Is Redline a good BMX bike?

Is a Redline BMX bike better than a diamondback BMX bike?

• Answer:

  Both Redline and Diamond Back have/had full lines of bicycles that range from economy to pro. Also, what era of Diamond Back are you talking about? Diamond Back used to be owned by WSI. That company went out of business and the brand was sold to Raleigh. The brand was completely missing from the market during the 90's until Raleigh resurrected it in 2003. Redline, on the other hand, has a bit more of a history than Diamond Back. Diamond Back started out in 1986 just because someone over in Taiwan shipped WSI a shipment of Raleigh frames accidently. Raleigh felt that the freight to ship the frames from WSI to Raleigh would not be worth it, so they told them to keep the frames if they would just be so kind as to peel the stickers off. This got WSI interested in importing bicycles. Redline has been around much longer. Started in 1970 by Linn Kastan (of Kastan, manufacturer of Kastan and Hoffman and designer of Giant's MOSH frames as well) and Mike Konle building motorcycle frames. In 1974, they started making BMX bikes. Now, if we're talking current models like Diamond Back's top of the line Reactor Pro ($650) vs. Redline's top of the line Flight Pro ($1200)... well there's no comparison. The DB has a Cro-mo fork, the Redline a carbon fiber fork. The Redline has hollow axle hubs, Sun Envy rims and classic Flight crankset. The DB isn't "bad" though. DB just doesn't make as high end of a bike as Redline. The DB is nice with it's Alienation rims (no spoke eyelets, though) and FSA crankset, but it's no Redline Flight Pro. :-)