Vitus would even seem to be less favored by the French manufacturers. Reynolds was favored which says a lot given the French preference for things French. When I sold a lot of Motobecanes, about a third of the high end bikes would have misaligned forks (bent back) (they had the flimsiest boxes in the business). Straightening these Vitus forks would be all too easy. I liked the ride of these bikes but I tended to sell them to lighter built riders.
To put it in my usual engineering terms, I do not think Vitus tubes achieved the yield strength of competitive tubes.
Joe
At 11:03 PM 11/10/00 -0500, Russ Fitzgerald wrote:
>If memory serves me, Rivendell still uses some Vitus tubes in some frames.
>They are apparently still around, still using steel.
>
>I know it was available at least as early as 1973, as it was used on the
>repair of a frameset that was rebuilt that year with Vitus for top and seat
>tubes.
>
>My perception is that the better Vitus stuff was as good as anything
>Reynolds made - but like all things French, it was vastly under-rated.
>
>Russ Fitzgerald
>Greenwood SC
>rfitzger@emeraldis.com