Home › Forums › Bike Forum › 8 Speed Road STI – LTwoo Vs Micronew
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8 Speed Road STI – LTwoo Vs Micronew
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keithbFull MemberPosted 8 months agoHiya, After some years persevering with my Shimano Claris STI’s on my commuter, I’ve decided to change them for ergonomic reasons. Basically, they have a big lump of plastic where they clamp to the bars, and no matter how I set them up, it always causes a pressure point in my hand whan using the hoods (my preferred position), causing a range of symptoms from tingling hands to a dead arm, depending upon position. I’ve tried various solutions (diffferent shaped bars, thicker/foam bar tape etc) but fundamentally its an issue with the shape of the STI I think.
Some older 105 9 speed STI’s I have aon another bike don;t have this shape and are loads more comfortable.
So, given this, and that 8 speed stuff is limited these days, I’ve narrowed options down to either LTwoo or micronew shifters form Aliexpress to try out an alternative hood shape.
Anyone have any thorughts/recommendaions?
Note I’ve considered upgrading the whole lot to 11 speed, but Ive just fitted a new chain/cassette/rear mech after a mechanical on the commute, so don’t want to ditch the new stuff, and provides an oportunity to try out somethign different at minimal cost. Alsowhie a Bike Fit would probably be a good idea, colt/time is an issue!
Cheers, Keith
thisisnotaspoonFree MemberPosted 8 months agoA clubmate recently built up a winter bike with the Ltwoo R2 2×7 group set and seems impressed. Ergonomically it’s very similar to campagnolo.
I think there was an issue with some of their earlier (carbon?) group sets as the lever had a tab on it which pushed on the shifter lever and wore out and was replaced by a metal insert on later shifters. Probably not an issue with the aluminum ones but does illustrate the risk of going with a new company,, there’s not the 30+ years of R&D and trickle down that Shimano have.
joebristolFull MemberPosted 8 months agoIs it worth looking at Microshift as an alternative but more proven option? I had a bike come with it (the 9 speed version) and it was functional and fine to ride but I fancied double tap so switched it out for 2×11 Rival instead. I sold the entire groupset including cranks for just over £100 with just 3 turbo trainer rides on it.
1poahFree MemberPosted 8 months agoSophie has 8 speed microshift on her bike. I don’t have any complaints about it.
thisisnotaspoonFree MemberPosted 8 months agoIs it worth looking at Microshift as an alternative but more proven option?
I don’t disagree entirely, But I’d not be surprised if Ltwoo and Sensah start appearing on production bikes fairly soon. Their electronic groupsets are about the same price as 105 mechanical. And apart from a few gremlins seem to be upto the job. Shimano even went after Ltwoo to get them to remove the auto-trim feature from their front mech so they’re obviously keen to keep them from getting too good. And their off-road versions are a fair bit cheaper than AXS.
They’re also seemingly far more open about compatibility. Just connect via the app and tell it how many gears you have, and you can index them individually so presumably even if one of the big 3 makes a different freehub standard again you could index it. That’s what annoys me about Di2, there’s no obvious reason why they can’t just offer a firmware update to 12 or 13 speeds which would mean you could just change chains and cassettes to whatever the latest standard is when they wear out.
cookeaaFull MemberPosted 8 months agoMy only experience of LTwoo so far has been a GR7 Rear mech which (IMO/IME) works quite well as a very cheap alternative to , it uses (current) Shimano Road cable pull and I’m using it with a 4720 Tiagra lever.
But they also seem to do mechs and levers stuff with all sorts of other cable pull ratios, including levers so read the descriptions carefully.
Apparently LTwoo are composed of ex-SRAM manufacturing Engineers.
On my CX bike I’m using an old Tiagra 4600 9 speed lever with a 4500 Short cage mech and an 11-34t cassette, ancient by modern standards but actually still pretty reliable and the lever shape is comfy IMO, you can still find old Tiagra/Sora/105 levers on eBay
The other thing I’ve done in the past is take chopped up bits of old bar tape and stuck them under the hood rubbers to pad the areas where my hands rest if there’s knobbles or features that don’t sit comfortably, that can help a little.
pauleFree MemberPosted 8 months agoIf you get on with the upshift lever position and relatively small hoods, older 10 speed campag ergopower shifters work well with an 8 speed Shimano cassette & mech…
Or I’ve got a set of lightly used 9 speed Shimano sti and a few matching cassettes if that’s any interest?
keithbFull MemberPosted 6 months agoAs an update, I bought and fitted the “micro new” 8 speed STIs smd they are pretty good for£30! Shift and brake nicely. Positive clunks for shifts, a bit like the seam/shampoo comparison when 9 speed came out. The downshift does have a long throw, and doesn’t reliably catch the second gear on the ratchet, but I’m willing to forgive this as they are more comfy than the claris they replaced, as they are slimmer at the clamp with less pronounced plastic lump.
I suspect the long throw might be due to having a single design of shifter. Into which they put different ratchets so the 10/ 11 speed ones may shift multiple gears fine.
Front shifter works fine, and I’ve even crashed them into tarmac and par some heavy scratches on the lever bleed, are totally fine.
So overall, recommended as a cheap and cheerful solution to keen and older bike going!
cookeaaFull MemberPosted 6 months agoInteresting, I just took a flyer on some old used Tiagra 2×9 off eBay for my turbo bike (I’ve been running 1×10 with a barcon but it just doesn’t suit Zwift TBH) sold as “spares of repairs” they were only £15, reuse/reduce/recycle and all that, but if I can’t get the RH lever working (listing said it had ‘slipping issues’) I might just pop for a single micronew lever off AliExpress.
The other ‘off brand’ set-up I’m strangely drawn to now is Microshift sword, apparently there’s a 2×10 version and as it’s designed for cable braked gravel bikes, I’m sorting of tempted to see if I can get hold of it to try on my aging rim braked road bike at some point (probably not this year though).
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