As the decade came to a close like all BMX manfufacurer's business became tough due to a decline in the popularity of BMX as the focus turned to mountain bikes.Īnyway - fast forward to September 2021, we had a customer 500a in which we'd just completed and had a Proline 24" for a customer. Throughout the 80's Redline continued to innovate with a more affordable version of the Flight Crank - the 400 - as well as the forklifter bars and stem. Redline by then had Stu Thomsen, Bill Griggs, Greg Hill and a powerhouse of a team, amazing bikes, a great look and of course - those Flight Cranks - which pretty much EVERY Pro ran no matter who they rode for. Little did I know that not much more than a year later I'd be racing BMX at Chandler myself courtesy of Chuck Robinson. The very first BMX Action magazine (July 1980) I bought from Smiths of Wigan on Mesnes Street had John Crews on a Redline racing at Chandler, Arizona and this mag got me amped on BMX at a time when I was racing morocross on a CR125. Byron Friday was the product tester there and this is how Redline came up with such durable products like the Brute stem (as a time when Ashtabula single-stems were standard) and the use of chromoly tubing on forks and the iconic V-bars. Before that we had to choose between one piece or alloy three piece road-derived cranks - neither of which were up to the job without flexing or bending. You may not know it, but the tubular cranks that sit on your bike right now are direct descendants of Redline's 1980 Flight Crank, which changed the game completely. Like SE, everything LOOKED right, but unlike SE, Redline's owner Linn Kasten actually had great business sense and they sold a lof of bikes. It's hard to grasp nowadays what a significant brand Redline was 40 years ago.
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