How To Choose A Bmx Bike

What we're going to look at is how to choose a BMX bike. Once you realize that BMX is what you want to do and it's the type of cycling you want to get yourself into, there's so many out there on the market at the moment you can get kind of confused as to what to buy. But the first thing you want to decide is what you want out of a BMX, basically.

Most people will buy a general BMX which they can do several different forms of BMXing on, i.e. you could drive the streets on it, you could take it to the skate park and you could do flatland on it.

These bikes, those that have specific qualities, as long as it's quite lightweight, and okay and it's got your pegs, you've got full brakes, you should be okay. But then, you might decide, “Oh, I want to ride flatland straightaway”. And if you do, you're going to need to get yourself a flatland oriented bike.

Now, you can do flatland on a street bike, but it's going to be limited. Eventually, you're going to be doing tricks where the geometry of the street bike is just going to get in the way because it's too big or you're going to need more brakes or you're going to need another set of pegs. So I'd recommend, if you're going to go and start flatland, to go and get the cheap end of the market.

You'll get a nice flatland bike for around about 160 pounds. It will have you fully kicked, it will have all the right geometry in the frame which means it's a shorter top for you, a shorter frame in general, you'll probably have a smaller sprocket. This is to keep the weight down on the flatland tricks.

You don't want to have a heavy bike when you're doing flatland - you want to have everything small, minimal and quite lightweight. Now, all these components are quite flatland specific. There are shops out there that deal only in flatland parts, a lot of mail order companies and things, so you can have a look around and get an idea of what you want.

It always pays to have a look in magazines and videos just to see how the people set up and get an idea of, "Oh, I want my bike to look like that. That looks nice". And then you kind of take it from there.

Like I say, you haven't got to go out and spend hundreds of hundreds of pounds. You can get a complete set up for about 160. You might want to customize it further down the line or when you get better, you might want to spend 400, 500, 600 pounds on a better quality bike.

But to start off with, a basic bike is good. Just make sure you've got your brakes, you've got your pegs, and everything is in working order and the bike fits you and suits you. Don't get a bike that's going to have really small handlebars or really tiny pegs, etc.

, because if you're a big guy, you're going to want big bars, you're going to want your seat up high, you're going to have some decent pegs and then run quite hard pressure on your tires. If you're riding vert, you're going to want a vert bike, so you're going to want a longer tube bike, your seat is going to be a lot lower, your handlebars are going to be a two-piece set up rather than what we have here. So again, it all depends on what you want to ride, what components you want.

But look into it. It always pays to research and see what you want before you go out and buy. .