1990 Diamond Back Apex With Rear U-Brake In Europe

Wait, what?  This looks like a little 1990 Diamond Back Apex with cantis in front and a U-brake on the back.  That's odd.  The paint and components and details look pretty much like the one I had as my first mountain bike.  That's mildly confounding, though I can certainly see that perhaps the factory had a bunch of chainstays with brake mounts so someone decided to use 'em up with an otherwise oversized tubeset for the first of the 1990 bikes.  Originally I wanted the 1989 bike because of the (look of the) straight fork (cool), but the 1990 had the oversized headtube and other tubes and a brazed on rear brake cable stop, so it was sort of a wash.  I did upgrade to the thumb shifters and shorty brake levers after I ditched the integrated units before buying it, traded the shitty gel turbo for a real leather turbo, got a set of properly-sized round chainrings, and did up the pedals Bridgestone-style with track pedals, toeclips and straps.  I remember loving this bike, but I have the feeling reality today wouldn't be as kind.  Mountain bike geometry has improved a bunch, and I became a big fan of the sub-16" chainstays and long top tube geometry after about five seconds, so no time machine for this bad boy.

Anyway, this blog is in Catalan, but has a handy-dandy translate function.