What year is this bike Diamondback Apex

[Neil]

What does a TT lite frame mean? Would i be able to sand back to bare metel and clear coat it. What would the metel look like. I have no idea

TT Lite is True Temper's mid-level double butted cromoly steel tubeset. A good tubeset, only the heat-treated OX3 was higher.

I kinda figured TT-Lite replaced the OXII and OX3 tubesets?
The early 90s Axis used OX tubes (I have a 91 Axis which has them, and I think the Axis Team had OXII or OX3 tubing). After that, though, and TT-Lite became the best steel tubing Diamond Back used (after it was introduced, all steel framed Axis and most Apex used TT-Lite (Axis Team used Ti tubing).
AVR seemed to be the middle of the road framesets that the mass produced brands that used True Temper framesets spec'd.

I don't think that is true. AVR is older and lower-level than TT-Lite, but neither of them is heat-treated. The 1997 Apex sold for £475 in the UK and you don't get a heat-treated tubeset for that kind of money.

Well not sure about TT-Lite being heat treated - I'll see what I can dig up, but I was certainly under the impression it was an evolution or replacement for the OX line of tubing.

The 95 Apex sold for £699, and the Axis (using the same frame and forks) sold for £999. TT-Lite was used in those framesets from at least 94 - not sure about 93. AVR was used for steel framesets below the Apex (or sometimes including the Apex - eg 91, 96).

By the time 97 had come along, TT-Lite had been being used for some years by Diamond Back - the price point of the Apex probably varied somewhat. For example, compared with the preceding 2 years, the 96 Apex went down a frameset to AVR (again) and groupset was downgraded a little, too - perhaps that years model was priced at a lower point.

I don't know about early forms of True Temper OX, but OX3 is certainly heat-treated - the Yo Eddy was made with it. The 97 Axis listed in Bikepedia was made of Ritchey Logic Comp Prestige, which is also a heat-treated tubeset, so a level above the tubesets they used for the Apex.

I think the 97 Axis listed in bikepedia I think is the US spec - not sure the 97 UK Axis used RL tubing - BICBW.

All the same, though - with maybe the odd minor exception, and certainly for Diamond Back bikes, TT-Lite replaced the various OX framesets as being the best steel frames they used for the mid 90s at least. The other thing to bear in mind, is that over those years - like many makes - they went from making purely steel framed MTBs to steel, alu, Ti.

I'll see what info I can find about the OX tubings and TT-Lite, though, and go have a look at my 91 Axis - don't know whether that mentions heat treatment or not - but certainly used some form of OX frame and forks.

 

[Anthony]

Well not sure about TT-Lite being heat treated - I'll see what I can dig up, but I was certainly under the impression it was an evolution or replacement for the OX line of tubing.

That can't be true though, as OX is still extant and TT-Lite is long since gone. It really isn't on either that a £475 bike had a higher-level tubeset than a Yo Eddy, nor that any £475 steel bike ever had a heat-treated tubeset.

 

[Neil]

Well not sure about TT-Lite being heat treated - I'll see what I can dig up, but I was certainly under the impression it was an evolution or replacement for the OX line of tubing.

That can't be true though, as OX is still extant and TT-Lite is long since gone.

TT-Lite long since gone? Dunno about bikes, but still seems quite out there for golf clubs...

It really isn't on either that a £475 bike had a higher-level tubeset than a Yo Eddy, nor that any £475 steel bike ever had a heat-treated tubeset.

I'm not clinging to the idea it is heat treated, though - I'm just saying that in the DB lineup, at least, models that previously had OX tubing, became bikes that had TT-Lite (the Axis).

I very much suspect, too, that the TT-Lite framesets that Diamond Back produced in the mid 90s were lighter than the OX frames they used around 90-92 - but that's just a guess.

I can't speak for the 97 Apex, it's too modern for me, and I have no knowledge of where it was priced at. But certainly in 95, the TT-Lite tubeset was used on a bike that retailed at £999 (not sure how much the Vertex TT-Lite framed bike retailed - can check later).

 

[T'boo Ted]

My 94 axit TR uses TT lite, which was short butted, wil have to look at sticker for more info, and that was suspension corrected for an... old suspension fork, putting a regular fork on it makes it wonky (as does a 4 in fork) but 2-3inch is perfect.

 

[Neil]

I'm not clinging to the idea it is heat treated, though - I'm just saying that in the DB lineup, at least, models that previously had OX tubing, became bikes that had TT-Lite (the Axis).

Just as a further note to this, I've just looked in the 92 brochure on here, and the Response Comp is listed as having True Temper's "short butt Chromoly tubing" (specified as True Temper OX) - which is very similar to how TT-Lite was described in later years ("custom short butted").

The 92 Response used AVR tubing.

92 Axis Pro and Axis listed as having OX tubing (same as my 91 Axis) - also described as "short butt Chromoly tubing".

Whether TT-Lite is truly and evolution / version of OX tubing, or not, Diamond Back's usage of it implies it was (they used it as the frameset above AVR, and used it in the same models (ie steel-framed Axis).

 

[jango]

Agree with the above, you have a '97 Apex.....however, much as I like originality in a bike if you want to get the best out of a nice frame I'd upgrade most of the parts!

'97 was when DB really started to loose the plot, while they still used the nice frames from previous years they year on year cheapened up the parts on the respective models and it really led to their demise......

To clear up the whole tubeset thing as best I can.

'93 Axis Pro - True Temper OX Special Short Butt, double butted with Tange Superlight fork.
'93 Axis - True Temper OX Special Short Butt, double butted with DB766 unitrac taper guage fork.
'93 Apex - True Temper OX Special Short Butt, double butted with DB766 unitrac taper guage fork.

'94 Axis and Apex - True Temper TT-Lite both with I believe the Triple Butted fork.

'95 Axis and Apex - as '94 above

'96 Axis - True Temper TT-Lite , fork I believe as above not sure
'96 Apex - True Temper AVR with Spinner SPM737 fork

'97 Axis - True Temper TT-Lite with 'cromo' fork
'97 Axis - True Temper TT-Lite with I'm guessing the same 'cromo' fork

Now just to confuse things....in '96 and '97 the Axis was also available in the US with the 'Ritchey Logic Super Tubing' Tange Prestige frameset with a Manitou SX fork and, in the case of my '97 example, an array of crap drivetrain components to keep the price down!

'98on - No idea I'm afraid.......