Early Diamondback bikes
 

Hi

Does anyone have a history of the Diamondback mountain bikes? I've seen bits and pieces about them, but not too much of their earlier history, models, etc. Thanks

1st diamondback i seen was a BMX, back in the early 80's i guess? they were considered "expensive" judging by my childhood budget. i remember a buddy had one it was the coolest bmx i ever knew back then...not sure if it was built in canada back then though

I'm the same of CdnPeugeot. First they did BMX, then in the mid80s, maybe earlier, they started doing MTBs. I thought they were sweet back then, but I was a drooley little kid. They always had really funky paint jobs, and they competed with Raleigh and Specialized for the smaller MTB market. I seem to recall that they garnered favorable ratings from MountainBike magazine and others. Something tells me they kind of faded in the face of more competition, though...

Sometime around 1982-1984 they started manufacturing their first mountain bike. I do not remember the model name, but it came in either silver or black and was made in Japan. It was very well made and had real sealed hubs, bb, etc. Monster cromoly frame and fork. It had a special SunTour rear derailleur where the cable entered directly at a 30 degree angle onto a clamp that held it. There was no short cable housing routing the cable into an adjusting barrel. It was a great and solid bike. From that point on they started making lower priced models, etc. This was at a time period when Specialized had their first model out, Trek had just started , along with Peugeot. Everyone had one usually Japanese made model out.