Vitus 979 "Rainbow Poney 2000" 🌈🐎
12 Apr 2024 - Version française

I really treated myself with this bike...

I had been looking at listings for second-hand Vitus bikes for a while. (Several months, to be honest.) These bikes have a certain elegance: they're relatively old, dating from the 70s to the 90s. But they have the distinction of being made of aluminum; in fact, they were among the first. The tubes are press-fitted, so the welds aren't visible. They're very slender and look remarkably like steel frames, but lighter. On the 979 model, the cable routing is internal, and that's really beautiful.

(Fun fact: the 979 was released in September 1979, quite logically. The 992, however, came out in 1991, much less logically. But it was the bike of the winner of this beautiful race in 1992.)

You can find quite a few second-hand 979s at fairly reasonable prices. However, the 992 is much more expensive, starting at 300€.

Anyway, I was looking at these bikes wondering what I could possibly do with one. I had a fierce urge to tinker with one, without really knowing what I'd do with it afterward. I'm not at all a road cyclist... and so buying a Tour de France stage-winning bike seemed like a rather unjustifiable purchase, even though I desperately wanted one. You could say I was looking for a good reason to give in. And I found one while passing by the community bike workshop near my home. There, for sale, for a ridiculous sum (100€), stood a magnificent white Vitus 979, in excellent condition, refurbished by the volunteers, exactly my size. Why resist?

I took it home. Once purchased, I had to think about what I was going to do with it. I believe a bike's primary function is to bring joy to its owner. I also wanted to make something I'd find beautiful, without overthinking it. The great thing about bikes is that you can add whatever accessories you want without being accused of tackiness, unlike cars for example. I call it "socially acceptable tuning", and that's exactly what I did:

(the whole family contributed to choosing the colors)

So I didn't do any major mechanical work -- and it really wasn't necessary because the bike was already in excellent condition. I notably hesitated to replace the downtube shifters with modern handlebar-mounted ones, but I find friction shifters very pleasant to use.

Now all that's left is to ride.