I have only used Walty and Titan.

 I have  had two Walty builds and one Titan build.  Both were super easy to deal with and pretty straightforward. 

Walty built my two 29 hardtails.  I am currently riding one, going on three years or so.  The other one I sold sometime ago.  I am happy with the Vassago Moose Knuckle style frame they built.  It is my go to hardtail.

Titan built me a 29 soft-tail that I am still riding, going on just over a year.

I have not had to deal with a warranty issue with either, and both frames built up super easily.

I plan to get another build in another year, another soft-tail, and will most likely go with Titan as they did such a spot on job with my current soft-tail.

Not much input here, but that is one of the risks of buying overseas.  They will warranty the frame but you have to cover shipping costs.  If you do ship it back, make sure you have a price on the return shipping, because you will probably have to pay that also.  Return shipping will not be as $$$ as sending it to Waltly, but calculate that in your costs.

I have to look at my Waltly, because I hear creaking from the seat-tube area, and your frame is the second in as many months that I have seen with a crack in that area.

Best of luck!

Okay,

To be clear, you mean to expand this part?

Question about the rear shock ...

Is there a trick or way to remove and install it?

I have been riding the snot out of my frame, and my rear shock needs service.  When I installed it on the frame it was such a pain in the arse to get it in.  I ended up putting a little scratch at the bottom of the stancion.

Here is what I did the first time.
When I installed my rear shock I removed all the air and placed it on the lowest compression and rebound.  Then I compressed it. Followed by installing it, but even doing this took two or three tries!  As I mentioned, I ended up making a light scratch because the shock would start to rebound before I had it set in place.

Would appreciate if there are any pointers. 

Thanks!

Looks great!

I am still riding the snot out of mine after all these months. I have to change the seals and fluid on my fork and shock shortly.

You are right in your description.  It is not a full suspension, I am getting just over two inches of travel on my frame, but it will not beat  you as mush as a hardtail.  If anyone else gets one of these frames expecting it to be like a full susp. they will be disappointed.

Quick question.  Since I plan to service my shock soon, do you have any tips on removing it and installing it?  It was such a bear to install it in the first place.

Cheers!

Here are the pictures.  For some reason I cannot post straight from my phone, so it was a bit of a hassle to get them up.

I really did not think much about the plate thickness.  I automatically opted for the 6mm thickness, not the 3mm they have a standard option.  I do not even know if other thicknesses are offered. 

At my weight, about 185 lb with gear, I did not want a laterally flexy rear end.  As I mentioned earlier, my Dos Niner suffered from this, as it seemed the two wheels were tracking different lines carving into turns or berms, and suddenly the rear wheel would make a small hop when the frame lined up. 

This bike is much more like my Moots YBB, laterally stiff, but the just over two inches of travel, make it  vertically plush.  My Moots did not even have a flex plate, the chainstays flexed, but that was just over an inch of rear travel.

Also, the rear end of this frame has a solid, hardtail like, feel when pedaling.

I have read it many times before, and I will repeat it again myself,  Know what you want when dealing directly with the factory.  This is my third custom ti frame (Triton, Walty, and Titan) and my gut tells me they will build whatever you want, even if it might not be ideal in the end.

I looked at many other different frame geometries and bikes that rip through my local trails.  Two things I was really keen on, bottom bracket height and rear chainstay length.  I feel I hit the mark on both of these objectives.

 

The only to soft-tails I've ridden are the Moots YBB and the Salsa Dos Niner. 

I rode the Orange and Silver versions of the Salsa Dos Niner as is seemed Salsa was always adding more material to the rear of the frame for each new version in attempt to stop the frame failures that happened at that end of the frame.  Both of my frames cracked at the shock mounting bolt.  They were amazing riding frames, but they lacked lateral stiffness.  This was only noticeable for me when i was going fast down a mountain and carved into a turn.  It almost seemed that the front wheel and rear wheel were tracking on two different paths, until the rear end seemed to almost hop into the same track as the front.  I suppose that flex is what caused my frame failures.

This frame reminds me more of my Moots YBB.  Even though my Moots was a 26" bike and only had just over an inch of rear travel, this frame feels as solid as my Moots.  The big differences are that this frame is for  29' wheels and is getting just over two inches, 50mm, of travel (by my rough estimates), so it is a much more plush ride. 

The seat-stay cut-outs, besides looking cool, seem to add small bump compliance from what I was able to ascertain on the web. 

My main focus in getting this frame was two-fold. 
One, maintenance free suspension.  My full suspension frame has become a yearly ritual of replacing all the bearings (two times already).  For this frame, it will just be shock maintenance. 
Second, as I am well into my 50's, I started riding dirt when hardtails were the bikes to ride.  I still love the feel of a hardtail, and how it connects you to the ground, but as I age, hardtails seem to tax my body more and I need more recovery time in between rides.  After thirty years of riding, I finally picked up a full suspension to be able to increase my ride frequency due to shorter recovery times, but even my short travel full suspension, feels like I am missing that direct connect with the ground.

This frame is the best of both worlds.  I am glad I saw QuentinLL's thread and decided to pursue this build.  The two inches of rear travel is enough to shorten recovery times between rides, I can do 25 - 35 miles of riding over consecutive days, but I sill feel a solid connect to the ground when riding.  More riding is important to me as I age.

More pictures to come.