I have an 06 Redline 925. I am very happy with it, and will edit this post with detailed info later tonight.


Edit: Ok, here it is.


I've had homemade bumbike fixies for a while which I've always been wary about riding for anything other than the shortest of rides, but have always had great fun on them. The other day, I got doored and completely demolished my geared commuter/touring bike. I decided that I liked the fixed bikes and didn't ever actually "tour" and didn't need more than one speed for commuting, so I would replace it with a fixed gear bike that wouldn't fall apart whenever I rode it.

The obvious option was building up one of the frames that I already had with actual real track wheels, but I deserved a nice bike . So, I looked over the mass market fixies, with the option to go single speed (meaning I wanted something that came with a freewheel and dual brakes), and chose the Redline 925. It was the only thing I could get locally that could be either fixed or SS right out of the box, and the fenders were just icing on the cake.

Here are the bikes official stats:
The most interesting thing about this bike is the fit. I am a large guy, 6'4". I usually ride a 58cm. I got fitted for the 925 at 54cm. I thought the guy at the LBS was crazy and made him promise that we could exchange it when my back started killing me. However, after a 35 mile ride over the weekend, it feels like a dream. The geometry is just different...it's compact road like, but there are a lot of differences between it and a regular compact road bike.

At the LBS, I had them remove the fenders and chain protector, and install Shimano clipless. I don't need fenders for what I do now, and if I ever do, I'll just slap em on again.

Now the topic that always comes up when the 925 is mentioned, the bars. They are Moustache bars that drop down. The way my LBS does it is to install the aero brake levers at the front of the outer side of the bars, so that the lever faces towards the outside of the bike. This gives you a very aero hand position on the nook inbetween the brake hood and the curve of the bar. Also, grabbing on to the very ends of the moustache bars seems to work. Unfortunately, these were the only hand positions that I could find, and after a long ride this weekend, I found the bars to be lacking (there isn't a "resting" position...which takes pressure off the hands, except for the hands right up near the stem which is very unstable).

So I swapped the bars out, and took this time to take the rear brake off, as the bike was so fun on fixed that I really had no interest using the freewheel at all. The rear brake had to stay with the moustache bars....there was really no way to use them without that brake hood.

I got bullhorns (homemade), which seem to work out much better for me. The geometry with the low-rise stem and high seatpost (for me) really tend towards them. The flat position is not quite upright but very comfortable, and the aero position feels great.

The saddle kind of hurt me on my long ride, I am considering switching it out but I assume I will get acclimated to it (have been using a padded saddle in the past). If you use padded shorts, you probably wont even notice it.


All in all it's a great bike, and I think it's the best value and function you can get in the price range, if you're looking for a sensible road ride rather than a track bike.