There is some sort of magic in the color and typical aspect ratio of the bike to tubes… that or I have just drooled over it for decades and am blind to my own lust 
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There is something about the simplicity of brushed titanium. And you are right, the tube shape speaks to me much more than e. g. smaller steel tubes.
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This. Ever notice how a titanium full suspension MTB isn’t as appealing as a hardtail, gravel bike, or road bike?
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The looks of the forks make a bike for me IMO.
I keep trying to like unicrown steel forks but it just doesn’t do it for me. That fatness of a carbon unicrown fork is just beautiful in terms of line choice.
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That and the newer tapered head tube shapes can be a thing of beauty when mixed right.
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Totally agree. But I love large head tubes from a purely aesthetic reason.
God thats a bike of beauty.
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I’ve had aluminum, steel, and carbon frames but I particularly love ti bikes. Currently, all (4) of my bikes are titanium: one frame that I worked direct with Waltly and 3 that I designed and built with Cobalt Bikes. I like my current fleet a lot, though I have been experimenting with ideas and tend to sell one bike every year or two to make room for a new iteration. The ti “aero” bike (which I also posted on the TR users bikes thread) is my latest addition and I really enjoy it (but especially enjoyed all the research into the build). But my least-specialized Waltly commuter/gravel/all-road/CX gets the most miles. Recently it’s odometer rolled over 38,000.
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Dang man — quiver of dreams right there! Lovely bikes.
I still need to do some better photography but I’m loving my bike especially after adding the titanium fork.
Lynskey GR270
30/46 front chainrings on Quarq power meter crank
165 crank arms
11/42 rear cassette with Garbaruk cage extender
Other stuff….
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Thank you! I’m always trying to find what I can do on a relatively low budget [I guess it really is all relative; many would consider the $4k I spent on my integrated titanium bike to be the price of 10 bikes]. Doing my own work on them (& building my own wheels, etc.) certainly helps, as does shopping around / saved ebay searches, though I’ll admit that building 3 of those bikes in the last 3 years definitely consumed all of my discretionary allowance! 
I love designing and building up these bikes, though. A LeMond (Litespeed) ti Victoire was my first road bike; it was not the right size and super flexy, but it was a great introduction to the material. I’ve owned a few Habanero titanium frames over the years and had some really great carbon (road) bikes, and worked with Waltly to design a number of bikes for myself in the past and other friends. I’ve been really impressed with the quality of these frames. Someday, I’d love to get a frame from one of the boutique builders; but it’s a lot easier to experiment with geometry ideas on a ~$1500 frame vs. a ~$4k frame.
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What brand titanium fork is that? I’ve been intrigued by the forks that Bearclaw specs and would love to try one out.
I’ve recently been looking at Habenero Ti frames, I’m interested in your review given your current Ti fleet. Are they good quality or should I look elsewhere?
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Custom Road HALEY
I’ve been on this bike for a few months and it has been excellent. Very good custom build experience.
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It’s from a company called Tiris in China. I found them on Aliexpress and had them do a custom fork to my specs. I too loved the bearclaw but this fork has the same build quality and the perfect geometry. I also got my mounts where I wanted them.
Side note…titanium forks are very flexible and take some getting used to but I love the ride feel.
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Went through this exact process with Waltly last year, it was an absolute blast but definitely led to some wild rabbit holes. I’d like to think I was ok about not letting design scope creep too much, but there was so much to dig into. I was ok with the frame details, but spent a lot of time hemming and hawing about geometry details.
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Here’s an early photo of my Sage Barlow in the original configuration. It’s currently built with a Romin Evo Mirror saddle, Redshift Shockstop Pro stem, Rockshox AXS dropper, and e*13 Helix cassette, but I haven’t taken any good shots of it lately.
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This for me. I’ve been looking for a new disc road bike for several years, and despite all the carbon shapes, aero stats and comfort acknowledgments I never fell emotionally for one. I saw the Enigma - which coincidentally was the exact build I wanted right down to chaining ring size - and had bought it an hour later.
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So I hate to be negative, because the customer service was excellent – owner Mark is amazing guy – but I did break 2 of the CX frames (both replaced under warranty, even though I was really just outside warranty the second time it happened). I also had one of their road frames with the larger ovalized (“aero”) down tube and did not have any problems with that one. But for off-road I concluded that the small diameter (32mm) tubes are just not gonna cut it on a ti frame. Both times frame broke was at down tube / head tube interface. When I replaced the CX frame with a Waltly frame I modeled it on the geometry of the Habanero because that was excellent – low BB (78mm drop), relatively short chain stays (430mm), relatively fast steering (72.5°) and tweaked other angles / lengths for my biomechanics and ensured that tire clearance was a bit more generous. (These aren’t actually the best numbers for a pure CX bike – bb is low for one thing – but are perfect for a big-tire all-road bike.)
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Chumba makes some great Ti bikes.
Just got a T-lab x3 together. It’s set up to balance gravel and cx racing, though honestly I think I like the way it handles for road rides better than my road bike too. More experimentation will be required. High top tube for frame bags and cx carrying, steering geometry halfway between Cannondale superx and otso waheela. Set up with mullet drivetrain and 48t chainring. If this cleared a larger 50-52 I might replace my road bike. If only they could fit 45mm tires and 50-52 chainring with fairly short chainstays.
Roval terra wheels, and it is “The Bomb-diggity”.
I’ve already spaced the chainring out a bit to fit 48, so I don’t think that more clearance can be achieved with this design. If anyone has ideas though, I’m happy to hear them.
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