Recent Acquisition Old Beach Cruisers, Diamond Back and Peugeot

[RustyGold]

I was really hoping the DB was early, given the stem, no lawyer holes, and the similarity to the '82 I linked above. But, I'm pretty sure it was made in '89.

It appears that...
KW is manufacturer, though I can't figure out which one as there are at least three 'K' factories that made DBs .
9 is the year, '89 in this case.
B is month, February

This is consistent with several DBs listed on bmxmuseum. The WSI stickers seemed to start in the late 80s, and WSI ceased to exist in 2000.

I'd like to see the SN on the '82 I linked, as well...but...

Cool pair of bikes... I'm partial to the DB and would snag any (reasonable) one that shows up around here. However, the one you posted and the one I linked are the only two I've ever seen...and never heard of them before this thread . Can't find any other pics or references.

Jason

 

[Loki182]

Wow, how did I miss your reply... I don't think my alerts are working properly. That's some excellent detective work!

But yeah these canti Diamond Back cruisers seem to be fairly rare birds. Although I would be willing to bet that it's less a case of they didn't make very many, and it's probably more likely that they just weren't very popular, or seen as anything special when new, so not very many of them survived.

Also you may have to school me on "Lawyer holes" I have honestly never heard that term before.

But for now I have gone ahead and slapped some knobby tires and much more compact handlebars on it and I have been having fun just zipping around on it. Next I'll probably try and lace up one of those three speeds that I recently picked up on to one of the cruiser rims and slap it on there.

 

[deorman]

I'd put my money on both being built in Pacific owned factories in Taiwan, possibly the same one. Looks like brazed dropouts and pretty clean welds, no doubt much sturdier than the current crop of re-branded cruisers.

 

[Loki182]

Yeah that wouldn't surprise me, I definitely don't have an allusions of these being high end bikes... uncommon maybe, but nothing particularly special.

They definitely do seem like well built frames though, especially the Diamond Back which is easily the stouter of the two.

All I know for sure is the forks on this bike seem to be somewhat desirable, and are probably worth more than the entire rest of the bike to the right person. Still I have no desire to part it out and will probably try and hit some trails with it and maybe even go and cruise the ocean front boardwalk when the weather gets a little nicer.

 

[RustyGold]

Also you may have to school me on "Lawyer holes" I have honestly never heard that term before.

Lawyer holes are the holes in the fork ends...

...for these kind of washers (with lawyer tabs)...

There are people that claim there is a hard date that all bikes before it don't have lawyer holes...and all bikes after do not have lawyer holes. In my observation, this is entirely not the case. As a guideline...these became more standard in the earliest of 80s, but, it really depended on the company, and the type of bike, that they tended to appear on. Department store bikes tended to get them before higher end bikes...and kids bikes got them before adult bikes. In my observations.

Modern bikes have 'lawyer lips'...

...that serve the same purpose (to keep a wheel on if the bolts, or skewer, become loose), or more accurately, to protect the manufacturers from injury lawsuits.

Sorry for the delay in responding...I forgot that you had asked

 

[RustyGold]

There are people that claim there is a hard date that all bikes before it don't have lawyer holes...and all bikes after do not have lawyer holes.

Should be...

There are people that claim there is a hard date that all bikes before it don't have lawyer holes...and all bikes after do have lawyer holes.

...the forum won't let me go back in and fix...internal server error

Jason

 

[Dizzle Problems]

Should be...

There are people that claim there is a hard date that all bikes before it don't have lawyer holes...and all bikes after do have lawyer holes.

...the forum won't let me go back in and fix...internal server error

Jason

In a similar, yet unrelated to this thread process, I’ve read that modern bb heights are not optimal, but higher because of people striking pedals in turns and crashing, then pressing charges.

 

[RustyGold]

In a similar, yet unrelated to this thread process, I’ve read that modern bb heights are not optimal, but higher because of people striking pedals in turns and crashing, then pressing charges.

From a klunking point of view...I wish someone would have sued schwinn early on, because their BBs are annoyingly low .

Jason

 

[Loki182]

Lawyer holes are the holes in the fork ends...

...for these kind of washers (with lawyer tabs)...

Sorry for the delay in responding...I forgot that you had asked

Hey, no worries! But yeah I had a feeling that might be what you were referring to, I just had never heard them called that before. But to be fair the Diamond back fork does have diamond shaped holes that allow washer tabs to tuck into them. So I am assuming that those would have probably satisfied the "lawyer hole" requirement for that bike.

 

[Loki182]

So far I have gotten as far as breaking down one of the three speed coaster wheels. Now I just need to disassemble one of the cruiser wheels, clean it up, (possibly order new spokes) and psych myself up for lacing it up with the three speed. It's been a long time since I have built a wheel so I'm a little nervous. All I remember for sure is that it took quite a few attempts to get it right last time. Also I may have to swipe a fork or rear triangle from one of my parts bikes to build an impromptu wheel truing stand.

Also I'm seriously thinking about going ahead and painting the rim while I have it apart. All of the cruiser rims that I have on hand are fairly rough and a coat of paint would definitely do them some good. I just have no idea what color would work for this bike... I'm possibly leaning towards either a blue, or a gold/brass/bronze color, but I'm definitely open to ideas!

 

[Dizzle Problems]

This is my fav video on wheel building. If you know how to tension and true, this video is all ya need.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=324s&v=mIU6mi0K4Y4

As far as rim color, can’t go wrong with black.

 

[Loki182]

Yeah I also thought about doing something simple like black. But I figured since the frame is already that crazy florescent pink-ish orange color to maybe just embrace the garish nature of the bike and throw a contrasting color like blue on the wheels... It would definitely be eye catching but I just worry about accidentally damaging someones vision with it.

But thanks for the video link! That will definitely help.