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Hey guys. Of interest to the 70's guys and DB fans I hope. The result of a fair bit of research over the last couple of years. Enjoy. Kurt. Made in the USA - Jere Kirkpatrick and the 1977/78 Diamond Backs The earliest Diamond Backs, the US-made DB "MX" frame and forks, were manufactured by Jere Kirkpatrick's factory in southern California for just over a year - commencing in September '77 & finishing in December '78. Retail sale of these first DBs commenced in early 1978. Jere Kirkpatrick is an iconic name in race engineering. He first came to prominence in the early 1960’s working for the legendary Carol Shelby. Jere was responsible in 1964 for maintaining (and was one of the race drivers of) the famed “Dragonsnake” Shelby Cobra race car. The Dragonsnake team set track records and won trophies wherever they drag raced it across the USA. Later Jere was to work with BMX pioneer Webco and is credited in 1973 with welding the first ever production BMX frame. Quite a racing pedigree! Today Jere is a vastly experienced and respected metal worker and blacksmith and continues his lifelong passion for working in metal, though having left his BMX days far behind. Jere's then shop, “Fabrications By Jere” was established in March 1976 in Venice California. Jere was contracted in late 1977 by Western States Imports to produce the very first Diamond Backs. Jere explains how he went about designing BMX frames: “I would first ask if it were for downhill or Moto Cross. That would determine the wheelbase, head angle, and rake and trail. The age of the rider to whom they were trying to market would determine the seat post height and angle. On a special fixture that Cary McKenzie made we would place the rear wheel dropout, front wheel tabs, fit crank tube height and placement front to rear, and place a dummy seat post, then place the head tube in its proper place. There you have a bike. All you have to do from that point is connect the dots." Jere makes the design and manufacture of a racing BMX sound simple, but there were a number of features employed by Jere and his team of 25 employs that demonstrate the attention to detail and race know how that went into all the quality frames they made. Jere explains that he once went to visit another very famous US manufacturer of BMX parts: “I noticed they were welding the front section on a flat plate and would have to weld the down side with the frame out of the fixture---not good for keeping straight. We had fixtures for both front section and rear sections that would turn 360 degrees in two planes. A specific welding sequence was used to insure the welds did not pull the frame out of true. I learned that when working at Shelby's working on the Cobras.” So there’s a little bit of Shelby Cobra technology in every ‘77/’78 Diamond back! During this 1976 – 1979 period Jere’s factory also manufactured steel frames and forks for several other early notable BMX companies; Webco, FMF, LRV, DG,and Robinson. At their peak, including all brands, 250 frames per day were being produced by Jere and his team. Diamond Backs represented a small percentage of this total. Unfortunately the increasing tendency of BMX manufacturers to take their production to Asian manufacturers, due to reasons of cost, resulted in the closure of Fabrications By Jere during 1979, by which time Diamond Back had also already moved to Japanese manufacture. The most famous racer of these early Diamond Backs was the legendary David Clinton. David campaigned first a '77 euro bottom bracket frame and later a '78 US BB frame while jointly sponsored by Shimano and Diamond Back. It was while riding his MX Diamond Back that David won the 5th annual Western States Championship at Bakersfield Fairgrounds. David also won the Open Pro class at this major event, with the runner up being Brent Patterson. There was only one version of MX geometry , however the frame was advertised as being available with either a US or a Euro bottom bracket during 1978. All surviving '77 manufactured frames found so far have had a euro BB. The MX has geometry all its own compared to later DBs - with a very relaxed steering head angle. Other distinguishing features are: the gussets are "set in" to the front triangle much more deeply than later DBs - which are flush with the top and down tubes - and have a smaller diamond cutout. The rear section, a looptail, has dropouts quite similar to FMFs, though more rounded. The dropouts are 1/16" thick. Rather than a floval section behind the bottom bracket like later Diamond Back frames, there is an FMF style plate joining the chain stay’s, which attach directly to the bottom bracket. The brake bridge is a square tube, completely unlike later DBs. Decals are unique to the MX - white on clear early and white/red on silver later. Painting of the frames and forks was outsourced to Western Office Refinishing. The MX fork has a distinctive double dropout design to allow the rider to alter the steering of his bike depending on track conditions and personal preference. The dropouts have three holes drilled in them, of differing diameter. At some stage in 1978 the forks changed to a two hole design - seemingly due to some forks cracking between the bottom hole and the axle slot under heavy use if the wheel was fitted to the leading axle slot. Fork dropouts are 1/16" (1.6mm) thick. The fork does NOT have a safety washer hole, nor is it stamped with a serial number. The fork has a large, thick fork crown and is not drilled for a front brake. The caps in the fork legs are fully welded. In another touch of Jere’s quality and race knowhow the fork crown is fitted to the steering tube from behind using an additional "rosette" weld, in the same manner as Cook Bros Racing. The serial number of the MX is located on the bottom bracket and comprises three letters and three numbers. The third letter is either a "G" or an "H". G (the 7th letter of the alphabet), is believed to signify 1977 whilst H (the 8th letter of the alphabet) signifies 1978. The second letter of the serial is believed to indicate the month of production, although the 2nd and 3rd letters were reversed for some unknown reason during May '78. The number indicates the approximate sequential production number of all frames produced by Fabrications By Jere for that month. As at time of publishing, 17 surviving examples of this rare BMX have been identified so far by the members of www.os-db.net. Research is continuing into the development of these first USA-made Diamond Backs from the pioneering days of BMX. Kurt Tuthill, Administrator OS-DB. February 2011 I’d like to thank Jere Kirkpatrick for his generous assistance in compiling this brief history. I’d also like to acknowledge the ongoing influence of the late Sandy Finkelman and his passion for the history of Diamond Back, not to mention the help of Sparky and so many other passionate members of os-db.net

Trying to find a 1982 Diamond Back Harry Leary Turbo in Black for a surprise for my husband. I don’t know much about where to look to purchase so I signed up for this forum. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated!

On a Mopar forum, a guy mentioned he has his original Diamonback Silver Streak from 1982-ish and was curious if it was worth anything. He says he probably still has the original shipping box and owners manual, and that it's almost identical to this: The bike is apparently in really nice shape with no scratches of missing parts. He swapped out the pedals for KKT lightnings. I asked him for a photo of his actual bike, but he says it's just like the one in the pictures. I'm no expert on DBs, so I'm hoping some of you can offer opinions on what it might be worth. I don't think he's looking to sell.

Just got this Diamond Back Formula 1...complete survivor. I thought it was pretty cool so I figured I'd post it up.

i was diggin' through some of my parts and found this Diamond Back #1 pendant. i forgot i had it. i kinda remember getting it from sandy's sister when she came to the bike show. its kinda hard to see but it's also stamped "sterling" on the back. i'm not sure who they were for or how you acquired them BITD so i was hoping somebody could shed some light.

there's something about complete survivors. I saw this Diamond Back viper today and just couldn't leave it behind.