Chinertown

Chinese Carbon MTB => 26er & 27.5 (650b) => Topic started by: electribe on March 31, 2017, 07:15:21 PM

Title: Anyone know SAVA brand bikes? Any good?
Post by: electribe on March 31, 2017, 07:15:21 PM
Hi All, I've been looking at a couple of bikes called SAVA - they do both 26" and 27.5" and what look to be the IP-136 frames, although the rear dropouts/chainstays are marginally different. They seem to be from the Philippines but then there's some other info that they're just Chinese bikes.

Does anyone know what these are about? The deals are really good and the builds in terms of parts are worth more that the buy price.
Title: Re: Anyone know SAVA brand bikes? Any good?
Post by: Rigid_Bloke on March 31, 2017, 09:37:18 PM
I checked them out on Alibaba and they are your normal Chinese carbon frames. The "Sava" brand isn't any better or worse bc it isn't really a brand. It's just labeled/branded but it's the same chiner you'd get elsewhere. The only thing that matters with the brand is what kind of service they give you and track record they have of helping out customers when something isn't right. And of course it matter when it comes to price although I believe most of them are fairly close on pricing. If the price is right, it's a proven frame and seller with a solid track record.. go for it.
Title: Re: Anyone know SAVA brand bikes? Any good?
Post by: tripleDot on April 01, 2017, 10:26:20 AM
I'm from the Philippines.  Sava is not Philippines made, they are from China but they have a distributor here that's been pretty aggressive with marketing.  Mostly targeting the class C market.  I did some research last year, was interested with their Ti bikes.  The thing was their site claims it's a well known German brand who built some factories in China but folks here in ChinerTown from Europe claimed they never heard of the brand. I couldn't find much info and those that l found doesn't seem to be reliable.  So l backed out.
Title: Re: Anyone know SAVA brand bikes? Any good?
Post by: carbonazza on April 02, 2017, 09:14:57 AM
...targeting the class C market...

What are A, B, C markets?
Title: Re: Anyone know SAVA brand bikes? Any good?
Post by: tripleDot on April 02, 2017, 10:34:19 AM
Income class where A for the rich and famous, C for the mass market, B those who falls in between.
Title: Re: Anyone know SAVA brand bikes? Any good?
Post by: electribe on April 03, 2017, 09:53:47 PM
Thanks all. My research on them showed too that they're a Filipino "brand" but selling chinese bikes, and the bikes (at least according to ebay's shipping info) ship from China, so yes, they're basically the same frames as you'd get anywhere but they're a vehicle to sell built up bikes.

I bit the bullet, and made them offer which they countered very close to. I honestly don't know how they're selling that cheap - granted, I got the last one available from the amount for sale on ebay so maybe they'd already made their money, but I can't buy the forks, wheels and groupset (mix of deore and XT, shim hydraulic brakes) for what I paid, let alone a fully built up carbon bike. As long as the frame is OK, I've got a bargain. Time will tell.....fingers crossed.

Looking forward to being a member of the chiner club!

 
Title: Re: Anyone know SAVA brand bikes? Any good?
Post by: electribe on April 18, 2017, 02:27:16 PM
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/Fq4GgFA (http://imgur.com/Fq4GgFA)

http://imgur.com/5XQQ8Ex (http://imgur.com/5XQQ8Ex)


It 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.
Title: Re: Anyone know SAVA brand bikes? Any good?
Post by: Kaben Bikes on February 20, 2018, 09:57:32 PM
I'm from the Philippines.  Sava is not Philippines made, they are from China but they have a distributor here that's been pretty aggressive with marketing.  Mostly targeting the class C market.  I did some research last year, was interested with their Ti bikes.  The thing was their site claims it's a well known German brand who built some factories in China but folks here in ChinerTown from Europe claimed they never heard of the brand. I couldn't find much info and those that l found doesn't seem to be reliable.  So l backed out.
The brand also spreaded very fast in malaysia due to lower price offered. A lot of my fren using the sava bikes. I also saw philiphines national team using the frame in the receant SEA games 2017 in kuala lumpur.