mtlyon

I worked at Open Air Bicycles in the late 70s and I knew Greg. He was one of the bicycle gurus that we younger mechanics looked up to and learned from. I saw many of the frames that he built over the years and they were all well built and highly regarded. He would come into the shop occasionally, and I would discuss with him what my ultimate frame would be like. He was prepared to build it exactly the way I wanted, and was ready to accept a deposit. Being a student, I never had enough money, but I always intended to go get that frame built. I heard through the grapevine that he had passed away and I was saddened for the loss of my friend and the end of that dream. As you can tell, you have a very special frame from a very special person.

Fran Diamond

Greg is my brother. He passed away Feb 14. 1990. He was self taught in frame-building and was a perfectionest in his work. He was also a self taught guitarest and played in Santa Barbara. I know he played at the summer solstice in Santa Barbara. It is comforting to hear of some of his work after all these years. If anyone has any further information about Greg I would appreciate hearing about it.

We miss him, brother Joe, and Mom and Dad. Dad just recently passed away.

Fran Diamond

Fran Diamond

Greg passed Feb. 14, 1990.

JunkYardBike

Hi Fran,

I'm not sure many of the people who posted in this thread will visit again to see your message, but it sounds like many of them could share more stories. Unfortunately, BikeForums does not permit users with less than 50 (I think) posts to send private messages, so you would have to provide a means for them to contact you. Obviously, you don't want to publish personal information to a public thread, but some people leave an email address that has been 'disguised' so as to prevent spam (e.g. "user (at) wherever (dot) com" instead of "user@wherever.com").

You might also try contacting Freddy Parr. He worked with Greg and had many fond memories of him. He also may be able to put you in contact with others who knew him well. You can probably make contact with him through here: https://www.framebuilderscollective.o...311-Fred-Parr&.

You may also be able to contact him through this webpage, which I think he started, but may no longer be running: https://www.cycledesignusa.com/

Patrick

edog1955

Wonderful Thread! I lived and raced in Santa Barbara in the 70s and knew Greg as part of the cycling community. I often recall and re-tell a conversation I had with him about how he made the seat stays where they connect to the seat tube. JunkYard--on your bike the seat stays are convex where they attach, but Greg and I were looking at one of his frames where the seat stay was concave [as it is on my 1975 Masi]. "How do you do that??" I asked. "You cut the tube and an angle. braze in another small tube to fill the space and then CUT AWAY EVERYTHING THAT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE A BICYCLE" Greg said.

When I write my book, I plan to use that line to convey the concept that Love is the torch that cuts away everything that is not the Truth of who we are. -Evan M.

tricky 

Wanted to bump this wonderful thread with pictures of a bike my friend just acquired. He bought this Diamond in the Seattle area and is extremely excited about it. In fact, he couldn't resist taking it out in the rain, hence the small amount of droplets.


@Fran Diamond, @hodensaft maybe you'll be happy to hear that there are plenty of these frames out there giving people joy every day!

Edit: sorry for the orientation! They are right side up on my machine... May give it another go when I am back on that computer.

himespau 

so cool

merziac

Oh man, so cool, one lucky guy.

repechage

Handsome bike, would want wheels with more spokes...
Reminds me that I have a CD of years of Campagnolo patent applications... Lots of wild ideas on spoke orientation, and attachment to the rim.

tricky 

Yes, he agrees, but is going to ride these until he can get some legit wheels.

Jthall

Hi,

I recently came into possession of a beautiful Greg Diamond frame and I was unaware of his work previously. Very sorry to hear of his untimely passing, he was obviously a very talented and well respected guy. The frame is unfortunately a bit too big for me and I am planning to sell it on so i was wondering if anyone here was interested? Great to see posts from Gregs relatives, perhaps you would like to reclaim this part of family history?

I think the frame is probably Ishiwata tubing, although it has Columbus dropouts. It won't allow me to share the photos as i'm a new poster to the forum, is there a workaround for this?

Thanks,
Jonny

Maxtoon 

I am just starting to restore a Greg Diamond bike frame, and I am looking to have some Diamond decals made up. I know there are a few Diamond frames owned by members of the Bike Forums - could someone please take a few basic measurements of the head badge ace of diamonds card logo and the down tube DIAMOND logo? H. Lloyd Cycles will make the decals up, just looking for some general measurements for proportions.

Thank you for your time;

Max Mattoon
Pittsfield, MA USA

JunkYardBike

I'm measuring the Ace of Diamonds decal on the head tube and seat tube at 52mm height x 37mm width. The Diamond decals on the down tube measure 35mm height x 138mm width on my frame. The "USA" is 2mm below the final "D" and measures 4mm height x 17mm width.

One bike displayed on the Classic Rendezvous website has a variation on the headtube/seattube decal: https://www.classicrendezvous.com/USA/Diamond_Greg.htm

Maxtoon 

Thank you! That will get me in the ball park. Just sent your measurements off to Lloyds.

JunkYardBike

Just edited my post. There is another variation of the headbadge decal. Did you buy that green tourer in CA?

Maxtoon 

Yes I did. It is on its way to western MA via BikeFlights right now. Looking forward to the project.

Maxtoon 

JunkYardBike

Very cool. Would love to see more photos as your project progresses. Enjoy it!