Happy Holidays!
thanks everyone, after Serge mentioned Longteng I emailed them, and they seem to be coming in even cheaper than tideace, 675 usd delivered.so now I guess tideace or longteng?thanks!
Tideace, any day of the week. Check Long teng, as they may have the same frame for less. Tideace is linked to Long teng, somehow. We dont know the details, but Tideace has a least some of its frames made by long teng. Long teng is a real OEM, and has a solid reputation. Meanwhile Tantan is some dodgy dealer of clones (may or may not manufacture them), with a very checkered reputation, but they're good at marketing and do work with influencers. All else equal, between the 2, i'm going tideace 100% of the time.
Economic theory dictates you should go w LT, then, not Tideace. The closer you get to the source, the fewer intermediaries you need to feed, to get the same product. Also, if you get it from LT, you can get it unbranded, which in my book is a lot better than having a Tideace branded bike. And LT does do custom painting, afaik. My 268 is black gloss, it's very nice.