Click to view attachmentClick to view attachmentClick to view attachmentHi all... Can somebody please I.D. my redline BMX.
It is all Crome, the decals are red letters with a blue box shape in front? Frame no.501382 stamped under the bottom bracket complete with the redline stamp. It is quite a well equipped bike with the usual bits and bobs,Kashimax seat,Dia compe brakes,araya7x's ect.ect. Anyhow I picked it up very cheap for all the goodies on it.Am I doing the right thing pulling it apart or am I breaking a decent original "early" Redline BMX racer?? Thanks

85 Redline...not sure of the model, possibly 500B ?

It is NOt in my opinion a 85. But an 84.
Look on the rear dropouts. It will NOT have gnurling. The 85 would.
Dont ask me how I know all this stuff, ok , its cause I found an unstickered Redline once and found no site to help me id it.
So I researched and made my own site lol. http://redlinebmx.wordpress.com
I havent put everything I know on the site yet cause I sold the bike and rarely update it , till I find another old Redline to motivate me lol.

i'm gonna put it at mid 1982-83.

serial style is consistent with the japanese anomaly frames from that period. by 1985 the bikes with that style frame were taiwanese and used a different serial style and that's an older dropout shape.

is there a little extra gusset between the seatstays just below the post clamp, by chance? (can't tell from the pic) if so, that's an '82-3 trait, although not all of them had it.

Well Im certain it is an 84.
It will have the lil gusset, as did all overseas (Taiwan or Japan) made Redlines in those years.
The first Japaneese made Redlines didnt have the lil gusset though.
Mr Coasterbrake what would be a overseas made 84 bikes serial number?

could be 84. the early 84s were produced in late 83 and still had the same characteristics.

not all japanese frames had that seatstay gusset (and no taiwan frames had it). gusset frames seem to have only been produced from sometime in 1982 thru late 1983 and non-gusset frames were also made then.

in a conversation i had with redline in the '90s (i've been a redline dealer since 1985), their best guess (no one from the old days was there, anymore) regarding that was probably multiple manufacturers at one time. some frames had the extra gusset, some didn't. there were also 2 different serial schemes, which seem to coincide with whether they have that gusset or not.

depending on when/where a 1984 was built, it could have the 6-digit # (usually beginning with 5, seemingly not date-coded) or begin with "RC" or "RD" (C=1983, D+1984).

Just for the record I disagree with Coasterbrake from my research (Including a conversation with Lin Kastan), not on everything but on many things like the RA = etc.

Those that want, can listen to Coaster brake.
In the end its just a bike

i got that straight from redline.

my research of the consecutive numbered frames suggests this one to be a 1983. some had the seat tube gusset, some didn't.
a 1984 frame would have a 505***or larger numerical serial.

I can live with what Proline said.
I only know that 84s started with 500 series. Wasnt sure at what exact number.
So it is possible though I didnt look that closely when doing my research.
What I show in the Museum thread I started was an 84 starting with 502. But I dont list the exact model and so I can no longer remember and cant stand by that bike being a 84 or why I said it was an 84. '
If you look at the thread I only tried to list bikes with original stickers.

So did 84 start at 505 or 502? No sure. But if its a 500 its for sure a late 83 or early 84. But then again late 83 builds woulda been probably sold as 84 models so still making it a 84.

Look real close at the frame you can sometimes see fading in the chrome from where the sticker didnt cover. You can sometime narrow the year that way.

And in my opinion RC=84.

Coaster Im not saying you didnt get your info from Redline. Im saying they could remember wrong. Original decals dont remember wrong. Just hard work finding bike serial numbers with matching original stickers and or owner. Even owners dont remember what year they got the bike always accurately.

yeah, i get the decal/year model thing. date codes are just production times, not when the frame was assembled/shipped as a whole bike. that's why i usually refer to frames as "built in/produced in" rather than "year model" unless there is something that can definitely pinpoint the model year (OG decal, particular OG part, etc).