Timmerrr's New Gavel Adventure

[timmerrr]

After riding my Litespeed Cherohala for 3 and a bit seasons, I came to the conclusion that I wanted the ability to run a much bigger tire on gravel. On top of that, my fit has become much more agressive and it was difficult to replicate on the Litespeed.

As I have become a brand ambassador for State Bicycle Co., I decided that building up one of their Black Lable 6160 All Road's would be appropriate. Yes, I am getting free product here. I will try and stay objective and stick more to the components than the frame, as most will probably find those more interesting anyways.

The build: Initially I was looking to use the Ratio 12 speed conversion kit on a sram Apex 1x groupset and cable disc brakes. As I started to pull the trigger on parts once the frame was in the mail, the L-Twoo GRT groupset became available on Ali Express. I decided to take the plunge and give it a shot, I paid my own money for this, don't have a following, so this should be the same groupset anyone would get in the mail. Most of the rest of the build is left over parts from my Cherohala, as I sold it as a shifting frame set with no wheels and a different cockpit.

Youtube review of the groupset:


Parts:

Frame: State Bicycle Co. Black Lable 6160 All Road
Fork: State Bicycle Co. Black Lable 6160 All Road
Bottom Bracket: ZTTO BSA
Seat Post: FSA 25mm Setback, Stripped and refinished, rather proud of how this turned out
Stem: Zipp SL -17* 130mm
Bars: Bontrager Isocore Al, 38cm
Bar Tape: Wolftooth Supple
Cranks: Sram Carbon, 170mm, PF30 (Force Level)
Chainring: Wolftooth 1x 48t
Chain: KMC X12
Cassette: 11-46t Ali Express Special
Wheels/Tires:
-Light Bicycle AR56 w/ 35mm Gravel King SS
-State Bicycle Co. 650B w/ 47mm Vitoria Terano Dry
Groupset: L-Twoo GRT hydraulic 1x12

Groupset Review:

TLDR: Brakes are good, shifting is good. Some interesting design choices that are different that the big 3 but still work.

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.

Frame Review

The frame is good for what it costs. The brake mounts are faced and square. The welds look good. Everything assembles the way it should and the tolerances are good. The ride quality isn't what my Litespeed was, but I certianly expecting it to be either. It is stiffer at the BB than my Litespeed, which is really great for what I do with this bike most of the time, which is gravel racing. Having room for up to 45mm 700C tire and 2.1" 650B is really nice. Normally I run 35mm Gravel King SS for races but having room for more when exploring and training is nice. Just becasue the 35s are fastest on race day doesn't mean they are the most fun to ride. There are certianly other frames out there that have this clearance as well, this is just a general comment on it being awesome to run big tires. The bike handles well on both wheel set ups. I have done quite a bit of single track on the 650B set up and it really handles well at slow speed over technical terrain.

[gravity]

Awesome review. Thanks!

Comparing shimano/sram- do u feel ltwoo to be plastic-y or just solid on hands?

[timmerrr]

Awesome review. Thanks!

Comparing shimano/sram- do u feel ltwoo to be plastic-y or just solid on hands?

It feels solid. The hoods fit on the shifters very well, like shimano Di2 hoods do. The Sensa stuff I had feels cheep. The shifters were vauge, no great tactile feedback when a shift happened, the ergonomics suck, the hoods did not fit the shifter body tightly, etc. The L-Twoo stuff clearly has a better build quality than that. I'm not going to claim to be the a WT athlete but I have done plenty of 7-800w efforts on the hoods and they don't have any noticeable flex or creaking. This is at least on par with 105 or rival level in terms of build quality.