All Road / Do It All Bikes / Vitus Venon EVO

[Miller]

Might be best to think carefully about buying from Wiggle for the time being, they're in trouble financially and going into 'self administration', whatever that is precisely.

[dshiels]

Finally got round to finishing the build and took it out for a quick blast around some local parks and trails. It's a really fun bike to ride off-road and fits and handles exactly as I hoped it would: like a very comfortable and stable road bike. It also looks extremely modern with aero tube shapes, dropped stays and fully integrated front end.

With 40c knobbly tyres that measure out to about 41mm between lugs, there's 5mm space between the tyre and front mech so I wouldn't want to go much wider than this unless there's definitely not going to be any mud around. Acres of space at the fork and stays though, suspect 45mm limit for 1x is conservative. Looking forward to trying it with road wheels/tyres.

Parts list:
Vitus Venon Evo F&F Size M
Ultegra R8070 Di2 shifters, derailleurs and calipers
GRX 810 48-31 chainset
Sunrace 11-36 Cassette
Token Ninja 386Evo thread together BB
Canyon S13 VCLS Seatpost (76cm saddle height)
Prime Primavera saddle
FSA NS ACR 100mm stem
3T Aeroghiaia 40cm handlebars
Vel RD 3mm bartape
Roval SLX24 Wheelset
Schwalbe G-One Ultrabite 700 x 40c tyres

Weight set up like this with single sided SPD pedals, bottle cages, computer mount and bell is 8.7kg

With a set of LightBicycle AR46 on DT240 wheels with Vittoria Corsa 28 tyres and an R8000 11-32 cassette, weight is 8.1kg

Beautiful build and I'm considering something similar especially as the full builds are out of stock and the potential demise of CRC/Wiggle. Do you mind me asking about sizing? I think I'm between a medium and large and ride a 56 in other road bikes

[kofsw4]

Thanks, I normally ride a 54 (tarmac, Caledonia 5, ultimate etc) and was between a Small which I think is a 53 and a Medium which is 55. I bought a medium but in hindsight, maybe a small might have been better.

The thing to watch is the stack because if you want to run the hoses under the SMR stem then you need to add a minimum of 30mm of top cap and spacers. Even fully integrated, there's 15mm to add.

Having said that, you might be limited by whatever they currently have, as, reading the news, it seems unlikely they'll be restocked.

I went out on it today and it's so much fun to be able to ride reasonably fast for 25km on the road then jump onto some trails with sticky mud after the recent rain.
The bike copes with both ends of the spectrum really well.

[Mundaka2023]

I was skeptical, but true to their word, the missing parts arrived from Wiggle as promised.

@bobones thanks for posting this, I would have never known! Ask for my missing parts and arrived this week too and the seat clamp cover looks loads better.

Could I ask if you can post how you attached your front mudguard on the fork please? I just got some Bontrager ones, as the lovely looking pdw ones were still out of stock in black, and struggling to get them to fit at the front without hacking something. Cheers.

[bobones]

I was skeptical, but true to their word, the missing parts arrived from Wiggle as promised.

Could I ask if you can post how you attached your front mudguard on the fork please? I just got some Bontrager ones, as the lovely looking pdw ones were still out of stock in black, and struggling to get them to fit at the front without hacking something. Cheers.

On the PDW's the metal bracket for affixing to the guard to the fork crown is attached with screws rather than rivets, so it can be removed easily. I just used a long, button headed, M4 bolt with some plastic washers to space the guard away from the crown and just bolted it on directly through the underside of the guard (see not so clear pic). Attaching the stays to the fork legs is simple enough, but I had to cut off about an inch from the PDW stays as they were a little too long.

Alternatively you can use the supplied fork attachment bracket that was originally missing. Bolt that to the underside of the fork (probably need to space it away too), and then bolt your mudguard bracket to that. I didn't bother changing my original setup when I got the missing part because I think it looks a little neater this way. You can also just drill out the rivets to remove your bracket if it's not screwed on, then do the same as me.

[Steve Curtis]

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[Steve Curtis]

Did my first gravel ride today! It was a mix of tarmac, forest trails, rough and smooth gravel. The Venon was great: it felt fast on the road and handled some quite rough and muddy stretches where I thought I'd bitten off a bit more than I could chew. However, the slick 35 mm AS TRs were up to the job, and I didn't puncture, fall off, skid or need to put my foot down. I'd maybe want a little bit wider for the really rough stuff, but the 35s (WAM 37.7 mm on the 3T wheels) seem to be just the job for the mix of tarmac and light gravel I'll encounter most frequently around here. One thing is clear: this bike has opened up opportunities for a whole load of fun.

This is probably the smoothest stuff I came across:

Now the honeymoon period has passed, what do you think of that 3T wheel/tyre combination?

[Mundaka2023]

Thought I would finish off with the completed build. Got some Bontrager NCS 700c Mudguards in 28-35mm size as PDW in black was out of stock. Also took advantage of Wiggles discounting and got the Prime Orra 700C Carbon Gravel Wheelset with 35mm Schwalbe G-One Allround. Snug fit but all good and great on the broken lanes round here. This wheelset was actually lighter than the Prime Doyenne 44 Carbon wheelset the bike came with. Really happy with the bike.

[SamisGross]

When you say that wider guards wouldn't work as well, would you need to cut them to fit? I was thinking of getting the 55m PDW guards or the Fend-off Wides for it.

Looking at it again, you may be OK with the 55 mm PDWs or the Fend-Off Wides. On my bike, the AXS FD battery is pretty close to the guard and it's quite tight between the chain stays, but a little bit of bending should see you OK. Clearance looks better at the fork and seatstays. I've got the narrower Fend-Offs on another bike and they're great guards, but the PDWs are a step up.


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Can you share how you attached the fenders to the vertical-facing seatstay bolts? I'm missing the stock eyelet bolts and am curious if you had them or came up with a workaround.

Just ordered the PDW 55m fenders to fit over 40-45mm gravel tires. Let's see how bendy we have to get to fit them into the fork/stays....

[Mundaka2023]

bobones and I had to request them from Wiggle and we both got the seat bolt cover and mudguard fittings.

[thirdsun]

I was skeptical, but true to their word, the missing parts arrived from Wiggle as promised.


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I just noticed that my Venon from Wiggle also had those 3 parts missing. I just contacted Wiggle and asked them to ship them to me. Did they react fast when you contacted them?

I never intended to use permanently installed mudguards but one my most recent rides those clip-on mudguards (SKS Raceblade Pro) just weren't all that helpful. Now I feel I should have opted to fixed mudguards during the winter much sooner and could have sorted this thing out with Wiggle earlier.

Of course they also stipped accepting international orders a few days ago. Hope they will still ship those parts to Germany.

[kofsw4]

It took Wiggle a couple of days to reply to my initial email but then they sent the missing parts out quite quickly after that. Of course, they've laid off a lot of staff since then so I wouldn't expect the same level of service. I've just fitted proper full mudguards to my Cervelo Caledonia after a few years of raceblades and the difference is night and day. Highly recommended if you can get them to work!

Wiggle were practically giving away sets of carbon Prime 650B wheelsets last week so I picked up a pair and just fitted a 650x47 WTB Sendero to the rear to test for fit on my Venon. These are probably the knobbliest 650x47 tyre you can get but I can still fit a 5.5mm hex key between the knobs and the rear stays and there's >10mm of room to my Ultegra front derailleur which is the tightest point with 700x40 tyres.

Vitus doesn't officially rate the Venon for 650b wheels but the BB drop is relatively low at 70mm so I think it should be ok even with my 172.5mm cranks. Will fit both wheels properly and post up some photos. I've never had this big tyres before, they're like a mini MTB tyre and will only increase the versatility of the bike even more (but also the weight since they're ~575g each!)

[satanas]

^ FWIW I had 75mm drop with nominally 50-584 G-One Speeds (48mm WAM) and 172.5 cranks and never looked like clipping a pedal; you should be fine with 70mm drop and 47s as long as you don't pedal around tight corners too much.

[bobones]

Now the honeymoon period has passed, what do you think of that 3T wheel/tyre combination?

Sorry about the late reply. I'm still enjoying riding the bike with the 3T wheels and 35 mm AS TRs as you feel kind of indestructible and capable of riding over virtually any road surface with great grip and comfort. No punctures or other tyre damage as yet, so they seem to be fairly robust and the wheels still look new with smooth rolling bearings despite suffering many a soaking. However, there is no denying that this is a heavy tyre/wheel combination, which you appreciate in terms or robustness and durability, but there is a cost to be paid in terms of outright speed, and without doubt I am faster on tarmac with my other winter bike which is shod with shallow aluminum wheels and 25 mm S TR tyres. Unless the road surface is truly appalling, I have no problems with comfort and 25 mm tyres either.

For solo training rides I am choosing the Vitus almost every time, but on rides where speed is a priority (e.g. fast winter group rides) I will be picking something else. When the weather starts to improve, I will take off the PDWs and replace the 35 mm AS TRs with 32 mm S TRs, and it will be interesting to see how much speed I can regain.

[bobones]

When you say that wider guards wouldn't work as well, would you need to cut them to fit? I was thinking of getting the 55m PDW guards or the Fend-off Wides for it.

Looking at it again, you may be OK with the 55 mm PDWs or the Fend-Off Wides. On my bike, the AXS FD battery is pretty close to the guard and it's quite tight between the chain stays, but a little bit of bending should see you OK. Clearance looks better at the fork and seatstays. I've got the narrower Fend-Offs on another bike and they're great guards, but the PDWs are a step up.


IMG_5438.jpg

IMG_5437.jpg

IMG_5435.jpg

IMG_5436.jpg

Can you share how you attached the fenders to the vertical-facing seatstay bolts? I'm missing the stock eyelet bolts and am curious if you had them or came up with a workaround.

Just ordered the PDW 55m fenders to fit over 40-45mm gravel tires. Let's see how bendy we have to get to fit them into the fork/stays....

As others have said, Wiggle will send you the missing parts on request within a week or so, but Condor sell the eyelets for £9.99, which I linked in a previous post in this thread.