Vitus 979 Single Speed

First self-build, no idea what I'm doing.

Late Vitus 979 58cm aluminium frame circa 1993, purple anodised with yellow decal which dictated the achingly early-90's colour scheme...

NOS Shimano 600 Tricolour group including cranks, headset, BB, calipers & pedals.

NOS Mavic Open 4 CD rims on Shimano 105 hubs, 25mm Conti Grand Prix GT tyres

Cinelli XA 105mm stem in black, Cinelli Criterium 65-42 bars, NOS Benotto tape & plugs

Turbo Matic saddle

42T chainring, 15T Andel cog, cassette spacers & lockring from Velo Solo. Comfortable town 'magic ratio' as dropouts are vertical.

I ditched the brake blocks that came with the Shimano 600 calipers as they are shite; fitted modern Dura Ace cartridges with soft Swiss Stop black pads. They're already slowly eating through the black anodised rim surface... May have to look for some 'ceramic' Mavic rims.

Also ditched the Shimano 600 brake levers with white hoods for some Tektro cross items as I found myself mainly riding on the tops.

Cute bike for casual jaunts; light & fast, frame not too noodly, haven't felt the need to fit the rest of the Shimano 600 group I have lying around yet (derailleurs, shifters and Biopace rings).

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Lovely looking frame. I'd build it up as a roadie. Deserves to be ridden up some bergs

I've got the rest of the 600 group in order to build it as a geared bike but there's just no need such a thing for the kind of pootling about I do.

Looking good.

Think 🤔 it’d look better with road levers and hoods.

+1 on this, lovely bike, has a ton of potential.

Thanks!

I did have 600 Tricolour levers with white hoods on it but found myself mostly on the tops or corners of the bars, having to adjust my grip to brake the whole time. With the 'cross'-style levers, I can brake easily from the corners.

Does anyone have experience of the Mavic Ceramic rims? It looks like the black anodised brake tracks on the Open 4 CD rims won't last long with regular braking... Shame to wear out NOS rims so quickly!

If you aren’t riding in the drops or on the hoods much, would some nice swept bars work better while it’s in single speed mode?

You can get some ceramic specific pads. I think they’re the green swiss stops?

The rims on the bike are normal Open 4 CD’s with anodised alu brake tracks, hence the black is wearing quickly.

I’m interested in Mavic rims with ceramic brake tracks that supposedly hardly wear and never lose their black colour...

I did have a set of Nitto RB001 on it but missed the drops when riding into the wind too much.

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For some reason I was thinking that CD was the designation for the old ceramics.

Build it up as a neo-retro, I love mine and ride it regularly!

^ I can't remember if this has already been one of my fave forum bikes but it is now. Nice job!

Stunning!

Do you keep a project thread for it?

I suck in keeping threads updated, so no :)

Any more pics at least?