I always thought that vitus 172 was roughly the same quality as Reynolds 531. This online article seems to suggest this:
*Vitus history by Norris Lockley
But then there is this post by Chas on gitaneusa where he writes that it is not quite as strong as reynolds or columbus tubing,
gitaneusa.com :: View topic - Vitus brochure, including Durifort
I'm excited by the bike; it will be a fun project to fix it up. My build queue runneth over though as I have 3 other bikes to get ready for the summer.
It also has that shimano 600 headset with the odd starfish design and I don't have the tool for it.
http://www.bikehugger.com/post/view/...-the-obscure-h