VTT français? French MTBs / Components / Info / Pics etc.

[nic0]

Re: VTT français? Post your French MTB’s pics info etc

a friend gave me his old mountain bike

catalog here : https://pyfrides.files.wordpress.com/20 ... 91-mtb.pdf

Shimano Exage 500 LX, cromo triple butted frame, Ritchey fork, Mavic 234, it's heavy : 13,5 kilos !

 

[ibbz]

Re: Re:

Well, I haven't had a lot of French mountain bikes! French brands didn't make me dream

my first "real" mountain bike was a Decathlon Rockrider 550 Limited (full LX, all cromo, RS Mag 21), it was in 1997.

I still have it, but now it only goes on the road

A few years ago I bought a Rockrider 720, the top of the top at the time (1995, full XT), but in poor condition :

the seller's picture, on Leboncoin

as it was light I equipped it for the road

and last month back to the origine

my first Sunn was a Hobby (low end, hi-ten frame), 1993, my work bike for a while

I bought others when good opportunities arose

Sunn Vertik 1996

Sunn Xircuit 1997 :

24" for my daughter

after

Symp 1997

Vertik II 1997

Wow Nico
Lovely collection there and thanks for sharing. Nice to see some retro Decathlon’s - I had no idea decathlon had a nice bit of VTT history!!
I didn’t know the Vertik 2 was Fuji ! I assumed it was Tange - same frame as a Revolt?

 

[freddok]

Re: Re:

Wow Nico
Lovely collection there and thanks for sharing. Nice to see some retro Decathlon’s - I had no idea decathlon had a nice bit of VTT history!!

As Nico stated all frenchies mountain bikers dreamed about US, UK or even Italian MTB in the 90's. No many French brands appart maybe some smalls factory like Scrambler, Emery or RMS.

I remember when I used to go to Mountain Bike Diffusion shop at Grenoble, the French distributor of Marin bike and also the Grafton, Ringlé, Answer Manitou, Grab-On and all the others components and accessories from US !!! Very hard for a small worker to see all these ano parts...

Decathlon has never a place in MTB history (at least for me) but was a nice source to get some nice components at a cheap prices. At this time some Decathlon bikes equipped with full XTR or XT sold at low prices were stripped just to retrieve the parts for another frame...

 

[freddok]

Re: Any other french MTB brands ?

That's a nice looking bike for sure..

Aren't Vitus a French brand?

For sure but more know for his tubing and road bikes...

 

[Rank_21]

Re: VTT français? Post your French MTB’s pics info etc

Laiti - the french made mono arm fork bandit, listed in bike of the month viewtopic.php?f=26&t=235053
I missed out on one of them a year ago for €40! gutted

Emery was nice, assembled near grenoble. I think the creator Jean billon went on to work for Look after the short lived brand?

Vitus 1988: https://labibleduvelocataloguesvitus.bl ... -1988.html
Unfortunately by the 90's there are few french made bikes around with the exception of peugeot/gitane and artisan small scale stuff due to external competition.

 

[Rank_21]

Re: Any other french MTB brands ?

That's a nice looking bike for sure..

Aren't Vitus a French brand?

For sure but more know for his tubing and road bikes...

Freddok, since you are near, can you enlighten us with any info on routens. They made some pretty nice mtb frames judging by the magazines and from what I've seen. Were all the frames made in the routens atelier?
Very funny about decathlon bikes, I ended up with a 600 serie for its parts that has the areto tubing, and I quite like it, its become my preferred commuter bike.

 

[nic0]

Re: Re:

Wow Nico
Lovely collection there and thanks for sharing. Nice to see some retro Decathlon’s - I had no idea decathlon had a nice bit of VTT history!!
I didn’t know the Vertik 2 was Fuji ! I assumed it was Tange - same frame as a Revolt?

thank you
vertik's frame is heavier than Revolt

I agree with freddok, with a nuance : Decathlon made good bikes in the 90's, solid frames & good equipment, for many less fortunate bikers it was a smart choice, the choice of reason
but their production wasn't fun, colors were sad, frames were neutral...

Kona, Marin, Muddy Fox, Specialized, GT, ... yeah, they made me dream

 

[Elev12k]

Re: VTT français? Post your French MTB’s pics info etc

Vitus SC1

Aluminium, anodized, welded

 

[Elev12k]

Re: VTT français? Post your French MTB’s pics info etc

Brake cable runs hidden under toptube, shift cables run hidden under downtube (under removable cover)

 

[Elev12k]

Re: VTT français? Post your French MTB’s pics info etc

Tail with monostay