Originally Posted by
thebankman
Old steel S bikes are my absolute favorites to look at and ride.
Here is mine, it looks to be a similar year to the last gray frame, Direct Drive Offroad tubing. Based on the parts and a "license registration" sticker on the seat tube that I've removed, it is a 1988-89. Only remaining parts are the stem and seatpost. This one was abandoned on the street with a rusted chain and some broken parts.
If anyone has more pics of steel Specialized mountain bikes, please post them up here! There needs to be more cataloging of these bikes on the web. Firstflightbikes is a good start for sure!
that's got to be at least a 1991, as that's the year they changed the Specialized name decal to look exactly like the corporate logo. same with the gray one just above your post. Sloping top tubes were 1990, graphics changes were a year later.
My catalog from 1992 shows a Rockhopper Comp that looks exactly like your red one.