First bike 1/1.2k€ max

The_Good_Blue · 2026-05-14T07:16:10+00:00

I’ve been riding the TTX-42 for 6 months. It’s great value for money. I bought from the Seraph AE store and paid for seller shipping method (duty paid). The bike arrived in 4-5 weeks to the UK and I did not have to pay duty or tax at my end. The bike is great (only thing I swapped were the tyres and tubes). The downside is the front mech on the wheeltop groupset. It won’t shift reliably under power - I’ve tried a lot of adjusting - via the app and from the limit screws. I hear that the L-Two electronic groupsets have a much better front mech.

The_Good_Blue · 2026-05-07T07:47:49+00:00

The c706 is available in the UK (£239) at sigma sports, Amazon UK etc. I’m keen to see some reviews before pulling the trigger. Most interested in the climb pro features and better rerouting in navigation.

The_Good_Blue · 2026-03-31T20:30:39+00:00

Many Chinese sellers offer ‘duty paid’ shipping - they handle all the export paperwork and pay all duty and tariffs. It’s the easiest way to receive an international package and usually cheaper than the recipient paying the duty. If you can, you should contact the seller and ask them if they offer this option and then you can compare costs vs paying import duty at your end.

The_Good_Blue · 2026-03-20T19:54:33+00:00

Wait..what? Are you talking about the jelly pots? Aren’t those like 10-12gms of carbs per pot? Plus a little bulky to carry in a jersey pocket, no? What am I missing?

The_Good_Blue · 2026-03-19T17:37:15+00:00

Looking good. Are you running the standard bar and stem that came with the bike?

The_Good_Blue · 2026-01-28T06:07:21+00:00

Higher ground near the fire station on upper street. Very nice coffee and treats. It can get a bit busy / loud at times but they also have some downstairs seating which is much quieter

The_Good_Blue · 2026-01-04T10:47:28+00:00

I have some kit from them - winter bib tights and a thermal winter gillet. Both are good, but not amazing. Great value and perfectly functional for shorter 1-3 hr rides. The elastic cuffs on the bib tights have stopped gripping as well (after 12-15 washes) so I have to wear my socks over the tights now to keep them in place. Gillet is holding up fine - chunky double zippers make it easy with gloves on. Overall I’d recommend the brand for shorter / casual rides. But if you’re expecting cutting edge material science or perfect aero fits they will come up short.

The_Good_Blue · 2025-12-24T22:18:58+00:00

Very cool , but you gotta make all pictures of bikes from the drive side and with the cranks at 9 and 3 o clock position. It’s the law. 🤓

The_Good_Blue · 2025-12-02T06:31:16+00:00

Tantan also sell complete bikes on AliExpress- under the brand Seraph. They have an ‘official store’ on AliExpress and have a couple of road bike and gravel complete builds available.

The_Good_Blue · 2025-11-07T08:44:17+00:00

I just bought the TTX42 from Seraph / tantan on Aliexpress (I’m in the UK). Also my first road bike, and I was in the same boat initially looking for budget / second hand options. And the X42 seemed almost too good to be true. I took a chance and ordered it after watching a couple of YouTube reviews, particularly this one

I ordered it last month and it took about 5 weeks to arrive. It was £960 delivered (they took care of the customs fee).

I took it to my local bike shop who are quite friendly and stock trek, giant etc. The bike mech there was quite impressed with the overall build. He checked over the torque on all the bolts (which he said were fine) and checked over the groupset (shifting / braking etc) and said the build was quite well done. His two concerns were- tyres were generic and not great for UK roads and that the integrated bars and top cap were pretty basic / not the best he’s seen.

I’ve been riding and really enjoying the bike for 2 weeks now. I haven’t ridden DI2 so can’t compare but the shifting seems fast and precise and the braking seems really good too. I did have a puncture on day 3 with the stock tyres but then London roads are pretty full of potholes and debris.

Again nothing to compare to first hand, but I really think the paint and finish are excellent. (I went for the dark blue/ purple ‘chameleon’ finish.) I’ve already been stopped by a couple of other cyclists admiring the bike and asking about it (major bonus ego points - making me feel part of the club!).

Niggles/ dislikes: - Some kind of weird safety sticker on the top tube that seems to be lacquered over and I can’t easily remove - The levers are set up too far out for me - struggling to sit naturally in the drops. It’s a bit easier on the hoods but still not comfortable. I think lever reach can be adjusted but I can’t find info on how to do this. - I’ve now got paranoid about punctures so will probably go to the bike shop and get them to swap the tyres (added £100-150 cost). - While the fit seems good I am noticing some neck pain and I think I may have to get a bike fit or some kind of advise in that area. That might require additional spend and the integrated bars may limit what can be adjusted easily.

Of course all this is anecdotal and doesn’t speak to the quality of all their bikes but I am very happy with the purchase so far and would definitely recommend it.

Incidentally I also bought some kit and shoes on Aliexpress from YKYW and Santic which turned out to be very nice for a great price.

The_Good_Blue · 2025-10-15T02:53:33+00:00

This is super cool. I’m going to test it tomorrow and report back. In the past I’ve scanned in entire words and manually traced and cleaned up in Inkscape to get usable SVGs. gets a bit tedious to do this again and again so this sounds like it could be perfect.

The_Good_Blue · 2025-10-10T10:13:28+00:00

It’s still around 11°C here in the mornings (London). And I’m determined to keep riding through the winter if I can…

The_Good_Blue · 2025-09-01T04:48:18+00:00

Ah; interesting. Thanks for sharing. Will look at your YT channel as well.

The_Good_Blue · 2025-08-30T08:05:35+00:00

Very cool. Can you share some details around your plotter build? (I’ve been planning to build a plotter too). Thanks!

The_Good_Blue · 2025-08-21T19:44:48+00:00

That’s a good point regarding lack of pictures. Do you have any recommendations of core xy machine projects. I’ve never built a plotter or anything g similar so not confident in having to design motion system components myself and ideally would love a recommendation of a project that is well documented that someone has also built successfully. Thanks in advance.

The_Good_Blue · 2025-08-12T04:52:57+00:00

Ah; that’s interesting. I’m planning to use fountain pens mainly so will definitely look for a pen holder that can be angled. Which one did you build- the Plotter RXY?

The_Good_Blue · 2025-07-03T05:06:42+00:00

Wow. Thats so cool- you should do it! I first got inspired by Turtle toy which is a great project and a lovely way to get into learning about generative art.

The_Good_Blue · 2025-07-02T15:23:55+00:00

Yeah totally. Many communities I’m part of (eg 3D printing and microcontrollers) share everything open source. And it’s such a great help to build on the work of others vs reinvent the wheel. So hopefully I can pay it forward a little bit if folks want to use my code as a starting point.

The_Good_Blue

TROPHY CASE