I have an oddball Specialized Sequoia. It looks to be a frame from the 90s (pink letters over aqua) or so. It has a flat bar and is decked out in a full deore (yeah, I know its a road bike frame) groupo. Any idea if this was a standard set up or just some gear head's fankenbike? Thanks in advance. Lurked a while and I love seeing the old Italian steel.

Sounds like the flat bar is the anomaly. That color scheme is probably in the '88-'92 time period. A picture would help us a lot with the ID.

I bought a bike co-op special like that once. A late eighties Cannondale road bike with a mix-mash of mountain bike parts, like deore deraileurs, flat bar with flatbar shifters, etc.

Deore was originally conceived as a touring group in the very ealry 1980s but morphed into an ATB group in the mid-1980s with the rise of that market segment. ATBs groups typically do double duty as touring groups do their wide gearing and cantilever brakes. The only reason they are called ATB components, as opposed to touring, is because the ATB market is larger.

As previously stated, the flat bar is likely a replacement, but everything else could be original. If you want an identification, you're going to have to post pictures. Having the serial number may also help.

A while back, I flipped an 89? Rockhopper that was aqua and I think maybe pink lettering?? (it's gone, so I can't look)

Often you can see the date code inside the FDER when looking from the NDS.

Does it possibly have "U" brakes?

They made road bike frames with U brakes? That would be a new one. As far as I know, the Sequoia was always a road bike. This one looks like it was probably converted for someone who wasn't comfortable with drop bars.

Here are the pics. Thanks for all the replies so far.

One more pic.

That's 1990-1992 Deore LX. The Sequoia was not catalogued in 1990. That appears to be the 1991 model minus the OEM fenders, racks and lighting system. The bars and stem are OEM.

T-Mar nailed it.

When I saw the pic the first thing through my mind was 'bone stock early 90's'. It looks like a very typical bike from the period.

My questions were intended for the OP to possibly find out if it was a MB converted to a RB, since the color AQUA was mentioned.

They made road bikes with canti's?

Cantilever brakes are the preferred style on C&V grand touring bicycles and most mid and upper end models were so equipped.

Well if I wanted to split hairs, I would say cyclocross bikes can be almost considered road bikes but I know that is a matter of semantics considering the age of this bike.

Interesting that Specialized migrated the Sequoia name from a hybrid in the nineties to the road bike in the 2000s. Really confuses people when they are trying to figure out the history of a bike.

May still have the racks

fenders gone

I know right, here's one from 87? with an interesting mix of parts.

Great lines. Looks like she'd still scoot; set up to grind big gears in the flats.

SBI didn't market the early 1990's Sequoia as a hybrid. That was their Crossroads series. This Sequoia was marketed as a touring bicycle, as it had been previously, but with the substitution of a flat bar.

SBI's hybrids used compact frames with sloping top tubes, like their ATBs, while the Sequoia had a traditional frame with horizontal top tube. The Sequoia's geomtery was also slightly different with slightly longer chainstays and and a slightly steeper head tube with more rake. There were also some minor differences in components, such as gearing, to tailor them to their intended applications.

Despite the slight identity crisis, that's a very solid touring bike. I'm a big fan of that LX group. With a shorter stem and drop bars you could easily give it a more classic look. You already have cable stops on the down tube so bar-end shifters are an easy upgrade.
Nice bike!