Frame Received! Some thought on design/purchase process
I've got my frame - a break-away, travel grave/all-road that I designed with the goal of keeping it relatively light, practical, with the aim of clean, classic aesthetics (it's metal, not carbon). It's currently waiting for me to figure out how I plan to anodize it, before building it up!
I'm mostly pretty happy with how it turned out, but if I were to do it all over again, here are some thoughts:
- Waltly customer service: I had Aileen. They were fairly responsive, but it's clear that my goals are not her goals.
- There were other options that I now know about that she could have proactively shared with me (drop-outs, tube shapes and sizes, for example). I always got the impression she was just hoping I'd make a decision already so they could get on with things.
- Waltly is always going to be conservative on strength at the cost of weight. I believe I could have gone with smaller diameter seat stays and possibly down tube. Despite not having rack mounts and sharing my weight, she pushed me strongly towards the 16mm diameter. Being my first time, I didn't feel confident enough to push back here, but if I did it again, I would.
- I made a lot of changes as I went - I had 6 versions of the drawing! I could tell Aileen was getting a little impatient, and I was taking up the time of their drafters. But in my defense, first bike frame I've designed and sometimes I had to see something before I knew if I wanted it!
- Weight vs options: I wish they could give a better estimate on the weight impact of different decisions. Aileen had no answer when I asked about the impact of different bottom bracket or head tube/headset standards.
- I bought a 90mm Ti stem - though I may end up using a suspension stem (getting old). I was surprised to find it weighed the same as a pretty basic aluminum stem I have around. Still glad I got Ti - I'll finish it to match the bike - but just worth thinking about.
- Go for broke! On the topic of weight, I took Waltly's recommendation as sort of hedging my bets. But now, I think, I should have just GONE FOR IT. As in, it's a custom bike - a dream bike sort of. Next time I would take a bit more risk (though by my calculations the strength should have been fine), to hit the weight (and aesthetic) goals I had.
- Drop-Outs: The dropouts on my frame seem overszied and are a bit ugly. They're not delicate or "just the essential". I love the small dropouts on other bikes (see Moots). Turns out there's another Waltly dropout options I didn't realize existed. Probably my own fault.
- Finishing: I decided to do my own anodizing (haven't started yet - but very excited!). I had Waltly do some sand blasting and brushing, and leave a high polish word-mark. This was a mistake. I should have just asked them to make the entire frame brushed or polished. The thing to do is do the anodize you want on the polished surface, mask with the shape/stencil you want after, and sand blast around it (assuming you want a polished graphic to pop against a matte finish). And it's way easier to go from polished to matte than the other way around.
- 3D printed chainstay: $
150 (EDIT: I misremembered the cost, corrected) not that crazy. What love to know if the 3D printed lugged frames Waltly sells are itemized for each lug and what they cost.
In the end, all the decisions were on me - and I'm going to be happy with this bike, even if I can't help but think about what I would do differently. The main lesson for myself is: be more up front about asking for all the options possible. Don't count on Waltly to what's best for your vision.
I DID describe my goals and vision for the frame to Aileen - perhaps I could have done this more clearly, but in the end I'm just 1 client buying 1 frame.
I do a lot of work with Chinese companies for my job - where I represent a customer spending $$$$, and our partners are partners - and we have a [somewhat] aligned vision of the goal. Working with Waltly is NOT that (duh).
Overall it was a positive experience, but I wish I knew at the beginning what I know now :-)
A couple other positive points re Aileen and Waltly:
- I asked for a couple pieces of scrap tubes so I could try out/practice some anodizing techniques. She sent them! (important to test on the same alloy and finish)
- She sent a couple extra vinyl masks for the logo. I had hoped they would leave the mask that was used to protect the polished logo when they sand blasted, but they couldn't (for QA inspection), so she sent me extra masks. Not sure if I'll really be able to place it perfect or if I'll be redoing i myself, but she didn't have to send it.