PhilDAS never content with the bikes I already own

Nice bit of detail with the oval top tube, don’t think I’ve ever seen a round bottom and oval top… can’t see a material grade on the drawing though? 🕵️‍♂️

Perhaps. I wasn't in China to oversee production so I can neither confirm nor deny

It's seamless 3Al-2.5V
I like an oval top tube. It makes the bike look chunkier from a riders perspective but without the actual heft of a big round tube. Also [Klaxon sounds] vertical compliance, lateral stiffness.

this looks great, good work. thanks for sharing.

I am going to be using the nice but pricey Whisky no9 fork for it's very short crown. This should mean space fingers crossed 28c and a fender in a short 367mm road fork which pretty much no other fork/bike has.
This is to keep that fast road bike feel through 4 seasons. What I didn't want is "endurance" or "audax".
...though I will actually audax on this

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28c and a fender

That's terrible clearance for a 'cross bike'

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It clears the all important 33c without fender.
But I never mentioned cross bike, that's just their wording I suppose for a disc road frame

I was being facetious, as you well know by now :-)

Any thoughts on colour scheme? I think ceracote on Ti is quite trendy now, or will the painting be done in the kitchen?

What mudguards are you planning to use?

I'm going to go somewhere professional (cheap). And probably black. It's a classy affair you see.

Got some of them 35mm carbon fancy ones

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...which should get back some lightness from the non butted tubing...

No shade but is this normal for chaitai? Or ti in general?

Yeah fairly normal. It's not a china specific thing. I think butting Ti tubing is difficult to get right and a lot of Ti builders the world over say it makes no difference to the ride other than a hundred grams. Think a fair few well respected builders only use straight guage

Every day is a school day.

Very cool. Are you going to paint the fork and guards as well?

The forks I do plan to. Either to match the frame or just gloss clear if it looks dark enough to blend in

Paint the fork a titanium colour

Lol

I think it's got something to do with stiffness too.
Titanium frames flex more than steel or alu of equivalent strength so unless you're a super-light rider or looking for something really flexible, plain gauge are a good way to manage the whippiness.

Yeah I think it can be a bit noodly.

Hopefully mines fairly stiff. I went with the biggest chainstays they have despite them wanting to give me the puny round ones and the fat downtube should help

Yes - the design of yours looks purposeful and I'm sure you'll make a great job of it

The carbon guards are the biggest of drips, not 100% on board with black paint but I'm sure it'll turn out better than it does in my head. Any thoughts on decals?

No decals but I did get the whole frame a brushed finish so that I can stencil some logos before paint and have the raw Ti in place of decals

What's the logo / name going to be?

TBC. I was always terrible at graphic design.