Vitus 992 project

[zerogravitas]

Hi all. After introducing myself I thought I should introduce my new project.

After reading a whole lot about the Alan and Vitus lugged aluminium frames I fell in love with their distinct industrial design style and the story of their development and long pro tour history. Already having steel and carbon frames in my hoard I thought it was clearly essential to get hold of one to make my collection more rounded!

A little bay-watching and haggling later I am now the owner of this classic purple anodized Vitus 992...



The taped oval-round tube shaping and detail of the casting are fantastic in the flesh.

I'm really looking forward to building this up - I have a few parts in mind, a classic alu 90s aero wheelset to complement all those shiny lugs, and a sprinkling of Mavic components to give it a little more Gallic flair.

I've done some pretty extensive web trawling but if anyone has any links to Vitus catalogues or general info I would be interested in working out the exact year of my frame. It seems like the earlier years were all anodized and later framesets were fully painted?

So to the project. First thing is to clean it of grime, give the lugs an initial polish and check the BB and headset. The wonky decals are coming off and I'll fit a repro set as a matter of course too. Watch this space for more exciting developments!

EDIT; Finished, see page 2 for more pictures.

 

[Ruimteaapje]

Subscribed!

 

[RabC]

That's going to make a very nice build

 

[Nob]

Nice color to work with when you build it up maybe with white purple combo....

 

[MartinB123]

Looks great - the derailleur braze-on looks a bit wonky?

 

[biggs682]

Nice bikes and ride well

 

[zerogravitas]

Yeah, I'm leaning toward going with a white saddle and tape for this, even though that flies against my usual desire for practicality! Some more little yellow accents should complement the purple rather nicely too.

@ Martin the derailleur bracket is maybe ever so slightly twisted but nothing a little persuasion won't fix.

 

[zerogravitas]

A little progress.. took the headset and fork off to give it all a good clean and regrease.

Here pre-clean you can see how this interesting/pioneering integrated headset design works, there is a steel insert that pushes into the aluminum lug that the bearing carrier than runs on.



The top cap nut is also a great bit of French over-engineering. Machined from a single piece, the slotted section on the right is tightened against the steerer with the little allen bolt you can see side-on in the middle. Very nifty!



I also gave the steerer a quick tickle with a softpad to get the surface rust off and cleaned out the grot from inside it. Everything now runs smoothly and we are pretty much ready for polishing and some new decals!

 

[foz]

Re:

Looking forward to this!

 

[gridno27]

Re:

Very nice project - I interesting to see the progress of this build up

By the way I have a 992 OVOID too. But it has a Lotto livery scheme like a 1995 Lotto Isoglass Teambike


My knowledge is that the 992 OVOID comes together with the introduction of Campagnolo's first 8-speed new Record/Chorus groupsets
with the beaultiful filigree crankset and next Gen of Ergopowers in mid of 90s. The Record/Chorus groupset was the successor of the famous
C-Record groupset, which reigns the 80s and begining of 90s beside Shimano's 8-speed Dura Ace.

… best choise for this is a 8-speed Campy and Shimano or if you like especially with a 8-speed MAVIC with the polarizing Starfish crank
combined with Shimano's ST-7400. But for such a build up you need a rare 8-speed MAVIC 571/2 rear hub.