ryansu

So to start this is all @tricky fault. He saw me whinging on the forums about having to sell a 56cm Allez because it was too small and if only I could find a 58.... well it turns out he had a 58 Allez, or most of one anyway and he was willing to sell it to me for what he paid, and a 6 pack of pilsner. As it turned out I had just sold a pile of vintage mountain bike wheels that morning for what he had paid for the bike so money wise it was a wash. And I just needed to furnish beer

I gave him this (and the $$)



6 pack in the can

And I received this



As received - not pictured saddle and seat post

And per the UK catalog site it appears to match the 1989 Specialized Allez


Of course I still had one issue, no wheels. I did some searching and finally bought an old Takara that had been upgraded to 700c wheels which I found when I went to look at the bike were Mavic open pros with Ultegra 6600 series hubs! I paid the man. In the end, I put on a 27" wheelset I had in the parts bin and sold the Takara to recover my costs, leaving me with a free 700c wheelset and thought I was set.

And then @tricky pointed me to the sales section of BF where @brian3069 was selling the exact spec wheelset (Wobler rims, Suntour GPX hubs) that came on the Allez in 89. I bought Brian's wheelset and then sold my Ultegra set to cover that transaction. After all is said and done, a 6 pack = Allez



Stock wheels

This is where I am at now before I give the Allez the spa treatment in the winter. I had to write this up because this kind of deal will never happen to me again! Thank you Tricky and Brian!

squirtdad

nice....me I would have kept the mavic/ultegra.

the pils looks nice

just thing what you could have gotten for a big IPA

3speedslow

Impressive (wheeling) and dealing!

diphthong

that's no ordinary sixer...pfriem is top notch stuff. wish more of it made it down to southern california.
i totally understand why it doesn't.

ryansu

We are very blessed, craft beer-wise in the PNW.

ryansu

I considered doing that and those 6600 hubs did turn smoothly but in the end a desire to have a nearly 100% stock Allez won out and selling the Ultegra's covered my costs and netted me a good story. I agree on the IPA btw or a nice Imperial IPA. hmmm But @tricky insisted on Pils

ryansu

thanks but mostly it was the generosity of @tricky that kicked this off. BF members rock

RiddleOfSteel

Excellent, all of it! @tricky is a great guy, though he and I haven't exchanged any messages etc. The ebbs and flows of life and activity. I see that Allez has those sweet hidden spring Suntour GPX brake calipers (a la Superbe Pro). GPX was a handsome groupset, visually similar to Shimano's 6400 era 600 group, which I of course also like. Works perfectly with these late '80s bikes and paint jobs.

ryansu

Well once spring comes, assuming I get this bike rebuilt by then we may need a PNW Allez/Sirrus ride, one reason @tricky was willing to let this go is that he had just built up a Sirrus and I know you have been working on a sweet Red Allez yourself.

RiddleOfSteel

That would be fun. I think my left knee should be good enough to ride more than five miles. I've delayed setting a fit/ride-analysis/PT appointment on it as I've been dealing with a car that refuses to be repaired for more than a day--a bit consuming it has been.

And you are right about my Allez. It's been done for a little bit now and it's a great ride. A friend took proper photos of it, so pure and unmarked dark-anodized rims are eternally preserved. Great bike, with a new-to-it and somehow still in package IRD 7-speed 13-24T freewheel, replacing the 12-21 Dura-Ace unit originally on there. That jump from 21T to 24T has been a life saver getting up Queen Anne hill.

Spaghetti Legs 

Nicely done by both of you guys!

I”m gonna have try that beer out. In general, I’ve found American brewers can’t pull off a Pilsner to match the classic Central Europeans.

repechage

Red bikes do Rule.
no idea why so many mod bikes are satin black.

jyl

I don't know much about the Allez. Tell me more about them. Were they Specialized's first real entry into the realm of serious race bikes? I recall there were multiple generations of Allez, of different materials and designs?

ryansu

@jyl I am no expert but iirc Specialized began making the Allez in 1981, frames were made in Japan and I believe the most coveted were made by 3Renshow in the later 80s production moved to Taiwan which is where my 89 was probably made. In the 90s they started making them of aluminum and today there is a full range from Carbon race bikes to Aluminum starter road bikes. About a decade ago they did a 14 speed steel offering as an nod to their first bikes but those were tig welded not lugged. In 2014 there was a special run of 74 Lugged Steel Allez's as part of the the company's 40th anniversary They were built by Mark DiNucci, one of their original frame builders

The marketing spin is that the Allez is an ideal balance of responsiveness comfort and handling. I just like how they ride and handle and they respond very well to putting down the power.

gugie 

Pfiem, it's die Scheiße

Wildwood 

very nice. and in wonderful condition.

and all original (or almost) definately puts it in a 'special' category.
good decision, congrats


ps- isn't it nice to have a BF group of friendly enablers, and a great winter project?

ryansu

Yes @Wildwood it is near as I can tell the stem and bars are not stock, spec is Specialized for both instead of Nitto and Sakae but they are in the period and the Crank is Shimano 600 not Suntour GPX but I noticed other Allez models of that year had 600 spec'd. I am very happy with it and look forward to getting it overhauled

merziac

I will piggyback onto @ryansu

The Allez probably has more rockstar framebuilder braintrust in it than most other production road frames combined.

Neenan, Merz, Dinucci, Konno, Miki, Tesch, Bayless and many others had more than a hand in these at one time or another and were largely responsible for elevating Japan's framebuilding industry that led to 100's of 1000's of best production frames being made that are still around today.

Sinyard sent Merz and DiNucci to Japan to get them onboard with the quality that was needed to build and sell bikes like he wanted.

They were there for 1 to 2 years for a herculean effort that brought the high production outfits out of the dark ages.

You have to dig a bit, but there is good info out there that I find fascinating.

tricky 

Yes! Very excited about this. It's getting close to being done!

It was fate that I came across this partially complete bike at Bikeworks and happened to already have a Sirrus of the same era built exactly to my liking. After seeing @ryansu saying he pined for an Allez in this size, I knew it had to be. And the ability to pass on stoke is the greatest thing. The pfriem was just icing on the cake.
@RiddleOfSteel, it's my goal as soon as Ryan finishes this up to get us 3 (plus any other C&V'ers, obviously) out on a red steel Spec ride. If you guys can handle getting your bikes dirty, I am down for a ride in the middle of the winter.

tricky 

There are some Brewers that are starting to seriously geek out on pilsners so I think you'll start to see better and better US attempts. A local brewery called Reubens just started a podcast and their latest episode is a panel discussion about lagers with the guys from pFriem and a couple other PacNW breweries. It's fascinating. It's the first time I've heard the term decoction brewing or learned that you need special equipment in your brewhouse to brew a lager like those breweries in the old world. https://sightglass.simplecast.com/ep...-art-of-lagers

RiddleOfSteel

That will be cool to do a red Specialized ride. I might be good for 5 miles at present. Less is fine, but that's not really a ride! Winter is fine, though a heavy preference is for the dry--I'd like the grey anodizing to last as long as possible and not get munched by brake pad + road grit. I try not to be a princess about it, but...it's just so pristine!

ryansu

No pressure eh @tricky ? I am probably looking at spring for the Specialized to get finished, Its actually rideable now but I want to go through it before I do any longer rides. I would agree with @RiddleOfSteel that I would want to do something dry. I have a Trek 520 that is next in the queue and then the Allez.

tricky 

Yes, it is looking like a spring red Spesh ride is the ticket. We should, however, do a wet ride sooner. @RiddleOfSteel get started on that healing! Best of luck with is. Would be great to get out on a ride with you soon.

RiddleOfSteel

@tricky I've been trying a combination of resting and then (now) short trips and new cleat positions (and really, no longer using any other pedal short of the modern wide-platform SPD-SL pedals) since July. I've been meaning, forever now, to set an appointment for fit/biomechanical analysis/PT and that's been delayed by 1) the optimism of finding the solution myself 2) the last month of my car deciding it doesn't want to be fixed any more and being a complete enigma about it (aka consuming thought and mechanic/shop and parts ordering time...and money).

As for a wet ride, I will need to install fenders on a bike. I've purposely haven't so that it would give me a reason to not ride and thus rest further, buuuuuuuuuuuuut because things are upside down right now/the last few months, it's been sunny well into fall. Can't win! Except for being able to do 4 miles a day. Endurance is in the tank, but the strength is largely there--so out-of-saddle accelerations and climbing are still enjoyable. Hard not to have fun when you're on a beautiful and beautifully-working bike!

ryansu

couldn't resist getting out and capturing some sun while we still have some and the Allez is rideable...