Waltly Titanium gravel build

19 replies · 4,653 views

Bxcc
20 posts
#1Jul 22, 2021, 8:19 AMedited
First off, thanks for letting me join! I've been mountain biking since the mid 90's and I'm finally moving into the drop bar world. Road biking as never interested me but as life changes, so do our hobbies.

As a first post, I wanted to share the build of my new Waltly (shared on other forums as well). From the first email to frame delivery was roughly 4 months. Longer than I had hoped for but some of that is on me. Most of that time was spent sourcing parts. Luckily, I was able to get all of the parts I wanted. The last part, the right shifter / caliper combo arrived a day before the frame. I received the frame in the normal brushed finish. I made up some decals with a vinyl cutter and laid them out on the frame followed by media blasting the frame with glass beads. The vinyl held properly and once was removed, I was left with nice clean lines.

As for useage, this will be roughly 45% smooth gravel roads, 45% pavement, and 10% single track. I've built probably a dozen mountain bikes from the frame up over the years and I'm pretty comfortable picking mounting bike geometry for my riding style and location. But drop bar bikes are new and I wasn't sure where to start. I demo'd a 56cm and a 58cm Otso Warakin from the LBS and settled on something in the 56cm range. I also tried the Salsa Vaya and like that quite a bit as well. I tried to mirror the geo of the 56cm Warakin with some Vaya geo mixed in. So on with the details.

Frame:
Twin top tube design
45mm tire clearance
30.9 seat post with internal dropper routing
12x142 rear with flat mount brake
ZS44 top, ZS56 bottom
Internal routing wherever practical

Fork:
Waltly FK-F06 carbon fork with fender and cargo mounts

Drivetrain:
Shimano GRX 810 1x shifters, left side dropper lever
Sram Force 1 GXP carbon crank, 172.5 with 42t ring
Sram 1150 10-42 cassette
GRX 812 rear derailleur
XTR MT900 rotors 160mm front and rear
YBN Hollow plate 11 speed chain
Xpedo CXR pedals

Cockpit:
Salsa Cowchipper Deluxe 44cm bars
Zipp Service Course SL stem 80mm 6 degree
BikeYoke Revive 125mm dropper
SQlab 611 Ergowave Carbon Saddle
Cane Creek Slamset, pink limited edition

Wheels:
Nextie 22mm inner 23mm deep carbon rims
DT Swiss 350 28h centerlock hubs
DT Swiss Aerolite spokes, white
Alloy double head nipples, pink
WTB Venture 700x40 120tpi tires

The final weight is roughly 20 pounds. Bare frame weight we 1885 grams, which is right in the middle of the Otso Warakin Ti and stainless frame weights. Considering it's a $900 Waltly, I'm content with that weight.

Now on to the pictures.

2
Bxcc
20 posts
#2Jul 22, 2021, 8:21 AM▲ Top

5
mike d
138 posts
#3Jul 23, 2021, 10:47 AM
Nice looking bike! I love Ti. Twin top tube is unique. Enjoy!
1
Ferrous
43 posts
#4Jul 25, 2021, 6:20 PM
That's a stunning looking bike!
1
Bxcc
20 posts
#5Jul 25, 2021, 7:18 PM
Thanks. I've only been on a few rides but I'm loving it so far. Got a good 25 mile ride in with about 10 to 12 miles of gravel. All smiles.
1
Robi
15 posts
#6Jul 28, 2021, 2:42 AM
Fantastic! What a cool frame design! I wanted to order from Waltly also but they never answered my emails. No idea why. I instead ordered from TIRIS-TI and very happy with the bike.
https://www.ridinggravel.com/forum/?p=post%2Ftiorays-titanium-11106380%3Fpid%3D1326987606
Enjoy your new ride!
1
pushstart
181 posts
#7Jul 28, 2021, 7:18 AM
@Robi( email amy[at] waltlyti.com -- though I've heard they've temporarily stopped taking orders, so that may be why.)

That is a beautiful build! Love how the twin top tube lets you keep RD cable/housing routed internal all the way to RD without having to fish it through the BB shell. The bead blasting work you did also looks really nice. I've considered doing some masking and painting for part of my main triangle on my Waltly frame, though I'm a bit nervous on whether I could DIY that in a way that would be both clean-looking and sufficiently durable for gravel.
1
Bxcc
20 posts
#8Jul 28, 2021, 4:44 PM
pushstart wrote:
That is a beautiful build! Love how the twin top tube lets you keep RD cable/housing routed internal all the way to RD without having to fish it through the BB shell. The bead blasting work you did also looks really nice. I've considered doing some masking and painting for part of my main triangle on my Waltly frame, though I'm a bit nervous on whether I could DIY that in a way that would be both clean-looking and sufficiently durable for gravel.

Thanks!
I thought about doing some painting as well and durability / longevity was my biggest concern. I figured the media blasting still looks good and if I don’t like a certain section, I’ll just blast the whole thing.
Another option is to anodize it yourself. I’ve done it to my other waltly frame and it came out really good. Not Agave Finish Works quality but good enough for me. The low voltage colors like blue and violet are the easiest to duplicate. I tried to get pink but it’s in the 75v range and I just couldn’t get it where I like.
I think using vinyl would be the easiest and relatively durable. The biggest benefit is that it’s easily removed if it doesn’t come out how you like. You can get it in all sorts of colors and patterns to suit the mood of the bike.

1
pushstart
181 posts
#9Jul 28, 2021, 7:49 PM
Wow, that anodization is really nicely done. I'd certainly be more than happy with that result! 🙂 I also considered getting a bench power supply to try my hand at that. Maybe that would be a more fun path to go down vs. painting. Nice work -- I hope you have some great adventures on that bike.
0
stu
646 posts
#10Jul 28, 2021, 8:55 PM
Maybe overkill for anodizing but Aim TTi make some nice bench power supplies:
https://www.aimtti.com/product-category/dc-power-supplies
0
Bxcc
20 posts
#11Jul 29, 2021, 6:05 AM
stu wrote:Maybe overkill for anodizing but Aim TTi make some nice bench power supplies:
https://www.aimtti.com/product-category/dc-power-supplies

Yes and no actually. For the lower voltage (under 30v) stuff, it's definitely overkill. But if you're trying to do large portions of a frame at 75v, you will need something nice than can control the current sufficiently. I have a $100 power supply that can deliver 120v and I think it's part of the reason I can't get consistent pinks and greens that I want. But for 50v and under, it works great.
0
RLB
97 posts
#12Dec 26, 2022, 12:05 PM
I know this is an old post but wow, what a great looking frame/bike. Just started searching for direct from China Ti toying with the idea of having one made for my wife and found this post. *just the other day a picture of the childhood BMX bike I always wanted popped up on Facebook, Torker with twin top tubes.
0
trestle
7 posts
#13Jan 1, 2023, 7:40 PM
Any more comments about the ride quality of the frame? Thanks.
0
Bxcc
20 posts
#14Jan 3, 2023, 2:30 PM
Still extremely happy with the bike. Zero complaints with the frame. With 2 teenage kids in sports, I don't ride as much as I'd like but I'd say I have around 500 miles on it. It's seen a good mix of pavement, dirt roads, and even a decent amount of singletrack. If I was to do it over again, the only thing I would change would be to add 10mm or so to the head tube length. But that's my fault for not knowing what riding position I wanted. Everything else is spot on for my usage.
2
RLB
97 posts
#15Jan 4, 2023, 2:37 PM
Really want to get one started, love the twin top tube... but its for my wife and thats making it more difficult (Im 6'2 with frog legs she is 5'5" normal proportions) a lifetime of finding tall stack hight without crazy long reach vs the normal small sizes. Trying to get her a do it all packing/gravel ride... more upright like a mountain bike but only needs clearance for 50c tires. Maybe like a Carbonda 696 with a higher stack and a dropped top tube. Her current gravel bike is more racy geo like the 3t Exploro and not ideal for really long rides and using hoods on dirt.

She got to ride a 52cm Salsa Cutthroat (52 is the smallest / its Salsas "XS"...in traditional road bike sizing 52 is more of a medium)
it fit great and she loved it but would have had to run a pretty substantial amount of spacers under the stem like this image.
Little worried about using the Salsa geo as its based on a suspension corrected (long) fork and no idea how that would effect measurements on a more traditional shaped frame

0
pushstart
181 posts
#16Jan 4, 2023, 3:27 PM
If that bike fits, I'd highly recommend spending time in https://www.bikegeocalc.com/ to model the geometry and then swap out (as the "B bike") for a normal fork length (~400mm, presumably) to make the necessary angle and head tube length adjustments needed -- you can swap back and forth (or shadow) the bikes to make sure your revised geometry matches up pretty close. You can include the spacers etc. to really make sure your frame spec will match.

If you're not comfortable getting that nerdy with the geo calculator, I'd probably recommend against going factory-direct custom as they're not (usually) able to read between the lines and get you what you want. You have to be very specific (and in my experience you'll get exactly what you asked for).

A few other random comments:
- The Carbonda 696 has a fairly steep head tube, which when combined with their 50mm offset fork makes for a fairly "quick" steering bike. That may not be what you're after?
- I'm super happy with my latest custom-titanium adventure bike, which was inspired by Carbonda tire clearance (i.e. big), but slacker head tube -- 71.5 and slightly lower BB (75mm drop) since I wasn't planning to run road+ (650B x 48) tires.
- But for the smaller frame, you might want to consider designing around 650B wheels for the larger-volume? I'm not a bikepack rider, though, so I can't comment on the value of running 700cx50mm vs. 27.5 x 2.0-2.1". (I'm actually going back to having a second 27.5" wheelset, as I find the smaller wheels with big-volume tires a lot more fun off-road than the 700c/29" x 2.1 that I've been running on this bike.)
- Another reason to consider the smaller large-volume wheels would be for a shorter chain stay and/or not needing to have a chain stay plate on the drive side; those add a fair bit of frame weight.
- I have a Speedier Cycles fork with adjustable offset (47mm, 52mm) that is just fantastic. I've seen this sold by other vendors, but was really easy to work with Speedier and the quality is great. Has dynamo routing, though I'm not able to take advantage of that yet. I have that set up with 47mm offset currently on that bike for the higher-trail geometry.
1
RLB
97 posts
#17Jan 4, 2023, 3:44 PM
bike geo calc will be a massive help, thank you.. having some trouble swapping forks and how that will effect geometry

650b is going to be the wheel size, I guess I could see her tossing on her 32c 700's from time to time but mostly want a "poor condition dirt road ready bike" if that makes any sense.... some bike pack on straight up mountain bike trail but we are thinking more "do it all" from rail trail, to C*O, to jacked up access roads being the worst of it. I love my 696 with 50c rubber on that stuff but going slightly more mountain bike regarding the HTA and offset makes sense... not that critical considering how middle of the road our terrain will be.

0
pushstart
181 posts
#18Jan 4, 2023, 3:59 PM
Yeah, I think the rule of thumb is 1º (steeper) for every 10mm of length removed (?) -- but may be misremembering that. But, you should be able to swap out the fork length -- from 420? 430? -- to the shorter (e.g. 395, 400) to see how the angles will change. Also check out http://yojimg.net/bike/web_tools/trailcalc.php for just looking at trail and seeing how values change with different fork lengths / angles, etc.
Sorry I missed that you were already going 650B. I think that makes perfect sense here.

Sounds like we probably ride similar roads/trails. My bike with the bigger rubber was great on the side trails along the C&O (near DC), but definitely the 29 x 2.1" tires were overkill on the actual towpath.

The latest trend to be borrowed from MTB is the longer top tubes with shorter stems, but I'd probably not sweat that too much unless that sounds particularly desirable.
1
Bxcc
20 posts
#19Jan 4, 2023, 4:01 PM
I really can’t add much that @pushstart hasn't already suggested. Playing with the bike calculator site is definitely going to be your best bet.
And for inspiration, check out Retrotec bikes. He definitely gives the twin top tubes some love.

1
RLB
97 posts
#20Jan 4, 2023, 4:22 PM
I hadn't mention the 650b part yet, I know she would want 40c minimum no reason for massive loops on a tiny bike as she wont be going over rocks and tech or anything...but we do have a couple extra nice sets of 700c wheels. I would say a bike designed for the worst part of the C&O surface/PawPaw detour would be the goal for her bike. She isn't a total picky bike nerd like me, She must have a higher stack than many/most of the newer gravel bikes (seems gravel racing is the new hot thing vs gravel bike packing geo)
0