Bike Forums - View Single Post - Finished 3Rensho Specialized Sequoia

01-25-24 | 12:41 PM

#15

Portlandjim

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Joined: May 2023

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From: Big Sur California

Bikes: 1946 Holdsworth Cyclone, 1969 Cinelli SC, 1972 Raleigh Pro, 1973 Merz road bike, 1974 Alex Singer Sportif, 1974 Merz track bike, 1975 Teledyne Titan, 1976 Ritchey road bike, 1977 DiNucci built Merz track bike, 1977 (?) Exxon Graftek, many more!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Catnap

At the risk of being pedantic, it's worth noting that Yoshi Konno wasn't hand-building these frames. He had a staff of builders working for him, which included Koichi Yamaguchi as the master frame builder from 1983-1987. So, it's more accurate to say they were made by 3Rensho, as Jim said above.

Portlandjim Did Konno design those early Allez & Sequoia frames? Or was he building them to Specialized's design? I had thought Konno designed them, given his use of the iconic offset fork crown, but you'd know better than me.

You are correct about Yoshi not building our frames. I was pretty good friends with him, and I never saw him build any frames! Most likely he did make frames early in his company's history, and prototype/show bikes.

For the first yearor so (1981-1982) Specialized frames were designed by Tim Neenan, this included the Allez and Sequoia models. Interestingly 3Rensho didn't buildthe first Allez frames, they were by Toyo. When I started at Specialized in late Summer of 1982, we redesigned both of these models plus added a bunch of other bikes. Yoshi wanted to use his offset fork crown, I had no problem with doing that but added our logo cast in. One more little known detail. Right before I went to work for Sinyard, Yoshi talked Mike into making 10 Allez Shimano AX bikes. I am pretty sure this is the only time Yoshi designed any Allez, and the only time he supplied a full bike to us. Those 10 bikes did not sell at the original asking price, and were sitting up in the mezzanine when I went to work there. I remember that they were finally sold at a fire sale price. Pretty neat bikes. I had some photos of one of the Allez AX bikes, but I can't locate them. Jim Merz

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