Tubing
Vitus was the tubing brand of Ateliers de la Rive in Saint-Étienne, France, from the 1930s. Builders used it on good French frames alongside Reynolds 531. Rubis and Durifort were straight-gauge steel, while Vitus 172 and Super Vitus 971 were double butted. Then in September 1979 Vitus showed the 979 at the Paris cycle show. It's aluminium, with Duralinox tubes bonded into cast alloy lugs with heat-activated epoxy, and Sean Kelly raced one from 1982 to 1988. On a steel Vitus, the set number tells you whether it's butted. On a 979, look hard at the seat lug ears around the binder bolt. They cracked often enough that Vitus redesigned the lug in 1985.
1 model we cover.