A good friend of mine who posts on here on occasion, (Midelifecrisis) actually still had his childhood Redline at his parents house. About a year ago, he took a ride up to visit and to check out his "forgotten" bike. What he found was a bit of a mess. The bike was exposed to pool clorine chemicals which caused the bike to rust. Some parts were switched from stock and the brakes were frozen, etc... It was a sad sight.

After thinking about what he'd like to do with it, he decided on restoring it to what HE likes best. NOT what he received from Redline when he bought the RL-20 new in 1986. He decided to go custom using his favorite old school parts along with his favorite color combo. I was thrilled with his decision because factory bikes do nothing for me. I believe imagination is key to an interesting build.

I did the restoration for him and saved the frame, forks, bars, seatpost and stem. Pretty much everything else came from my stash of parts and a couple of things were purchased from Ebay.

Here was the bike they day he found it in the garage:

We live over 100 miles away from eachother so we don't see eachother that often. I had the completed bike sitting in my basement for about 2 months. Needless to say, I was thrilled to present this to Todd yesterday.










[ July 10, 2006, 12:42 PM: Message edited by: Bedlam Bikes ]

Dope.

BANGIN.....

nice and clean jeff. i like the use of orange with white components. dont see that too often

smooth , awesome color combo


Rob

Great looking bike! I have an 86 RL 20 that will be 20 years old in August and it looks similiar to the pre restored pics. I did my top bar the same way, I agree that custom bikes have that extra flavor to them. After seeing the RL20 in orange makes me want to fully customize mine this winter.

Jamie

Very unique. I like it a lot.

I like to think of it as the creamcicle from hell.

I love the way it came out; in addition to my good friend Jeff, whose help has been invaluable, also thanks to Chip for powdering the orange parts, and for restoring an old banged-up Forklifter stem to its former glory.

-Todd

Sweet! Orange Crusher..

JD

While the restored ride is certainly awesome I wouldn't have been too upset finding the original in that condition-LOL.

That makes 2 sweet bikes for MidLifeCrisis- GT and Redline.

He needs a Haro to complete the trilogy-LOL.

Another sweet restoration Jeff.

Jamison

WOW!!! great Job Jeff!!!! All that work and NO pics with it next to that POS u call a TORKER?!?!?!?! j/k!!!!!... super killer color combo!!!! can we have a parts breakdown...pretty please!!! NICE BUILD!!!! Todd. you couldn't have asked a better guy to do the work!!!

Jon

Awesome! Looks great with those flites and my favorite pedals!

That's awesome. Nice job!

That bike just plain kills!!!

Nice job, bro.

[ July 10, 2006, 04:33 PM: Message edited by: MidLifeCrisis ]

Parts breakdown:

Wheels: OGK
Tires: Comp S/T (thanks Brian)
Seat: Viscount Dominator
Post: Anlun/Haro
Bars: Haro Kneesaver
Grips: A'me Tri
Neck: Redline Forklifter
Cranks: Redline 401
Clamp: GT
Pedals: Shimano DX (on loan from Bedlam Bikes*)
Brakes: Dia Compe Nippon

* If anybody's got a suitable set of 9/16 pedals that they want to sell, PM me!

very nice colors..i like it ,i like it ALOT

Extreamly nice. Way to satisfy your "Midlife crisis"!!

Very unique looking. One of a kind

Just awesome Jeff. Orange being my favorite color, I heartily approve of the artistic liberties you took with this build.

With those pedals being on loan, I hope you asked Mid-Life to not leave the bike lying in the driveway. I'd hate to see his dad back over it and grind a third of the pedal bodies into aluminum dust.

Thats one of those bikes that you can't tell if you like it or not.

I'd have to say it is pretty darn cool!

Stephen

Very *****in'! I still have the RL-20 I bought new in '85 and when I restored it I built it my way as well.

Wow...I didn't realize the female dog word was a no-no on this site.
Oooops.

Man thats a sick build, one of a kind beauty.

nice job!!!!sunkist...good vibrations.....that bike totaly RAD!!!!!

Matt - The pedals were on loan just for the photo shoot! They are back on my Torker now.

I think another good pedal option would be Hutch Hi-cal's in 9/16 thread. Does anyone have a set of these? In any case, I think sticking with orange pedals is the way to go.

SWEET build !! I like the custom colors. great job.

OHH by the way I need a front nippon brake caliper exactly like that do you or anyone have one you can part with

Awesome build, nice to see a Redline that isn't an RL-20 II nor a factory replica. Beautiful.

very cool...

nice color combination

That is so true Iw ish more guys did custom w/ their builds . I'm not nockin it but if they did it 20 yrs ago you'd figure we should be able to come up w/ something a little better to just all out RAW and that RL 20 is just all out RRRRAAAAWWWW

I like it, dont see orange freestyle builds that often.

Thanks for all the compliments! When I first liberated the bike from my mother's house, the chrome was in pretty bad shape, and the forks were tweeked, so I figured I'd do a "budget build" and get it powdered instead of trying for a factory restore. But, as you know, there's no such thing as a budget build anymore...

Anyhoo, I'm glad I did it custom and am happy that most others seem to like it too.

Keep up the good work.

I dig. Awesome work.

Its the great redline pumpkin...sweet job....very nice combo..now go ride it....

Nicely done. I like the custom color combo.

B!TCHIN

Very well done, seing the parts seperate I wasn't sure I'd go for it, but together it works really well.

looks killer

Wow.... I don't know why I never clicked on this thread before! That's a pretty cool custom job! I can't quite tell what I like about that bike, but it looks really appealing.

Also good to see a regular RL20 being restored.

How much did those threadon pegs cost?

Very nice work there guys!

That's a very nice color scheme and very unique as well. Awesome job and attention to detail. I would have never believed a RL20 would have looked that good in orange but you made me a believer!