Made in the USA - Jere Kirkpatrick and the 1977/78 Diamond Backs, by Kurt Tuthill

This article was originally published in 2011 by Kurt Tuthill who I have known since the mid 2000's. Kurt was not only an administrator of the original and best old school Diamond Back BMX site, he was and continues to be held in very high esteem in the area by many interested in the brand and I thank him for his permission to further publicise his investigation and thorough article.

The earliest Diamond Backs, the US-made DB "MX" frame and forks, were

manufactured by Jere Kirkpatrick's factory in southern California for

just over a year - commencing in September '77 & finishing in December

'78. Retail sale of these first DBs commenced in early 1978.

Jere Kirkpatrick is an iconic name in race engineering. He first came to

prominence in the early 1960’s working for the legendary Carol Shelby.

Jere was responsible in 1964 for maintaining (and was one of the race

drivers of) the famed “Dragonsnake” Shelby Cobra race car. The

Dragonsnake team set track records and won trophies wherever they drag

raced it across the USA. Later Jere was to work with BMX pioneer Webco

and is credited in 1973 with welding the first ever production BMX frame. 

Quite a racing pedigree!

Today Jere is a vastly experienced and respected metal worker and

blacksmith and continues his lifelong passion for working in metal,

though having left his BMX days far behind.

Jere's then shop, “Fabrications By Jere” was established in March 1976

in Venice California. Jere was contracted in late 1977 by Western States

Imports to produce the very first Diamond Backs. Jere explains how he

went about designing BMX frames:

“I would first ask if it were for downhill or Moto Cross. That would

determine the wheelbase, head angle, and rake and trail. The age of the

rider to whom they were trying to market would determine the seat post

height and angle. On a special fixture that Cary McKenzie made we would

place the rear wheel dropout, front wheel tabs, fit crank tube height

and placement front to rear, and place a dummy seat post, then place the

head tube in its proper place. There you have a bike. All you have to do from

 that point is connect the dots."

Jere makes the design and manufacture of a racing BMX sound simple, but

there were a number of features employed by Jere and his team of 25

employs that demonstrate the attention to detail and race know how that

went into all the quality frames they made. Jere explains that he once

went to visit another very famous US manufacturer of BMX parts:

“I noticed they were welding the front section on a flat plate and would

have to weld the down side with the frame out of the fixture---not good

for keeping straight. We had fixtures for both front section and rear

sections that would turn 360 degrees in two planes. A specific welding

sequence was used to insure the welds did not pull the frame out of

true. I learned that when working at Shelby's working on the Cobras.”

So there’s a little bit of Shelby Cobra technology in every ‘77/’78

Diamond back!

During this 1976 – 1979 period Jere’s factory also manufactured steel frames

and forks for several other early notable BMX companies; Webco, FMF,

LRV, DG,and Robinson. At their peak, including all brands, 250 frames

per day were being produced by Jere and his team. Diamond Backs

represented a small percentage of this total.

Unfortunately the increasing tendency of BMX manufacturers to take their

production to Asian manufacturers, due to reasons of cost, resulted in

the closure of Fabrications By Jere during 1979, by which time Diamond

Back had also already moved to Japanese manufacture.

The most famous racer of these early Diamond Backs was the legendary

David Clinton. David campaigned first a '77 euro bottom bracket frame and later a

'78 US BB frame while jointly sponsored by Shimano and Diamond Back.

It was while riding his MX Diamond Back that David won the 5th annual Western States

Championship at Bakersfield Fairgrounds. David also won the Open Pro class at this major 

event, with the runner up being Brent Patterson.

There was only one version of MX geometry , however the frame was

advertised as being available with either a US or a Euro bottom bracket

during 1978. All surviving '77 manufactured frames found so far have had

a euro BB.

The MX has geometry all its own compared to later DBs - with a very

relaxed steering head angle. Other distinguishing features are: the

gussets are "set in" to the front triangle much more deeply than later

DBs - which are flush with the top and down tubes - and have a smaller

diamond cutout. The rear section, a looptail, has dropouts quite similar

to FMFs, though more rounded. The dropouts are 1/16" thick.

Rather than a floval section behind the bottom bracket like later

Diamond Back frames, there is an FMF style plate joining the chain

stay’s, which attach directly to the bottom bracket. The brake bridge is

a square tube, completely unlike later DBs. Decals are unique to the MX

- white on clear early and white/red on silver later. Painting of the

frames and forks was outsourced to Western Office Refinishing.

The MX fork has a distinctive double dropout design to allow the rider

to alter the steering of his bike depending on track conditions and

personal preference. The dropouts have three holes drilled in them, of

differing diameter. At some stage in 1978 the forks changed to a two

hole design - seemingly due to some forks cracking between the bottom

hole and the axle slot under heavy use if the wheel was fitted to the

leading axle slot.

Fork dropouts are 1/16" (1.6mm) thick. The fork does NOT have a safety

washer hole, nor is it stamped with a serial number. The fork has a

large, thick fork crown and is not drilled for a front brake. The caps

in the fork legs are fully welded. In another touch of Jere’s quality

and race knowhow the fork crown is fitted to the steering tube from

behind using an additional "rosette" weld, in the same manner as 

Cook Bros Racing.

The serial number of the MX is located on the bottom bracket and

comprises three letters and three numbers. The third letter is

either a "G" or an "H". G (the 7th letter of the alphabet), is believed to signify

1977 whilst H (the 8th letter of the alphabet) signifies 1978. The

second letter of the serial is believed to indicate the month of production, although

the 2nd and 3rd letters were reversed for some unknown reason during May

'78. The number indicates the approximate sequential production number of all frames

produced by Fabrications By Jere for that month.

As at time of publishing, 17 surviving examples of this rare BMX have been identified so far

 by the members of www.os-db.net.

Research is continuing into the development of these first USA-made Diamond Backs from the 

pioneering days of BMX.

Kurt Tuthill, former Administrator at OS-DB.net

originally published February 2011

I’d like to thank Jere Kirkpatrick for his generous assistance in

compiling this brief history. I’d also like to acknowledge the ongoing

influence of the late Sandy Finkelman and his passion for the history of

Diamond Back, not to mention the help of Sparky and so many other passionate members of 

os-db.net