French city bike thing

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  • I've been wanting to build a 'sensible' French style city bike for a long while.
    I got some ace Mafac inverse levers years ago for a few quid on French eBay and the Nitto bars and VO 'guards have been in my loft for a good few years too.

    I got the Vitus 971 frame for £60 and although its really light and reasonably well made it's really a race frame and not a demi-course or a Randonneur which is what I had hoped it was. So minimal clearance for the tyres and 'guards and short wheel base, though this will make it nippy in London traffic.
    The short front end is going to give me toe overlap too.
    So I might be on the look out for another frame.

    I'm going to build it up and see how it rides.
    Geral Vitus 971 (double butted steel) frame
    Mavic track hubs on Mavic Ma2's
    Velo Orange 'guards
    28 mm Panaracer Pasella folding tyres
    TA Cyclotouriste chainset with 45t ring (will get a proper single speed ring if the build works out)
    Mafac competition centre pull brakes, Mafac inverse levers
    Simplex seatpost
    Brooks B15
    Nitto promanade bars
    Philippe stem - probably need a longer one

    If I like it and decide the frame's a keeper I'm planning on building a front rack - like a mini Porteur rack, which will fit onto the bolts for the centre pulls.


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  • I've just got the levers and grips on the bars.


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  • I do like a practical project

  • You could always do a 650b conversion (maybe).

    Looks nice though.

  • I'd love to do a 650b conversion at some point, I'm not sure this frame is the right candidate though. An old Raleigh Clubman or something would be good. I even have a set of braze ons for mafac centre pulls.

  • I put up a wanted add but no luck so far so I'll try here too.
    I need a 120/130 quill stem for this project.
    I don't want too upright a position I don't think.
    Silver, non aero -so like an old Cinelli 1a or clone.
    It's going to get sanded down to fit the 22mm steerer so condition isn't too important and I'll be shimming the bars probably too at they're 25.4 so old 26.4 Cinelli is fine.

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French city bike thing

Posted by Avatar for absurdbird @absurdbird

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