Orange Vitamin T still in use

[bikeworkshop]

Woah good shout. I should amend that to "the marketing concept Bikepacking".
or The Cyclist formerly known as a Tourist

 

[Minifreak]

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??

I built mine up from bits collected, originally most of those parts were on an Orange Prestige but when the Vit T turned up I knew I had to buy it!

I was lucky enough to have a Ti Merlin too at the time, actually preferred the ride of the Merlin which was also set up with Pace, Cooks, XT/XTR mix but, the frame finish on the Vit T was much more interesting to me.

 

[bikeworkshop]

Looking back over Bantry bay, around 2002. Thirsty work.
The amp fork has been moved on - those sids look familiar

 

[bikeworkshop]

And here it is in the pyrenees, y2k, fully loaded destination Bristol.
My wife's khs crest, bought new, still pretty much original in 2024 apart from tyres and saddle

 

[doctor-bond]

Very cool - those photos are gold.

Get a bike.
Ride it. Repair it. Repeat.

 

[bikeworkshop]

Ride it. Repair it. Repeat.

Looked after, they go a long way. Minty has taken me tens of 000s of miles.

Had a customer a few weeks ago had ridden 50,000 miles on an xt freehub

 

[bikeworkshop]

Here it is today:
Tubeless tyres, low pressure - felt wrong on tarmac but grippy offroad.
I wasn't riding in that gear btw, stuck it in big2big as I was descending fast down a cow-puddled bridleway

 

[bikeworkshop]

"New" chainset - minty has moved forward from 970 to 980.

I much prefer the look, 980 matches the silvery x design of the derailleurs, whereas 970 is a bit "commuter grey"

Getting "x"-ier by the year.

Mechanically speaking, the 970 had a funny splined end like Octalink, needed a special tool to remove a flimsy plastic collar, and then screw in to use the crank fixing bolt as an extractor on the left hand crank...

Lucky it's there in one of the shop's 4 boxes of crank extractors
But i may never need it again.

The 980 is standard ht2 fitting

Unfortunately I've lost the 44t ring, 980 is 42 only
(we are getting puny)
- it's also 10 speed dyna-sys, but it set up perfectly on my 9 speed 970 f.mech and 950 lever.

I've got a feeling 11 speed front spacing is wider, but 9&10 the same.

 

[bikeworkshop]

Latest upgrade,
Mildly inappropriate m980 skewers to fit on my m960 wheels.
Because I've gone for the "exy" look with the chainset and dérailleurs I've extended this to the skewers.
Now should I sell the 960 skewers to pay for the 980s, or keep them with the wheels for future collectors?

As an aside, if never noticed that the front and rear lever writing was handed, so they read the same with the front lever pointing back and the rear lever pointing forwards.