the internals are not silky smooth but nothing out of tolerances.
This thread is normalizing buying fakes, when in the past on this forum there was a strong pushback. It is evident a lot of people are curious, myself included.
My 5 cents: the fake SL8 are some of the lightest frames available atm. And they're fakes. And at least half of them use bladder moulding, which is "the internals are not silky smooth" means.
This graph is from a YT video on specialized layup iterations (computer generated). At their price point, you can assume they do use high end carbon fibers.
An aero open mould frame weighing 1000-1150g from an OEM made w T800, EPS moulded, at a 500$ price point can be plenty stiff and perform really well, in the sense that i dont see why it wouldnt, especially if you have plenty of seatpost exposed (i have long legs) for road buzz deflection / comfort, and big tyres: there's plenty of material and shapes that scream "stiff" and "robust".
BUT, a FAKE frame sold by anonymous people telling you "i can't tell you that, i dont want to go jail", making very affordable frames (an important question is, how cheap can you get the unpainted frame, because if they say 500$, then it's T800, not even T1000, which then means there's no way it performs nearly as well as the real deal in stiffness, ride quality and so on), that weigh very close to the real frame, could very well be a very poor frame.
So, if you're jealous of your dentist friend riding the real one and just want to keep up with the joneses, rather than truly riding your bike, then you do you, i wont lecture you on values and what not, and a frame that looks pretty could 100% be enough.
But if you want to ride that bike hard, at the very least, make sure it's EPS moulded (at least half of the suppliers i looked at sell bladder moulded SL8 / wont show their internals).
You can't back solve for the same weight by using cheap materials, outdated manufacturing processes, made by shady ass people who knowingly lie for a living, whom you'll never meet in your life, and expect anywhere near the same performance. And i'm not talking 90% of the performance for a fraction of the cost. Given OEMs aren't really offering frames at that weight yet, be very skeptical and careful, unless you're fine riding a pool noodle, or worse. In fact i think a fair share of the interest in fake SL8 is because OEMs aren't really offering frames at these weights yet (it's the case for me, i dont actually like the look of the sl8 much, i think it's bland).
I'm curious myself, which is why i posted about it in the sellers section, but so far i've only found red flags and people to black list. Imagine you have an accident riding something illegal that collapses from under you. is your insurance going to cover you? I wouldn't.
