clubman 

I repacked. tuned and rehabbed this Merz design bike for a good friend of mine. Gave him NOS 600 levers and hoods. My only complaint is the yellow, not gold hue of the bar tape. Sweet bike.

900ss

That Merz is a beauty, I would love to find one.

900ss

Here is my Allez. I must apologize for mis-stating something in my previous post. I stated that the raised "S" on the fork crown is painted white, as the seat stay "S" were painted blue. This is false as the fork has no raised "S".

900ss

RiddleOfSteel

I can't believe I've been holding out on this thread! I created an original one for the frameset-up build, but looks like I never got around to placing it here.

1985 Allez SE. 62cm CTC (per catalog) or 63.5cm/25" CTT. 60cm TT. It may be on the 'thinning the herd' list, but now I don't want to sell it. Riding it more and it's just

rmplum

Loving the Epics posted here. Definitely on the bucket list.

Ryan

Lemond1985

Been seeing quite a few of the CF Epics for sale recently. Now would be an ideal time to try to find one, they could all be gone in a few years due to safety concerns.

rmplum

I'll have to check that out - though I just came home with a Giant CADEX yesterday that needs a few things. I've now owned a bonded Trek 2300 and now the CADEX. I guess the Epic is the next logical step.

Lemond1985

I waited until 2011 to go CF (BMC one piece frame) so I never tried any of the early bonded versions. Some people say they can be a bit whippy? I recall at a certain point in the early 90's those OS clear bonded CF frames were quite popular, but I don't know what happened to all of those, they were everywhere.

RiddleOfSteel

I had a '92 CF Alle--er, Epic, in 61/62cm with the painted blue/purple lugs (not the raw-looking aluminum) a year ago or so. Fully aluminum fork. In really good visual condition, no cracks or gauges. Excellent bike. Not whippy. Willing to rock with you out of the saddle. Absorbed bumps really well (it is CF after all). I'm 6'5" 200/210, and it was more than fine under sprint and climbing stresses. Would have ridden a 63/64cm if they had made it! At present, I kinda wish I'd kept it, even if it was a touch small. Welcome to 20/20...

tricky 

This is great! How light was it since it was carbon and had all those DA parts on it?

RiddleOfSteel

Thanks! It came in at 18.7 lb ready to roll, from my earlier records. The wheelset is seriously light at 1430g and the tires are either 23mm or 25mm Vittoria Open Corsa Evo CX's. The 23mm versions weigh in at under 200g.

merziac

900ss

That is very cool, as I stated and my sig shows, I'm a huge fan of all of these, lots of history and a lot of world class builders involved to use them to make Big S into the superpower it is today.

Love or hate em, Sinyard knew exactly what he was doing.

brandenjs

A friend gave me this 1994 Allez Sport frame. Perfect timing too because I had another bike with a broken frame that had a full 105 group ready to be swapped. Got it most of the way done the other night. Should be an awesome rider.

67tony 

Wow, that frame is in pristine condition!
And, your bike looks a lot like the '92 I'm currently working (slowly!) on.

kermie

Not sure how I have not posted my 1993 Allez Pro, so here it is.. I got this brand new in early 1994 as a left over 1993. It was replacing a 1991 Trek 1400 that got destroyed in a rear-ending by a 3/4 ton GMC pick-up. Full Tri-Color 600 group with Specialized 700x20c tires and Mavic Open 4CD wheels. Over time, the rear derailleur stopped working so it was replaced with a period Dura-Ace derailleur. Several years ago, I took it to a bike shop to be gone thru, and the shop techs loved it. I did replace the Specialized Over-The-Top handlebars recently. It is in pretty decent shape if I must say so myself








Here is a picture with the original handlebar....

ryansu 

I guess I never followed up on this thread with after pics of my 89 Allez. I still have some shifting tweaks to sort but it has been fun on test rides and yes I did swap in a compact crank to make it rideable in my hilly neighborhood - did keep the original crank

brandenjs

Another follow up from a previous post of a frame a friend gave me. With a period correct donor bike it turning out really nice. What a nice ride.

pcb 

This is one of the 2014 40th Anniversary Allez framesets, designed from a clean sheet o' paper by Mark DiNucci, and built by Toyo in Japan. DiNucci did all the design work and Bryant Bainbridge managed the project, so it was kinda Homecoming Week at Spec'l. Mark designed and prototyped all new lugs/dropouts/bz-ons, the Reynolds 853 was custom-drawn for the project. Sinyard let DiNucci keep all the designs and tooling, so Mark's current customs use a lot of the same bits.

The 40th Anniv Allez was to commemorate the 40th Anniv of Spec'l, founded in 1974, not the 40th anniv of the introduction of the Allez, which was not much later, in '79-'80. Supposedly only 74 40th Anniv frames were made, at least that's what the marketing materials said, but mine is numbered xx/80, so Toyo made a few extra. Maybe for warranty purposes, or for insiders? Never got the story on that. The frames were originally auctioned off on ebay, with all proceeds going to World Bicycle Relief. I got this one used, for considerably less than the original asking price.

Mark's design exercise wasn't to recreate the '80 Allez, it was to design what the '80 Allez represented to Sinyard: the best possible production performance road frameset using the best current technology. With the sloping top tube and threadless fork, there's a strong visual difference/disconnect from that original '80 Allez, that the red paint and decals don't overcome. But the Allez has changed significantly both visually and in terms of materials/construction over the 30+yrs that passed before Mark designed this one, and it's also kind of natural that Mark's vision/direction had changed a bit as well. His sense of design and visual lines hasn't changed, though, and not only is the 40th Anniv Allez visually "right" and sexy, just like the '80 Allez, it also has some design cues going back to Mark's early, pre-Spec'l framebuilding days. It's kinda fun to see.

First photo is a mostly current 1x build, with an upright stem after I had an unfortunate sciatica episode. I'm comfortable with the bars a little lower now, but I'm having a hard time ditching the Spec'l X-Works stem 'cause of the red stripe. Oughta at least swap the spacers to up-top to get a little more bar drop. Earlier 2x build and some frame detail shots after that, then a comparision of the downtube cable stop with one from an '83 DiNucci. You can see the similarities, but the '14 is a casting and the '83 was carved from a block of metal. Then maybe Mark showing the frame bits he designed to Shinichi Konno from Cherubim and Chris Bishop, at NAHBS 2017 in SLC.

I suppose I should 'fess up and admit that the ugly paint chip on the drive-side seatstay cap was put there by yours truly, courtesy of a wrench slip. D'oh! There is an unofficial, unwritten rule that you should allow yourself one wrench drop/scratch on any new-to-you build. At least I keep telling myself that....

pcb 

Zombie revival edition......

Very cool! I think the story was Specialized ordered 100 Allez frames and 100 Stumpjumper frames from Tesch, but he was not banging them out fast enough, and 65 Allez frames was all they ever got. Tesch built the frames and did the assembly. I don't know if he was painting them himself, or if somebody else local did them?

Definitely not many out there, rare to see them pop up, and given that frames come in sizes, the chances of anybody finding one in their size, in decent shape after all these years, are pretty durn slim.

Good on ya!

kaiserschmarrn

My '93???? Allez Comp.


I just bought it because it was of that vintage. Are they supposed to be special somehow?
Danny

Classtime 

This bike has immediately moved into the top spot for Go Fast Vintage in my garage. When I sell the previous occupant, I’ll be looking for a red one.


56 cm X 56 cm
This may be the first frame that I bath in OA. Looking for touch up paint suggestions and head set size in the event I can’t de-index this one.

jonny7

I bought this exact bike with these handlebars a couple weeks ago online. I was incredibly stoked.



But then I noticed this...




And this...




And this...




And this...





And...

tricky 

Seriously?? I didn't realize they were that rare. I missed out on a Team in my size here in Seattle last week. Bummer.

pcb 

Yikes! and Bummer! Them's a lotta dents there, hoo-boy. Where to start?

Top tube could be from a handlebar or a drop, doesn't look awful structurally.

The chainstay dents almost look like they could have been intentional, for better chainring clearance on the outside and better tire clearance on the inside. But only one side is dented on the inside, and you'd think you'd want to indent both sides to make room for wider tires. Unless maybe they did the one but then decided not to do the other? And the inner/outer dents look kinda close to each other, like they were both done simultaneously with the same set of jaws?

The outer seatstay dent looks like it could have been a drop, but like the chainstay dual dents it looks maybe close to the inner seatstay dent, done at the same time with the same device? Like the top tube, structurally doesn't look worrying, but I'm no expert on this.

And I can't grok that inner seatstay dent at all---a crease from trying to squeeze the stays down to 120mm fixie land? That one looks deeper than the others, with a definite crease at the bottom.

Are you stuck with this, or can you return it? If it's an ebay thing, you should be able to return it no questions asked, regardless of what the seller stipulates. Not as described, or defective. Either should work.