Vitus 979 Track Lo-Pro

If it hasn't been suggested you should try JB weld.
Their take on epoxy is the best I've used to metals.

tubes tubes tubes !!!
http://www.lfgss.com/thread96737.html#post3244004

Already got excited. Sorry, not what I'm looking for.

As for JB weld, I've been reading several threads about vitus repairs and JBweld was told to be avoided, when more suited epoxys are available.

A purple vitus was on this forum a while back. Built for the Latvian track team if i'm not mistaken. Same one?

That one just came back to his homeland France. Let me correct you - built for Lithuania track team.

Well, a bit of an update.
Got a thomson seatpost (not much decent 25mm seatposts to choose from) and getting the seatpost grub screw shipped tomorrow. As for the top tube, Steve (the guy from LA) is looking through his stock, so I'm waiting for a response.
I really haven't thought that a fork with decent clearances will be harder to find than the top tube, but apparantly it is.
I've found a few, but by the axle to crown measurements I've received I could easily chuck an 700c wheel in them.
I guess I could live with the clearances of the original forks

but with what I've found it'd look like this

Is custom the way to go?

Wait, running a 700c in a 650c fork?

No, I meant I haven't had any luck finding any tight 650 forks.
But apparantly 700 in a 650 had been done, too

The angles look a bit off, though, any disadvantages apart that?

running a 700 in a 650 or a 650 in a 24" fork gives crazy slack angles. It definitely works but it looks silly and handles really (too) relaxed.

It also places additional stress on the headtube, slacker angle = more leverage...

Not something I'd want to apply to a bonded frame...

Well, out of the question then, will keep looking.

Gave up on finding suiting 650c forks and wrote Orlowski, who agreed on making some custom ones (for a really reasonable cost, I must say). Also going to pick the front wheel tomorrow.
As for the actual top tube repair, I seem to be stranded. The guy in LA didn't find a tube of suitable length, so I'm going to get one locally made, which after doing a bit of googling shouldn't be too hard. However, after two days I still haven't manged to remove the top tube stubs. I took a heat gun to the joints for twenty or so minutes, but the epoxy didn't seem to budge a bit. Any help or suggestions appreciated

Getting epoxy glue off of aluminium is not easy. You sould not go beyond 210°C or so as aluminium will start recrystalising somewhere around there. But 210°C will only weaken, not destroy, the epoxy. So you will probably still need considerable force to remove the tube stubs. I would probably drill a radial hole in the stubs and atach some sort of lever to try and rotate the stub when its heated. Another approach would be to cut the stubs off with a rotary tool or similar. Good luck.

Any help or suggestions appreciated

iirc the frames are also screwed together (as in tubes and sockets threaded) or was that Alans. One of them definately.

Shamelessly stolen from bikeforums.net

i just got a response from Alberto Falcony @ Alan heres what he said about powdercoating alan frames:

Hello,
your frame is scewed and glued and you can't paint it by powdercoating because you damage the glue.
Paint it by liquid paiting with temperature of 60/70 C °
Regards
Alberto Falconi / Alan bhikes

Thanks, I already had drilled the radial holes (great minds think alike), but haven't thought of applying rotational force, as the tubes seem to be mitered, so I doubt there is much space for rotation. As for the threaded tubes/sockets, I think it was just the ALAN frames.

Liking this a lo,t cant wait for photo your photo updates !

Haven't you thought about this one to go to the front?
http://www.lfgss.com/thread97423.html

I think the "fat" fork would look wicked with thin frame tubes, kinda like Pistoffski's Buzz lo-pro that was on classifieds a while ago (can't find the exact advert though...)

How is it going with the tube?

Haven't made any progress yet, I don't have much spare time at the moment as exams at the uni are creeping up on me, so I'll get back to it probably only in the second week of January.
I've been eyeing that fork, how much is he asking?
Have PM'd him two offers for an other one two weeks ago and haven't heard back since.

Dunno, I asked him only about the steerer length, 17cm should suit it, no?
Try PM'ing him once more..

Yeah, steerer lenght should be sufficient, going to drop him a pm.

Figured this thread needed a better picture of the actual frame.

On another matter, finally some progress on the build, two months of searching paid off yesterday
as this was delivered:

anybody want a shot at guessing what it might be?;)
going to post a mockup tomorrow

Hm, is it fork and top tube?

Congratulations, finally you can go on! :)

Thanks, though it's only the fork, I've contacted several the shops who repair Vitus bikes and noone has any suitable top tubes, so it seems that i'm on my own with this.

hehe keep on keeping on

^ ha, I do what i can.
Well, as promised, here's a mockup (excuse the background, the bedroom is a current project, too)

The fork is a kinesis, though haven't seen a straight one before, and is quite tatty. As for the build, considering my quite restricted budget on this, the parts I've aquired so far are mainly quality bits with lots of patina (read: beater condition).
The cockpit is a cinelli xa +cinelli la84

The cranks are 151bcd-era campag strada, well, at least the driveside one. (If anybody has a matching 170mm left crank for a reasonable price ,let me know.)

The front wheel is a 650c wolber clincher to a miche hub for time being, I'm on the lookout for a hard anodized mavic clincher rim with virgin braking surfaces.
The rear will be a minty mavic open s.u.p (precursor of open pro, from what I gathered) laced to a hub yet undecided.
as for ass-cockpit I've got a black (going to strip the ano when the time comes) thomson elite and will probably settle for a flite.

Urgh, hurts to look at that.

Hope you fix it up.

Forks got zero rake? or back to front?