Decoding mid/lowend frame "catalog speak"
 

It seems like catalogs go out of their way to be vague about lower end framesets.

For example the 92 Diamondback catalog says about the Ascent in one place "100% True Temper Special Short Butt, double butted 3 main tubes" and in another place it says "100% True Temper Cromoly frame with double-butted short butt main tubes"

So, is the frame 100% true temper, or are 3 main tubes 100% true temper? It seems like maybe the stays are hi-ten? Or just straight gauge cr-mo? For the next bike up, the catalog specifies "all other tubes cromoly" which makes wonder about the stays.

I also like how hi-ten is listed as "sturdy"

Tht's a good indicator that the stays on the lower of the two bicycles are almost certainly a lesser grade steel, probably hi-tensile. Marketing people are very adroit at using lack of information (i.e. if they don't state the stay material, the marketplace will think they're the same as the main tubes). They can't be sued if it isn't stated and the public makes the wrong assumption.

At one time, you could fairly safely assume the stay and fork material by whether the dropouts were stamped or forged, but by the early 1980s forged dropouts started to trickle down to the entry level models with hi-tensile stays and forks and you had learn how to correctly interpret specificatiopns and tubing labels.

Is that the UK or the US catalog? It looks to me like the Limited Edition Ascent sports the the 100% TrueTemper CHromo frame and the Ascent has a 3 main tubes Chromo frame and whatever for the stays. You are right is it does seem a bit vauge. but I don't see where the regular Ascent is listed as having a full DB ChroMo frame.

that appears to be the UK distributors catalog, though i've seen the same same model name and paint job in the US so I'm assuming it probably has the same specs in the US or UK.

it says "100% True Temper Cromoly frame with double-butted short butt main tubes" in the orange box on page 15 of the manual.

The manual shows a picture of the tubing sticker on the Topanga and the sticker says 100% crmo frame, but then the caption says ".. main tubes". Pretty confusing..


ps Thanks TMar, you reinforced my suspicions.. btw, if you get a chance and have any info from Diamondbacks ~1985, would love to hear it in this thread: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...-86-especially :)

To me it says "True temper AVR Double Butt ChroMoly Tubing" in the orange box

Full Cro-Mo Frame with Butted main tubes, straight gauge Cro-Mo stays. Cro-Mo fork.

100% is 100%. The difference between the Blue Ascent and the Limited Edition is in componentry;
400LX brakes on the LTD instead of 200GS brakes on the Blue, and the LTD has the "Brake Booster"
stays vs. standard tapered stays. Look for the 'bulge', about 2" long right around the R. canti boss
on both sides.

:thumb:

First, thanks for posting the catalogue. I've got 4 1992 DBs. Two 1992 Ascent EXs in deep purple, a Topanga in white w/ black spangle and a Sorrento in black w/ white spangle. The decals on the Ascent EXs state 100% AVR Double Butted ChroMo steel. The Topanga and Sorrento just AVR Double Butted ChroMo main tubes. Everything lines up perfectly component-wise except the Sorrento fork is tapered and 1" instead of the 1 1/8" on the others.

EDIT: The Topanga states 100% AVR Double Butted ChroMo as well. The forks on all 4 bikes state AVR ChroMo as well.

Look at the 1st sentence of the paragraph text. Like i said, it is pretty confusing... says different things in different places!