passarotrovao

hello
i need some info on french steel tubes. i need to know here french manufacters stand along side giants like reynolds or columbus.
the manufactures are:
Vitus. i have a vitus 888
Camus ( Ateliers de Maison Rouge) i have a camus 779 and 2 more that i dont have the stickers
DURIFORT (Ateliers de la Rive)

by the way
i found one italian manufactuer oria.
i need so info on the tubes.
thanks

JohnDThompson 

What I've seen of Vitus tubes looked as good as anything from Reynolds or Columbus, but I suspect they may have only been available in metric diameters, which limited the appeal.

Besides Columbus and Oria, Italy also had Falck tubing.

fietsbob

BITD Reynolds sold Metric diameter tubes to French Frame Builders .. But its a Parts Cul De Sac in the long run

because only the French used the not quite the same diameter tubes as the rest of the world,

but they had to fall back in with the fractional sized tube world,

Perhaps they lost enough Market share by that time and never recovered.

passarotrovao

the reynolds 531 seatpost on french bikes are 26.6 not 27.2 as in english bikes because the diameter on the seat tube on french bikes is smaller.

fietsbob

yea, If the DB top wall thickness remains @ .7mm , 28.0 - 1.4 ....

straight Ga .. .9 wall tube its 26.1, a little reaming 0.5mm takes it to .2

vintage cellar

Vitus was every bit as good as 531 and Columbus, especially the 971 Super Vitus tubes.
Camus was high-end, supposedly a tubeset like 753 or Columbus Nivachrome.

Durifort was a lower quality, heavier straight gauge steel in the 1970's and 80's.

Vitus was available in Metric AND fractional diameters in the 1970's. Jim Redcay used inch-size Vitus 971 in the 70's.

Oria came and went quickly in the late 1980's - early 90's. I think the tubes were made by Mannesmann in Germany.

Trakhak

Excell was another French brand of high-end tubing.