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Did Vitus Stamp Their Steel Tubes?

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Did Vitus Stamp Their Steel Tubes?

Old 07-23-20, 07:54 PM
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machinist42
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Did Vitus Stamp Their Steel Tubes?

In the course of cleaning, compounding, and waxing the forks of a mid-70's British bike, my brain told me I'd seen or felt letters. I went back over the forks and after much angling of light in precisely the right angle, found stamped into the inside of the forks, partly obscured by the well brazed tang:






The frame is most likely a repaint, and had no decals or stickers of any kind. I believe I know who built it, and he was known for using what was at hand, and I believe the forks are original, (or as good a copy as makes no difference). I know, as verktyg has mentioned, "Little did the fools know that quite a few custom builders made lots of frames with Super Vitus 971 tubing. It was at least half the price of Reynolds 531 and Columbus, the tubes were better finished and closer to size plus the high strength low alloy steel was much less subject to overheating and fast cooling...."

Has anyone ever seen, or have an example of the stamping, if any, Vitus executed on their tubing?

Is this stamping consistent with "SUPER VITUS" or is it something else altogether?

Last edited by machinist42; 07-23-20 at 08:15 PM.
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Old 07-23-20, 07:58 PM
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You can't actually see the stamping? 531 blades have stamping on them. It's pretty random where it is radially on the blade. I tried to take a picture, but I don't have anything that has macro capability.

you need a better link than what you tried to use. I suggest you -> go advanced -> manage attachments

But the images have to be on your device

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Old 07-23-20, 08:09 PM
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Yes to Vitus stamping on frames. I have a Bernard Carré that has Vitus on the fork and another frame of unknown ilk that has Vitus on the seat tube.
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Old 07-23-20, 08:30 PM
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See No Weevils

Originally Posted by unterhausen
You can't actually see the stamping? 531 blades have stamping on them. It's pretty random where it is radially on the blade. I tried to take a picture, but I don't have anything that has macro capability.

you need a better link than what you tried to use. I suggest you -> go advanced -> manage attachments

But the images have to be on your device
Thanks for the heads-up: photos showed on my laptop, but after reading your post and then checking, not on my other devices. Klugey system.

Fixed it.
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Old 07-24-20, 05:46 AM
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Motobecane Grand Record
Top tube stamped V 172


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Old 07-24-20, 11:49 AM
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machinist42-

I had an early 80s Peugeot PF 40 with v.181 stamped in the tubing. Durifort was also stamped on tubes and fork blades often in lower case "durifort" and I have seen 888 stamped in Motobecane frame tubes. True comment on Vitus tubing quality. The Canadian frame builder Julian Edwins was a metallurgical engineer and he much preferred using Vitus to Reynolds or Columbus due to the far tighter quality control and superior metallurgical properties. And he had the electron photo micrographs to prove it.
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Old 07-24-20, 12:01 PM
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"< 888 >" on my Mootbecane Grand Sprint.
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Old 07-24-20, 02:46 PM
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Yes, IIRC, my Peugeot PSV has "SV 980" stamped somewhere on the frame tubes.....
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