denco.h1e
Dirt Disciple
With the rebuild of one bike almost finished it's time to start on the next one, and apologies, this one's a bit word heavy at first.
Had this Vitamin T from new. Frame No is A302***, which I think means Feb 1993, and that would make sense as I bought it later that year, but if I'm wrong, somebody please correct me.
Didn't have much spare cash in those days so I went for the full LX groupset rather than XT. You might ask why if I didn't have much money did I buy what was an expensive bike at the time? Well, I can still remember the test ride and how light it felt and just how damn fast it accelerated With what seemed like very little pedal input it shot forward. I was sold, and I emptied my bank account.
When the front derailleur came off, the original shade of grey could be seen underneath so well-worn Scotchbrite pads and very fine wet and dry have brought it back to an even shade all over.
The decals (these are fresh ones by Gil) were unlike any I'd seen on other Vit-Ts. It didn't have the Orange fruit graphic before the word Orange on the downtube, and they were not the vivid orange shade seen on other models of the time. And instead of Vitamin T on the top tube it had Titanium. It was only when I started digging around in the archives here that I saw the same decals on the '93 catalogue bike.
Being skint, suspension forks were never going to be an option and these are the original aluminium forks. I never really liked them, always thought they were too stiff, so after a year or so a set of Manitou 3s went on. The Manitous were moved on a few years ago when the Vit-T had been replaced in my affections by a younger model with bouncy bits in the front and rear. So the aluminium forks went back on, a set of slicks were fitted and the bike began to be used again in a different role.
Rims are the original Mavic 231s and they're wearing NOS Conti Race King Supersonics, which are too light for general use but will be fine for the kind of easy trails they'll be used on.
Had this Vitamin T from new. Frame No is A302***, which I think means Feb 1993, and that would make sense as I bought it later that year, but if I'm wrong, somebody please correct me.
Didn't have much spare cash in those days so I went for the full LX groupset rather than XT. You might ask why if I didn't have much money did I buy what was an expensive bike at the time? Well, I can still remember the test ride and how light it felt and just how damn fast it accelerated With what seemed like very little pedal input it shot forward. I was sold, and I emptied my bank account.
When the front derailleur came off, the original shade of grey could be seen underneath so well-worn Scotchbrite pads and very fine wet and dry have brought it back to an even shade all over.
The decals (these are fresh ones by Gil) were unlike any I'd seen on other Vit-Ts. It didn't have the Orange fruit graphic before the word Orange on the downtube, and they were not the vivid orange shade seen on other models of the time. And instead of Vitamin T on the top tube it had Titanium. It was only when I started digging around in the archives here that I saw the same decals on the '93 catalogue bike.
Being skint, suspension forks were never going to be an option and these are the original aluminium forks. I never really liked them, always thought they were too stiff, so after a year or so a set of Manitou 3s went on. The Manitous were moved on a few years ago when the Vit-T had been replaced in my affections by a younger model with bouncy bits in the front and rear. So the aluminium forks went back on, a set of slicks were fitted and the bike began to be used again in a different role.
Rims are the original Mavic 231s and they're wearing NOS Conti Race King Supersonics, which are too light for general use but will be fine for the kind of easy trails they'll be used on.
