I recently acquired the below frame in a roundabout and slightly morbid way, which I won’t go into. I’m trying to understand the origin a little bit and I’m coming up short.
It is a Specialized Allez frame, with “Transition” written on the top of the seat stay. It is a metal fork. Other than that, very little identification on it it, except for the pictured badge.
Anyone have a rough year of origin (I’m guessing '91/'92)? Materials? Am I right in assuming it’s a tri bike?
Many thanks.
Matt
I think that it is slightly newer than you think. I would give it 93-95 based on the logos and the crank (if that is an OE crank). Is it 700? Is that a steel or is that a Prizim fork?
Is it 700?
My thoughts exactly…the first thing I thought when I looked at the picture is that the crank looks huge in relation to the frame. Might it be a 650c frame?
Spot
It’s a steel fork.
Good question on it being a 700, the thought never occurred to me. How can one tell? The cranks may look huge as the photo was taken on a slight angle, too.
I had an Allez Epic which I believe was a 1990 or 1991. It was the carbon fiber but the graphics were exactly the same as your frame. It was given to by Specialized to replace the previous years version that came unglued at the chain stays while I was riding it. This was in the very early days of carbon fiber bikes. Great service from Specialized though.
Dave
try sticking a 700 wheel on the frame and see if it fits.
Forget about the bike, dude, tell the story about getting the frame in a “slightly morbid way”.
yes, you are right, it is a tri bike.
i think the frame is from the late 1980s, and one version (one year earlier, or one year later, i don’t recall which) of this frame was painted hot neon pink. the frame and fork are steel. most notable about this frame is its quite steep (for the time) seat tube, it is not a traditional geometry road frame. and, interestingly, SBI sold this bike with their own quickly discontinued aerobar, of which there were not very many made. what else do you want to know?
hi matt,
wow i thought chip would’ve nailed it as it was one of the first dedicated “tri-bikes” sold around the same time nishiki made the NFS series.
at any rate what you have in your possession is the original and first generation specialized transition. it was called the transition allez. before mr. steve hed purchased the rights to the wheel that we now know as the H3, specialized manufactured it under the name TRI-SPOKE as a joint venture with dupont. specialized needed a bike to showcase it’s new wheel ('91/'92/'93’ish) so it created this “multi-sport” frame. as i recall, it came in a lower spec 105/ultegra version with regular spoked wheels and road bars with clip-ons and a “top-shelf” dura-ace equipped version that came with, wait for it, a pair of tri-spokes and, as someone noted, specialized’s “house brand” aerobar that no one liked so then they switched to a profile aero i cockpit. it does have a steeper seat angle (76’ish) and was offered in NEON PINK, HOT ORANGE, and matte black. as specialized created the bike for the wheel, it was only available in 700c.
the frames are made with tange tubing and are easily identified by the somewhat uncommon wishbone seatstay. how do i know? i worked at a shop that sold them and i owned an orange one. they came in three sizes which were, i think, either 51,54,57 or sm, md, lg. granted i had MUCH younger legs/lungs when i rode that bike but i recall it being quite fast. i also remember calling morgan hill directly to ask if they’d make one for our shop using the carbon allez tubing instead of the heavier cromo tubes. not a chance as the machine GIANT used to make the epic allez carbon road bke for specialized didn’t have lugs to accomodate the steeper seat tube angle of the transition allez.
VERY cool piece of tri-history if you ask me.
Thanks guys, looks like I have an authentic (albeit rusty) piece of tri history.
And the slightly morbid story of its acquisition is as follows: I’ve just recently moved to a new city and I’m renting a house. My neighbours, upon discovering I was a cyclist/triathlon, made sure to mention that the fellow who lived across the street from me was also a triathlete. Sadly, he was killed some time ago in a collision with a rollerblader on a multi-use path not too far from here, and yes, he was wearing a helmet.
The house was sold, and the new owners are planning to tear it down. There was a scrap hauler there yesterday hauling out the garage contents, and the frame was in the truck. I noticed the frame, was curious, and he simply gave it to me.
Thanks again for all the input.
Matt
i heard a different story about the aerobar, i heard patent issues were the reason it disappeared so very quickly. is that not correct?
patent issues? sounds completely plausible. back then didn’t anyone who made an aerobar have to pay SCOTT as they had all/most of the patents? i never got the story from our specialized rep so i couldn’t say with any certainty.
Matt, you dont happen to be in Vancouver? And that multipurpose path wasn’t the Seymour demo forrest was it?
Indeed, on both counts. New town, new neighbourhood, new coast!
Did you know him? He seemed like a good guy, by all accounts
Boone really played his hand wrong back then…TONS of folks were copying the designs with no recourse. Scott who started production also was very late to the game in protecting their designs. Then, there was the “drop in”…jeesh…
Yikes scary I knew that! I was training daily on the demo forest that year he got hit. I used to do 4 or 5 repeats of the 10km out and back weekly so I know that path like the back of my hand. IIRC, he hit the girl at the 7km bend in the trail at the bottom of the hill. I didnt know the man but the accident sure slowed me down on the blind corners. That trail can be very busy when weather is great. Not so busy when its raining. It actually has its own micro climate up in that valley. I dont know how many times I encountered rain on the trail when the rest of the lower mainland was dry.
NV is a nice part of the world but way too hard to train there with traffic and limited road space between water and mountains. I’m on the island now. I can do 100km now without going through a stop sign.
Best, Graham
It’s a horrible story. I have yet to ride there yet, but I may check it out this week – is riding on the road as opposed to the path a safer option? Alternatively, I may stick to riding down to Stanley Park and doing loops there. As well, I’m going to give the Cypress Climb a shot this week.
My partner’s mom lives in Victoria, so I expect I’ll be training some there.
was he riding that bike when he got hit? I would destroy that frame if the answer is yes. bad ju-ju!
Good point, but from what I heard/can tell, that’s a “no”. It’s clearly been in the garage for several years…
A friend had a Specialized Transition back in about '94 I think it was. His was bright orange,with yellow lettering on it. It didn’t have the Allez name on it tho.
His was a welded (not lugged) Alu (I think) frame, for 700C wheels but had the 78 degree seat angle and a pretty short head tube. He put Spinergy’s on it and raced it for a while. Then he switched to an Aquila bike (Ithink made in the same shop as Cervelo for a while)
Another friend had an Allez labelled bike about the same time. It was round carbon tubes glued into alu lugs. Also 700C, but it was a road bike.
Use a magnet to check if steel and check the welding at the head tube. If small welds, then steel, if big welds then ali.
Given the above, I suspect it’s about the age you think it is, maybe a year or two newer. fork will be steel,
Check under the BB for a possible serial number? and call Specialized maybe