WHEELTOP GeX Review by luis scott: After the Firmware Update
What the video covers
This article is based on a video by luis scott. He asks whether riders should trust a newer Chinese electronic groupset the way many already trust Chinese frames and wheels, and he uses the WHEELTOP GeX on his Cinelli Nemo Gravel Tig as the test case. The bike also runs a Magene P515 power meter.
He had already posted an earlier first-ride video. In that one, he struggled to get his head around the setup and did not like how the app felt on his phone. After he got the system to a point he calls functional, he deleted the app. This follow-up is about what changed once he reinstalled it, ran a firmware update, and went back through the fine-tuning.
Firmware, the new app, and how it shifts now
After the update, he says the system started behaving as he had hoped. The ghost shifts stopped. The missed shifts stopped. Shifting became consistent and predictable, "working as it should."
He also found there is a new app. He calls it more user-friendly and more intuitive, including for assigning what each button does, and he says another firmware update came with it. In his words, it was a huge leap forward. In the earlier video he was ready to give the GeX a pass. Now he tells viewers not to dismiss it, and to look at how it would actually work for the way they ride.
Fine-tuning, the way he got it to work
For him, fine-tuning is the most important part of the system, and he is surprised that neither the app nor the instructions suggest what increments to use. You start at position zero, which should read zero, and then you have to work out the steps for the rest of the cassette, whether you are on 10-speed, 12-speed, or another speed count.
What worked for him was steps of about 150 points: 150, then 300, then 450, and so on. He landed on 150 by accident, when that was the first value that made the chain run quietly in a gear, and adding another 150 for the next shift stayed consistent. If you use uneven steps, like 150 then 180 then 210, he says the shifts start to get inconsistent. It is not always exactly 150 either. One gear might be 280 instead of 300, or 10 points either way on the next one. You have to play with it, but that is the range that worked on his bike. After that, he gets a clean shift every time. In the video he also puts up the values from the old app and from the new one.
The brakes, and a short list of niggles
The two issues he still has are not about the new firmware. First, the shifting feels spongy. A firmware update cannot change that tactile sensation, he says. If you have come off a premium groupset, the engagement will feel lazy. If you have not, he thinks you may not notice, and it will just feel fine.
Second, he has not warmed to the looks. He finds the design too industrial, and that has not grown on him.
He also says WHEELTOP came to market undercooked, though he has seen a steady stream of improvement. On the other side, he thinks the real strength of this groupset is the braking, which he already praised in the earlier video: the hood shape, the way the lever takes up, and calipers that, in his hands, give good modulation and a solid response.
Verdict
He likes that the system is already set up for a 14-speed cassette, and that it can also be set as low as 3-speed, even if he does not know anyone running that. With the new app and firmware, he feels pretty good about it, and he plans to put more miles on it. He is leaning toward a smash rather than a pass, with one caveat he wants people to weigh for themselves: besides the usual comparisons with Shimano and SRAM, he says resale value should be part of the decision. He does not treat that as a reason to walk away, just as something to think about.
This article is based on luis scott's video. Watch the original video above, published 2 October 2026.
