How it's made
The shine is the metal, not the paint.
There is no metallic pigment in any of the six colorways. None. Every bit of depth and movement you see is polished titanium underneath, read through a transparent color coat. That is a harder way to finish a frame than mixing flake into the paint, and it is the reason these look the way they do.
The same tube, at three stages
Left to right in each frame: titanium polished to a mirror and left bare, the same tube masked off where the graphics will be, and the finished surface with transparent color and clear over the top. The bare tube and the finished one are the same metal — that is the entire trick, and it is why an opaque primer is prohibited on these frames. Everything below is how that gets done.
The reference
The reference is Cromovelato — the transparent-color-over-bright-metal finish Italian builders like Officina Battaglin are known for. Theirs is color over chrome-plated steel. Ours is color over polished titanium, and we would argue that is the better starting point. Chrome is a layer added on top of a frame, and a layer can pit, lift, and let corrosion creep underneath it — which is exactly how most chromed steel frames eventually fail. Ours is not plated on. The reflective surface is the frame itself, polished; there is nothing between the color and the metal to fail, and nothing underneath it that rusts. We call it Cromovelato-inspired rather than Cromovelato because the substrate genuinely is different — and different in our favor. If you have seen a Cromovelato finish in person and it stayed with you, this is that, done on better metal.
What it buys you is a finish that behaves like a material rather than a color. Vivid in direct sun, deep in daylight, nearly black in shade, with bright near-silver highlights wherever the polished metal catches. Take the same bike out on an overcast Tuesday and a clear Saturday and you will think you own two of them.
The finish, in order
Polish the metal
After dimensional QC, every surface that will be visible through the color is progressively refined and polished to a mirror. This is the slowest step and the one that decides the result: transparent color magnifies scratches and waviness rather than hiding them, so a shortcut here shows up under the clear coat forever.
Mask the logos
The 180 mm script wordmark on the down tube and the 37 mm mark on the head tube are masked off using production vector masks, cut sharp. They are not decals. When the frame is finished, those areas are the bare polished titanium of the frame itself, showing through — which is why they sit perfectly flush rather than standing proud of the paint.
Transparent bonding layer
A transparent direct-to-metal system, validated specifically on polished titanium. Opaque primer is prohibited on these frames — it is the normal way to make paint stick, and it would destroy the entire effect by putting a wall between your eye and the metal.
Transparent color
Controlled coats of transparent color, built up to an approved film thickness. There is no metallic, pearl or mica pigment in any of the six — none. Every bit of shine you see is the polished titanium underneath coming back through the color. That is the whole difference between this and a metallic paint job that imitates it.
Clear, cut and polish
Masks come off, then a UV-stable high-solids 2K clear goes over the entire frame including the exposed titanium graphics, so the finished surface is continuous. Cured, wet-sanded and polished back to optical gloss.
Fork and final QC
The fork is raw large-flake carbon under clear, unbranded, with a restrained transition into the frame color at the lower legs only. Then coating uniformity, mask edges, alignment, threads, bearing seats, brake faces, axle interfaces, seatpost fit and routing all get checked, and an approved finish coupon is retained with the build record.
The logos are holes in the paint.
The script on the down tube is 180 mm wide. The mark on the head tube is 37 mm, centred. Both are masked off before any color goes on, so what you are looking at is the polished titanium of the frame itself, with the clear coat running continuously over both the color and the bare metal.
The result sits perfectly flush. Run a finger across it and there is no edge, because there is nothing there to have an edge — it is not a decal, and it cannot lift, peel or wear through. There is no model name, no “titanium” callout, no striping and no secondary branding anywhere on the frame. Two marks, and the finish.
The third is a small maker's mark on the drive-side chainstay: a PNW symbol and the words Designed in the Pacific Northwest — sized and placed like a signature rather than a logo, and saying the accurate thing about where these are made.
Color is never approved from a screen
No color is ever approved from a screen. Polished titanium coupons are sprayed at four different color densities and reviewed in direct sun, open shade, overcast daylight and neutral indoor light before a frame is coated — because a transparent finish over metal looks like four different colors in those four conditions, and a monitor shows you none of them.
Which is why I won't ask you to approve one from a screen either. Tell me the two or three you are torn between and I will post you painted titanium samples in a box that comes back — you pay the cost of return postage and nothing else.
Ask for samplesThe frame
3Al/2.5V titanium with dropped seatstays. The proportions are deliberately restrained — a 38 mm down tube and relatively slender tubes throughout, because the point is a modern race bike made of titanium, not an oversized aero carbon frame copied in metal. Routing is internal by default, with nothing visible between the levers and the frame, but we will build it for external routing if that is what you want — it is a decision made at design time, because it changes how the frame is put together. The cockpit is open the same way: a one-piece integrated bar and stem, or a separate bar and stem, entirely as you prefer.
The welds are TIG, laid under full inert-gas coverage with an internal back-purge, and they are meant to be seen. We don't grind them flat or hide them — a consistent, evenly stacked titanium weld is the most honest evidence you have that the frame was made by someone who knew what they were doing.
You will not find a geometry chart on this page, and that is deliberate. Stack, reach, head and seat angle, chainstay length, wheelbase, BB drop, fork rake, trail and the tube schedule are all drawn for you from your fit data, dimensioned on an engineering drawing, and approved by you before a single tube is cut. There is no stock geometry to measure yourself against, because there is no stock frame.
- Material
- 3Al/2.5V titanium
- Geometry
- Drawn to your fit
- Head tube
- 44 mm
- Down tube
- 38 mm
- Seatpost
- 27.2 mm
- Tire clearance
- Up to 700 × 45c
- Routing
- Internal by default
- Cockpit
- Your choice
- Seatstays
- Dropped
- Welds
- TIG, left visible
Every dimension engineered per frame and approved by you before a tube is cut.
Deliberately slender — not an aero-carbon frame copied in titanium.
Drawn around the tire you actually intend to run.
External if you prefer it — decided at design time, because it changes how the frame is built.
One-piece integrated, or a separate bar and stem. Neither is imposed.
Low, compact seat cluster — the defining styling cue.
Back-purged and evenly stacked — not ground away.
Raw large-flake carbon under clear, with no branding on it at all, and the frame color carried only into the bottom of the legs. Weight where it matters, color where the eye goes.
Where they're made
Designed in the Pacific Northwest, fabricated and finished in China by a specialist titanium framebuilder, built up and handed over here in Kirkland.
It is etched on the chainstay of every frame I sell: Domestique frames are designed here and made there. The engineering drawing, the geometry, the fit, the finish specification and the color approval are ours. The cutting, mitring, TIG welding, polishing and coating are done by a titanium framebuilder in China who does that work — 3Al/2.5V tube, back-purged TIG, transparent color over a mirror polish — better than anyone I could hire within a thousand miles of here. That they also do it for less is why the price is what it is rather than double. What happens here is everything either side of that: the design, the fit, the build, and the person you talk to.
Here
Design and geometry, your fit, the tube schedule, the finish specification, color approval, component sourcing, the build, and the handover.
There
Cutting, mitring, TIG welding, alignment, polishing, masking and coating — to our released drawing, up to twelve weeks.
Back here
About a week to build the bike up, set your position, and put you on it.
You've read more about this than most people do before they order.
Pick a colorway, send me your fit numbers, and tell me how you ride. I'll take it from there.