Well, bike arrived and have to say I'm amazed.
For some reason, I can't embed imgurs so here are links...
http://imgur.com/Fq4GgFAhttp://imgur.com/5XQQ8ExIt arrived really well packed and a really thorough inspection later and I couldn't find a single mark or manufacturing defect anywhere. The bike was assembled really well - I went round everything to tighten but it was all done perfectly and well lubed. Even the tyres were pumped up to usable pressure! It took all of 20mins to get it roadworthy.
Only done a quick city ride but it feels really tight and snappy. The only place I feel small negative is the fork; it's an Suntour XCM which is a bit heavy, and with the incredibly light back end, it makes the bike front heavy. I had to dial in a lot of pre load (and I'm not a heavy guy) and that really helped tighten up the front end.
I can't quite figure out what frame design it is; the down tube is almost hexagonal but the rear end looks like a Scott scale? The only other gripe are the decals - I don't mind the color scheme but it has random "lost in translation" english words on it, like "Deckard" and "superdeck". Not too much bothered and I may see if there's a way to get them cleanly off the frame so it's just the color stripes and no decal words.
It's clearly from China, not the philippines - the box was shipped from there and the contact info was all in China. I think SAVA as a "brand" might be philipino, but from a manufacturing point of view it's a Chiner.
Regardless, I'm super happy with my SAVA - I don't know how they put XT and Deore parts, with Suntour Forks on what looks to be a well made Carbon bike for $800 delivered.
Happy to have joined the Carbon club! Will report back once I give it a thrashing.