Raleigh Pursuit Flat Bar

Just to be clear, this isn’t a pursuit bike. For one thing, pursuit bikes are track specific. This isn’t a track bike, hence it is automatically not a pursuit bike. Pursuits are a track discipline analogous to time trials on the road. This bike has derailleurs; however, it also not a time trial bike.

It is merely a bike built with a really short top tube. In order to prevent toe overlap, the front wheel has been designed as a 24” rim, while the rear wheel is most likely 27” or possibly 700C in order to maintain gear ratios (and prevent the need for uncommon chainrings). This concept was fairly widespread during the 1980s and is most closely associated with women-specific bikes designed by Terry.

These bikes are frequently mistaken for the much rarer time trial bikes with smaller front wheels (sometimes 24” tubular but more often 650C) that were built for competition from the mid 80s up till the UCI outlawed different sized wheels in about 1997. These bikes with small front wheels were often called “funny bikes”, an allusion to drag-racing car class called “funny cars”. Funny bikes existed as both pursuit bikes and time trial bikes.

The purpose of the smaller front wheels was to lower the front end of the bicycle to reduce aerodynamic drag.