Wish mine still had the original paint. Hot damn!
So it’s Super Vitus 983. Mine has a different build other than the levers, bar end shifters, and cantis. I’m so stoked!
and mine.
so tempting… 
And I just found this. Dude sold it for 300.00(what I paid for mine)…I suppose to the Velo Cult? Keep scrolling down until you see the bike.
hott
Yep, that’s my old bike. I did indeed sell it to Velo Culture.Tires are Vittoria Tigres - not Contis. Used to be owned by Steve Larsen.
Thanks for chiming in, Spokes. Do you know any more history on the bike? I was told by the guy I bought it from that Tom Ritchey brought them over from France or something of the sort. Was also told that only 4 were made or only 4 were brought to the US…something like that.
I can’t wait to get mine the way I want it. It’s such a cool bike.
What are you thinking of doing with yours Erock? Would you actually race cross on it? They look fucking great but if i had one i might be tempted to baby it/ use it for a Sunday dirt-rider only.
I’ve been playing with the idea of going with something like this and using it as a dirt, rando, fast commuter type bike.
I recently picked up two earlier XTR rear derailleurs,(One is the M900 and the other is the M952), Shimano 8 speed bar end shifters, Salsa Cromoto quill stem and some other shit that I can’t remember for 25.00. So I’ll be incorporating some of that into the build. I also just bought an XT-M737 cassette.
This bike doesn’t have that much room for meaty tires. I’ll be lucky if I can fit 34c. I’ve only been riding 32c on the La Cruz and so far I’ve been able to tackle some pretty technical single track…for a cross bike.
I’ve never ridden dirt drops but think they’ll probably be fine on the road, especially with Salsa’s new woodchipper since it’s designed to be comfortable on the hoods.
I’m also not sure what to do about the wheels. I have a set of Ultegra/Open Pro wheels that currently have a 9 speed Ultegra cassette. Will I be able to mount the M737 cassette? I’d REALLY like to keep the Mavic MA40 rims but the rear is laced to a Suntour XC Pro hub which only takes particular 7 speed cassettes. I have some early XTR hubs on my MB-1 that might be perfect for this build, but I’d have to cannibalize that bike and that doesn’t sit well with me.
Another issue(not really) is deciding what to do with my La Cruz. I don’t want two bikes that do the exact same thing. The La Cruz can take some pretty massive tires so I’m thinking about making it less of a cross bike and more of a monster crosser with something around a 44c tire, dirt drops and such. I need to find or construct a super compact double though. The compact Rival crankset just doesn’t cut it, although it is making me stronger. The disc brakes also make it more single track friendly.
Yadda Yadda Yadda. I’m going to strip it down and have it painted before I do any of that stuff…maybe even the same color as that bike ^^^^. I was also thinking that a light salmon pink might be cool. I don’t know.
That’s all I got so far.
The story that I heard was that Warren Gibson (who was a DS for the 1980’s Reebok team, among others) got a few for his riders. Larsen was supposedly riding his in Europe before bringing it back to the US. I bought it on consignment from Wheelworks in Davis, CA. When I got it, it had 7 spd friction bar-end shifting, a single-ring set up in front with cool dual chain guards. It was originally 47 x12-25. (My current race bike has a 46/38 and a 12-26. Much better gearing for mere mortals.) It was hard letting it go but I needed room in the garage and some cash for new race wheels.
Thanks for the information, man. I love having a bike with some history!
Mine also currently has 7 spd bar end shifters. The rest is a mash of 600, XC Pro, and some early Shimano bits. Can’t wait to get back so I can work on it.
They were asking way too much for that. Awesome bike, but 900 bux?
Yeah, I agree that 900 is too much. Around 600 sounds more reasonable.
Bump, only because I’d like to find out info on mine, and I’m curious if anyone has come across the 4th one. Interested in what the paint looked like.
http://search.bikelist.org/getmsg.asp?Filename=classicrendezvous.10701.0210.eml
Norris Lockley to the rescue.
Some spam!
well, one of the four is now out of commission
did yours get run over?
yeah dude. got doored and crumpled the top and down tubes
nooooo! Sorry about that.
Sometimes I found myself nostalgic for that bike, but cross bikes without eyelets are essentially pretty useless.