I’m not quite sure
what to call more than one Vitus bicycle, but I have had a constant stream of
them coming into my shop recently, starting with the 992 that
entered my personal collection at Christmastime. Last week I shared photos of
the “992 Bleu” project just completed, then my friend Brendan came to visit with a
979 that he wanted to build into another Sean Kelly tribute bike, except this one would be of his early Sem-France Loire
team machine, complete with Mavic components.
I found it amusing,
and maybe a little bit frustrating, that I was having a such a hard time with a search for similar parts for my 992 when, just a couple days after Brendan and I got
together, I was able to find and order everything needed to complete his bike. Brendan had gone a bit farther in his Mavic-mania and
found handlebars, a stem, downtube levers and a headset. He even had pedals, but
they were the early clipless variety, which were a bit clunky. They weren’t in
fantastic shape either, so we are selling those.
The 310 headset (above) was
rough and required a special, hard-to-find wrench, which I saw listed anywhere from
$80 to $200, and we agreed it was probably best to also make this a re-sale item. We
opted for a more conventional 305 headset (below) and found one immediately on eBay with which the seller accepted an offer $10 lower than his asking price!
The most
unbelievable occurrence was the listing of a full 451 brake and lever set – something I had been fruitlessly searching for since I bought my 992 – and the seller was
offering them at a price that was $100 less than anything I had been seeing!
Although he had already made it clear that he was not in any hurry, I had to let Brendan know that I wouldn’t be
immediately getting to work on his project when the parts come in later this
week. I am taking a trip to Georgia to see my father and stopping along the way
to visit family and friends. Not that we’ve had an unreasonable winter here in
the Northeast, but the timing couldn’t be much better to “get outta Dodge”, as
cold air and snow has moved into the area for the next few days.
I will be taking my Cannondale along with me
and hope to get in a ton of riding, hopefully in shorts and short-sleeves! In
Raleigh, North Carolina, I’m planning to check out the American Tobacco Trail, which sits on a 22.6 mile section of abandoned railroad bed that was originally built for the American Tobacco Company in the 1970s. The trail has a north-end terminus at the home stadium of the Durham Bulls.
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| "Man, that ball got outta here in a hurry. Anything going that far oughta have a stewardess on it, don't ya think?" |
While staying with
Dad, I will be doing plenty of miles on the islands around St. Simons and Brunswick,
Georgia. On the return trip I’m stopping to see relatives and will probably get
in a ride around the New Bern, NC, area. I’m hoping there will be something
interesting (not too dramatic, though) to share in a couple of weeks!
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