About

Some people might remember me as sparky, the original owner of OS-DB.net which was launched in 2007 as a dedicated old school Diamond Back BMX forum and reference site.

My original goal back in 2005 was to rekindle my childhood BMX's, the Pro-Star MX-1 and Silver Streak, both of which I had in 1982 and detailed on my original site, retrobsession.net, which had a very basic DB area. During this time I'd been speaking with the owner of ROSBMX.net which was a general OSBMX site and ran by a really nice chap which had a dedicated Diamond Back section. Sandy Finkelman who owned ROSBMX.com and 100% dedicated to OSDB information (neither associated to one another) and stood for Real Old School. Sandy sadly passed away in 2005 only a few months into us chatting but I was fortunate enough to discuss so much information with him as I'd mentioned my intention to start a dedicated site (I also was lucky enough to retain his site material). So after many years it seemed appropriate to link up the 'real' part to my site name and for it to become Real Old School-Diamond Back BMX.

Little did I realise what an obsession OS-DB would become in starting to build my knowledge of Diamond Back

From 2005 to 2016 I spent many years collecting, building, restoring, investigating and researching the brand, along with some like minded people who became friends along the way (there are maybe one or two people I'd consider knowledgeable in this area).

I frequented sites such as BMXMUSEUM.com, RADBMX.co.uk, Raleighburner.com, etc and some others which I cannot recall. 

I was fortunate enough to discuss many history, business, manufacturing and design elements with various owners and employees associated with the brand during that time, including WSI and Centurion Bicycle Workshop. A lot of information sadly didn't find it's way onto the reference site or publicised. When I sold OS-DB.net around 2015/16, little did I know it wouldn't get utilised and as such, went offline, luckily I still have the site on my own server at home (sadly it is for my eye's only)

I also started the original facebook page, again, sadly not long after some members felt it appropriate to start their own pages, for what ever reason, rather than being the bigger person and ironing out their differences.

Sadly, I turned my back on the scene for a few years after I sold it which I intended to be for good, sick of the bickering two faced backstabbers. The Covid outbreak and working from home saw me returning but was somewhat surprised at the inaccurate and obscure information being provided so I joined one or two facebook pages but disillusioned I dropped out and back in hoping things would improve.

Although I've dipped in and out since over the past few years, seeing a very different scene, it was clear there were those that knew some information, but only really what they'd copied or asked about. It was evident there are few people that have spent time and effort researching and just ripping off information from others and displaying it as their own.

.....that's where this site is different, little info displayed. I'll be adding some interesting stories about model, how they came about, real research, some of my bikes. I'll most likely have a page for people to show their old school DB too, but if you really want to know beyond the model you have....then drop me a message and I'll be more that happy to help you into the history...maybe you want to know more about your model, not just the year and name of it.