I believe that this is the story and I'm sure I'll be corrected if/where I diverge.
At the end of '83, Tim Neenan either leaves Specialized or at least gives up the road racing range to Sinyard appointed newcomer, Jim Merz. In early '84, the Allez is still being made by various custom builders and the Allez SE is introduced. Apparantly, Mr. Merz made a connection with Miyata and the SE's were all Miyata made bikes. Here's are two links to the announcement of the SE:
http://tinyurl.com/
And a link to the next page of the sheet, describing the upgrades to the
'84 custom Allez's:
http://tinyurl.com/
And finally, a link that illustrates the specification of the two models:
http://tinyurl.com/
The '84 SE was equipt with Suntour Superbe and Specialized propietary components. By late 1985, the SE was Shimano 600 equipt and the Allez itself was also being made by Miyata. There are reportedly examples of te Allez made by Jim Merz and also Dave Tesch during this period but nothing I can link to proof of.
My late '85 Allez SE in a rarer, lighter antiqued blue:
I think I'm leaving about 17 pages of the story out but I wrote about much of it on the BikeForums.net site in detail, as well as posting some to this list.
Danny Gonzalez NY, NY USA
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