big chainring 

The bike of the greatest cycling team ever assembled in my opinion.

Chombi1 

It's a historical bike too.....
I think It's really the first CF race bike that was taken seriously by the pro teams. And was quite successful with many wins under some of the best riders of the time.
Too bad the persisting prejudice against anything CF with many C&Vers keeps these bikes from getting the historical credit they deserve..... JMO....

Bikerider007

I believe its that most fear failure, just as many down aluminum for the ride yet they are not racing or riding hard.

unterhausen

Just a reminder, we don't allow ebay links.

big chainring 

To me its a bike that represents a unique time in American cycling. The Teledyne Titan and Graftek were looking toward the future. Pino Morroni was machining ultra light components from Titanium. Small independents like Trek, Phil Wood, Weyless and a bunch of others were introducing new enthusiast type products. All this coincided with a new surge in competitive cycling. Greg Lemond, the Sue Novara - Sheila Young duels, Mike Neel, Jacques Boyer, George Mount and on and on. It was a great time in cycling.

unterhausen

it was definitely a good marketing effort. Although they wimped out on the construction. I think they knew how to use the material properties more fully. Those lugs must have cost a fortune to develop and make.

My Teledyne has forever soured me on Ti, even though I know that commercially pure Ti is a horrible bike material which nobody but Teledyne ever used.

CliffordK

It is interesting.

• Vitus chose aluminum tubes, aluminum lugs.
• Exxon chose aluminum tubes wrapped with CF, plus stainless lugs.
• Giant also put steel lugs (dropouts?) on their early CF CADEX frames.

It would be interesting to compare Exxon Graftek to vintage Vitus Aluminum frames. My guess is the weight would come out similar, or perhaps the Vitus frames would even have the edge. However, the CF was supposed to provide a bit of a stiffener.

Chombi1 

I think the Exxon used the aluminum tubes mostly just as a form to mold the CF composite tubes against. Maybe because CF forming technology was not developed to what we have now.
The aluminum tubes are very very thin walled and I doubt if they contribute that much to overall CF tube strength.

rcommbikes 

Well, here’s the final update: I listed the bike three times on eBay and it didn’t sell, lowering the price each time. I did eventually, however, sell it for $799. Pretty much what the wisdom of the crowd here came up with. Thank you all for your comments. This forum is a great help to us.
Our all-volunteer group has stockpiled about 600 bikes for our community free bike program. When the weather changes, they won’t last long. Off to wrench!