An eye-catcher on the VDV 1000 is its frame. All welded joints, even around the bottom bracket, are ground and covered with a second "decorative seam". This is known as "smooth welding". The tube transitions are soft and flowing. Together with the multi-layer, tough powder coating with a satin finish, these details add a good deal of elegance.
All derailleur and hub gears can be installed in the VDV 1000 frame without the need for any modifications. Inclined dropouts are used, for example, which accommodate the Shimano LX derailleur axle with filler pieces and can be easily removed for hub gear axles. This means that nothing stands in the way of a later conversion to a Rohloff drivetrain, for example.
All the threaded eyelets that make the tubular frame universally usable are already set into the tubes: for frame lock, dynamo mount or Rohloff gear cable fixation. Three bottle cages can be attached for the long haul. All cables and lines are bolted to the frame multiple times. Nothing rattles and the look wins.
The full-length article from issue 6/2005 is available as a free PDF download.
