Vitus 979 De Gribaldi Classic Road Bike 1980s

Here we present the first aluminium racing bicycle released by Vitus, one of the pioneers of professional level aluminium frame sets.

Vitus was France's leading manufacturer of high-quality frame tubing. Their products were on a par with Reynolds and Columbus. And they were right at the forefront of the introduction of new materials on which they collaborated with TVT, an aerospace company. Their aluminium and carbon fiber frames were ridden by Sean Kelly, Greg LeMond and Miguel Indurain.

The Vitus 979 classic aluminium road bike stood at the beginning of these adventures. It has been launched in 1979 - in collaboration with TVT, Ateliers de la Rive and Angenieux-CLB - and is made of Duralinox 5083 aluminum-magnesium alloy tubes which are glued in aluminium lugs. The geometry of this frame set is steeper than most frames of its time, though the construction is not as stiff. It is not the best frame for sprinting but extremely comfortable and forgiving.
Sean Kelly rode the 979 for many years and to numerous victories.

So why has our Vitus some decals which are sporting the name de Gribaldy? The answer is simple:
Jean de Gribaldy was not only the extremely successful directeur sportive of Sean Kelly, he also was a clever business man. He was able to cash in on some special deals with Vitus and sold the bikes under his own name.

Our exemplar has a shining blue anodized frame and is equipped with Shimano 600 parts/p>

Despite this is aluminium and not steel, it is a piece of the cycling heritage. By a twist of the adjustment screw of the right shifting lever it gets fit for historic bike races like L'Eroica