Originally Posted by
Portlandjim
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
I have a 1983 Sequoia and a 1983 3Rensho-built Allez. Both have the "Designed by Tim Neenan" decal on the chainstay, but it sounds like you are saying that this is only referring to Tim's original design and that these 1983 models would have incorporated your re-design. Is that correct? I was aware that you redesigned these at some point, but I've never been clear about exactly when that happened. With the Sequoia I had guessed that it was in 1984 when the seat tube bottle bosses were added and (I've read) more tire clearance was added. Would it be more correct to say that there was just general year-to-year (or even more frequent) continuous improvement of the design?
Based on serial number format and various hints I've found in online discussions, I think maybe my Sequoia was built by Miki, but others have speculated Miyata. Whichever it was, it's one of my favorite bikes. I've had it side-by-side with a 3Rensho-built Sequoia, and while the 3Rensho-built frame had the markers discussed here, I thought the quality of my Sequoia was very comparable. The lugs aren't as long, and the seat stay treatment isn't the same, but they both appeared to be extremely well-made. You can really see the attention to quality.
