I'd had my eye on the Whipshot (not just the Ti, but also the Steel and AL versions) for a while now, and I jumped on the Black Friday deal. Set that bike up for my wife, and now that it's sorted and test-ridden, I went ahead and bought one for myself. (The deal is gone at bikesdirect, but it's still available at biekshopwarehouse). A few notes:
1. The Ti version does have dimpled chainstays.
2. I agree, the tire clearance choke point will come at the chainstays. I could see running 38s or maybe 40s.
3. My bike came with two minor issues, but one was a HUGE HUGE pain in the butt. The chain was sized too small, relatively to SRAM's instructions (it was two links too short). Second, the brake pad retaining spring was the wrong spring. It did not push the pads back fully when you released the brake, and it did not stay in place when you hit a bump, so it made it impossible to eliminate rotor rub (the rotor hit the spring itself as it bounced around). In hindsight, it was obviously the wrong spring, but it took me a LONG time to figure this out, and was only clear when I got a second set of pads that had the proper spring (which looked almost identical, but functioned differently).
4. The quality of the frame and the welds looks great.
5. The external cable routing is really simple but very well thought-out. No rattles at all, and very easy to set up.
6. The clutched RD with the lockout for removing the wheel is really brilliant.
7. My bike had brake hoses that were WAY too long. So I got to learn how to bleed SRAM brakes (had previously done Shimano only). It's a very clever and logical system, but I still don't like having to deal with toxic DOT fluid.
SRAM Force 1 groupset + solid DT Swiss wheelset + Ritchey finishing kit = almost the entire price of the bike, but they throw in a Ti frame and a full carbon fork for FREE. It's an insane deal.
My next step will be trying to get fenders setup. It looks like it has all the right mounting points.