Older Specialized Epic?

[majorpat]

A buddy bought an older Specialized Allez Epic bike, carbon tubes with aluminum lugs. He has two questions I told him I would pose to the forum:

1. What is the year of manufacture? The ser# from the BB is GC002074.

2. There are some scaly looking deposits around some of the lug joints and where some of the metal parts are joined to the frame. Is this just sweat/water oxidation or are there going to be problems with the lugs? Looks to be just on the surface, not deeper than the clearcoat.

Thanks for any information, he's a new biker and thinks that it is cool that I had a resource to look for this info, I know the forum won't let me down!

Pat

[thomson]

I don't know the age based on the serial number. I had one of those bikes though. Mine had yellow lettering and I got it either 1990 or 1991. The red letter ones came after that.

If you get the two alpha character Shimano date code (inside crank arm, back of derailleur, etc). The first letter is the year O=1990, P=1991, etc. The 2nd letter is the month A=January, B=February, etc). This will date the Shimano components and it is reasonable to expect that is the year of manufacture.


I don't know if the lug scaling is normal but mine ended up scaling. The lugs ended up separating from the tubes and Specialized replaced the frame. I have since sold the bike so I don't know the current status.

I would take it to a Specialized dealer and ask.


A buddy bought an older Specialized Allez Epic bike, carbon tubes with aluminum lugs. He has two questions I told him I would pose to the forum:

1. What is the year of manufacture? The ser# from the BB is GC002074.

2. There are some scaly looking deposits around some of the lug joints and where some of the metal parts are joined to the frame. Is this just sweat/water oxidation or are there going to be problems with the lugs? Looks to be just on the surface, not deeper than the clearcoat.

Thanks for any information, he's a new biker and thinks that it is cool that I had a resource to look for this info, I know the forum won't let me down!

Pat

[TimB]

Not a groovy thing, maybe:

http://www.trianglecycling.com/archive/index.php/t-22166.html

and other sites, too. Plenty of hit-or-miss failiures, it seems, though overall it doesn't sound too bad.

I had a friend who had one in the mid-90s that began to corrode this way, Specialized replaced it for him with an all CF Epic.