jamesdak 

The second of my spring purchases arrived today. This is a mid/late 90s' Vitus Argal made with aluminum 5086 tubing. The tubing is double ovalized and bi oriented to give the frame strength. This is a NOS frame that came with a installed stronglight headset, headset tool, and the original owner's manual. The seller took a low offer from me since I honestly thought it would be hard to find the right 24.3 mm seatpost. Then he checked around with his contacts and found a new seatpost in the right size. Pretty awesome in my book.

It's a 55 cm frame with modern 130mm rear spacing. Frame weighs 3 lbs, 10 ozs with the seatpost collar and the fork is another 1 lb 5 ozs with the bearings and race installed. The seatpost is another 10 ozs. The paint is in really great shape with just a few storage marks. There are no decals, it's all paint. The welds are not elegant but also not really that noticeable from a couple of feet away. Internal cabling for the rear brake and replaceable hangers for both the FD and the RD.

This is going to be built up with a new, black Ultegra R8000 groupset and Reynolds forty-six wheels. I just need to mock it up for stem size and then once I get that the build will happen.

Now some cell phone pics from when I unpacked it. I've since cleaned it, polished it, and then put on a coat of wax to really make it shine.

jamesdak 

The Seatpost:

jamesdak 

Mocked it up today to check my fit and see what size stem I need. Looks like a 90mm is needed. Once that's in this will be ready to be built up. I'm thinking this should finish up right around 20 lbs even.

With the rear wheel on you really get a sense for how tight the rear end is. That and the dropped chainstays. Was glad that a set of modern wheels went in cleanly. Some of the rare internet posts I could find on this model mentioned 126mm rear ends. Mine was advertised at 130mm and certainly is.





Checked the pass through for the top tube cable. It's a continuous run so no tricks needed to get the cable and housing through. Well...almost. It was clogged up with some kind of insect nest or something, LOL!

To me another nice touch on this is the pass through holders for the cables on the downtube. That should help keep the frame from being marked up by the housings.

jamesdak 

Getting closer to being ready for the build. Today I got in some used deep wheels for it. I think they look the business on it and should be a great match with the black components. Just waiting for the stem to arrive now. Final decision is then to decide between using black or yellow cable housing. Right now I'm leaning towards the yellow...





The saddle was put on just for measurements. I'll probably either use a black Fizik or see if Fabric makes a black and yellow saddle.

I've also got to make sure I have enough room for those GP 4000s II 700 x 25 tires. They look to be pretty close to the seat tube and I don't have them up to full pressure. Plenty of room otherwise and I know the R8000 brakes won't be an issue.

Erzulis Boat 

Looks like it is going to be a fun bike. I have a Pinarello Paris that is very similar and it rides great. I feel it is a little "soft" and prefer stiffer frames, but it is a Tour bike so they stretched it out a little. That frame looks nice and tight!

jamesdak 

Yep, I curious to see how it rides. The tubes have a lot of shaping to them that seems like should stiffen the frame.

squirtdad

green cable to match the accent paint/decals

jamesdak 

Augh.....That's been in the back of my head too.

Giacomo 1 

Interested to hear a ride report when she's finished. Such a tight geometry, especially the rear! Wow, little clearance. Yeah, those welds are pretty rough. But pretty overall.

Maybe green tape as well as green cables?

jamesdak 

Yep, I might have to drop down to some 700 x 23's or maybe use a Veloflex instead of the GP 4000 s II to get a bit more clearance. I'll figure that out as I sort it out.

RiddleOfSteel

Cool frame. VERY yellow! R8000 should make this a looker for sure. Performer, too! The way the tubing is bi-axially ovalized reminds me very much of Columbus MAX which operated along the same principles. I appreciate crazy short chain stays and this is no exception. I think it may make for a quick steerer and climber, much like a Cannondale criterium frame instead of, say, my new-to-me Land Shark which somehow is incredibly smooth "in spite of" super tight geometry.

jamesdak 

Well, Vitus did respond to my questions on this. Unfortunately, as I expected, they didn't have any info. I had already figured out that the company has been sold twice since the time this frame was built.

I wonder about things like the bonding and stuff. Like the fork. Are the blades mechanically attached or glued? As tight as the rear is and with a now expected weight around 19 lbs with C.F. wheels I might want this to be one of my climbers if the rear is stiff. But that means descending at 50+ mph for me so I don't want to worry about an old fork coming unglued. That would make for a bad day, LOL!

jamesdak 

Well, I'm continuing to hack away at this slowly. The stem came in so I mounted it and the handlebars, Cinelli Giro de'italia 42mm's.

I measured the clearance of the rear tire. A 4mm wrench slid in cleanly between the tire and seatpost but a 5mm won't. Pretty tight.

Still trying to figure out what valve extenders will will work with my Vittoria Latex tubes so I can use them on this setup. First extenders I tried were a no go.