Orange Vitamin T still in use

bikeworkshop

Senior Retro Guru
Here's my 1994 orange vitamin t
- I bought this off the original owner in Jan 95. 20240201_120316.jpg
This photo predates digital, and almost the term "bikepacking". Taken somewhere in the middle of the Scottish Highlands may '95.

The original build spec, from Dave Baters Downend, Bristol (rip😪):

Stronglight 1" threaded taper roller bearing headset.
Control tech inch quill stem
Pace RC35 Forks, rear mounted brake bosses.
diacompe 987 cantis with a rocker on the fork brace
Pace bars, x-lite bar ends
Ritchey foam grips.

Ringle front hub,
white industries rear hub,
hope ti-dye spokes
mavic 230 tib rims.

I can't remember the original tyres, but didn't anyone spending money have the smoke/dart combo?

Topline crankset
with Pace 48/36/26 rings
XTR gears (inc cassette) and STIs
Selle Italia Flite Evo carbon saddle - 99g & totally unpadded.

Ringle ti stix qrs, black.
The seatpost was a USE copy made by someone's dad at rolls royce/aerospace out of (no doubt aircraft grade) ti and aluminium.
The whole bike was built to be light, like under 20 lb, and fairly British. I remember after a very muddy race I threw it into a cattle pond and it floated!
Funnily enough apart from the seatpost qr the post is the only original component!
Everything else broke, wore out or became obsolete😪

It came with a 1" threaded headset, but luckily Sandvik the manufacturer had seen the sense of using a larger diameter for the headtube, to avoid that horrible mitre where a larger tube is cut to fit around a smaller one, so I could move forward with fork technology, as long as it's about 80mm travel😄.
20240126_094052.jpg

In its current guise it has custom shortened sids (tft👍) running 9 speed xtr/xt with IS hydro tabs fitted by Vernon Barker about 20 years ago.
All other ongoing changes have been made at my place of work - Bikeworkshop in Bristol
(est 197:cool:)
mostly using second hand parts.
No cracks yet🤞.
Still riding where I live in the wye valley and black mountains. Still fits me like a glove and rides like a magic carpet😍
 
Last edited:
mine sadly has the 1 " headtube so finding forks was a pain, ended up buying a ridged chinese titanium fork which im happy with. cant see me going back to a suspension fork .
 
Here it is again, around 1997? Haystack on Salisbury Plain
20240209_170739.jpg (Still got the cantis) Shame the bumbag (stylistically unacceptable now obvs but surprisingly handy for a repair kit, snack bar, house keys and a couple of tenners) is covering the crown of the now well- used pace rc35s.
They were:
Light, with killer looks.😎
They were also:
Uncomfortable, vague, delicate and quick to wear out.😵
 
Last edited:
And here it is "on tour", cycling back from bilbao in 2000. 20240209_171638.jpg Rigid fork fitted, now with proshift silver levers with red Vs, (crap name, poor function, light and pretty) towing my "bob" trailer - which is extremely well travelled as I hired it out to customers to cross Africa on one occasion and South America on another. LeJog too.
That chainset looks like xtr hollowtech m950 but I'm surprised as I never liked that system, short lived, expensive bearings and prone to creaking with and without fitting damage. Maybe i was driven to desperation by my creaky ti square taper bb (hope iirc)/topline cranks.
 
Just noticed the Nokon Track Pearls whilst photographing the ringle seatpost qr skewer...
20240225_165930.jpg
Much more expensive than shimano SP51.
A little bit lighter.
Many, many more pieces...
Needs cleaning daily for good shifting in the mud, as there's a little gap within each ball and socket joint, of which theres half a dozen every inch🤣
Fitted around 2000?
 
Almost exactly like mine, a year earlier maybe in that your seat tube has a sleeve at the top and the pace forks have the chrome brace on the back whereas mine had a cast and machined alloy brace on the back - cooks rather than topline, ritchey rims, xtr gearing... did it come like that new?
I suggest you ruthlessly track it down through successive owners like a Hollywood action film and stop at nothing to get it back.
It is after all, the pinnacle of Lightweight go anywhere cycling.

(And by pinnacle I dont mean that halfordsalike chainstore obvs)

Also post a link here to its history and setup??
 
In the bilbao photo above i recall I also refitted for this trip the (supplied spare with the bike from new) orange (?like they made alloy forks??) Alloy Forks in the supposedly matching grey ti colour - in fact a little dark and green to match well... and still 1" threaded this meaning I had to keep on using the stupid stronglight tapered roller bearing headset. What were they thinking? I love france and the French, but not all their bike components or threading standards!!🤯
 
Back
Top