New member looking for info on an 80's specialized expedition touring bike
 

Hey Everyone,

Im brand new to the forum and to road bikes. I just bought an 80's specialized expedition touring bike and im having a hard time finding out any information on it. i dont know what its worth but i do know it does have internal wiring for lighting and some of them came from the factory with a generator. its not all original but its realy clean and a great ride. from what little ive found out about it, people do tend to love this bike as im coming to. if anyone has any info or can point me in the right direction id reatly appreciate it.

Thanks!
Greg

Congratulations on the new bike; the early Expeditions are great bikes. Mine is an '83 and also has the internal wiring. There is a Yahoo group devoted to these early Specialized and Miyata touring bikes which will be helpful; hopefully this link works. http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/MiyataSpecTour/

Welcome to the world of the Expedition. One of the classic loaded touring frames. Here is a link to mine:
http://velospace.org/node/19647

According to Tim Neenan the designer of this frame, it is actually Tange 1.0/0.7 dbl butted tubing used. He actually designed the frame for Specialized from another that he custom built as a frame builder in his own right. He again is on his own and builds Lighthouse frames.

Wow! That's the first time I've seen tubing manufacturer nailed down so firmly. My money, and most of the reading that I've done, had it pegged as Miyata. There are some that even have used the Miyata serial # decode to date their Expedition. Do you know if Tange used a similar system i.e. the first character represented the manufacture year?

Oh, and of course, here's my 84/85. Or, I should say, used to be mine.
http://i700.photobucket.com/albums/w...stDance005.jpg

That I do not know. I'm pretty sure mine's an '85, but I could be proven wrong. I'm running 40mm Ritchie Alpha Bites on it and the fit just fine. It is a fine frame, but if prefer my Bridgestone T700 to the Expedition. I originally purchased the Expedition for a friend of mine who ended up not wanting it. Though I've put some miles on it, the BS is by far my most used bike at just over 50,000 miles.
When I spoke with Tim, he stated that there were a lot of myths surrounding the Expedition and he was quick to point out some of the erroneous ones.. In many cases I've seen where folks swear that it's Ishiwata tubing. Anyway from the horse's mouth. You can drop him a note and he's happy to talk about the Expedition at Lighthouse Cycles.