Rossin, Takhion & Bianchi

From Bici Crono's Flickr.

Erika Salumäe's Cinelli Laser Pista

This Cinelli Laser Pista, which is currently up on Ebay from a French seller, earns its serious OMG WTF status for two reasons:

1.) Cinelli Laser Pista is pure awesomeness and extremely rare, but of course you all know that.

2.) However, the crazy thing here is that there's an old bike shop sticker on the frame indicating that the frame was originally imported from Italy and sold by some long forgotten LBS in Kotka, Finland, of all places. Kotka is a small coastal harbor town in the southeastern Finland and certainly not known as a cycling city. Also there's never been a velodrome or anything like that there.

So who was the shop-owner Mr. Matti A. Salomaa, why did he have a Cinelli Laser Pista in his shop, who originally bought it and rode it, and how it ended up in its current location in Villeneuve le Comte in France?

Also, was this the only one he had or was there maybe more, and is there possibly another one like that hidden somewhere in here? Questions, questions...

Edit. 

Ok, the plot thickens. Anon just pointed out that the frame is actually being sold by Velorama.

In the description in french they pose the questions that since there is a vague number 3 inscribed in the BB shell, could the frame be the third Laser Pista ever made? Also they claim that the mentioned sticker is an address of an Finnish velodrome but that's just wrong. It's the original importer/seller LBS's sticker.

Edit 2. 

Ok, turns out kid_scientific was faster than me and contacted the LBS's owner and here's what he said:

The last time the shop had been in contact with Cinelli was in the late 1980s. The frame in question is probably the one that was special ordered via the shop from Cinelli for the Estonian track cyclist Erika Salumäe, who according to Wikipedia "won the first Olympic gold medal for Estonia after the country regained its independence in 1991.

Salumäe won gold medal in track cycling in the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, competing for the USSR team and in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, competing for Estonia. From 1981 to 1989, she won 10 gold, 3 silver, and 3 bronze medals in the World Championships"

It seems very likely to me that this was the very frame she rode for the ladies gold medal in Seoul in 1988, I mean it's a damn Cinelli Laser Pista so it needs to be the fastest bike there is, right? So now you know.



Thanks to Konkeli for digging up the clip.

Vyacheslav Yekimov's Rossin Pursuit Pista 1988

This is Rossin is special, and it's on Ebay right now!

"The frame was build by Mario Rossin in 1988 for Vyacheslav Yekimov as member of the Russian Olympic Track Cycling Team and sold by him in 1988 to a member of the RV Zurich."

'Super very RETRO ! Special cycle for pursuit'

Perfectly in keeping with today's theme:

"Super very RETRO ! Special cycle for pursuit.

Frame 1990 of release. MADE IN USSR . Model is made in the city of Kharkov (XB3 - it's "KH V Z") at a bicycle factory. The frame has no dents and cracks. Under repair was not.

Frame in an excellent condition. It is made of tubes COLUMBUS.

Frames KVANT were made under the order of bicycle federation of the USSR for leading bicycle racers."

On Ebay, click! And plenty more pics HERE.

Takhion 1984

Eastern Block Speed