Seraph Bikes Superlight 836g X68 - Alternative to SL8 Fakes?

[Tom77]

My confidence in tan tan is going south, 6 weeks since payment and frame not painted yet

[Sander2177]

My confidence in tan tan ISU going south, 6 weeks since payment and frame not painted yet

You’ll get the frame eventually.
Unfortunately, I don’t think communication is Tan Tan’s strong point, judging by this thread.
They throw out 20–25 day manufacturing times (not including delivery), but 25 days for me is this Friday—and based on what I’m seeing, I’d be surprised if it’s even ready to ship.
They really should be more upfront about lead times. I think people would still buy the frame even with a longer wait, as long as expectations were clear.
I fully expect it to take longer than quoted, so it’s no big deal—but honesty would go a long way.

I appreciate it’s not what you want to hear, but it’s the truth. I think one guy waited 90 days including delivery—though that might be an extreme case, as some people have received theirs more quickly.
From what I gather, it’s the paint that causes most of the delay. I was quoted just 7–10 days for a raw frame.

[glepore]

I'm the 90 day guy. I'm giving them credit for the New Year and the backlog that may have created. But I think that there is a bottleneck somewhere, either because they're outsourcing the construction of the frame or their paint shop is forever backlogged.
Realistically, I think you're looking at 45-60 days from payment to release from paint, and then shipping time (which was over 20 days to USA, but I got held up on the Asian end for customs outbound inspection).
The communication after payment and prior to shipment remained cordial but less energetic than prior to payment.

[JImportante]

Feedback from Vivian just now, about my order (ordered19th march)

"The frame is finished.
Waiting for warehouse processing and packaging.
I'll take a picture for you this afternoon.
Very busy.
The warehouse has not had time to process it yet."

Light in a tunnel... 

[Avalius]

Anyone installed ltwoo on this frame? The front caliper doesn't fit and the ltwoo adapters don't work. I'm clueless

[JImportante]

Below is a photo of my frame in size 58, weight 890g, chameleon white - you can see the effect in the close-up photo 

[kvnp]

Anyone installed ltwoo on this frame? The front caliper doesn't fit and the ltwoo adapters don't work. I'm clueless

Did you use the special mount provided with the frame ? It looks like this :

https://www.bikegarage.cc/components/front-brake-adapter/specialized-aethos-tarmac-sl8-disc-brake-adaptor-black-flat-mount-s200700001-36

[Avalius]

Did you use the special mount provided with the frame ? It looks like this :

https://www.bikegarage.cc/components/front-brake-adapter/specialized-aethos-tarmac-sl8-disc-brake-adaptor-black-flat-mount-s200700001-36

Yeah, ended up running old ultegra 11 speed calipers on ltwoo.

[Sander2177]

Anyone installed ltwoo on this frame? The front caliper doesn't fit and the ltwoo adapters don't work. I'm clueless

Looks great
But I wish they would not paint over the edges of the BB
Just means it have to be faced

[glepore]

Anyone installed ltwoo on this frame? The front caliper doesn't fit and the ltwoo adapters don't work. I'm clueless

Its not ltwoo. Its Specialized. Much discussion in this thread if you look a few pages back. Aetheos and SL8 (and this clone) have unique bolt spacing in the front that requires the use of a 160 rotor and the adapter that is unique to the frame, not another manufacturer's (whether that be ltwoo or Shimano or...). Standard spacing of the bolt mounts throughout the industry is 70mm, the SL8's is 60 mm, supposedly to allow for less material and some weight savings. So the front mount is unique, and requires an adapter. It also makes 140 front impossible.
I'm not familiar with ltwoo, but if their front caliper is designed to direct mount to the fork and run a 160 rotor, that's the same as Campagnolo's front setup, which doesn't work on an Sl8. The solution is to use a rear caliper mounted to the Specialized/tantan mount in the front. Any mineral oil caliper designed for 140 for work if you use the correct barb and olive. I'm about to swap over to Campy calipers on my build to save some weight, will run dual Ekar rear calipers front and rear.
The folks making this frame should make this clear-hell, tantan specs it as 140/140, which is impossible, and they ship built bikes 160/160.
Edit-dug around, yeah, ltwoo uses unique spacing on their caliper which won't work with sl8/x68. Need to source shimano/zrace or wheeltop caliper.

[Serge_K]

He's not going to prison. He might get a letter from a Specialized atty and have to disgorge his profits (LOL) , but trademark violation isn't a CRIME. And doing one bike isn't like being Taiwan Eissen.
I get that you cringe. But don't overblow it. And its not really malum in se to possess an item that violates patent or trademark. It is however civilly prohibited to produce same.
And yes, the reason I went with decals over clear is that they're removable and if I ever sell the bike, it would be without stickers and as an x68.

I'm not a lawyer, and fundamentally, taking a step back, i dont care, and i dislike Specialized.
But i feel the forum has been normalizing illegal activities in recent months, and i dont like it. It used to be that OEM was good, clones were ok, and fakes were bad, but this seems to have shifted a fair bit.
Afaik, producing counterfeits is a crime known as counterfeiting, and a lawyer would probably argue that a professional painter that professionally paints Specialized logos on SL8 copies is in fact producing counterfeits. And i'd agree.
As to prison, it's semantics, arguably, but i did speak with chinese sellers of fakes and some of their answers were along the lines "i dont want to reply because what i do is illegal and i dont want to go to prison if i get caught".
So then, you might argue that painting one frame isnt the same as making 100 frames, but it's a bit beyond the point: it's still completely illegal, to my best knowledge, and a professional isn't supposed to happily do illegal stuff.

Law is black, white, and shades of grey. This looks like very dark shades of grey to me.

[daniiiCalf]

Below is a photo of my frame in size 58, weight 890g, chameleon white - you can see the effect in the close-up photo 

how tall are you? How high do you take the saddle?

[pandinoyoung]

I'm not a lawyer,

and luckily

[acino]

Law is black, white, and shades of grey. This looks like very dark shades of grey to me.

This is correct. For the sake of completeness, it is worth noting that this problem extends far beyond 1:1 copies of designs. If one were, for instance, to produce "funny" designs such as "Assworks", "Tractor" or similar, resembling the original style, this would constitute different shades of grey depending on the specific style and your jurisdiction.

Especially, if the aesthetics are so close to original brand’s that someone might confuse the two, even briefly, trade dress laws/copyright/design patents/registered designs are almost certainly infringed - stay careful out there people!

[greengoblinbean]

Hi Everyone,
Received my frame from Tan-Tan last week. Placed my order February 14th. 56CM in raw glossy carbon. 834g without skewers but with hanger and bolts. Ordered a separate cockpit from Aliexpress in 38cm/135mm. XM Carbon Speed 35mm wheels. I built it up with a mix of previous and current SRAM Red. Zero issues with the build. Bottom bracket and brake mounts were faced very nicely. Seatpost clamp is a little annoying if your saddle doesn't have a middle cutout. Final weight without cages and pedals is right at 6.7kg. Took it for a very light spin around the block and it feels amazing. I am a Cat 1 crit racer here in the US and my race bike is a Winspace T1550. This feels much smoother compared to the Winspace which is a super stiff full fledged race bike. I am excited to take it out for longer rides in the coming weeks.