The two-seater Riot resembles...
The two-seater Riot resembles that of a custom-built race buggy ready to boogie.
When we first stumbled across the Redline booth at the Indianapolis Dealer Expo a few years ago, we never knew it would change our lives. After years of yearning for a ride in one of its unique machines, we finally got the opportunity to put the Riot and Revolt XL through their paces at Georgia's Broad River Adventure Park. To say we came away impressed would be a huge understatement; Redline's products have set the bar so high for us that nothing else really seems adequate anymore.
Redline Who?
For me, the Redline phenomenon started a few years ago when the company made its first Indianapolis Dealer Expo appearance. "Have you seen the Redlines yet?" was a pretty common question among the ATV crowd. After hearing the question no less than 300 times, I skeptically made my way toward their booth. I'll be honest, the first thing that came to mind when I heard that a new company named Redline was making off-road buggies and side-by-sides was "You mean another bicycle company is venturing into the off-road market?" You see, prior to Indy, the only Redline I had ever heard of was the BMX bike manufacturer, and being an old-school BMXer myself, I immediately associated the two companies. As it turns out, the companies are completely unrelated, which is good seeing that things turned out quite badly for the last bicycle company that decided to make ATVs. My first glimpse at the Redline machines pretty much replaced doubt and skepticism with curiosity and sheer desire to drive one. As luck would have it, it would literally take years before I would have that opportunity.
Redline is actually a relatively new (established 2006), Minnesota-based OEM with a lineup consisting of three models: the Riot side-by-side and the Revolt and Revolt XL single-seaters. The company's goal is pretty simple and to the point: "We want to provide high-performance products that allow our customers the highest fun factor while maintaining a safe and reliable ride." To that end, within minutes of testing it was apparent that Redline's goals have been met with ease.
Here Are The Keys, Have Fun
There are few voicemail messages that have the ability to give you goose bumps; off the top of my head I can think of three. In order of importance there's the classic "Hey, I don't know if you remember me, you were pretty drunk...I'm pregnant" message (which usually leads to a quick packing of boxes and a phone number change), the "Don't bother coming in to work, you're fired" message (which means I'll be digging through my "Friends & Farm Animals" picture folder for some extortion leads), and the "Hey Jorge, this is Michael from Redline, I was wondering if it would be cool to drop off my trailer with three units for you to play on for a couple of weeks. Just let me know where to drop them off." While the first two messages are certainly goose bump-inducing, they're just "pesky" inconveniences at the end of the day; this last one, however, was pretty much life changing.
It wasn't until the actual day of delivery that reality hit; we were going to have the entire 2000-plus acres of the Broad River Adventure Park and three Redline units all to ourselves (I know what you must be thinking, and I have to say I agree, life as an ATV magazine contributor is pretty rough). Being that I can't physically drive three units plus shoot photos at the same time, I grudgingly invited our esteemed Editor/UTV nut Thad Josey and Test Monkey Extraordinaire Johnny Jovanovic to join me. Redline's VP of Sales and Marketing, Michael Killian, arrived at Broad River, gave us a quick rundown of each machine's key features and hit the road. "Here are the keys, call me if you need anything" and just like Kaizer Soze, Michael was gone.