Hujsak Pursuit
Part Diary, Part Technical Manual, Part Tips & Tricks

I saw this frameset on eBay, I loved the shape, the details, and the color. Didn't know anything about Hujsak, but after doing a little bit of research, he turns out to be a very well regarded designer and framebuilder. This comes from the era of radical geometries and 650c front wheels, one of my favorite periods of cycling. So on June 21, 2012, I became the proud owner of a super unique custom pursuit frameset.

10/28/2012 - With a stem that was probably way too long, I took the bike out for a 15 mile ride on Canada Road. The first half of the ride was ok, riding decent but with just a bit of hesitation. On the way back, I got into a really good groove and this bike that has a wicked painful looking position, actually began to feel reasonably comfortable. I think with a slightly shorter stem with a bit of rise, this could be a great short time trial bike.

1/25/2014 - A sequence of events happened that was really annoying. I wanted to change out the beat up looking Stronglight headset, so I bought a new black Tange headset. I installed the headset, but the stack height was lower, so I needed to cut the steerer tube down a bit and cut new threads lower. So I took the fork to a local bike shop to cut the threads, but somehow the tool alignment was off and it got cross threaded, the whole thing was a mess. My custom 650c fork was ruined since I could no longer properly put a headset on the fork. I was pretty upset, so I just let the bike sit there for a long time. Eventually I decided to convert the fork to threadless, so I bought a cheap NOS steel fork on eBay. I had a friend cut off the threading on the original fork, then I had him cut off the new steerer tube and weld it onto my fork. I then ordered a new threadless headset. So when I finally got all the pieces in place, I carefully assembled everything, measured the stack height and made one final cut on my new steerer tube. Everything work out fine, so now I have a nice new headset, a clean steerer tube, and a Cinelli Sesamo stem to cap everything off. It now looks really clean, better than the old quill stem. So after a long period of frustration, the bike has turned out very nice. Time to go put some miles on this thing!

2/1/2014 - I took the bike out for a spin, overall it rode nice, but the stem was slipping a bit. When the steerer tube was welded on, the surface was ground smooth, which slightly decreased its circumference; so the stem was a bit less bite on the steerer tube. So I took an aluminum soda can and cut a shim that slid between the stem and steerer tube. Now that everything is torqued to spec (15 Nm), hopefully this will no longer be a problem.

3/29/2015 - Sold it to a person in the Central Valley. The bike is super cool but I'm just not that intense and limber anymore to really enjoy riding it.

Here are the specs:

Frame: Hujsak Pursuit, Columbus SLX, 58cm, 120mm spacing, lavender.
Fork: Hujsak Pursuit, 1" threaded, lavender. I put on a 23c tire and it would scrape the bottom of the crown! So I had to find a 20c tire, now there a decent amount of clearance. No tire clearance issues in the back. Strange!
Front Rim: Mavic CXP 33, 650c, 23mm deep, black with machined sidewalls.
Front Hub: Shimano Ultegra HB-6500, 28h
Front Tire: Bontrager Select B, 650c x 20, wire bead.
Rear Rim: Alexrims R450, 700c, 19.8mm deep, extra doublewall design, black.
Rear Hub: Generic flip flop, 32h, black.
Rear Tire: Continental Ultra 2000, 700c x 23, wire bead.
Cranks: FSA Vero, 165mm, 130 BCD.
Chainring: Sugino Messenger 44T, 130mm BCD, 1/8", black.
Bottom Bracket: Truvativ JIS Square Taper, 108mm spindle, ISO threaded.
Cog: Shimano Dura-Ace 16T, NJS.
Lockring: Shimano Dura-Ace, NJS.
Tensioner: MKS Track Chain Tensioner, NJS.
Headset: Sunlite, 1" threadless, black.
Chain: Connex 108, 1/8"
Stem: Cinelli Sesamo, 1" threadless, 100mm, 26.0mm, silver.
Handlebar: Nitto RB-018 Bullhorn, 26.0mm, 40cm wide.
Bar Wrap: SOMA T-Grips, black.
Pedals: Shimano PD-A520, silver.
Seatpost: Sunlite Micro Adjust, 27.0mm x 350mm, black.
Saddle: Selle San Marcos Regal Girardi, leather with copper coated steel rails.

The bike currently weighs 17lbs 14oz as shown.

The following are original parts that I am currently not using:

Headset: Stronglight, 1" threaded, black.