WHEELTOP 1x Groupset Review by Bike Guru: Road and Gravel
Why both bikes now run WHEELTOP
This article is based on a Portuguese-language YouTube video by Bike Guru.
A little over a year earlier, Cervélo Brasil offered him a WHEELTOP groupset to test on his gravel bike. That bike had been running a SRAM Rival mullet setup: electronic Rival shifters, a GX rear derailleur and a 10-52 SRAM cassette. He had also used SRAM XPLR before. He was hesitant about a Chinese electronic groupset, even though he already used other Chinese parts, but he fitted it and kept riding it.
For a year he ran SRAM on the road bike and WHEELTOP on the gravel bike. He liked the WHEELTOP enough that he went back and bought a second groupset with his own money for the road bike. This video is his account of why he did that.
The two bikes
Both bikes use the same layout: EDS Disc shifters and a long-cage gravel derailleur that can handle a cassette up to 10-52, which is what he runs on the gravel bike. The newer road groupset has carbon brake levers; the gravel groupset has aluminum levers. The weight difference is very small, and they work the same way.
On the road bike he has also used a ZTTO 9-50 cassette, including on a trip to France last year. The WHEELTOP groupset worked really well with it.
Why he switched
The first reason is the hoods. He has small hands, and he finds the WHEELTOP hoods compact, closer to older mechanical rim-brake levers than to the bulky tops on the previous-generation SRAM hoods he was using. The WHEELTOP hoods can also sit lower and more level with the ground, instead of being angled quite high the way he had to set up the SRAM hoods. After getting used to them on the gravel bike, he felt the difference every time he got on the road bike.
The second reason is battery life. SRAM batteries can be pulled out and swapped, and you can carry a spare in a jersey pocket, but in his riding they did not last that long. With WHEELTOP, in his tests, the battery lasts much longer, long enough that he sometimes forgets to charge it. On his 1x setup, with only a rear derailleur on both bikes, he gets around 1,200 to 1,300 km per charge, a little less if he is shifting constantly. The battery is built in, so charging takes longer, but it lasts longer than the SRAM batteries he was using.
WHEELTOP also shifts faster now. The system has a Casual mode and a Sport or Competitive mode. In Competitive mode he finds it faster than SRAM and very quiet, and close to the electronic Shimano he has ridden in the past (he himself runs mechanical Shimano, not electronic). He uses Casual mode almost all the time and still finds that faster than SRAM.
Setup today versus a year ago
When he first installed the gravel groupset, he made a setup video and found tuning complicated. The app has since been updated. The layout still feels familiar, but tuning is much simpler, and the app now includes presets for cassette brands and models. You can still nudge a single cog up or down. When he fitted the road groupset, fine-tuning took him less than two minutes and the shifting came out clean. In his view, the old weak point is no longer a problem.
Chain retention
The derailleur is very stiff and firm, and better at holding the chain than the SRAM mountain derailleurs he had used. On his older SRAM gravel setup the chain dropped often. A mountain derailleur helped, but he still needed a chain guide. With WHEELTOP he had one drop when the chain was worn. After he replaced the chain at the right length and adjustment, it did not drop again. On the road bike, which uses an oval chainring, he used to get some drops with SRAM. With WHEELTOP he has not had one.
What wasn't perfect
No groupset is perfect, and he is clear about that. On the gravel bike, a screw under the derailleur came loose from rattling. He simply put it back in. The derailleur uses screws there rather than rivets, which he sees as easier to deal with than a popped rivet. That was his only problem in a year. The groupset never left him stranded or ran out of battery.
He would like a battery light on the rear derailleur. The shifters light up green, and turn red when the coin-cell battery is getting weak, but to see the derailleur's charge he has to open the app and connect over Bluetooth.
He also mentions a WHEELTOP partnership with Rotor, and says Rotor's newer groupset is a rebadged WHEELTOP. That is his description, not something checked for this article.
After a year, he bought a second one
After a year on gravel and a direct comparison with SRAM, he chose to put the same WHEELTOP groupset on his road bike and does not regret it. He is riding it on both bikes and enjoying it on road and gravel.
This article is based on Bike Guru's video. Watch the original Portuguese-language video above, published 11 June 2026.
