Kati’s Titanium Gravel Bike

I’ve built a few bike for really tall riders, but Kati’s bike was the first really small frame I’ve built under this brand. Tall frames are easier in a lot of ways - making a tube longer or thicker is pretty straightforward.

Smaller frames start to run into issues with components that weren’t designed with shorter riders in mind. Tapered fork steerers, for example, limit you to about a 90mm headtube. This was just long enough to get the top and downtubes attached, but limited how low the bars could go relative to the saddle. Thankfully Kati’s fit has them slightly above, but for a racy frame we would have to get creative.

Cranks are another “big” one. Kati brought in some specialized cranks from Japan that are 145mm long and have a Q-factor of about 140mm. Paired with the Wolf Tooth Components ALT pedals with adjustable Q-factor we got the pedaling stance super narrow while maintaining proper chainline for the SRAM Transmission drivetrain.

Seatposts often have to be cut on smaller frames to avoid running into the seat tube bottle bosses. Kati was dropper post curious when we were putting this frame together so I moved to externally threaded bottle bosses and added a port on the seat tube for a cable. There’s a lot of math involved with the maximum insertion of the post on a low saddle height but we made it work.

A custom titanium rack rounds out the frame and will provide a platform for lashing gear to, as well as standard panniers or anything-style cages.