Real Venon

Warren Rossiter heads out to Vitus HQ in Belfast to see behind the scenes and find out more about the new all-road Venon

- Warren Rossiter

You may know Vitus as the in-house brand of online retailer Chain Reaction Cycles, but you may not know that back in the eighties, legendary French brand Vitus bikes were piloted by pro superstars such as Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche and Phil Anderson.

After a period of decline, CRC resurrected the Vitus name in 2009 and, from its Northern Ireland base, it's been closely involved in racing, including Irish sprint legend Sean Kelly's guided An Post team and, until 2020, the Vitus Pro Cycling team with riders of the calibre of British Olympian Ed Clancy.

When a brand is part of a larger 'group' (and they don't come much larger than Sigma Sports United, owner of CRC/Wiggle and many others), however, they're often dismissed as a badge with a bulk-sell operation. So, is Vitus a smoke-and-mirror operation or a serious bike maker? Can it take its heady mix of value for money and performance to the global market, while distancing itself from the online retailers (CRC/Wiggle) it's long been associated with? And is the new Venon its most complete endurance bike yet? I ventured to Vitus' new technical innovation centre based in Belfast to find out...

From sketches to the streets

In my mission to get to the heart of the team that puts together Vitus' extensive bike line-up together, I was expecting to find just a few people sorting procurement and product management. However, what I actually found was a big team of engineers and designers using cuttingedge software, real-world testing, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis; and prototypes, from 3D print to rideable fabrications.