Sea Otter Report: Diamondback 29ers and DH prototype
Originally posted on April 26, 2013 at 15:54 pmBy Eric McKeegan
Diamondback has been plugging away the last few years, making great bikes that seem to fly under the radar. After hitting a solid homerun with the Mason 29er all-mountain hardtail, I’d expect to Diamondback garner more attention this year with some of these other new models.
Mason FS
The Mason FS is the full suspension version of the Mason hardtail, with 140mm travel front and rear. The Knucklebox linkage pivot is moved into the downtube for stiffness and strength without additional bracing, and a seatstay brace stiffens up the rear end, one of the few complaints about Diamondback’s full suspension bikes.
The head angle is properly slack 66.5-degrees and and chainstays are claimed to be under 18-inches although they look longer than that to me. Regardless of chainstay lengths, Diamondback rider Eric Porter has been seen all over ripping up on various prototypes of this bike, I expect it to be a proper trail destroyer when it is available this fall.
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Overdrive
Also new is a carbon version of the Overdrive hardtail. Using technology developed for its Podium carbon road bikes, the new Overdrive carbon bikes come in three models, with either SRAM X0, X9 or X7 components.
DB4L
Last and far from least, this is an “almost” production downhill bike from Diamondback. I happened to see Jon Kennedy (Diamondback PR man) and Eric Porter in the lift line at Whistler a few years ago on unbranded, bare aluminum prototypes of this bike. A few years and an ownership change later, tooling has been opened, and this bike is happening. Not much other info to share, but I assure you that this saddle will NOT be coming on the stock bikes.