Sharpshin

My son has been wanting a steel-framed road/touring bike. At a recent Frankenbike event downtown I found this fully lubed, repacked and adjusted 21-speed (??) bike; drop-outs for front and rear fenders/racks and two water bottles, cantilever brakes. Sold by a hobbyist who enjoys restoring bikes to working condition, price $100. Light in weight for a steel-frame too/



I was surprised when googling around that this model was sold as a hybrid bike at the time, looked like a sweet road bike to me.

Anyone know anything about this particular model?

3speed

mstateglfr 

I refurbished an Override- i think it was a '92 based on the component manufacture dates.

DB's top hybrid at that time was the Overdrive Comp. It was this mix of hybrid and 29er. A handful of brands had a similar bike in their lineups at this time(Schwinn, Bianchi, Trek, etc). It had True Temper OX double butted tubing and high level components.
Then came the regular Overdrive.
After that was the Override. It had a mid level Shimano 300 drivetrain and plain gauge cromoly main tubes(so hiten stays) with a cromo fork.

Hybrids from the early 90s can build up into solid and simple commuters/touring bikes/gravel bikes. The geometry is usually similar to touring bikes and earlyish recent gravel bikes- so about a 72deg head tube and 27deg seat tube, for example.

Happy Feet

I have a 92 trek multi track very similar to that. Hiten steel but light and an amazingly good bike overall. If it weren't a step thru it would be a serious contender for an all in one bike as it has good tire clearance with the unicrown fork. As it is it has served faithfully as my winter commuter for some years now.

seeker333

There's a number of post/threads re. bike from google, worth reading.

If original drivetrain components, then low gear is 22.5 gear-inch, generally not the best for loaded touring (lower preferred for load/inclines). So the $100 cost could escalate quickly if drivetrain modification is necessary, or perhaps not an issue if user is content to walk/push on some hills.

Likely to have toe-overlap unless no fenders+small tires+short crank+small shoes. Not insurmountable but inconvenient.

Likely to have heel-strike since this is usually avoided only on dedicated touring bikes with long chainstays. Workaround is to use small bags, mounted rearwards on long rack. Beware of shimmy.

Previous poster mentioned wheels - those appear to be 36h, so they are about as good as you'll find currently, although the spokes could be junk and the wheels may need truing/tensioning. Inspect rim walls for brake wear, hubs for wear/grease, or have a competent mechanic look them over and service as needed, but the hubs/spokes/rims are likely touring capable as is, since bike appears to be lightly used.

$100 for a serviceable tourer is a good deal if you don't have to spend $200-400 more for parts - at which point you'd have been better off paying 600-700 for a proper used touring bike.

Sharpshin

Sometimes the fun is in the building, hey I've got about $1,000 in parts invested in my '89 Voyageur, compared to that I did save money on the clean $100 '95 Rockhopper I found in a pawn shop two years back, only about $700 into it so far Its cheaper that way.

But thanks for the info everyone, my son was looking for a project bike to build, if he doesn't use the frame for that his wife can ride it as-is.

Seeker, the only part I would take issue with is the length on the chainstays on the Diamondback. Pretty much the FIRST thing I look at on a bike anymore is the width of the gap between the seatpost and the rear wheel, even when not touring I usually have he big Ortleib panniers on the back of whatever bike I'm commuting on. That Diamondback has as much air back there as my '89 Voyageur, I doubt bags would be a problem.

The forks of that Diamondback look to be significantly wider than those on my Voyageur, allowing wider tires and fenders, maybe I should just switch components and take it on tour instead

Happy Feet

Toe overlap usually is also only an issue for small sized 700c bikes or really large feet. Some people who need smaller frames choose 650b or 26" because of that. I have no problems with 10.5 shoes and a 58cm frame.

On my trek I am running 700x38 tires with fenders and could easily run 42's without.

3speed

Sharpshin

The guy assured me when I asked that the bike was running a modern-style hub, I shoulda asked at the time about the 36 spoke wheels, did Diamondback put better-grade wheels on the budget-priced Override? If not, where did they come from?

I guess I didn't notice the spoke count at the time since both my bikes have 36 spoke wheels I had built.

3speed

djb

Sorry, dont know this bike specifically, but I have a similarly aged hybrid that I fixed up and use as a commuter-- a GT model, steel, canti brakes, 7 spd drivetrain prob of similar quality. Your shifters look a bit better than the ones on mine.
The generic hubs, rims and 36 spoke wheels work fine, but the one thing I did find out was that the 7 speed hub , although having a cassette, has the body or whatever its called that is not wide enough to go to 8 or 9 speed cassettes. I had planned on going to 8 or 9 as I have shifters kicking around, but it would have meant getting a new rear wheel, so I didnt bother.
If I ever find a cheap newer rear used wheel, I might do it, but for now its just stayed 7 spd, and just regreased everything as the hubs were in fine shape, in fact the bike was hardly used.

take off the cassette adn measure the hub body thing, its fairly easy to get info on what length it needs to be to more than 7 speed, but I forget the details.
I put trekking bars on this bike and it makes a good rain commuting bike with full fenders, and even though I didnt have to really spend money on it, the seat and my spd pedals are worth something, so I lock it up with three locks when I go to a movie or something , just as a deterrent.

the crank on my bike is a real cheapie, non replaceable rings, but an odd set with 42/34/24 on this stamped crankset. Works fine, and even with the 11-28 cassette, gives a 23 ish gear inch low gear, so would even be a reasonable touring bike as is. Not perfect, but fine.

did you buy it, or just considering?

Sharpshin

Bought it, I had my little granddaughter with me and we had our bikes on my el-Cheapo two-bike Wally World trunk rack. No worries, I scored a perfectly good three-bike Somos rack (~$150 new) for $35.

My son (33) has really gotten serious about bicycles the last few years, he rides a trendy single speed bike and wears all the trendy bicycle stuff. He's been wanting a bike with gears, I told him he should get a bike like mine: like having 27 single speed bikes all in one Him and his buddies could have fun turning that Diamondback into something, or else his wife could ride it as-is.