Vitus Dominer – Review
So… The Vitus Dominer…
I have to admit I didn’t know a huge amount about the Vitus brand before getting this bike. I knew that they were only available through Chain Reaction Cycles direct sale and that they were relatively cheap, maybe that brought on some preconceptions about this bike, that it may not be able to hold its own against the big crop of super bikes that have been coming out. What if they’d given it a 72 degree head angle, 32” wheels and made it out of cardboard because that’s what they could get cheap!
Just picking it up from Rideio HQ I was glad to be proven wrong with my preconceptions, everything looked pretty right. There was no super steep head angle, coming in at 63 degrees. Some nice looking 650b WTB rims, laced to Novatec hubs. Full Rockshox suspension, complete with Charger damped Boxxer and a Vivid R2C2…no cheap Kage shock a good solid Vivid! A pretty standard Zee groupset throughout, which is definitely nothing to grumble about, and then Nukeproof bars and stem to finish it off. Hmmm had me thinking how they’d got the price down too under £2200 with that spec….
Even bits like the cable routing is pretty nicely done around the bottom bracket. Going around the shock and cleanly out through the linkage. But there’s also the option to have it straight outside the frame. Unfortunately, no proper internal cable routing, but hey that’s just more of a faff….right?
After staring at it, trying to figure the Dominer out, I decided it would probably be a good idea to go get it dirty and really figure it out!
First impressions were pretty good. I felt quite at home on it. The test bike I have is a medium, I’m 5’10” and all felt good. I think I’m at the very top end of the medium size range, but the sizing didn’t feel bad. Maybe every now and again I could have done with a bit more room, but it certainly wasn’t bad. The bottom bracket felt nice and low and the chainstays felt about right, so the more aggressive you were throwing the Dominer into a corner the more you were rewarded with traction and the next corner coming at you! Jumps were about the only time I felt like I could have done with that extra bit of room, but really the bike did nothing unexpected and felt pretty composed all the time.
Getting the bike setup brought out a few niggles. One being that the rear shock was a bit shorter stroke than pretty much all bikes now, which I found made the spring weights a bit hard to find the right one for me. Having said that though the rear end always felt plush and didn’t seem to bottom out hard or slow down on big hits too badly, it was just lacking a little bit going through braking bumps where I felt it just started to pack down. Adding more compression or rebound to try and stop this just didn’t quite do it, the shock then felt like there wasn’t the same feel or it was bucking you. Also changing the spring on the rear wasn’t the most straight forward, trying to remove the lower shock bolt through a hole in the side of the seat tube/frame was very fiddly!
The only other thing was the Nukeproof bars….rise…all good, sweep…all good, but 760mm wide! Come on guys! It’s not 2010 still! Oh and the Vitus saddle was a bit big and in the way for my liking. But really the bars and saddle are things that most riders change anyway for their personal tastes, so I really can’t hate on that too much.
You know overall I was impressed with the Vitus. I really wasn’t sure what to expect from it. I think there are limitations, mainly with the rear shock, and moments where it could be just slightly better designed. But name a bike out there can’t be improved? Is the Dominer perfect…no. Is it 5 grand less bike than a V10….I don’t think so.
Super solid and reliable build, up to date angles, tough paint work. I wish there were bikes like this around when I started racing downhill!
The 2017 Vitus Dominer is now available from Chain Reaction Cycles for the same bargain price of £2199.99
Vitus 2017 Spec List
Forks: RockShox BoXXer Team, 200mm Travel, Coil spring preload, Charger Damper, Rapid Recovery rebound, Ø35mm Aluminium Stanchions – Fast Black coating, 1-1/8″ aluminium steerer, 20mm Through Axle
Shock: RockShox Vivid R2C, Twin Tube Solo Air, External Beginning Stroke Rebound, Ending Stroke Rebound, Low Speed Compression, 222mm x 70mm
Groupset:
Chainset: Shimano Zee FC-M645, 165mm, 34t
Bottom Bracket: Shimano Zee (BSA)
Shifters: Shimano Zee SL-M640 Rapid Fire Plus, 10-Speed
Chain Guide: MRP G3
Rear Derailleur: Shimano Zee RD-M640 Shadow Plus
Cassette: Shimano 105 CS-5700, 11t-25t, 10-Speed
Chain: KMC X10, 10-Speed
Wheelset:
Rims: WTB ASYM i29 TCS (tubeless ready), 27.5″
Front Hub: Novatec DH61SB Disc – 6 Bolt, 110mm x 20mm
Rear Hub: Novatec DH82SB-A4S Disc – 6 Bolt, 150mm x 12mm Rear
Spokes: Stainless double butted
Tyres: Maxxis High Roller II, 3C Tubeless Ready DH, Maxx Grip, Folding, 27.5″ x 2.4″
Components:
Front Brake: Shimano Zee BR-M640 Hydraulic Disc, 203mm Rotor
Rear Brake: Shimano Zee BR-M640 Hydraulic Disc, 203mm Rotors
Handlebars: Nukeproof Warhead, 7075 Double Butted Alloy, 760mm Wide, 20mm Rise
Headset: FSA Orbit 1.5 Zero Stack (No.57.1), 1.1/8″
Stem: Nukeproof Direct Mount, CNC 6061-T6 Aluminium, 30 Degree Rise, RockShox BoXXer Direct Mount standard with 45mm Extension
Saddle: Nukeproof Vector DH Comp
Seatpost: Nukeproof Warhead Inline, AL7075, 0mm Offset, 31.6mm x 350mm
Seatclamp: Vitus bolt
Weight: 16.2kg/35.7lbs (size M)
Photos – Will Greenfield