I've been looking into a TI frames and I was considering lite speed or Lynskey.. but after having a good experience overall with carbonda I thought I would look into a chinese titanium bicycle company.
Waltly was the company that came up as having some history and good reputation. I inquired with them about building a bike with geo similar to the Moots Routt RSL a couple hours ago so I'm waiting to hear back.
I realized it's not just the geometry that I need to be worried about but the pipe sizing, shape, build, bends, and all kinds of other factors. Hopefully this will work out good.
Would really like to hear if anyone happened to have experience with them.. or even just custom building their own titanium frameset.
If you search on YouTube for Mark Ferguson (aka Cycling Maven), he built one and raved about it. Not sure if it was a sponsored or not but did a few videos about it. What kind of prices were you being quoted for a frameset?
nickl360 wrote:If you search on YouTube for Mark Ferguson (aka Cycling Maven), he built one and raved about it. Not sure if it was a sponsored or not but did a few videos about it. What kind of prices were you being quoted for a frameset?
Just contacted them last night, I did get a chance to see that video so it certainly intrigued me more to look into it. 🙂
That’s that’s interesting, I’m told even though their form allows the double butted option they basically don’t do double butted. How’s your experience going so far? Have you had someone design yours yet?
They basically don't do double, or they don't? Is that a deal breaker for you? I haven't made it to design yet, just some messages back and forth. I certainly am interested to hear how your experience goes.
Not a deal breaker, but definitely disappointing. Coming from carbon I'm trying to keep the weight of the titanium frame as low as possible. Moots uses double butted so it will definitely have a different overall feel.
I'm curious as to what your experience with Sumi is like because I'm currently working with Amy.
They're putting bends at the back of the seat stay, the design differs from Moots since they don't have the bend before the dropouts. The seat stay goes straight into the dropouts. That kind of bugged me.. but due to my size I can see why they had to do it since i'm going for the 50 size frame.
Also the Geometry isn't perfectly the same, my head tube had to be 125mm instead of 120mm, I don't have a complete understanding as to why.
Yeah, I read somewhere that you have to insist on the geo you want. I'll have to look for the content but the writer posited why would they pay for custom if they are getting the stock frame.
arctic84 wrote:Probably, but you’d have to check with them to be sure.
Yah, just curious right now. I'm thinking of frame upgrade which can be carbon or Ti. Just hard time finding the exact geo I want.
Chainstays and clearance...devils in the details...how much mud clearance, plus how much crank clearance. Maybe it can clear MTB cranks, but not road ones.
I was really keen on a Waltly build a few years back. To test the waters I bought a few parts first; set post, bar and stem. It was a train wreck to be honest... was really unhappy with the QC. Wrong bolts etc. Difficult to get sorted. They're now sitting in a box somewhere...
That said, it's an attractive proposition. And who doesn't want to 'build their own' custom titanium frame? :-) As I'm sure you know, the general consensus is that you need to be absolutely 100% spot on with your geo. They make whatever the numbers say. One little oversight would probably mean a ruined frame. It's not like dealing with a small custom builder that you can have a genuine conversation with.Proceed with caution is really the only thing I'd say.
A while back at a 24h MTB race, I did get to ride a Waltly 29er and frankly it was incredible! The ride was really nice and the quality of the welding etc. seemed great. So if you get it right at your end, then I think they can come to the party.
I had a very positive experience with Waltly. I was aware that they build frames for some UK brands so I asked them if they had any standard geometries for an endurance road bike. They sent me their standard sizings and my size was very similar to my Trek Domane so I needed to suggest only one small change. I told them I wanted relatively lightweight tubing as I am only 65kg and told them I wanted rim brakes, Di2 and English bottom bracket. Plus I wanted their version of a travel bike which is S&S style couplers on the downtube and the Ritchey system for the seat-tube. I went over the drawings very closely and I also ran them past the mechanic who was going to build my bike. We made a few small changes and Sumi at Waltly was very easy to deal with. She also helped source a fork that will take 32mm tires and a headset. I was very happy with the delivery and build quality. The only issue is that couplers are appear to be a Chinese version rather than the original by S&S. But overall a great experience—I would go back to them again!
So I'm about 2 months out from the date I submitted my final drawing. Waltly moved their factory recently so it has slowed their production. Currently waiting for Amy to get back to me on the status, according to her it's almost done. Sure is tough to be patient.. I find myself staring at other things to buy =_____= (farsports gravel wheels are 10% off right now..)
Anyone order recently in the last two months that got their frame already?
Waltly makes rather good work - you have to know what you want but iff you go custom it's always like that right. Bare in mind that there is no framebuilder that gives you feedback on your ideas. Take your time and google around for pictures to get some ideas about frame details like cable routing - frame finish an so on. Here's a guy that knows a lot - http://www.spanner.org.uk/
