipers bolt straight on in. Interestingly, the SLX 7100 (apologies for the mention on M8100, I'd forgotten the brakes I grabbed) brakes I from Ali must have come off a very short forked bike, as the front line only just made it (you'll see in the pics below). The rear line was plenty long enough and needed a cut down. Eventually I'll be going a longer A2C fork, thankfully I'd got plenty of spare lines in the shed.
- Line swaps were done with care, and only a minimal lever end funnel bleed was required. That was super simple, grub screw out, funnel in, lever pulled, a couple of bubbles, back in and all good. A few ml of fluid used tops.
- 200/180 rotors are, well, a lot for a bike this light and tyres this skinny! Damp roads today made bedding in the brakes rather sketchy at times! But makes braking from the hoods incredibly easy until this weirdo gets used to the drops.
- The shifter is actually really nice in feel and action. The upshift is easily reachable from the hoods and drops, and the downshift works with pinky pressure from the hoods.
- Wrapping bars is interesting. The Real Pedant in me is upset that my wraps aren't even on each side. The First Time Dropbar fella is pretty stocked I'm only off my a couple of mm. Don't worry, the former will win out on the next bar tape set.

Overall I've pretty stoked. I'll need to drop the stem length as it feel a touch long on the hoods, perfect on the flats, and actually OK on the drops. SO maybe I'll give a a few weeks before doing that. Currently a 60mm, so a 40mm will be nex try. But overall the evolution of this once MTB, then flat-bar commuter into Gravel-Monster-Heinous-Hybrid continues

It'll be really interesting to try it with the XC MTB Wheelset with knobblies on some easy singletrack!

 

[Labcanary]

Update on the L-Twoo install. The wet weekend allowed for some decent shed time. Thanks to all for the links and advice on bar wrapping, made it much easier for a first time drop-bar dude - after 30 years riding MTBs

The L-Twoo gear went on with ease, and a few notes from the experience:
- The pull ratio is *definitely* different from 12sp MTB. Given the SRAM X01 derailler was already on the bike, I lost nothing by trying. First 3-4 gears were great, then it all went to total pot!
- The L-Twoo Derailleur is clutched solidly, but unfortunately no switch or holding pin, so getting wheels in and out is a bit tricker and more effort than the "big 2".
- Shimano brake calipers bolt straight on in. Interestingly, the SLX 7100 (apologies for the mention on M8100, I'd forgotten the brakes I grabbed) brakes I from Ali must have come off a very short forked bike, as the front line only just made it (you'll see in the pics below). The rear line was plenty long enough and needed a cut down. Eventually I'll be going a longer A2C fork, thankfully I'd got plenty of spare lines in the shed.
- Line swaps were done with care, and only a minimal lever end funnel bleed was required. That was super simple, grub screw out, funnel in, lever pulled, a couple of bubbles, back in and all good. A few ml of fluid used tops.
- 200/180 rotors are, well, a lot for a bike this light and tyres this skinny! Damp roads today made bedding in the brakes rather sketchy at times! But makes braking from the hoods incredibly easy until this weirdo gets used to the drops.
- The shifter is actually really nice in feel and action. The upshift is easily reachable from the hoods and drops, and the downshift works with pinky pressure from the hoods.
- Wrapping bars is interesting. The Real Pedant in me is upset that my wraps aren't even on each side. The First Time Dropbar fella is pretty stocked I'm only off my a couple of mm. Don't worry, the former will win out on the next bar tape set.

Overall I've pretty stoked. I'll need to drop the stem length as it feel a touch long on the hoods, perfect on the flats, and actually OK on the drops. SO maybe I'll give a a few weeks before doing that. Currently a 60mm, so a 40mm will be nex try. But overall the evolution of this once MTB, then flat-bar commuter into Gravel-Monster-Heinous-Hybrid continues

It'll be really interesting to try it with the XC MTB Wheelset with knobblies on some easy singletrack!

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Nice! What bars have you got on there?

FWIW, with the no-switchy clutched derailleur, take the chain off the chainring when putting the wheel back in. I do that with my urban bike that has Box 2 prime 9 on it (clutch, no switch). It gives you enough slack so you don't have to wrestle the wheel and derailleur and line up the disc between the pads and then swear when it falls out again because the wheel pops out easier than it goes in.

 

[Isildur]

Nice! What bars have you got on there?

FWIW, with the no-switchy clutched derailleur, take the chain off the chainring when putting the wheel back in. I do that with my urban bike that has Box 2 prime 9 on it (clutch, no switch). It gives you enough slack so you don't have to wrestle the wheel and derailleur and line up the disc between the pads and then swear when it falls out again because the wheel pops out easier than it goes in.

Ta for the derailleur tip, I'll use that next time.

The bars are Curve Walmer 50BP. This whole build (rebuild?) started from the idea in the last few months that my Marino Hardcore Hardtail (there are posts about it somewhere on RB), while a seriously bold commuter, at 15kg+ was just too bloody heavy for 25km each way. That then started leading to the dusty recesses of the brain, thinking about Gravel, Bikepacking (which I do enjoy the few small overnighters I've done) and, of course, new bikes The Marino would work for bikepacking in a pinch, but being bloody heavy it's not ideal.

The Curve GMX+, and GMX+ Steel really caught my eye, being a "mountain bikers bike packer", but a mix budgetary contraints and a few geo points on the GMX+ (Super long chainstay for 29+ clearance and long seattube with my shorter than average legs) had me not totally on board. Then I realised I had the old rigid fork my my chinese commuter from years back, plus the Dartmoor frame on the trainer, and when I played around in some Geo Calcs, the Dartmoor with the 485mm rigid fork was "basically a GMX+" in points like reach, stack, ETT, BB drop, but with shorter chainstays & seat tube.

So bulding it up from the shed, pulling some bits from the Marino for a little while and getting a feel of it as a flat-bar commuter had me thinking even harder about this as a dropbar beast. The Curve were basically the widest, most "new school" thinking on bars I could source easily and, if this all works, one of these days I'll go another custom steel frame to replace the alu dartmoor, but with some better triangle clearances for bags, bottles, etc. But the bars will go along with any new Gravel/BP builds.

And hell, at 50cm at the hoods, 65cm at the flares, they're still pretty narrow and scary for me! I definitely couldn't imagine going any narrower.

A nice short answer

 

[Labcanary]

Ta for the derailleur tip, I'll use that next time.

The bars are Curve Walmer 50BP. This whole build (rebuild?) started from the idea in the last few months that my Marino Hardcore Hardtail (there are posts about it somewhere on RB), while a seriously bold commuter, at 15kg+ was just too bloody heavy for 25km each way. That then started leading to the dusty recesses of the brain, thinking about Gravel, Bikepacking (which I do enjoy the few small overnighters I've done) and, of course, new bikes The Marino would work for bikepacking in a pinch, but being bloody heavy it's not ideal.

The Curve GMX+, and GMX+ Steel really caught my eye, being a "mountain bikers bike packer", but a mix budgetary contraints and a few geo points on the GMX+ (Super long chainstay for 29+ clearance and long seattube with my shorter than average legs) had me not totally on board. Then I realised I had the old rigid fork my my chinese commuter from years back, plus the Dartmoor frame on the trainer, and when I played around in some Geo Calcs, the Dartmoor with the 485mm rigid fork was "basically a GMX+" in points like reach, stack, ETT, BB drop, but with shorter chainstays & seat tube.

So bulding it up from the shed, pulling some bits from the Marino for a little while and getting a feel of it as a flat-bar commuter had me thinking even harder about this as a dropbar beast. The Curve were basically the widest, most "new school" thinking on bars I could source easily and, if this all works, one of these days I'll go another custom steel frame to replace the alu dartmoor, but with some better triangle clearances for bags, bottles, etc. But the bars will go along with any new Gravel/BP builds.

And hell, at 50cm at the hoods, 65cm at the flares, they're still pretty narrow and scary for me! I definitely couldn't imagine going any narrower.

A nice short answer

Cool, cheers!

Hubby has surly corner bars on his commuter/gravel bike. He loves them for commuting, but longer distances they are problematic for him. A friend recommended Ritchey Corralito bars, as they have whatever flare and shallow drops. I'll add curve Walmer bars to the short list too.

Edit: I love my surly moloko bars. But I go at cruising pace and value comfort above all else.

 

[Isildur]

Spank also make some wide, flared & short drop bars, in the Spank Flare 25 Vibrocore range. Same reach & drop of the curve, but marginally less flare. The Spank also have nice marking on the bars for lever positioning, which in hindsight would have saved me a bunch of time & effort.

If the Walmer becom uncomfy once I'm adjusted to them, I'll prob look at the Spank next.

 

[ozzybmx]

I'll add curve Walmer bars to the short list too.

Have a look at Ritchey Venturemax bars too. Now on my second set, first were cheaper comps, then went bigger XL WCS, these have a flat profile on the top with a really nice drop shape and size for descending rough stuff.
The XL are 52cm wide on the hoods and 65cm in the drops.

 

[Calvin27]

Anyone got a link to cheap but decent flat pedals from ali? Need them in blue for a fussy mate!

 

[Isildur]

Not Ali, well, probably but rebranded as their own brand, and I guess witha bit of local backup support:

$24 - https://www.bikesonline.com/entity-pp16-composite-flat-pedals
$34 - https://www.bikesonline.com/entity-pp20-composite-flat-pedals

Hmm, I don't need any more flats right now, but almost want to just to test against the Burgtec composites I run on a lot of bikes!

/edited to switch to AU pricing, silly AU site defaulting to US!

 

[fjohn860]

Anyone got a link to cheap but decent flat pedals from ali? Need them in blue for a fussy mate!

Ultra-light MITO Mountain Bike Pedal Seal 3 Bearing Polished Hollow Non-slip Flat Feet Mtb Bicycle Pedals Riding Equipment Parts (aliexpress.com)


EDIT: If your mate doesn't mind a little axle bulge. I have negated that with longer m4 grubs. Pedals have been faultless.

 

[Ackland]

Ultra-light MITO Mountain Bike Pedal Seal 3 Bearing Polished Hollow Non-slip Flat Feet Mtb Bicycle Pedals Riding Equipment Parts (aliexpress.com)


EDIT: If your mate doesn't mind a little axle bulge. I have negated that with longer m4 grubs. Pedals have been faultless.

I saw "Shat" and can't unsee

 

[fjohn860]

I saw "Shat" and can't unsee

They have neither Shat themselves or made me shit myself