1995 DBR DUAL RESPONSE PRO
"Dave Cullinan"
Story of the bike
About Dave "Cully" Cullinan:
As many mountain bikers in the early 90's, Dave transferred from BMX to MTB racing.
He's the 92' Downhill World Champion and won the Vail World Cup event the following year, where he also placed 4th in the overalls.
In 94' he underwent a emergency heart surgery and got back to racing in 95'.
In the late 90's he focused more on his Dual Slalom qualities, winning 3 World Cup rounds during the first UCI DS World Cup Series in 98', ending up 2nd overall behind Brian Lopes.
Dave Cullinan is a 2021 MTB Hall of Fame inductee.
About Diamondback:
Diamondback Bicycles was founded as a BMX brand in 1977 by Western States Imports in Newbury Park, California, which sold bikes under the Centurion (bicycle) brand. Early in its history, the brand name was "Diamond Back" and in 1994 this changed to "DiamondBack" and then to "Diamondback." Beginning in 1990, Western States Imports started selling its mountain bikes and road bicycles under the Diamondback name as well. Since 1979, many riders have successfully competed under the sponsorship of Diamondback, which began with BMX and expanded to Mountain Bikes with the creation of Diamondback Racing (DBR) in 1993.
About this bike:
I received this as half a bike from Steve Boehmke who worked for Shimano in the 90's as one of their main developers. We're still trying to figure out and find all the parts for it. Looking at the few photos that I've found, the bike was set up with different parts during the 95' season.
Steve has found the rear wheel with the prototype Shimano 7 speed internal hub, but we're still missing the shifter and tensioner, so it's impossible to use this wheel at the moment.
I rebuild it as close as possible to the more random specs as seen on the photo shot from the back with a mix of Shimano M737/M900/M910 parts. Noticeable is also the triple chainring set up with a M737 front derailleur as the M900 bottom pull derailleur won't fit.
I had to custom made a bolt for the rear brake linkage as the original was missing from the bike.
The fork dust wipers of this Manitou Prototype were bridle and broken - thanks Marco Kaiser @Anyrace for the replacements!
Dave used wider handlebars, custom made by Easton. We're trying to find some.
According to Dave, the frame was also custom painted by Chris Herting (3D Racing).
The bike is currently on display at the MTB Hall of Fame in Fairfax, CA.