I chose Waltly Titanium because of the good reviews that I can find on the internet.
The often 3 companies are Waltly, Titan and XACD.
XACD, the common comment is that they are pushy though they are very capable. So I skipped on them
Titan, fewer examples on their site and less info than Waltly on the internet. (though I do know a local seller who sold their frames for many years)
I guess one can't go wrong with any of the 3 builders, I just chose what I chose.
Upon my first query, I was directed to Sumi from sales.
She would be my liaise point from now on and handle all my un-informed / silly design requests as well as patiently wait for my delayed responses.
My thumbs up to her for the patience to my many queries, odd requests, slow responses and many changes to the design.
A brief of the ordering process.
1.
Submit plans - give the design idea, fit requirements, general requirements; A quote will be given for the bike
2.
Design - Upon agreement and payment of 50% of the price, the design process starts with lots of back and forth on requirements and drawings;
3.
Order / Fabrication- More like finalizing the design and giving the approval to build the frame
4.
Graphics - adding the desired logos and finish to the frame
5.
Shipping
Submit plans
My initial idea was to look for an existing design from a manufacturer as the starting point and size it down to XS or XXS size.
It just had to look the way I liked (straight top tube traditional bike look) and have some all-round/long distance riding aspect to the design.
In the end, I found that I liked the Enigma Excel, but it was not available in XS size.
Initial inspiration - the Enigma Excel
So I sized down the bike based on the geometry chart and passed it to Waltly with the instruction
"design me a bike that looks like this with this geometry"
Sized down dimensions in RED.
The size down was based on a lot of referencing to my current bikes, other XS models so I had a rough idea where I wanted to go with the size, but not the full design implications.