Help Vitus Identity

[robbied196]

My first post here so hello to everyone

I've just bought a Vitus frame to do a rebuild over winter. Its decals say Vitus Seven Dural Racing. I've searched all over the net but can't find anything that resembles this frame, or mention of a Vitus Seven model. Although its aluminium with the heat bonded alloy lugs, its actually quite different from a 979 or 992. I also have a 979 and there are several differences. The Seven forks are almost straight, the head lug has a much longer section to the downtube, and the 2 rear forks connect into the seat lug, rather than to the sides like on the 979. This also has the grub screw to lock the seat stem, which I think was only used on early frames?

I'm a bit stumped, it can't be that rare. From the Vitus history I've read, its more likely to have a model number than a name. Vitus used the year they started manufacturing a model. Like 979's started in 1979 etc.
It has a campagnolo bb, which I'm sure is original, and the seat tube is 25mm, although it may be 25.4mm, even with calipers its hard to be sure of .4mm!

If there's any Vitus experts out there I'd be really interested on hearing what you think.

 

[kdelong]

It has been a long time since I have seen a Vitus. It appears to be about a 1988 version of the 979. If I recall correctly, they made a few changes to the fork and lugs in an attempt to make it a little less flexible. Sorry I can't help you more, its kinda difficult to remember the details of a bike from 20 years ago that I never did own. I did spend a good bit of time removing siezed grub screws from a couple of them after they spent some time outside in the elements. You may already know this but you want to use a good anti-sieze compound on the grub screw when you reinstall it.

 

[robbied196]

Originally Posted by kdelong .

It has been a long time since I have seen a Vitus. It appears to be about a 1988 version of the 979. If I recall correctly, they made a few changes to the fork and lugs in an attempt to make it a little less flexible. Sorry I can't help you more, its kinda difficult to remember the details of a bike from 20 years ago that I never did own. I did spend a good bit of time removing siezed grub screws from a couple of them after they spent some time outside in the elements. You may already know this but you want to use a good anti-sieze compound on the grub screw when you reinstall it.

Thanks for the info kdelong, my older 979 has a clamp bolt and I didn't realise there were problems with the grub screw /img/vbsmilies/smilies/icon14.gif