1987 Vitus 979
Part Diary, Part Technical Manual, Part Tips & Tricks

I was looking for a bike for the Shimano 600 gruppo, so it happen to come attached to this decent Vitus frameset. So on December 8, 2010, I bought my second Vitus, sans wheels from a guy in San Carlos.

4/23/2011 - After sitting around for a while, I decided to build this bike up to sell, since the frame was too small for me anyway. So I took most of the Shimano RX100 components that came on the KHS Aero Turbo and started assembling everything.

6/1/2011 - Today I finished putting the bike together. It was a very low priority build. Since the carbon fiber seatpost that came with the bike had a strange rail width, I finally decided to buy a new Kalloy seatpost on eBay. The brakes and shifters all came together nicely. The right side brifter is not working properly, so I put on some downtube shifters, but I installed the brifters anyway, so I didn't have the buy brake levers and the new owner may want to try and repair the brifter. The left side brifter works fine. So I took the bike for a spin around the neighborhood, everything felt good and it shifted very well.

8/12/2011 - Posted an ad on craigslist on 8/10 and immediately had two people interested. A guy named Alex ended up coming over on a Saturday night at 10:00pm to buy it. He lives in the City and will use it daily as his commuter bike - pretty cool.

Here are the specs:

Frame: 1987 Vitus 979 Mk II, 53cm, black. Serial Number: E056218. Vitus Duralinox (dur-able + al-uminum + inox-idable) 5086 aluminum alloy tubing, slip fit into aluminum lugs and bonded using a dry heat activated epoxy process derived from French aerospace company TVT. The main triangle is anodized. The Mk I frame is identified by the conventional seat binder bolt design, while the Mk II used a unique grub screw to secure the seatpost. 3lbs 3oz.
Fork: Forte Allego, straight blade carbon fiber with steel 1" threadless steerer. 1lb 3oz. Originally from the Aero Turbo.
Rims: MAVIC 192, 32H, silver.
Hubs: Shimano RX100, 32h
Tires: Kenda, 700x25c.
Cassette: Shimano Hyperglide, 13-26T
Cranks: Shimano RX100, FC-A551, 53x39, 170mm, 130 BCD. Originally from the Aero Turbo.
Bottom Bracket: Shimano BB-UN54, 110mm spindle. Originally from the Aero Turbo.
Front Derailer: Shimano 105 FD-1050, clamp-on.
Rear Derailer: Shimano RX100, RD-A551. Originally from the Aero Turbo.
Shifters: Suntour Superbe Pro, braze-on. Originally from the Allez SE.
Headset: Cane Creek C2, 1" threadless, silver. Originally from the Aero Turbo.
Chain: Sedis PC-51
Stem: Aluminum 1" threadless with 26.0mm clamp diameter, 120mm reach, silver.
Handlebar: 3T, aluminum. 41.0cm wide, 9.0cm reach, 14.8cm drop.
Brakes: Shimano RX100, BR-A550. Originally from the Aero Turbo.
Brake Levers: Shimano RX100, ST-A551. Originally from the Aero Turbo.
Pedal: Forte Campus, Black.
Seatpost: Kalloy Alluminum, 25.0mm.
Saddle: Terry Liberator

The bike currently weighs 21lbs 15oz as shown.

The following are OE parts that I am currently not using:

Fork: Vitus 979 Dural aluminum alloy fork, 1" threaded. Thermally bonded crown. 1lb 1oz.
Seatpost: Carbon fiber, 25.0 with extra wide seat rail clamps.