Vit T - eurobuild

So I thought since my Vit has now been on 1 official Retrobike outing it was time for a build thread.

I must warn you there is Retromod content and Mild Frame Abuse - so look away now if you dont want to see the horror.

Stumbled across RB whilst looking for rebuild advice for my RC35's which are attached to my 94 Prestige. Soon the bug had bitten and I resolved to find the Orange I always wanted BITD - the Vitamin T. Only one problem - they aint that common - especially in 17". Several false starts involving 17.5" models that always turned out to be the 19" measured C-C and I spied one on Ebay just before Xmas. Just a few problems - was it actually a Vit T?

The ticks in the For Column.

1. Correct Serial no for Oranges at the time.
2. Correct Seat Stays for a Vit T
3. Correct Welds.

Ticks in the against :

1. 1 1/8" head tube
2. No Seat Bolt eyes.
3. Aftermarket Decals.

After some debat with the RB Vit T Alumni the tentative conclusion was that it was indeed a Vit T. PM conversation on Ebay with the Seller was fairly convincing if unprovable. So I took the plunge and splashed the cash and won - partly I think because the frame had been a little modded.

The list of crimes :
Rear Disc Tab added (seems to be Ti)
Rear Brake Bosses Ground off.
Canti Bridge ground off.

The good bits
Frame refinished
BB Faced and threads chased.

Re: Vit T Mongrel

Frame arrives and the weight weenie in me has to find out just how light it was turns out it was 1256g according to the wifes kitchen scales - definately the lightest frame I have ever owned.

Build theme wasn't that difficult like many an RB'er before me and inspired by redeeming the frame mods with a nice set of Hope stoppers I decided the plan was for a Euro build - whilst a UK branded build was going to be almost impossible a Euro build was going to be challenging but doable. after much deliberation the spec was going to be as follows

Hope BB
Hope C2 brakes
Hope Enduro headset (2007ish)

Sachs Quarz Front Mech
Sachs Quarz Rear Mech
Sachs Quarz Grip Shifters

(All pre SRAM)

The sachs kit is lovely - I was able to find the Front Mech and Shifters NOS and boxed on eBay.com in the US and with the help of an RB who trans-shipped for free I was off and running evil bay came up trumps again with a lightly used quarz rear mech in Edinburgh.


A nice Use TI seat post appeared on eBay - only downside was a purple saddle clamp - a visit from Mr Oven Cleaner and an attack of the dremel were needed.




it cleaned up further than the above pic.


BB, headsets, seat post and mechs attached and its weight weenie time again.




Chain is a NOS LT99 from Rohloff - bitd I put a stupid amount of miles on one of these without any sign of wear of stretching - only downside seemed to be a tendency for the chain rings to take the brunt of the wear instead - although that could have been just the pace rings being quite a soft alloy. I never forgave my LBS of the time throwing my previous LT99 away when they rebuilt my Prestige around 96-97. This was my chance to welcome an old friend back.

Re: Vit T Mongrel

The rest of the kit was going to be blue ano to match the BB and to add a splash of colour

RC130 Bars
blue hope hubs with the engraved hope skewers and 8 speed cassette - having had compact rings since my first XC expert equipped clockwork there was no way I was going back to Standard - especially with my inner weight weenie watching.
Silver Rc45 stem





Then came the moment that caused a big swerve on the journey - a rare chance to give me a full British chainset with the appearance and outing on eBay (thanks guys) of a Goldtec Ti Cassette and rings attached to some of the nicest Middleburn RS3's I'd seen. Pure Ti retro porn! Loving the ramps on the middle chainring - that's not something you see much of on aftermarket rings. Oddly enough they were the from same guy who sold me the Quarz rear mech a do few months earlier who was selling off his collection.


Only trouble was the now finishing kit was too blingy - blue and gold ano was never going to cut it together. To make the decision easier the Hope BB was too long for the low profile RS3's. A short wait on ebay and a plain silver Hope BB arrived in much better condition and at 109mm closer in ideal length for the RS3's.

A packaged set of Hope Suspsension and Ti-Glide hubs on Mavics together with a reasonable set of C2's and the new colour theme was Ti, Black and Gold.

An Xlite Ti bar and saddle and I was cooking with gas.

The front end dilemma

I knew this was going to be a problem.

On the plus side a 1 1/8" head tube meant a stupid amount of choice - but the disc tab on the rear meant a front disc was mandatory - and also being a 93/94 frame suspension travel was going to have to be on the fairly short side. In the end a couple of beer influenced decisions on eBay gave me the choice of a pair of 420mm a-c RC31's and a set of RC36 Pro Class 2's both in the remit of my Euro build but if Im honest the RC36's were too modern they should have been Evo III's.



First on the frame were the RC36's - slapping just a C2 on the front I was off down the road for a test run. Hmmmm nice fork action but not massively liking the front end feel and the weight of the front end - it just didn't feel balanced.


Second attempt was the RC31's a big improvement but that RC45 stem was still making things too twitchy.

Time for a new stem - I'd been on the lookout for a Ti stem but European or British ones are pretty rare - only one I had seen was a Roox one. Still a member had a Titec in the for sale section and both the colour and the shape called to me - build theme rules are meant to be broken after all! Fitted that and near steering perfection was achieved!


next post - another happy direction change.

Re: Vit T Mongrel Das Eurobuild

Keep it coming ;-)

Re: Vit T Mongrel Das Eurobuild

Good Score, but 1256g seems too light, I had one and it was just under 1600g in this size. Sub 3 pounds is 6/4 Ti territory not 3-25.
I suppose the canti bosses and canti mount would weigh a bit, but then it's had the disc mount added.

Re: Vit T Mongrel Das Eurobuild

I did take a photo - will try and dig it out l may have swapped a number or two around - plus they are pretty crappy scales.

Re: Vit T Mongrel Das Eurobuild

Bike weights 10.39kg on a hanging luggage scale - that's with rigid forks but missing the rear brake caliper and having a honking great Trail Gator bracket attached to the seat post. So expecting around 10kg/22lb once build is complete.

Re: Vit T Mongrel Das Eurobuild

secret_squirrel":3gapyums said:

Bike weights 10.39kg on a hanging luggage scale - that's with rigid forks but missing the rear brake caliper and having a honking great Trail Gator bracket attached to the seat post. So expecting around 10kg/22lb once build is complete.

Click to expand...

Looking good!

Re: Vit T Mongrel - eurobuild

Any hoo where was I? Ah yea fork testing - just having got sorted with a pair of standard RC31's a long looked for part appears as if by magic on the for sale section. Now I had been searching for these for ages - and whilst compared to some of the exotic items on RB they aren't that rare they still seemed to me like rocking horse poo. I did however have people telling me they didnt exist - fortunately other assured me they did to the point where one guy has a NOS set in his attic put away for a rainy day. But lo and behold - the rocking horse generated a nice black carbon-titanium turd.



RC31 Type C's in rare 1" steerer 420mm AC form.

Of course those of you who are actually still awake will remember my Vit is one of the rare 1-1/8" head tube models - doh! Refusing to let this oppotunity go a quick search showed that BETD - Goldtec's sizter company make headset reducers - so I was cooking with gas again. digging a nos 1" Stronglight A9 roller bearing headset out of the shed and you have the picture above. Only trouble is that the headset colour / shape doesn't compliment the build very well - particularly with the black ano headset reducers. still they are all euro parts so that was enough for the time being.

Re: Vit T Mongrel - eurobuild

And that was pretty much the spec it had on Urban Retro Bike #3.

What's left to go :
Period decals
Fit rear hose properly
place Heli Tape on me delicates.

Unfortunately I failed at the first hurdle of refitting the rear c2 and couldn't for the life of me swap the existing rear caliper for one with a working bleed valve. fortunately one of our resident C2 experts Tony helped me out with some new caliper halves.

a decal order in with Gil and Im almost there.

Here is the current state :