This week in a very special Gallery of Bikes, we go back in time - right back to the beginning of TeamCow.
As best I can remember, we started TeamCow in 1996, and if my math is correct, that makes us 30 years old in 2026. So what better time to put a gallery of my favourite bikes; Specialized.
Joking of course - if you've been here for a bit, you probably know that I'm not a Specialized fan. Yes I do have an S-Works Carbon that I'm happy with, and there is a very specific FSR XC model that I might buy if I found one, but beyond that, there's no Specialized that I'd buy to keep, no matter how cheap. And I don't even know if I'd buy one to flip. But anyway, let's get to it;
1. Specialized Stumpjumper Comp. I bought this in '97 or '98 after my beloved Rocky Mountain Nimbus was stolen. Why I bought this instead of a Hammer or Oxygen, I have no idea, but it probably had something to do with that Marzocchi Bomber Z.2. Pretty sure this bike had a RS Judy from the factory, so I don't know why this one had the Bomber. And given how much I liked the Bomber, I'm not sure why I decided at some point to go with the Manitou FS Ti Palmer edition. Probably for the colour and the weight savings.
I remember reading a post at some point, from someone who worked at Manitou maybe, and they said that that fork was a fraud. It didn't have proper FS Ti internals, probably didn't have 80mm of travel like the FS Ti did, and was actually a way for them to get rid of a bunch of extra FS parts that they had. Interesting if true.
2. Specialized FSR Comp. At some point in '99 (maybe?) I decided it was time for a full suspension bike, and I acquired this FSR Comp from Pinkbike for some amount of money. I swapped over all the parts from the Stumpjumper, but decided that the Palmer fork was not right - I needed more travel. First option was a very cool Manitou X-Vert triple crown fork that you can just barely make out in the shop pic there. This never worked though because the steerer tube was too short.
Second option was a Rock Shox Judy XL, and I can say, unequivocally, that this was the worst fork I've ever ridden. It was a coil spring fork with damping provided by the friction of the springs rubbing up against plastic sleeves. So in other words, no damping. And on top of that, I think the springs were way too soft. I can remember a couple of occasions where I nearly went over the bars on flat ground when the fork just blew through all its travel and I just stopped dead.
I'm pretty sure the headtube was ovalized on this frame too - I remember having to make my first beecan shim to make the headset work. So after a couple months of this experiment, I put all the parts back on the Stumpjumper - then it got stolen.
3. Specialized FSR Enduro. Pretty sure that's what this bike was called anyway. I bought this with the insurance money from the Stumpjumper, and it felt like a really expensive bike, though it was the last one in the shop and they were wanting to get rid of it.
It had a nifty adjustment for the shock mount that allowed for different amounts of travel and different geometry. I enjoyed riding it, though it was bad for pedal strikes. After riding it for a while, I noticed that it seemed big - I just didn't have clearance over the top tube like on other bikes. That's when I found the 'L/XL' sticker on the frame. I never checked it in the shop, I just jumped on and rode it.
Once I had it in my head that this was an XL frame, that was it, I couldn't ride it anymore. Eventually I bought a Santa Cruz Superlight, and switched all the parts over to it. Of course the Superlight didn't last either as I bought a medium instead of a large and it was the same situation.
Late 90's me made really poor decisions.
Joking of course - if you've been here for a bit, you probably know that I'm not a Specialized fan. Yes I do have an S-Works Carbon that I'm happy with, and there is a very specific FSR XC model that I might buy if I found one, but beyond that, there's no Specialized that I'd buy to keep, no matter how cheap. And I don't even know if I'd buy one to flip. But anyway, let's get to it;
1. Specialized Stumpjumper Comp. I bought this in '97 or '98 after my beloved Rocky Mountain Nimbus was stolen. Why I bought this instead of a Hammer or Oxygen, I have no idea, but it probably had something to do with that Marzocchi Bomber Z.2. Pretty sure this bike had a RS Judy from the factory, so I don't know why this one had the Bomber. And given how much I liked the Bomber, I'm not sure why I decided at some point to go with the Manitou FS Ti Palmer edition. Probably for the colour and the weight savings.
I remember reading a post at some point, from someone who worked at Manitou maybe, and they said that that fork was a fraud. It didn't have proper FS Ti internals, probably didn't have 80mm of travel like the FS Ti did, and was actually a way for them to get rid of a bunch of extra FS parts that they had. Interesting if true.
2. Specialized FSR Comp. At some point in '99 (maybe?) I decided it was time for a full suspension bike, and I acquired this FSR Comp from Pinkbike for some amount of money. I swapped over all the parts from the Stumpjumper, but decided that the Palmer fork was not right - I needed more travel. First option was a very cool Manitou X-Vert triple crown fork that you can just barely make out in the shop pic there. This never worked though because the steerer tube was too short.
Second option was a Rock Shox Judy XL, and I can say, unequivocally, that this was the worst fork I've ever ridden. It was a coil spring fork with damping provided by the friction of the springs rubbing up against plastic sleeves. So in other words, no damping. And on top of that, I think the springs were way too soft. I can remember a couple of occasions where I nearly went over the bars on flat ground when the fork just blew through all its travel and I just stopped dead.
I'm pretty sure the headtube was ovalized on this frame too - I remember having to make my first beecan shim to make the headset work. So after a couple months of this experiment, I put all the parts back on the Stumpjumper - then it got stolen.
3. Specialized FSR Enduro. Pretty sure that's what this bike was called anyway. I bought this with the insurance money from the Stumpjumper, and it felt like a really expensive bike, though it was the last one in the shop and they were wanting to get rid of it.
It had a nifty adjustment for the shock mount that allowed for different amounts of travel and different geometry. I enjoyed riding it, though it was bad for pedal strikes. After riding it for a while, I noticed that it seemed big - I just didn't have clearance over the top tube like on other bikes. That's when I found the 'L/XL' sticker on the frame. I never checked it in the shop, I just jumped on and rode it.
Once I had it in my head that this was an XL frame, that was it, I couldn't ride it anymore. Eventually I bought a Santa Cruz Superlight, and switched all the parts over to it. Of course the Superlight didn't last either as I bought a medium instead of a large and it was the same situation.
Late 90's me made really poor decisions.
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