Vitus 979 commuter and TT project (WIP)

[Jonny69]

This is the replacement for the Bob Jackson that I broke a tube on a while back. That bike did all my geared bike duties from commuting and weekend rides to time trials. I'm intending this one to do exactly the same so the brief for the frame was the same too: lightweight and compact. The idea is to ride a slightly smaller frame than normal to get the top tube nice and low and so that it's not too long when tri bars are fitted. The rest of the time it rides with a 120mm stem and quite a lot of seatpost.

Here it is mocked up in commuter guise. I've switched all the components straight from the old bike. It's a mix of classic Shimano 105 and Uniglide components with Biopace rings. Unfortunately someone ground off the shifter bosses so I'm using a band-on, but I think I've got a cunning plan to fix that using one of the crazy adhesives we've got at work. It just needs cables and a replacement seatpost to arrive and it's good to go.

 

[Jonny69]

Basically finished and ready to ride!Seatpost turned up and looks really nice and I fitted some new decals to finish it off. This is officially my least ratty looking bike I've ever built!

Full spec as follows...

Frame: Vitus 979

Fork: Vitus 979

Headset: Stronglight
Stem: Cinelli 1A 120mm
Handlebar: Unknown
Bar Tape: Black cork

Brake Levers/Brifters: Shimano 105 SLR
Brake Calipers: Shimano 105
Brake Pads: Shimano
Brake Cables: Unbranded

Shifters: Shimano Exage
Front Derailleur: Shimano Exage
Rear Derailleur: Shimano Exage
Derailleur Cables: Unbranded
Cassette: 6 speed Shimano Uniglide (14-19 in the pics)
Chain: Shimano HG-50
Cranks: Shimano Exage
Chainrings: 52/42 Shimano Biopace
Bottom Bracket: Shimano UN55
Pedals: Wellgo LU-950, ALE toeclips

Rims: Raleigh / early 90s
Hubs: Shimano Exage
Hub Skewers: n/a
Nipples: ACI Alpina
Spokes: ACI Alpina stainless double-butted
Tyres: Varies. Vitorria Zaffiro slick at time of build
Tubes: Michelin Airstop

Saddle: Cinelli Unicantor
Seatpost: Kalloy SP248
Seatpost Binder: OEM Vitus

Bottle Cage: Budget alloy (not fitted)
Extras: None

Weight: 9.6kg

 

[Blackbike]

Re:

That's a really nice Vitus, I like the black bar tape and seat. A very "serious" looking bike.

: Mike

 

[Jonny69]

Yeah it's got to have a degree of practicality as a commuter, hence black tape and saddle and commuting tyres! I've got tubs on the disc and the bladed front for the TT setup which I'll trial once I've run it in a bit and I'll put some pics up. Have done 60 miles on it this week and it rides sublimely. It soaks up the road buzz amazingly and just floats over bumpy road. It's really comfortable to ride and feels confident in bends. It doesn't feel noticeably flexy, which I think is a combination of it being a smaller frame and me not being too heavy. I've said this elsewhere but I can now see what the fuss is about with these!

 

[raw]

Re:

Got to say having had a go on a few mates more modern (and expensive) machines my 980 rides really nice imo, not riden much else steel though.

Yours looks lovely, looking forward o seeing it in tt mode too.

Rich

 

[PANZR]

That's cool. I like it a lot

 

[Jonny69]

Weight: 9.6kg

Excess seatpost removal.

Weight: just over 9.5 kg

 

[Jonny69]

Time for the first round of changes. I've got a problem with my knee which has been hanging around for a while now and I'm going to change the gearing to something a bit more rehab-friendly. Even in my best shape I rarely use any of the gears on the 52 ring and it's not hilly enough round here to merit keeping it for downhill work, so I was considering changing it out anyway. I also want to take the Biopace off for a bit because I want to rule that out as a contributor to any knee problems.

I've done a few gearing calculations in the spreadsheet below.

The bike currently has 52/42 chainrings and 14-19 gears on the back. It's Uniglide, so the cassette is made up of individual cogs and I've almost got a full set from 13T up to 24T. I ride 48x18 gearing on my track bike, which is the bike I use the most and this is really good gearing for my commute. Not too big, not too small and doesn't slay the knee joints. Looking at that gearing on my current set of gears (in pink), you can see that I've got a couple of clicks below it to get up slopes, but it's mainly faster gears which I'm not using. What I'm planning to do instead, is the more modern way of riding using gears which is to stay in the bigger ring for most of the riding and the smaller chainring is just for hills.

So in green is my new range. I'm swapping to 48/39 chainrings which will automatically free-up my uphill gearing. I'm also changing the range on the back from 14-19 to 15-20, to put 48x18 bang smack in the middle of the cassette with a couple of useful clicks either side without changing between big and small ratios. I always felt a bit of a big jump from 52 to 42, so I've gone for one tooth less in the difference.

There are two more changes I've got up my sleeve. Running on the big ring means the chain line is further out, being more favoured towards the smaller end of the cassette. It currently cross-chains on most of the gears except the fastest. I'm going to bring it in a bit if I can by changing from the 113mm bottom bracket to a 110.5mm and I think there's also enough space to get a 2-3mm spacer behind the cassette. I should be able to tune it to run a perfectly straight chain on my favoured gear on the flat and simply deviate either side for going faster or slower.

Goodies arrive later this week.

 

[raw]

Re:

Sounds like a neat plan, I'll be interested to hear how your knees get on without the biopace. I'm running them on mine as I was advised the slower change of direction top and bottom might help my knees so it will be interesting to know if the opposite turns out to be true maybe!

 

[Jonny69]

I can't decide in my mind if it's a good thing or a bad thing. Watching my feet in motion from the side, I can see that they move up and down very quickly and then come to quite a slow at the top and bottom as they go over centre. Biopace apparently doesn't favour high cadence and I can see that by the speed that your feet have to move from the 2 o'clock to 4 o'clock position. But then if you kick over the top-dead-centre position you're effectively pushing way harder with your knee in the bent position than you would be with a round chainring.

From riding fixed gear a lot, my pedalling style has developed into pulling up hard while pushing down at low cadence, with a big kick over the top, and kicking over the top and whipping my legs round at high cadence. I don't think Biopace gets the most out of that style of pedalling because you waste a lot of energy at the top and bottom when the gearing works against you. It feels a bit like I have to ride a slightly bigger gear to compensate for the drop in gearing in the middle because it feels like I'm riding at a higher cadence than I actually am, but then the effort at the top and bottom gets wasted because of the increase in gearing.