For those of you that don't know what you're looking at, this is a very early Vitus 979 frame, the earliest one I have ever seen in fact. Ateliers de la Rive was an old French tubing manufacturer that got its start in the 30s. In the 70s or so they teamed up with Bador amd CLB-Anginieux to make these quite revolutionary frames. These were known as the Duralinox range of tubing and frames, the first "succesful" use aluminum tubing and gluing or bonding to
be used in bicycle racing. The frames were extremely lightweight and forgiving on the bumps and pave. Sean Kelly rode Vitus frames to much success throughout his profesional carreer. Many people complained about durability and the flexiness of these frames back in the day, but for a lightweight rider that had that ever disappearing skill of "form" they were an awesome choice. I remember the first time I rode one things weren't so rosy, having neither lightness or form I tore the bottom bracket out of the poor thing in a field sprint. Quite a glorious end to borrowed bike. Sorry buddy.
This particular Vitus frame found its way to me by way of Switzerland and I had a particular person in mind for it when I got it. Now before you go thinking I am some moneyed globe trotter that has the ability to chase down cycling's rarities regardless of geographical locale, remember that we live in the interwebs now and in the interwebs there is this magical place called Ebay. That is where I found this baby and scored it for a mere 80 bucks. Yup. 80 bucks. Cost almost that much to ship it here. But look at the thing! Ain't it perty?
I have never seen a raw, clear anodized Vitus before. Most of the ones I have seen stateside have main tubes anodized some color and the sticker graphics are completely different. Around the time I found this frame I had made a new ladyfriend that professed to me her love of road riding. Upon visiting her home I found her prized road bike to be a too big Schwinn Continental that was around her same age and over half her weight. This particular ladyfriend has long struggled with back problems and lugging that Schwinn probably didn't help. So who better to have a nice chatter absorbing piece of bicycling history? And maybe even now with a proper road bike she could learn to shift and stuff. Her form was amazing, both on and off the bike, she deserved better than an old anchor three sizes too big for her. On top of this she loved the idea of vintage mechanical stuff. So the build began.
Old Mavic SSC parts would have been perfect for this bike, but I didn't have any of that stuff, at least not a whole gruppo. But I did have piles of old Campy stuff from the era so Campy it was. I also located a nice set of Campy Super Record hubs with GP4 Mavic sew-up rims already laced up for a lightweight rider. Campy brakes never worked well so I used my faves from the era, Modolo. And I put some of those maginificent old Bullseye pulleys in a Campy Nuovo record derailleur that I rebuilt to get the shifting done. The front changer is a Super Record, in keeping with the '80s roadie tradition; Nuovo rear changers were tougher and shifted better, or at least they were a bit cheaper. I even managed to find a vintage NOS ladies Avocet Touring saddle. The frame is French, so finding the appropriate headset and bottom bracket proved to be fun. Velo Orange supplied the bottom bracket, a concession to modernity. I highly recommend them. The goal was to build a bike that would have been at the top of its heap in the day. I think it turned out quite nice and it gets plenty of gawks from the geezers.
No comments:
Post a Comment