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

[OralMaster]

Got multiple phonenumbers and their address in Dongguan but I'm still being ghosted.
If anyone is in China and doing research at replica business send me a private message. Would be an awesome youtube video..  (hint hint)

what do you mean by research?

well i do have news of at least 50 person getting caught at the factory which speshalice outsource their frame manufacturing and R&D to

[yappy]

what do you mean by research?

well i do have news of at least 50 person getting caught at the factory which speshalice outsource their frame manufacturing and R&D to

whats!?

[Antoine23]

I'd be very intrigued to see a blind test of Tarmac sl8 vs this X68 with the exact same components.. I doubt lot of people could feel the difference

[BeR]

I wonder if this frame comes from the same factory as the others fake SL8 which are sold on Aliexpress or OBM, Taiwan Eisen...

Just curious of the quality.

[Antoine23]

I wonder if this frame comes from the same factory as the others fake SL8 which are sold on Aliexpress or OBM, Taiwan Eisen...

Just curious of the quality.

Tantan told me that they are manufacturing it themselves but I still doubt

[BeR]

Tantan told me that they are manufacturing it themselves but I still doubt

You are lucky. They told me that this information is confidential...
True or not ?

[patliean1]

I've been dealing with TanTan both as a paying customer and a YouTuber. My new GR201 gravel frameset is currently in paint according to TanTan.

One thing I've noticed on their Instagram is all the frames they seem to genuinely manufacture themselves have videos showing the frames being pre-production stress tested, painted in their lab, and then fully built. This is especially true for newly produced frames which they specifically want to market to OEM brands first versus direct to consumer. Basically the videos highlight their manufacturing capacity.

The X68 seemingly came out of nowhere. No pre-prod testing and no custom paint options available. Of course they don't want to fully promote this frame for obvious reasons.

TanTan lurks this forum as we know. From their perspective they probably have no incentive to disclose where the frames came from. For all we know, owners/investors of these factories probably own shares in other (read: competing) factories and therefore have the ability to trade products/blueprints etc.

[BeR]

Here is a video where we can see the inside of the frame :



What do you think ?

[TidyDinosaur]

Here is a video where we can see the inside of the frame :



What do you think ?

Your link is invisible
I can't get it to show up either. Seems to be some kind of bug...

[BeR]

Your link is invisible
I can't get it to show up either. Seems to be some kind of bug...

Yes, it is a bug. You can search it on YouTube :
TT-X68 inner wall shows precision cutting and high-strength carbon cloth stacking

[MTB-Addicted]

Yes, it is a bug. You can search it on YouTube :
TT-X68 inner wall shows precision cutting and high-strength carbon cloth stacking

It seems made extremely well..
I really hope it is the same producer of Taiwaneisen that I ordered.

[dsveddy]

Tantan says the frame only comes in matte black. No custom paint options are available.

This tells me Tantan is probably just brokering the frames rather than manufacturing them. A little unsettling if you ask me.

When I originally saw the comments re: "Specialized offloading overstock" I first thought: "what a wacky conspiracy theory!". But now after digging into this thread, and playing a bit of "spot the difference" between photos of the original SL8 and the Seraph SL8...I'm becoming more convinced.

What a weird thing to do. They must be taking quite the loss on each frame sold this way if they really are overstock.

[toxin]

What. If they had overstock issues like that they could just do a big sale, at 30% they could burn through all stock in like a week

[patliean1]

When I originally saw the comments re: "Specialized offloading overstock" I first thought: "what a wacky conspiracy theory!". But now after digging into this thread, and playing a bit of "spot the difference" between photos of the original SL8 and the Seraph SL8...I'm becoming more convinced.

What a weird thing to do. They must be taking quite the loss on each frame sold this way if they really are overstock.

Currently staring at my SL8 as I type this. The X68 is close but not identical.

[BeR]

Currently staring at my SL8 as I type this. The X68 is close but not identical.

Can you tell us the difference please ?