67tony 

Late 80's, I'm thinking...anybody know for sure?
Serial # L26681

1. Friction?
2. Frame material?
3. Quality of the Suntour GPX group?
4. Decent rims?

THANKS!

StarBiker

Might be an 87'. I passed on a similar one a while back. Didn't think it was much of a flip, it was a dark purple with scratches. Yours looks nicer. The one I passed on I could have got for $25
These can be nice bikes. They aren't worth a lot though. Not this model. But if it's your size?

And there are a few nut buckets on Ebay trying to get silly prices.

wrk101

GPX is a very good group, typically indexed. Decent rims, but they do show some brake wear.

xiaoman1 

OP,
I can't offer a value on the Allez but can tell you that many here like these lugged steel frames...any information about the tubing on the frame, I would also rank GPX as a good group and if original to the bike would indicate a later model.
Shine it up, install new tires and BP along with a good service and enjoy it.
Ben

T-Mar

Based on the serial number, in conjunction with what appears to be oversize tubes, I'd say that it was a 1993 frame, manufactured in late 1992. If so, the tubeset was an unspecified custom Tange set but given the era and oversize diameter it's likely based on Tange Concept.

GPX was introduced in 1989 and that was the only year, that I'm aware of, that it was used on the Allez. However, this obviously isn't a 1989 Allez, so I'm assuming the parts came from a donor bicycle.

I'm going to be the dissenter on SunTour GPX, While it was an improvement on the SunTour's earlier Accushift groups, I did not find the indexed shifting or braking of GPX to be quite as good as Shimano's direct competition. Furthermore, in my experience, the SunTour groups of this era had durability issues. I've seen too many with worn out and sloppy pivots. Finally, there's the dedicated derailleur cable pull to derailleur travel ratio and cog spacing, which means that when things do wear out, there's the problem of finding obsolete Accushift parts.

wrk101

Agree with T-Mar, Suntour's peak was in the friction era. When indexing came around, Suntour was no longer competitive. I love the earlier Suntour products, many were innovative. They ended up behind when indexing came around, never caught up to Shimano, and went bankrupt in the early 1990s. Accushift was the worst, so this is better.

oddjob2

I will diverge from WRK101's opinion regarding GPX. Reliable, indexed, I agree, but is notchy and loud when shifting. I much prefer Tricolor.

wrk101

Yes, once you go to indexed, its tricolor for me too. I guess I was answering in regards to where it appeared in the Suntour product line. It was in the upper half. At the same time, once indexing came around, Shimano became dominant. Suntour was outmatched.

I have one bike with Suntour indexing, only because it is Superbe Pro. Still, tricolor works better.

67tony 

Thanks for the great replies.

According to Bikepedia the '93 version came with RX100, which probably got pulled and replaced with the Suntour stuff.

Tubing is still a mystery, since the only '93 Specialized catalog I came across was in Dutch. Bikepedia only says "OS chrome-moly thin wall" for frame material...

himespau 

That's probably all you're going to get on the tubing. Specialized in that era liked to disquise the sources of their tubing. Not sure if it was you'd think they had some special recipe or just so they could swap it around depending on supply chain availability or both, but a lot of their catalogs in that era just have a generic terminology like that. Or call it something like Direct Drive OS, which means nothing to anyone but them.

merziac

Tubing was their own spec from whoever was producing it at the time, make no mistake, with the likes of Neenan, Merz, DiNucci pulling the levers and guiding the process with a host of others this was a process that set the stage for most of the excellent Japaneese and Taiwan built frames we now have 10's of 1000's of to this day.

The tubing is excellent quality, designed and executed by some of the best in the business, especially at the pricepoint of the day.

jetboy 

I have to agree that every bike I have had with "direct drive" tubing was light, responsive, and all around great. whatever it was. This was true of both the mtb and road versions.

WaveyGravey

I have a 1997 Allez Sport.