I have put thousands of miles on Vitus frames with no problems at all! I had 2 Alans & both had problems with cracks on the headtube lugs! I Vote for Vitus ( :
John Quigley OKC, OK 4 vitus 979's
Chuck Schmidt <chuckschmidt@earthlink.net> wrote:
Donald Gillies wrote:
>
> If you are thinking about buying a Vitus, I might suggest that you
> should instead consider an ALAN aluminum-framed bicycle. There are
> three reasons to prefer these bikes over vitus.
>
> 1. ALANs were the FIRST bonded aluminum bike. The Vitus was a cheap
> french imitation. A Vitus bike is just bonded (glued). An ALAN bike
> is glued _and_ screwed together. The ALAN bikes are much more
> durable. I was on a ride recently (on my ALAN) and a friend said that
> his Vitus 979 fork came apart when he was polishing it. Yech!
>
> 2. The ALAN bike is STILL being made. I think you should buy one and
> put a brooks saddle on it. These are about the only 2 pieces of
> bicycle equipment that haven't changed in 30 years.
>
> 3. Some people think that highly polished stainless steel lugs look
> cool. Well, the lugs of an alan bike aren't anodized, and if you
> polish them they would put a Kirk Pacenti or Henry James lugs to shame
> !!! (no offense kirk & henry). The ALAN has cool engraving on the
> head tube that I think a Vitus bike lacks. And the ALAN tubes are
> typically anodized in really cool colors!
>
> http://www.alan-bikeframes.com/
> http://www.alan-bikeframes.com/
My recollections of Vitus 979 (France) and Alan (Italy) from the 1980s...
Vitus:
With enough riding (LOTS and LOTS of miles) the right side dropout will come unglued. Very simple to reglue with epoxy (a local shop in LA was one of two repair shops in the US for Vitus warranty work and I watched it done).
The Vitus aluminum forks were bullet proof. Never heard of one coming unglued or cracking or breaking, ever! Saw three different cases of "bike on car top bike rack into the carport" crashes with the forks bent into huge arch shape (curved the steering tube too) with no breakage!
Alan:
A friend had his Alan aluminum fork split vertically. He also broke two Alan frames (unrepairable). Gave up and switched to a Vitus Carbone 7 (later called a "9" after Vitus recounted the carbon tubes in the seat stays).
Here in Southern California, Vitus had a _way_ better reputation than Alans did!
Alans were pretty with their un-anodized lugs polished up, but so were the Vitus un-anodized lugs (most Vitus owners didn't realize you could polish up the lugs, BB and fork crown with very little effort using Simichrome® or Wenol® polish).
Chuck Schmidt (Vitus Carbone 7 w/ Mavic SSC, and 979 KAS team bike w/ Mavic SSC) South Pasadena, CA
. _______________________________________________
John A. Quigley
Oklahoma City, OK
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