r/WaltlyTitanium

My Waltly is now 6 years old — I built it during COVID.

It was originally meant to be a dedicated gravel bike, but it quickly became my main ride for almost everything.

For gravel and winter, I run a set of 650b Yoeleo wheels (32 mm deep) with an 11–42 cassette: "the tractor."

For road riding, I switch to 700c Yoeleo wheels (46 mm deep) with an 11–34 cassette for flatter and rolling terrain. If I'm heading into the mountains, I simply swap the cassette back to an 11–42.

Bonus pic: I also built my commuting bike around the same frame. The photo shows carbon wheels, but I'm actually running alloy DT Swiss wheels. Lots of Chinese components on this one: Scenicx crankset, OG Evkin seatpost, OG Evkin integrated handlebar.

Hi all, I wanted to share my experiences working with Waltly to design and build my new Ti gravel bike frame and fork. There’s a lot to say, so I’ll do two posts – this one on the frame/fork themselves, and another one later on my experience working with Waltly.

My design goal was for a versatile bike that could handle long road training miles as well as survive technical mountain bike trails. I designed the frame around two distinct setups – rigid fork with 35mm road tyres, and suspension fork with 2.2” mountain bike tyres. I opted for a Ti rigid fork over carbon so I could customise it to ‘suspension correct’, to maintain geometry when I switch between setups.

I chose the ‘Innovation’ model as I really liked the look of the 3D printed head tube and top tube/seat tube junction. Tubing is all straight gauge, frame weight is 1.8kg. I’ll cover the logos in my second post. Waltly also supplied the Fibertek handlebar, T47 BB, FSA headset, spare axles and spare UDH derailleur hanger.

My geometry was informed by a dynamic bike fit along with handling preferences from nearly 30 years of racing bikes. I am 184cm tall, and I prefer a steepish seat angle and slackish head angle on all my bikes (MTB, road and tri).

I’ve now ridden about 3 hours in road mode and 4.5 hours in off-road mode. The frame, fork and wide tyres are buttery smooth – a refreshing change from my horrendously stiff Felt AR road bike. Despite not being especially aero, it is surprisingly quick on the road – maybe only ~1km/h slower than my road bike with deep carbon wheels at Zone 2 effort. The road handling is quite ‘lazy’ when standing to climb, but otherwise feels very calm particularly at high speeds.

Off road, the bike excels! I was surprised just how well it performs in singletrack – agile, planted and predictable. The Ti frame and 40mm suspension fork soak up bumps and maintain traction far better than expected. It’s definitely not a 'mountain bike', but I can ride blue XC trails on it without fearing for my life.

Overall I’m very pleased with how the bike performs. My only regret is the very long (442mm) chainstays, which make it difficult to unweight the front end. I wanted shorter, however this was the minimum length to achieve 57mm tyre clearance with an external bearing T47 BB shell. In retrospect, I should have opted for an internal-bearing BB as this would have allowed the chainstay yokes to be welded further apart, allowing more lateral clearance and shorter chainstays.

About to sign off on a custom Ti frame from Waltly and would appreciate a final look from people who know framebuilding.

Context: relaxed endurance / light touring bike. Started from the Curve GXR4 SM geometry, then adjusted over a few iterations after a basic bike fit. What I mostly give to Waltly was my fit number (reach, stack, saddle height, etc.), but not the framebuilding side, so that's where I'd like the sanity check

Final numbers: stack 588, reach 366 (S/R ~1.6), HTA 70.5°, STA 73°, BB drop 76, chainstay 436, seat tube 490 with 27.2 post, head tube 160, wheelbase 1029, front-center 605. 1x wireless, 47.5 chainline (max 44T ring), 50mm tire clearance without fenders.

Two questions:

1. Anything looks off, or is worth pushing back on before finalizing?
2. There's a 40×15mm slot detail near the BB, plus a note about milling the left-side slot "for internal routing." I'm running wireless groupset with external routing brake cable alongside the downtube -- anyone know what this slot actually is, and whether it's normal/needed?

Thank you in advance!

Hi everyone!
I’m based in Poland, so I know prices vary depending on the country, but I’d really appreciate hearing how those of you already doing titanium anodizing professionally approach pricing your work.
I’m still fairly new to anodizing, so I’m trying to build a pricing structure that’s fair both for my clients and for myself.
I recently completed my first larger project for a bicycle company. They provided me with their logo, company name, head tube logo and slogan, but I designed the rest of the artwork myself. That included creating the overall concept, multiple custom graphics, adapting them to the frame, preparing the masks, anodizing, testing colors, and making adjustments throughout the process.
At the moment I’m anodizing up to 62V (no strong chemical coloring yet), but there is still a lot of preparation, masking, cleaning, polishing, testing and material involved.
I’d really appreciate some advice from people already in the business.

My questions:
1. How do you price your anodizing work?
Hourly rate?
Fixed price per project?
Price per graphic?
Price based on frame coverage or complexity?
Some combination of these?

2. How do you charge for the design work itself?
For me, creating the artwork often takes as much time as the anodizing itself. Designing a concept that flows across the frame, fits the customer’s vision and is actually possible to anodize can take many hours.
Do you:
charge separately for design?
include it in the anodizing price?
own the artwork afterwards or transfer the rights to the client?

3. How do you estimate the value of custom artwork?
For example:
one simple logo
several custom graphics
a complete themed design across the whole frame
Is there any rule of thumb you follow?

4. Do you charge differently for B2B customers versus private clients?
For example:
bicycle brands
frame builders
individual customers
Or is your pricing essentially the same?

5. What expenses do you include when calculating your price?
Besides the obvious materials, do you also account for:
stencil material
failed test pieces
electricity
equipment wear
design time
consultation with the client
revisions
masking and cleaning time

6. If you were starting again today, what would you do differently regarding pricing?
I think this is probably where I need the most advice. I don’t want to undervalue my work just because I’m new, but I also don’t want to overprice it without having enough experience.
I’ve attached a few photos of the project for context so you can see the amount of work involved.

I’d really appreciate any advice, examples or even rough price ranges. I’m here to learn, and I know my efficiency will improve with experience.
Thanks a lot in advance!

Waiting for parts to trickle in

Followup to https://www.reddit.com/r/WaltlyTitanium/comments/1sbbeem/drawing_sanity_check/

Rides like an absolute dream! Having custom geometry is truly awesome, feels like I can ride forever. Working with Amy at Waltly was super chill, and the whole process was painless. Took about 10 days to arrive at my doorstep after they sent it out, not duty or customs or anything in Canada.