I had a Vitus frameset badged as a Motobecane "Prolight" in the mid-80's. Shifting was fine and flex not objeectionable in the short time I had it. Unfortunately, I had failed to notice before building it up that the rear triangle was badly out of alignment. Motobecane wanted the dealer to simply cold set it, but I was having none of a cold set aluminum frame. Eventually they gave me a credit on the frame and I sold the components to a member of my racing club. I think that had it not been for the misalignment, it would have ridden quite nicely, but then I ride a 54 cm frame, which helps.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Houston, TX
> Chuck Brooks wrote:
> >
> (cut)
> > The next year I moved to upstate NY, where it's hard to find any flat
land
> > and guess what? While climbing (out of the saddle) I found the Vitus
would
> > "auto-shift" to a higher gear. Not a great situation when
> > ascending.......however, I still liked the bike and just worked on
technique,
> > until finally I could go up hills (usually seated) without causing an
> > up-shift.
>
> I have never experienced autoshifting with my Vitus 979 with out of the
> saddle climbing using Mavic (Simplex) retrofriction shift levers.
>
> You weren't using... horrors... Campagnolo friction downtube shift
> levers were you? It is a well know incompatability issue that you
> should never mix Italian and French manufactured items because of the
> cultural issues that result.
>
> Chuck Schmidt
> SoPas, SoCal