Both Diamondback and Trek bikes are worth the money. Diamondback may not rule the tech front with better and faster bikes, but they have solid bikes with quality components.
In fact, Kinesis manufactures frames for both Diamondback and Trek, as well as GT, Kona, Santa Cruz, Raleigh, Schwinn, and even more.
Just make sure you don’t buy one of Diamondback’s Walmart bikes, and you’ll be fine with your purchase for the years to come.
Diamondback – A quick overview
Diamondback Bicycle started their journey in 1977 in Newbury Park, California as a BMX brand founded by Western States Imports. In the beginning, their bikes were marketed under the bicycle brand named Centurion.
First, they wrote their name as Diamond Back but later in 1994 they changed it to Diamond Back, which was later finalized as Diamondback.
From the very beginning, they sponsored many riders with their BMX bikes, which expanded to mountain bikes when Diamondback racing was created in 1993. In 1990 they started selling their road and mountain bikes.
Raleigh and Diamondback merged together in 1999 when Derby Cycle Corporation purchased Diamondback. This corporation sold Diamondback in 2001 and the ownership changed again when Accell Group sold them.
Now the company works under Regent, L.P; a global private equity firm and is situated in Kent, Washington.
Trek – A quick overview
In 1976, Bevill Hogg and Dick Burke founded the Trek Bicycle Corporation with just five employees in a small red barn located in Wisconsin.
They sold bikes under so many brands throughout their lifetime including LeMond Racing Cycles, Gary Fisher, Klein, and Villiger. The company now sells bikes using different brand names like Trek, Bontrager, Electra Bicycle Company, and Diamant Bikes
They are headquartered in Waterloo, Wisconsin and manage 1,700 independently owned shops throughout the United States.
First, they used to manufacture steel-made touring bikes and then got their hands on mountain and road bikes with aluminum and carbon frames.
In 1985 and 1989 they launched their first aluminum and carbon-made bikes respectively. Now they are one of the biggest bike manufacturing companies in the world.
Diamondback vs Trek: How Do They Differ?
| Comparing factors | Diamondback | Trek |
| Product range | Less | More |
| Material (Frame) | Mostly aluminum alloy | Aluminum, carbon, steel |
| Wheels | 700c | 650b |
| Brakes | Hydraulic disk, mechanical disk, and V-brakes | Hydraulic disk, mechanical disk, Linear pull, Coaster, Caliper, and Roller |
| Available colors | Less | More |
| Performance | Better | Good |
| Speed | More | Less |
| Rolling resistance | More | Less |
| Comfort | Less | More |
| Stability | Less | More |
| Puncture resistance | Low | High |
| Accessories | Less | More |
| Warranty | Lifetime, 5,2, and 1 year | Lifetime and 2 years |
| Price range | $200 – $6,000 | $400 – $14,000 |
Manufacturing facilities
Kinesis Industries; a Taiwanese company; currently makes Diamondback bikes (especially frames) in their China factory.
Although Trek is headquartered in Wisconsin, their products are no more USA-made. They have manufacturing facilities in different countries across the world. Some of them are Germany, the Netherlands, China, and Taiwan.
Product lines
Although Diamondback’s product collection is not that rich, still, from Triathlon to BMX and men’s racing bikes to women’s comfort bikes, Diamondback offers a lot of products in each category.
You will get 39 mountain bikes and 28 road bikes on their website. They also have 4 E-bikes for weaker riders.
Trek clearly outperforms Diamondback in the product section. Now they have a huge collection of 375 different models on their official website.
From beginners to pro cyclists, everyone will find several bikes to choose from as they cover all types of bikes including road, city, mountain, electric, and kids.
Frame materials
These brands take different materials into consideration in the case of bike frames. Where Diamondback mostly uses aluminum alloy, Trek chooses different materials like aluminum, carbon, and steel for frame material.
Bikes made with aluminum are stronger and lighter enough but carbon-made frames are the lightest and most expensive while steel is the heaviest and strongest option.
Wheels and tires
Diamondback wheels and tires give more speed and rolling resistance as they use 700c wheels in their bikes. The narrowness of the tires also makes the bikes faster.
On the contrary, Trek wheels give a slight disadvantage to their bikes because of using 650b wheels. To count the advantages, their wider tires are less susceptible to puncture.
Brakes
Both brands offer hydraulic and mechanical disk brakes while trek also has bikes with Linear pull, Coaster, Caliper, and Roller brakes. Although Diamondback has bikes with V-brakes that Trek doesn’t offer.
Quality
Both brands are on par with each other when it comes to their bike quality as they both use high-quality components and materials in their bikes.
Performance
Diamondback emphasizes agility and speed, so they have a slight edge over Trek bikes in terms of performance. To be specific, Trek focuses more on stability and comfort rather than performance.
Colors
You will get more color options from Trek. According to their official websites, Diamondback has only 13 colors for mountain bikes and 9 for road bikes while Trek has more than 30 options to choose from.
Accessories
In the accessories section, Trek is a clear winner as they have a huge list of accessories on their website. On the other hand, Diamondback used to offer gear like helmets, gloves, shoes, and clothing but now their website has an almost empty accessories section.
Warranty
Diamondback has a great warranty policy for their parts. They offer an impressive lifetime guarantee for rigid bike frames, 5 years for full suspension bicycle frames, 2 years for motors and e-bike systems, and 1 year for forks, components, finish, and decals.
Trek has two types of warranties for their products. The mainframe, framesets (rigid fork and frame), suspension swing arms, and Bontrager wheels have limited warranties.
They also offer a 2-year of warranty for apparels, components and accessories, Bontrager wheels with alloy rims, paint and decals, and the components of rear suspension linkage, including rocket link, bearing and other hardware and parts.
Price
It is said that Diamondback provides better quality bikes than their competitors for the same price. However, by looking at their website one can easily say that they are more focused on mid-range bikes.
The price of their bikes ranges from as low as $200 to as high as $6000.
Trek bike prices hugely vary as they have bikes for every range. No matter whether you need a low, mid, or high-end bike, they have many bikes in each range.
Their beginner’s bikes like FX, 820, or Marlin, cost as low as 400 dollars; whereas elite models like Domane or Madone will cut more than 12000 dollars from your pocket.
Diamondback vs Trek: Which Brand to Rely On?
It is nearly impossible to determine which brand is better as they equally use different high-quality components and parts for their bikes.
Diamondback bikes are good at their performance so they will give a race-oriented and aggressive feel while Trek bikes have a more traditional road bike feel.
FAQs
1. How do I identify my Diamondback bike?
Ans: Flip your bike and look for a serial number (a string of numbers and letters) on the underside of the frame (specifically at the attachment point of the crank arms and pedals). The serial number looks like DAY16A123456 or U161K0123456.
2. Are any Trek bikes made in the USA?
Ans: Until December 2017, Trek used to produce about 20,000 bikes per year in their whitewater and waterloo facilities. But now, our source inside the Trek engineering team has confirmed that they stopped making bikes in the USA. So there are no entirely USA-made Trek bikes available in the market now.
3. Why are Trek bikes so expensive?
Ans: Trek bikes often come with high-tech carbon fiber and aluminum frames. Moreover, the complex design, high-quality parts, and advanced features add extra bucks to their prices.
4. What are Trek bikes known for?
Ans: They are mostly known for their mountain bikes as these bikes are made with special technology and come with several exclusive features. Now, Trek is one of the best players in the bike industry and offers the most technologically advanced bikes.
