I’m coming back to biking, and the Cannondale V1000 sitting in the garage was always too big for me anyway, so I’m looking at buying a new bike. I spotted the Vitus Optimum 1 on CRC and I like the look of it. I’ve tried to find independent reviews for it, and they don’t seem to exist.

It appears to be a CRC own brand bike and therefore I guess it has little or no cred. That said it’s carbon framed, well specced and I don’t care about fashion.

Does anyone have any views or experience about it?

I see the conspiracy of silence about this bike continues…

Bloody hell, just had a look on the CRC site and that’s ridiculous value!

Would be nice to see what the tyre/mud clearance is like on the rear – Anyone seen one?

I really, really don’t need another bike, especially not another 100mm hardtail, but I’m very tempted.

Looks a steal as a bike package, but I guess it depends what riding your doing. I’d bite their hand off for that vitus if I was looking at fast xc type stuff and racing, but I’ll stick with my Soul for what I do.

Looks very nice, I’d probably stump up the extra £100 and get the x9 version with CR elixrs though…

Thanks for the comments guys, but I’ve found and bought a mint 2010 Anthem X2 for a grand…. 8)

Still, it’s good to see that I was not the only one that thought the Vitus looked a good deal.

Glad you all say the bike is good value, as I bought one 2 weeks ago. Only been out for a couple of rides as I’ve been on holiday, and whilst I’m not the most able to put the bike through it’s paces I’m quite happy with it.

I know what DT78 says about the Optimum II but I didn’t fancy a white bike, and the extra kit would be wasted on me, so stuck with the I.

Rusty Spanner – The one thing that does concern me is tyre clearance. Been fine so far, but it’s not exactly muddy at the moment. I’ve not got a lot to compare it to, so will have a look at some friends bikes to see what the difference is.