Wheeltop EDS-TX Wireless Carbon Electronic Shifters and Derailleurs (road bike)

If you're looking to upgrade your current bike to electronic shifting, the Wheeltop EDS-TX Wireless Carbon Electronic Shifter/Derailleur kit is going to be the most cost-effective way to do it. There are clever features galore, such as its ability to work on bikes with 7-speed cassettes through to 14-speed, but there are also areas where it lacks behind the more established brands, such as battery life and app refinement. All things considered, though, if you're considering switching to electronic shifting then it's a very credible option.

> Buy now: Wheeltop EDS-TX Wireless Carbon Electronic Shifter/Derailleur (Road Bike) for £470.99 from AliExpress | $633.90 from Amazon.com

Up until now, if you've wanted to get your hands on a budget electronic groupset for your road bike then you've basically had two options, either you fit SRAM Rival AXS or you go for Shimano 105 Di2.

But now there's a third option. The Wheeltop EDS-TX upgrade kit is cheaper than what's currently out there, it's also fully wireless, available for rim brake or disc brake bikes, and has some rather nifty features that you won't find on even the range-topping groupsets from the big hitters. It's got a lot going for it then, but is it any good and will it be giving SRAM and Shimano a Wheeltop-shaped headache?

What's in the box?

So, what is EDS-TX? Well, the first thing you need to know is that it isn't a complete groupset; this is a drivetrain upgrade kit made up of six main components. In the box you get a pair of shifters, a pair of brake callipers, a front mech and a rear mech. You do get some other bits and bobs which I'll get on to in a minute, but the idea is that you fit this to your current bike and keep your current cassette, chain and crankset.

In my case, that meant I could take my old Specialized Tarmac SL6 which was previously running mechanical Shimano Ultegra and upgrade it to electronic shifting without having to remortgage a house. As the drivetrain was in good nick, I was able to keep my cassette and crankset and my current KMC chain, and then bolt on the wireless mechs and replace the brakes.

Your next question might then be: will this fit my bike? Well, chances are, yes. As I said above, Wheeltop is making this not only in disc brake form but also in a version for rim brake bikes. I can see that being a huge positive over SRAM and Shimano offerings, which are limited when it comes to electronic rim brake offerings.

Also, because it's wireless it doesn't matter if your bike has external cable routing, you could still fit it.

The good news doesn't stop there, either: Wheeltop has done what Shimano and SRAM have either been unable or unwilling to ever do and make this upgrade kit compatible with multiple speeds of bike – I can go into the app and turn the rear mech into one that will work with anything from a 7-speed cassette all the way up to a 14-speed. It sounds so simple, yet this is something that up until now we just haven't been able to do. So if, all of a sudden, 13- or 14-speed cassettes become mainstream on the road, you won't be forced into purchasing an entire new groupset.

All of that sounds rather good, but what's really going to determine whether this is a success is the price. This upgrade kit has an RRP of around £740 (it fluctuates with exchange rates), and it's £70 less for the rim brake version. Realistically you can probably pick it up for a fair bit less than that – on the Wheeltop website it's reduced to £621.49 at the time of writing, and a quick online search reveals that on AliExpress you can find it for much, much less. For our reviews on road.cc we always use the RRP to compare prices, just to keep things fair across the board.

A closer look

It's probably easiest to summarise the rest of the details as five things I rate about the Wheeltop groupset and five things I think could be a bit better.

What's good:

Firstly, it weighs just 1,190g (dry), which is seriously impressive. Rival AXS, for example, SRAM's lowest-tier road electronic groupset, is about 200g heavier in 2x format. In fact the EDS-TX groupset is about the same weight as the previous generation SRAM Red eTap groupset.

Secondly, it's got carbon bits! Not only are the shifter blades made of carbon fibre but so is the rear mech cage – that's not something you get until high up the SRAM or Shimano ranges.

It's also really easy to fit. Because it's completely wireless there's no faffing about trying to get wires through the frame or bar or any of that malarkey. You might have to route the brake hoses but really there's no getting around that.

The complete install took me just a few hours from start to finish, including indexing, bleeding and aligning the callipers.

The next thing I like is the hoods – they're small, they're comfortable and, well, they're just a good shape really. Wheeltop's rivals have spent years getting all the hydraulic gubbins small so we don't have to have towers on our shifters and yet Wheeltop has managed to do it on its first go; they feel similar in the hand to the Ultegra R8170 shifters.

And finally, it looks good. It doesn't look like a cheap option and it doesn't absolutely scream 'I've just saved myself a bucket load', and thanks to the lack of garish branding I'd be more than happy to put this on my best bike.

What could be better:

As you might expect, there are also a few things I think could be improved upon. For example, the batteries are permanently attached to the mechs, which means you can't just swap them around if one goes flat when you're out on a ride. Also, if one were to fail then it's bye-bye derailleur.

Second, and it's kind of related, is the charging. You get two nice long charging leads in the box – you even get a USB-C to USB-A connector – but the problem is they use magnets, and not very strong ones. I keep on knocking them off and then coming back to a bike with no more charge than when I started. Admittedly I am quite clumsy, but I think the mechs would benefit from a physical connection, even if just to locate the chargers.

Sticking in the same area, the rubber grommets that cover the charge ports just don't fit like I think they should. They're a bit of a pain to put back in, and I assume that the IP67 waterproof rating relies on them being fitted, so it's not something you can just not bother with.

The shifters aren't perfect either – the rubber hoods are just a bit stiff. The easiest way to describe them is that they feel more plasticky and less rubbery than SRAM or Shimano hoods. They are nice and tight but rely on the textured finish for grip rather than the material itself. It also makes it trickier to bend them back to change your shifter position.

Lastly, the shifter buttons do feel cheaper than the ones you find on the electronic SRAM or Shimano groupsets; there's a fair bit of movement before you actually engage the button.

That brings me on to how you actually actuate the gears. You get one button on the left shifter, kind of like on SRAM, and this is responsible for controlling the font mech: one press for up, one press for down.

You've then got two buttons on the right shifter, kind of like Shimano, which control the rear mech. One button shifts your chain up the cassette block and the other goes down.

You can actually configure which one does which way using the Wheeltop app. You don't get any auxiliary plug-in buttons with the EDS groupset, so no sprint or climbing shifters, nor are there any buttons hidden under the hoods like you get on Shimano Ultegra and Dura-Ace shifters or the latest SRAM Red. You do get a little light, though. Both shifters are powered by CR2032 coin cell batteries.

Braking

All that tech, low weight and clever features are pointless if you can't stop. Luckily, on the whole the braking performance is really rather good.

The latest generations of SRAM and Shimano brakes have managed to successfully quash many of the issues that we first experienced with disc brakes on road bikes, and Wheeltop really isn't far behind. Straight out of the box the brakes feel pretty powerful, the modulation is decent and there's adequate pad clearance, which means they don't rub every time you touch them!

They were also really easy to bleed, as they come with fluid already in the levers and hoses, meaning there's a lot less work to do to get the air out. I used the brakes with a 160mm rotor up front and a 140mm rotor at the rear, but you also get the necessary adaptors to run the callipers in a 160/160mm setup. The brake callipers are quite long but I'm confident they'll fit the vast majority of flat-mount standard road bikes.

It's also worth mentioning that the brakes use mineral oil, so like Shimano rather than SRAM, which uses Dot fluid.

If the forums are to be believed then you'll have no problems using the Wheeltop shifters with Shimano brake callipers if you'd rather use those over these Wheeltop ones.

The Wheeltop levers do have some reach adjustment, done using a 2mm hex key, but some riders might wish there was more adjustability. They were fine for me but I can see riders with smaller hands wanting the levers closer to the bar.

Shifting

Next up, the upgrade kit's main job – gear shifting. As I mentioned earlier, a huge positive of this groupset is that you can fit it to basically any bike, anything from 7-speed through to 14-speed, if and when that arrives.

The rear mech is compatible with up to 36-tooth sprockets and down to 10T, so that should be more than enough for most road setups, and the front mech can cope with up to a 16T difference in chainring sizes, which is also pretty good. For example, I used the upgrade kit with a 52/36T chainset fitted and an 11-28T cassette, and it's handled that just fine.

In use, the gear changes feel good; the rear mech is pretty quick and doesn't struggle with changing under load, and the front mech has an auto trim function, which means that it moves a little as you get to the extremities of the cassette, to avoid any annoying rubbing noises.

One thing you don't get is any synchro shift modes, but you can change multiple gears at a time by holding down the button. I can't say I ever use Shimano's synchro shift functions, so this isn't something that I overly missed.

The front mech is a little bit slower than Shimano or the latest SRAM offerings, but it never feels like it's not going to make it, and after a few months of riding I haven't had any mis-shifts or dropped chains, so happy days there.

You can pair it with your cycling computer so you can see what gear you're currently in. I used this with my Wahoo with no issues, although there are many reports that it displays the gears backwards – perhaps this was fixed in a recent firmware update.

Gear indexing is done within the Wheeltop app, which has a lot of functionality. You can not only check the battery levels of individual components but also change between race mode and casual mode depending on your shift speed preference, and index individual gears. This means you can tailor each gear, for example, if you were using a cassette with funny spacing.

The app, for all of its functionality, just doesn't feel as polished as the ones from the big brands. Combine that with some broken English translations and it might take you a few goes to get your head around; it's usable, but don't expect it to be painless.

You will also find that Race mode, which speeds up the shifting, will negatively impact the battery life. Wheeltop says you should see 20,000 gear shifts between charges and that the battery is good for 800 charges. In reality, I've been doing around 100 gear shifts every 10km and having to charge the mechs every 700km or so. That's definitely more often than I have to on SRAM or Shimano, which is surprising given the battery capacities (below):

• SRAM AXS battery: 300MaH (1 per mech)
• Shimano Di2 battery: 500MaH
• Wheeltop EDS-TX: 800MaH (rear) + 500MaH (front)

I'm hoping that this is something that Wheeltop can improve with some software updates, because at the moment this is probably the main drawback of the groupset.

Value for money

So, it shifts well, it brakes well, it's easy to fit and it seems well thought out, but is it good value? We always compare products at RRP, so that means we're looking at £740 (slight fluctuations for changes in the exchange rate) for this setup.

Both SRAM and Shimano would rather sell you a full groupset that includes a cassette, a chain and some cranks, but it is possible to also buy individual components. For SRAM Rival, the full groupset has an RRP of £1,540 but you can buy just the mechs, shifters and brake callipers for £970, around £230 more than the Wheeltop offering.

Shimano 105 Di2 got quite a bit of stick when it was released with a price tag of £1,670, and if you want to buy just a selection of components then the deal gets even worse. I've totted up a total of £1,318 for just the mechs, shifters, brakes and a battery, and you're then going to need some wires on top of that as well – a significant amount more than the Wheeltop parts then.

Basically, if you've got a bike that's running mechanical shifting with a chain, cassette and chainrings in good nick then the EDS-TX groupset is a very cost-effective way to convert it to electronic shifting. If, however, you have a frame that needs an entire groupset then if you search around I'm pretty confident you can find a complete SRAM Rival AXS or Shimano 105 Di2 groupset for a similar price to the Wheeltop upgrade kit and the other relevant bits you'd need such as brake rotors, chain, cassette, chainrings and cranks.

Another consideration is warranty. Shimano has a huge dealer network and SRAM has been working hard in recent years to prove that it can compete with its own after-sales service. With Wheeltop you do get a one-year warranty, which should give some peace of mind, but realistically if something breaks you are likely going to be without your bike for longer.

Conclusion

In my opinion, competition is always good, and Wheeltop has certainly put the cat among the pigeons. Without Campagnolo focusing on lower-tier groupsets anymore it really has become a SRAM vs Shimano debate for attainable electronic groupsets, and it's about time someone took the fight to them.

Peer to peer, I do think that Shimano 105 Di2 and SRAM Rival AXS still have the edge; the shifting is just a little bit quicker, the battery life is better and, as you'd expect, they're just a bit more refined, especially the apps and setup process. That said, the Wheeltop upgrade kit is, for many people, going to work out cheaper, and that definitely changes things.

The EDS-TX isn't some obscure Chinese bargain that's rolling out of a factory's back door, it's a very usable, reliable and genuine option, with a proper distribution network and warranty process. It's a good groupset, end of, with a lot of features that are genuinely brilliant. Right now it's good for the price, it's great for riders who want to make their rim brake bike's shifting electronic, and it's perfect for anyone who doesn't want to shell out on a whole new groupset.

One thing I'm certain of, this isn't the last you've heard of Wheeltop, and with a few more refinements it could go from the economical choice to a genuine Goliath killer.

> Buy now: Wheeltop EDS-TX Wireless Carbon Electronic Shifter/Derailleur (Road Bike) for £470.99 from AliExpress | $633.90 from Amazon.com

Verdict

The most cost-effective way to upgrade your bike to electronic shifting in 2024