Velo City: Bicycle Culture and City Life

The Rossin Pursuit: A Bike for the Discerning Cyclist

Rossin Pursuit

Rossin is 40 years old this year, a milestone in an era when many of its contemporaries have been swallowed up by market forces. The logo consists of a capital R inside a pentagon, representing the five founding fathers.

Rossin were famous for their innovations in aerodynamics and this pursuit frame, while lacking the fiberglass fairing worn by its forebears, still shares the same DNA.

Rossin Pursuit

The brand was born from a dispute with Colnago and, until recently, lauded the details on its website. Blatantly setting out to become a direct competitor with Colnago, the frames were built to a similar quality — not surprisingly, as the head framebuilder, Mario Rossin, was previously chief builder at Colnago. It can take a long time to forget disputes in Italy, it seems.

Rossin Pursuit

The dispute was due to Ernesto’s cunning business acumen: facilitating the move of a prodigious amateur away from the Itla team of racing patron Vittorio Ghezzi to a team riding bikes supplied by Colnago. Ghezzi and the other Itla managers decided to originate a new team riding their own brand of bikes, and they conscripted Rossin to build them.

Rossin Pursuit

Aurimas Preilauskas is an art director from Lithuania who developed a passion for Cinelli and other vintage Italian racing brands. He previously owned a 1982 Cinelli Supercorsa Strada before buying this NOS Rossin pursuit frame from London’s Bricklane Bikes in 2013. To maintain a theme of period correctness, the search began for Campagnolo C-Record components and Shamal wheels.

Rossin Pursuit

Most of the parts were purchased individually from a variety of sources. The seat post and saddle were the first and easiest to acquire, followed by the headset and a NOS front Shamal. The rear was more elusive, but one was found, then Aurimas measured the rear spacing of the frame. 16 spoke hubs in 110mm spacing are impossibly rare, but Phil Wood supplied a custom order. Day saved.

Rossin Pursuit

If you’re going to pursue a pursuit build to this level, you have to consider a Takhion handlebar. Unfortunately they are also few and far between, but Aurimas likes a challenge, so scoured the London Fixed Gear and Single Speed forums, eBay, and chased hashtags all over flickr and Instagram. The effort finally paid off, in the most unexpected way.

Rossin Pursuit

A few blocks away, in Aurimas’ home city of Vilinius, the capital of Lithuania, a Takhion was found, albeit scaled with rust, which was scrubbed away to leave the metal underneath. The finished bike is pretty as a picture and was photographed by Karolina Marc near the Lithuania National Art Gallery. Aurimas is looking for more information on his frame so if you’re a Rossin aficionado, speak up.

Rossin Pursuit