Wow, I, like others, knew of the 3Rensho-built Allez, but I didn't know Dave Tesch bult them as well. But one of the photos on the forum link shows an Allez Team with a TT decal with Dave's signature, so that's pretty definitive evidence. Does your bike have the Tesch signature decal? I have a Tesch-badged Tesch and the workmanship is second to none. Mine has a very slender full-sloping fork crown that almost looks like a unicrown from 20 ft away. Although I hate unicrowns, I came to really like the Tesch crown on closer inspection. What crown does your Allez Team have?
So how does one know a Tesch built Allez Team, if one is as lucky as you in finding one on eBay? Did they all have the signature decal? Or were all the 1987 Teams built by Dave? Can the year be identified by the serial number? Are there distinctive Tesch features that one can spot, even if the bike is missing decals or has been refinished?
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Big Spring, Texas, USA
> From: Kevin Kruger <ktk1_7_0_2_8@yahoo.com>
\r?\n> Subject: [CR] Dave Tesch built Specialized "Team" Allez
\r?\n> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
\r?\n> Date: Thursday, January 7, 2010, 9:42 AM
\r?\n> I recently purchased a very nice
\r?\n> Specialized "Team" Allez, and following some online
\r?\n> research, was surprised to discover
\r?\n> it's a 1987 model year built by Dave Tesch. Received the
\r?\n> bike this week, and the frame is quite nicely built.
\r?\n> Thought that Tesch may have cut some corners since it was
\r?\n> sold as a "production" machine, but I was wrong.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Apparently he built their
\r?\n> top road bike for one year only, using Columbus SLX tubing.
\r?\n> Didn't see
\r?\n> any mention of this fact on your Dale's CR Tesch section,
\r?\n> nor didn't find any
\r?\n> discussion on the CR list archives.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Since there has been past discussion on identifying
\r?\n> Specialized frames built by either 3Rensho or Miyata, I
\r?\n> thought this may be of interest to some Specialized and/or
\r?\n> Dave Tesch owners.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> If
\r?\n> interested, here's a link to the bike forum discussion that
\r?\n> helped me identify the bike:
\r?\n>
\r?\n> http://forums.roadbikereview.com/
\r?\n>
\r?\n> I will post some photos of the bike once I am finished
\r?\n> cleaning it up and overhauling the components.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Regards,
\r?\n> Kevin Kruger - Grantville, PA