Well I’ve just gone back to Daniel ant and specifically checked this with him because of your post.
He’s adamant that the RF01 is manufactured by Longteng and says the factory designation is LTK266-D, with the FK266 fork.
I’ve been speaking to Daniel at Light Cycling this morning and managed to clarify a bit more about where the various frames they sell are actually coming from.
Daniel has a direct relationship with Longteng and has confirmed that several of Light Cycling’s existing open-mould frames are manufactured by them. Specifically, he says the RF01, RF02, RF04 and GF09 are Longteng frames.
He’s also shown me a recent delivery note from Huizhou Longteng Sports Equipment Co., Ltd. showing frames, handlebars and components being supplied to him, so there clearly is a genuine commercial relationship between Light Cycling and Longteng.
However, I specifically asked him about the new RF10, and he has confirmed that the RF10 is NOT manufactured by Longteng.
The RF10 comes from another factory. This is particularly interesting because, as I understand it, the same underlying frame is also being sold by TanTan as the X68, which is why I was interested in finding out who the actual manufacturer behind the mould is rather than simply which companies are selling it.
I asked Daniel directly who the factory is. He has said that, because the RF10 is currently a new product and he has invested quite a lot into bringing it to market, he would prefer not to disclose the factory at this stage to avoid creating any unnecessary issues.
That’s fair enough, and obviously I’m going to respect that rather than start guessing.
It does highlight something that comes up repeatedly with Chinese open-mould frames, though. We often know the companies selling a particular frame, but that doesn’t necessarily tell us who is actually manufacturing it. The same mould can appear through several different sellers, and tracing it back to the actual factory can be surprisingly difficult.
To Daniel’s credit, he’s been quite open with me about Light Cycling’s business model. He doesn’t claim that all the frames on the Light Cycling website are their own proprietary designs or that Light Cycling manufactures them. A number are existing open-mould frames sourced from established factories, including the Longteng models above.
So at least we now know one thing definitively from Daniel: RF01, RF02, RF04 and GF09 are sourced from Longteng; RF10 is not.
As for exactly which factory is behind the RF10/X68, Daniel wants to keep that commercially confidential for the moment, so I’ll respect that.
Have we confirmed for sure that the new TT-X86 and this frame share the mold? These two bikes, while similar, don't appear to be identical. The headtubes and forks are for sure different. They do both seem to be... inspired by the SL9, but I wouldn't go as far as to say they come from the same mold. It might be the different sizing of the frames on the pictures, but it is hard to gauge
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