Vitus 979 - build inspiration needed

Picked up this 979 yesterday as I had an appropriate fork and it was a decent price, plus there was a KAS replica version in the same colour with full Mavic in a shop I used to work in that I lusted after.



I'm unsure as to what to do with it now though, there are plenty of great builds on here already and whilst I'd like it to be period correct (is there a way of figuring out the frame date btw?) I am not going to lavish huge sums of money building it as I have more than a few other projects already. Some thoughts are:

Mavic - cool and rare, but expensive.
French - Stronglight cranks/BB/headset/; Atax post/stem/bar; a few Mavic bits.
Campagnolo - either C-Record or Chorus as I have the beginnings of either group.
Something obscure: Full Gipiemme or Ofmega?

Any thoughts RB hive-mind?

Probably not to your taste in anyway shape or form but this was mostly NOS Shimano 600 many moons ago (make sure the downtube screw that holds the shifter mounts is in good condition otherwise it may fall out leaving your levers clattering behind you!)





Campagnolo/ Mavic

In the Frames heyday a umber of regional & 2/3 div teams in France used the 979 with mid range Campag or Shimano kit & the odd one Huret +a couple of teams near the border with Spain ran Zeus

I had exactly that frame and had full shimano 600 (6400 series, the one before 'tricolour') , the most underrated group set in my opinion, it looked superb, and it is great value today IMHO

I already have a number of Shimano build bikes so would like to meddle with Campag or something else ideally, I do like the idea of the Huret or Zeus though.

Suspect I will go Stringlight for headset, BB, cranks anyway and then go from there.

Yours looks great LGF, makes me think it doesn't need decals.

They look amazing with all-Mavic but, like you say, it's a LOT of money!

Silver frame might be asking for silver everything and maybe a little bit of subtle Ti thrown in (spokes, seatpost). No carbon though - build must stay strictly pre-carbon era.

Full Campagnolo Nuovo Record build?

Oh go on then

Be nice to see a Full Gipiemme or a Zeus build it would be different from the shimagnolo builds.

I'm sure mine has a year stamp on it somewhere. 1986 I think?

I know my Alan had a date stamp, haven’t found anything on the Vitus yet though.

Plan thus far is to see what I can scare up cheaply from eBay and allow that to dictate the direction, I’m leaning towards a mixed French group with some Simplex, Stronglight and Mavic. We’ll see.