Anybody still riding a vitus carbone

[ultraman6970]

Saw a NOS built Alan carbon... so wonder if anybody here is still riding, not often but in a rotation an old Vitus carbone???

Any opinion in the ride??? old carbon is totally different than modern stuff tho.. always curious about those vitus frames.

I imagine the 1st thing is... "not stiff" but that never let go the king of the classics from winning...

Thanks.

[parallelfish]

Just happen to have a Campy equipped carbon Vitus hanging in my garage. Inherited from my brother-in-law when he gave up cycling in 1990.

Can’t tell you how it rides - it was too small for me. My sons rode it growing up

[charliedid]

I thought those were deemed unsafe at any speed?!

[ultraman6970]

No idea, the problem with those rides at least in south america was the fork with the aluminum forks but in the states we noticed with alan and vitus the forks and some joints were reinforced, thing we noticed only in the frames that came to the states.

Which was an interesting find because even the european brought frames were exactly the same than the ones imported to my country, but the US bought ones, were reinforced. I imagine the value of the american market was a lot higher than the european and south american.

So far we never saw an american version to fail, i imagine the carbon models had the same improvements? But the techonolgy is old so has to have their flaws but i see still some giant and trek old carbons around... seen a couple of vitus 900 series around but the carbons I imagine somebody at the forums must have still riding one... thats why I was asking, always curious about that early carbon technology.

[charliedid]

Yes,

I was always interested in them but I knew a guy who had two (carbon) of them fail at the seat cluster. He was a profuse sweater which killed lots of bikes and parts.

I always wanted a pink Vitus aluminum one.

[El Chaba]

I have one, sort of (It's a Peugeot)....I trust it, but I have/do visually inspect it ( I try to do that with all of my cycling equipment, though). It's incredibly smooth.

[timto]

I had a smallish size Vitus Carbone 9 with super record. Loved that bike - very smooth and yes was flexy. In big gear efforts I could ghost shift the rear sprocket sometimes. That said, I enjoyed many rides on it and really liked it. I wouldn't want my only bike to be one and know they had many repair issues. I kind of have a 979 lined up and fully intend to build and ride and enjoy it.

[saab2000]

The proportions of this particular Seven aren't necessarily how I'd have it (no offense to the owner of this lovely bike) but I have a soft spot for those early aluminum-lugged carbon bikes and I love that Seven have sort of gone after that aesthetic with the 622 SLX.

I should order one! Of course, I'd get a level top tube.

All the looks of the old carbon with metal lugs but with modern conveniences like English threaded BBs and standard sized seatposts and headsets.



As an aside, I rode a Look 381 for a long time. While it wasn't the same as the old Vitus frames, it was a descendent. Aluminum lugs and carbon tubes. They were slightly larger in diameter and had some shapes to them but fundamentally it wasn't massively different. It was a super smooth riding bike, less of a whip than one might imagine and handled perfectly. If I had room for a huge collection, I'd still have it and ride it occasionally.

If I still had it and rode it on most of my fast group rides, it wouldn't be the reason I'd be getting dropped. It never was an issue when I rode it with the fast kids. The fit, contact points and handling of my Zanconato were taken directly from this Look.