Hands On: Diamondback Team Replica Podium Optum Road Bike

Guess who’s back. Back again. Diamondback. Tell a friend. DIAMONDBACKDIAMONDBACKDIAMONDBACKDIAMONDBACKDIAMONDBACKDIAMONDBACK, oo weee oo oo wee oo wee.

“Diamondback controls their fibers from yarn to molding, doing their own resin impregnation to form sheets of prepreg. Most brands buy prepreg that’s already made.”

I think the same could be said for every frame sourced from Giant.

$2,100 is reasonable for a well-engineered frame. Presumably, street pricing for components fills in the difference between the frame and as-built price.

No doubt the high-end bike market is very competitive and maybe harder to break into given some riders’ affinity for name brands. Personally, I like to think different. Value and performance has gravity. If you have the conditioning and skill to push it, it’s hard for the pack to argue with that decision.

I’d ride it.

I have the original Podium 7 from 2012 with a full Campy Superrecord 11 build. 15.4 lbs with cages, pedals, and computer. This frame (in performance, not looks) can go toe to toe with anything from the major names. The geo is dialed in and it’s a rocket ship on the road. I have had saddle time on many high end bikes over the years from Specialized, Treck, Giant, Cervelo, and Pinerello. I scored the matte black stealth 2012 model for $4500 new and couldn’t be happier with the quality of the bike.

@speedy
Pretty sure rocket ships such as the space shuttle needed cars to pull them when taxiing on the road. Rocket ship on the road! Not very impressive.

@Ilikeicedtea
Both companies put a lot of R&D into their bikes. Specialized has their own wind tunnel, Cervelo is a big player in the aero frame segment. Diamondback could spend the same R&D in designing frames, but they don’t.

Maybe it’s a decent bike, but all the logos on the frame (and rims) are hideous. DB, please tone it down.

@speedy
What are you even talking about? Cervelo has a USA based R&D facility and utilizes a wind tunnel in San Diego.

If you mean construction, sure, but that’s not the same as R&D, and Cervelo is particularly well known for it’s work on aerodynamics. Even if it was the same company that was doing R&D, that doesn’t mean they bothered to spend as much. Or if you mean Daimondback took a designer that used to work at Cervelo, lots of companies pick up employees as various levels that had experience working for other companies.

Giant produces carbon frames of various qualities. You wouldn’t call their cheapest frame as good as their best rebadge frame just because they were made in the same factory.

You’re being absurdly daft.

Fine, Diamondback spent many hours in the windtunnel testing their aerodynamics, but unlike all other major companies that bother to rent windtunnels, they decided not to market the fact that they used a windtunnel or how many watts or seconds you could save.

They didn’t just hire an engineer that previously worked for Cervelo and hope that would convince people they did their share of R&D.

No really guys, you can be in denial all you want but it is obvious. Unless they have terrible execs who don’t understand the slightest bit of marketing, if they did windtunnel testing, they would advertise the fact.

Instead they hired an ex-Cervelo employee to convince people it was aero since everyone knows Cervelos are aero. Apparently it worked.

I instead of making up fantasies how your chinarello is every bit as good as the real deal, just take comfort in the fact that there are massive diminishing returns the more you pay in cycling, and your cheap carbon frame from some cheap company is nearly as good as something that costs 10 times as much.

Not a bad price for the frameset. They either need to charge more for it, or less for the complete bike because this doesn’t add up to $8k worth of bike. Actually, it adds up to precisely $8k worth of bike and that’s the problem–if what Diamondback is trying to do is have a halo product that’s a good value. They’re not leading on weight or aerodynamics, so one has to assume that value is their angle.

Where does it say in the review that this bike was designed as aero frame bike? Fromw the reviews I have read it has never been touted as an aero frame bike. As for the price, it is $250 cheaper than a Tarmac with SRAM red and Roval wheels, so how is the pricing not adding up? Most of the reviews I have seen on this bike have been positive regarding it’s overall ride quality and pricing.

The fact that people are talking about Diamondback trying to cut corners to save money on the development of the podium bike and how Cervelo and Specialized spend the money to make the bike better is laughable. Diamondback is owned by the Accell Group, one of the largest bike companies in the world and when they decided they wanted to make this bike, they wanted a bike that could compete with the best, so they went out and spent the money to make a top level bike. Maybe they aren’t the best at marketing at the development of the bike but it’s not some open mould off the shelf bike painted in Diamondback colors.

I just bought one, New frame, used fork from the team. Last time I checked, Professional bikes made their team bikes to have every square centimeter of it to have a sponsors name all over it. Raleigh makes this bike. I got a deal. I can’t wait to build it up!