corwin1968

In 1989, Specialized introduced the RockCombo. The idea for a new category of bike called "hybrids" was floating around in the industry and this was one of Specialized's first tentative steps in that direction. The designer of this bike collaborated with Grant Petersen (then with Bridgestone Bicycles) and they decided to focus on 26" wheels for this new category of bicycle. Grant's XO's, which came out in 1991, are still legendary bikes. Neither bike was a commercial success and the guy who designed the RockCombo said it was his only total flop in 30 years of designing bikes.

The RockCombo looked like an MTB of the era but it actually had road geometry with a steeper head angle and lower bottom bracket, as well as drop bars! The factory messed up and used heavier tubing than was specified so these are a bit heavier than they were intended to be. Only 500 were made and I've read that it was such a flop that retailers were selling them half-price to get rid of them! Today, they are pretty popular and highly regarded among the IBOB crowd and generally command a premium price over other bikes of the same era.

As we all know, the industry went with 700c wheels for hybrids and bikes like this were relegated to the dust bin of history.

At the very bottom is Specialized's promotional video for the bike.



This isn't an all original RockCombo but it's the best photo I could find and it is representative of the bike, as a whole:




https://www.flickr.com/photos/80253671@N04/11983637155/

Pompiere

It may have been a flop for Specialized then, but here are almost 4000 posts from people who disagree: https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...nversions.html