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Dirt Rag Article Archive Redline 925 By Kent Peterson (Issue #122) Tester: Kent Peterson Age: 47 Height: 5'6" Weight: 135lbs. Inseam: 30" Vital Stats Price: $499 Weight: 23.6lbs. Sizes Available (cm): 52, 54 (tested), 56, 58, 60 Country of Origin: China Contact: www.redlinebikes.com The Redline 925 attracts comments and questions. A fellow commuter asks me about the bike while we're both stopped at an intersection, a messenger blesses the bike as "sweet" before dashing off on his next urgent errand, and the bike gets serious study at the coffee shop bike rack. But like a well-built woman who wants to be known for her brains, the Redline 925 has a problem. It's what I've come to call "those damn bars." The 925 is Redline's urban fixed-gear bike and while it's an inexpensive rig, it is definitely more than minimal. The handlebars are what everyone notices first; the 925 is crowned with a swooping moustache bar. I first saw moustache bars back in 1992 on a Bridgestone X0-1. The elegant dual arcs promise a multitude of hand positions, but every curvy spot on the bars make my wrists ache. Yes, I can move my hands to lots of different positions, but I can also toss and turn all night on a lumpy mattress. That doesn't mean I've gotten comfortable. The bars do have one nice flat spot out on the ends that offers good leverage for climbing, but I prefer a narrower bar for riding in traffic. I know many folks love these bars and I really did experiment and try to love them. In the end, I couldn't, and wound up swapping them out for my tried and true, cut-down MTB bars with bar-ends. Once I got past the bars, I found a lot to like about the 925. The butted chromoly frame is paired with a straight-legged steel fork. Redline frames tend toward the functional rather than the pretty, so there are no fancy lugs or polished welds; everything looks proportional on this bike. The 54cm frame has head and seat tube angles of 72 and 74 degrees respectively. In the larger sizes the head tube angle increases by one degree while the seat tube angle gets a degree or two slacker. In any size, the 925 will be nimble in traffic. Redline got their start and reputation in the world of BMX. They know how to make a bike that goes where you point it and can do just what you need when it comes to hopping a curb or dodging a pothole. The 925 has a very nice balance of zip and cush. Like all Redlines, maybe the frame is a little beefier than it needs to be, and to hit the very reasonable price point some of the stock components might be more in weight and less in price than what I'd pick. But the 925 delivers a good bit of bang for the buck. The 925 can be ridden as either a fixed gear or singlespeed. With a bottom bracket height of 269mm and 165mm cranks, the 925 has decent clearance for cornering without being too skittish. Those relatively short cranks also make it easier to spin high RPMs, a handy thing when your top speed is limited by how fast you can pedal. Basic physics tells me that longer cranks give better climbing leverage, but I found I could negotiate all my usual Seattle area hills with the 165mm cranks and stock 42 by 15-tooth fixed gearing. I personally tend to favor the simplicity and silence of the fixed experience, but the opposite side of the 925's flip-flop hub sports a 16-tooth freewheel. Switching to the freewheel side lets you literally buzz down the hills and coast through turns. The 925 comes with 36-hole Formula sealed bearing hubs laced to Alex Ace19 rims, and the wheels seem up to the daily challenges encountered in our ever-deteriorating urban infrastructure. Like almost all machine-built wheels, it's worthwhile to have a human tension and true the wheels when you first pull the 925 out of the box. Despite those Terminator movies, the machines haven't taken over yet and wheel truing is one of those areas where humanity still prevails. The tough wheels are shod with 30mm wide IRC Tandem 700c tires, a good choice for grim roads. Redline is headquartered in the Pacific Northwest and a certain damp sensibility is notable in the 925. When you live and work in the Seattle area, you think about fenders. The 925 has eyelet mounts on the fork and rear horizontal (track) ends, and comes with a set of Planet Bike fenders. Like most stock fenders, I wish they'd extend a bit lower for better coverage, but that's a problem easily addressed with a set of homebrew mud flaps. The 425mm chainstays allow the fenders and tires, up to 32 mm, to comfortably coexist. Some folks might wish for a second set of eyelets in the rear for mounting a rack, but by swapping for slightly longer M5 bolts, a rack and fender can share the same eyelet. The 925 has a bit too much practicality to be perfectly fashionable. Fixed purists will see the dual pivot Tektro caliper brakes as excessive, but they make a lot of sense on this bike. Many 925s will be ridden as singlespeeds instead of fixies and one brake per wheel is what you need on a singlespeed. I must be too old to be cool, because I like having two brakes on my fixie. And I like the 925. Despite my irreconcilable differences with the moustache bars, I think Redline made very smart choices when they designed this bike. I'm sure those damn bars are just perfect for some folks and lots of people will check out the bike because of them. Smart. Very smart. SUBSCRIBE TO DIRT RAG! |