Didn’t really fancy dropping £150 on 105 shifters at the moment so I’ve taken a punt on the Sensah empire team pro shifters in silver. Seem to get decent reviews on YouTube/Facebook groups. Anyone in here using it?
A mate has them. Happy enough. Not long enough for long term robustness test but then Shimano stuff goes off prett quickly in some cases.
Didn’t really fancy dropping £150 on 105 shifters
How much were the sensah shifters? Delivered with taxes?
Im still not convinced by them, have you watched the trace velo videos on them?
Frlm memory the first gen has a soft bit that broke but the 2nd gen seems to have addressed it and he's more confident with them
£72 with 15 day delivery and tax included. £70 cheaper than the cheapest 105 r7000 shifters I could find.
I run Sensah srx pro 1x11 on my gravel freeranger, been on 6 months plus and been faultless ... happy with it
I have sensah empire. Got shifters, f+r mechs, cassette and chain. Think it was £135 all in.
Overall it's not bad at all. Not as refined as Shimano, it's more clackity feeling but works well enough.
The front mech was terrible. It's soft metal and I striped the cable bolt. replaced it with a sram one and it's been fine. So effectively £155.
For some reason on my elite wheel on turbo I have to reindex the gears. I'm not sure if this is a feature of the frame/trainer interface, inconsistent tolerance in the cassettes or user error.
Overall when 105 was £500 for a full group (incl. Chainset) and shifter alone £200 empire was a no brainer. However, now I see 105 r7000 is available at £300 all in I think that's a better deal overall. But if you are on a tight budget empire is still good for what you get.
And there ends my review hopefully of help to someone
That chap on YT with the very expressive, high gibbon index arms is all over sensah stuff, IIRC he broke his first pair due to plastic internal parts, since replaced with metal...
Edit - Here you go about 2 hours of sensah focussed jabber:
Did I see a hydro brake version (or something similar) on Aliexpress the other day? Now that would be good.
That chap on YT with the very expressive, high gibbon index arms is all over sensah stuff, IIRC he broke his first pair due to plastic internal parts, since replaced with metal…
Yeah, I've seen all that before I ordered.
Did I see a hydro brake version (or something similar) on Aliexpress the other day? Now that would be good.
Is that ltwoo who are doing that?
I've seen the LTwoo 'GRT 12' 1x12/hydraulic group on Ali Express.
£350ish, doesn't include a cassette not sure how that actually compares with equivalent GRX/rival-1/microshift(?) TBH... Is it much of a saving once you factor in a cassette?
I'd prefer it if they did a 11/10/9 speed versions to give you more options on cassette but still with full hydraulic brakes, let's be honest if you're looking at Ali Express groupsets you're definitely not a big spender, but they do need a selling point beyond being cheap and full hydraulic brakes on drop bars with some backwards compatible options (in terms of number of clicks) would definitely be a good one.
I’d prefer it if they did a 11/10/9 speed versions to give you more options on cassette but still with full hydraulic brakes, let’s be honest if you’re looking at Ali Express groupsets you’re definitely not a big spender, but they do need a selling point beyond being cheap and full hydraulic brakes on drop bars with some backwards compatible options (in terms of number of clicks) would definitely be a good one.
True, but they'd be chasing smaller and smaller markets. How many people are buying a new set of shifters, to put on a new frame, to re-use and old cassette and chain?
True, but they’d be chasing smaller and smaller markets. How many people are buying a new set of shifters, to put on a new frame, to re-use and old cassette and chain?
I've just bunged together a cheap CX bike as 1x9 using old tiagra and some cable discs from the spares bin, I'd honestly have been tempted by a brake/lever set from the far east that worked with that old kit, my other bike has gevenalle/hylex which talks to old Shimano mechs but costs a relative fortune and lacks sti type ergonomics...
There's definitely a gap, Microshift are probably going to be the ones to exploit it
Me to but I reckon we are a rather small market.
The perfect set up would be 3x9 with post mount hydro brakes. That would simplify the whole system with a nice close cassette.
I'm running some Sensah Empire Pro 2 x 11 rim-road on the light bike, which is currently on the turbo. Completely fine, no issues apart a bendier front mech than I like. Shifting is good, parts are good, it all came together well.
I also have a (non-Sensah) Ltwoo 2 x 11 hydraulic on the way, should be here in the next few days. I'll post photos when it does. Was £267 inc delivery.
Actually having had a bit more of a poke I'm intrigued by the LTwoo GR9 which despite the name is a 1x11 set of brifters with a mech that can apparently do up to a 50t sprocket...
I sort of like the idea of making my summer roadie 1x with it...
13 days from ordering to delivery for the shifters, not bad considering it was over Christmas.
