This History of Diamondback

Diamondback was founded in 1978 by a small United States west coast distributor Western States Industries (WSI) who originally sold road bikes under the Centurion brand and later introduced BMX under the Diamondback brand.

Diamondback's BMX Racing Team was started in 1979 by Sandy Finkleman owner of Wheels 'n Things. The glory years of the team were in the late 80's when the King brothers Eddy and Mike along with "Scary" Harry Leary formed a formidable team and dominated the scene winning countless No1 plates, championships and races.

In 1990 WSI changed the name of its mountain and road bike lines from Centurion to Diamondback. In 1993 DBR (Diamondback Racing) was launched. DBR riders dominated the mountain bike scene winning the US Men's National XC championships, a silver medal at the 1994 Worlds Women's XC, the bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics in Women's XC with Susan DeMattei, the 1996 Men's Downhill World Championships and in 1997 World Championship Men's XC. Before turning his attentions to the road Australian Cadel Evans raced his early competitive years in mountain bikes for Team DBR.

Into the new millennium the Diamondback brand was acquired by Derby International who also owned Raleigh and a renew focus was established for this famous brand.

During this time a renewed focus on all aspects of BMX seen such famous riders as Reuel Erikson, Martin Murray, Bruce Crisman, Darrin Read, Darren Barrecloth and Dennis Labigang, assigned to the brand to build its image.

From 2009 onwards, seen Diamondback bikes represented by trials legend Martyn Ashton and his Ashton/Diamondback team who propelled dirt and slopestyle star Sam Pilgrim onto the world scene. This multi talented mix of riders also put Diamondback in front of millions of consumers at the famous Animal/Relentless Bike Tour.

Diamondback have always had a massive commitment to supporting grass roots riders and helping them step up to a higher level, in 2011 Clinton Johns is a rider we hope will move up in the World of Dirt and be competing alongside the likes of Sam.

The BMX side of Diamondback has by no means been without is current super stars, with X Games and Dew Tour riders Nate Berkheimer, Diogo Canina and Darrin Read and with young guns to come up in the future to take there place, riders like Dan & Del Shepherd and Nicholi Rogatkin.

And most recently the sponsorship of the Development Force 5 (DF5) team, this comprises some of the most influential and progressive riders in the sport, the team consists of, Kelly McGarry, Billy Lewis, Eric Porter and Kyle Thomas.

Keep checking back as more Diamondback History is written as you read this.