My bike is the silver FSR. I was trying to determine how old it actually was, and I finally figured out that the frame was a 2003 FSR.
It started out its life as a 2001 FSR XC in black with red lettering (2nd picture of somebody else's bike that I found online). Bought it as an end-of-season sale bike, must have been around 2002, but inside of 6-8 months the cranks started to slip/spin, and I discovered that the the threads in the through-hole for the cranks were stripped. Either manufacturing problem or the shop didn't assemble properly, so Specialized warrantied the frame for me and gave me a new rear shock as well, since the original didn't fit the new frame. All the other components were just moved over.
In any case, it's lasted me forever, only replacing the front fork and the pedals. Rebuilt the rear shock myself and learned over covid how to tune the derailleurs.
Did I end up with a better frame? Worse? Just curious what the thoughts are on the difference between the 2 frames and rear shock assemblies.
by DarkHelmet2222