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

[fhill]

Haha, I'd still want to see a few long-term ride reports before calling it a better alternative. Geometry is only part of the story.

Regarding long term report, for the SL8 Fake X68. Until the BB housing was moving, I liked the frame. Felt stiff enough for me. Was doing some nice rides, feels pretty stable in handling. Maybe only downside. It doesn't feel as planted on the road as some other frames I have. I did a total of 7'500km on the two frames.

Would I buy it again? Hell no. One moving bottom bracket housing may happen, shouldn't but may happen. The second time simply must not happen. Add to that, that I had to pay $150 for the replacement frame's shipping... So I'd say after sales support is there, but not really great.
I guess you get what you pay for.

I'd propably get the R088 from SP-Cycle, or the Mondince FM126, if I'd want another bike with the same geometry

[rosteven]

Regarding long term report, for the SL8 Fake X68. Until the BB housing was moving, I liked the frame. Felt stiff enough for me. Was doing some nice rides, feels pretty stable in handling. Maybe only downside. It doesn't feel as planted on the road as some other frames I have. I did a total of 7'500km on the two frames.

Would I buy it again? Hell no. One moving bottom bracket housing may happen, shouldn't but may happen. The second time simply must not happen. Add to that, that I had to pay $150 for the replacement frame's shipping... So I'd say after sales support is there, but not really great.
I guess you get what you pay for.

I'd propably get the R088 from SP-Cycle, or the Mondince FM126, if I'd want another bike with the same geometry

So what happened to the first frame, did you get to keep it?

[rosteven]

people are reporting BB sleeves moving around in the frame. Call me old fashioned, but if you have to glue stuff yourself to be able to ride the frame, alternatives are badly needed. It's nothing new, but the number of lemons that tantan has been shipping over the years is impressive, it's almost as bad as airwolf. I like value driven purchases, but would i buy a tantan to bomb down alpine mountain passes? Just no. Crashing hurts.
That said, people will keep buying SL7-8-9 clones / fakes no matter what, and i suspect tantan is making a ton of money catering to that market.

I just went back through the forum threads a little over 50 pages and I can only find two instances of folks mentioning BB issues not related to facing (one noise related, and the other possible BB sleeve related). 

I have no idea how many X68 frames TanTan/Seraph sold, but two reported instances does not equate to a systemic problem (unless they only sold two X68 frames - lol).  Reading the posts, it looks like the vast majority of people are very happy with their X68 builds. 

[fhill]

So what happened to the first frame, did you get to keep it?

Yeah I could keep it and had the BB housing repaired by LBS.

[glepore]

The X68 is back - now resembling the SL9.

T47? Odd choice...

[rosteven]

Yeah I could keep it and had the BB housing repaired by LBS.

Okay, that was what I was hoping you would say.  So, the LBS confirmed that the frame BB sleeve was lose and completed a repair - do you mine sharing what the repair cost you.

Again, I'm not attempting to diminish your BB issue, but I don't think a product company exist that has not had lemon or a recall. Just in the last 7 months (through the end of July 2026) Ford has issued a total of 61 recalls covering approximately 13,297,648 vehicles, maintaining a wide margin as the most-recalled automaker this year. Even big-name bike companies like Specialized, Shimano, Sram, etc. have all had serious safety related recalls.

[fhill]

Okay, that was what I was hoping you would say.  So, the LBS confirmed that the frame BB sleeve was lose and completed a repair - do you mine sharing what the repair cost you.

Again, I'm not attempting to diminish your BB issue, but I don't think a product company exist that has not had lemon or a recall. Just in the last 7 months (through the end of July 2026) Ford has issued a total of 61 recalls covering approximately 13,297,648 vehicles, maintaining a wide margin as the most-recalled automaker this year. Even big-name bike companies like Specialized, Shimano, Sram, etc. have all had serious safety related recalls.

Repair cost were 260€.
The issue is not that things aren't perfect, the issue is the way they handle it. And also you only hear some issues, there's for sure more. And yeah loose BB sleeves aren't the worst, but it's not something you hear of other frames anymore, especially not after a year or even less of usage. Those aluminium/carbon issues were something I was aware of in the 2010s, but not nowadays. And as said other than that I can't complain about the two frames. Yeah they for sure aren't from the same factory. If you look close you can spot differences between the two. The replacement frame also not being as nice as the other. For example the hole for the rear derailleur hanger screw was not drilled properly. Such minor things.

I just think you can get a better frame quality for the same money from other companies

[fhill]

Totally unrelated to my bottom bracket issues.

Did anyone measure the angle of the cockpit unit?
As I'm having two frames, and only one cockpit unit, I'd built the other frame with 120mm stem with -6° and it seems that the -6° stem is still 1cm higher in the front than the cockpit unit with supposedly -6° and 120mm...

It seems that the unit in fact has -10°. Yeah you can think I am totally crazy but could anyone else measure the angle of their cockpit

[rosteven]

Totally unrelated to my bottom bracket issues.

Did anyone measure the angle of the cockpit unit?
As I'm having two frames, and only one cockpit unit, I'd built the other frame with 120mm stem with -6° and it seems that the -6° stem is still 1cm higher in the front than the cockpit unit with supposedly -6° and 120mm...

It seems that the unit in fact has -10°. Yeah you can think I am totally crazy but could anyone else measure the angle of their cockpit

I just measured mine using two different protractors and it's -6 degrees.

[fhill]

Okay if I measure on the top cap, I get -17° against flat, whilst I get -1,5° if I measure against flat on top of the uni

[fhill]

Picture of a -6° tarmac stem compared to the cockpit I am using (which I got with the frame)

[FLXer88]

Jeesh.. All of this bottom bracket talk has me feeling like I made the wrong decision. My 54cm will be here sometime next week.

[rosteven]

Jeesh.. All of this bottom bracket talk has me feeling like I made the wrong decision. My 54cm will be here sometime next week.

All this talk about BB issues is one person with two confirmed BB sleeve issues, and one person with what seems like a bad BB. So out of all of the X68's sold and the lack of other reported BB issues, I'm betting that you will probably be okay unless you install yours incorrectly.  YMTCs

[fhill]

All this talk about BB issues is one person with two confirmed BB sleeve issues, and one person with what seems like a bad BB. So out of all of the X68's sold and the lack of other reported BB issues, I'm betting that you will probably be okay unless you install yours incorrectly.  YMTCs

I also would tend to agree, although im'm sure I haven't installed it incorrectly

[rosteven]

I also would tend to agree, although im'm sure I haven't installed it incorrectly

Lol - I certainly did not mean to imply that you installed "your" BB incorrectly. Just that IMHO when you have one or two isolated issues with a whole product line it normally points towards a lemon (worker had a bad day, bad part, bad QC, etc.), poor maintenance, or improper usage/incorrect installation. In your case I would lean towards you got the lemons.

BTW - I just got my TT-X68 (complete bike with Ultegra build) a little over two weeks ago, now watch karma turn around bite me in the butt and a couple months from now you see me posting about my loose BB sleeve and how TanTan/Seraph is jerking me around - lol...