As a child of the 80’s i started on a Puch Murray (broke it) and eventually built a Rebel Freestyler with Skyways, etc, (same frame design as Haro Freestyler).
We built 1/4 pipes and trick ramps and spent hours and hours messing round on the streets.

To my untrained eye all Bmx’s look very similar today. Can someone give an example of the difference between a racing bike and a play bike please?

Also why are they so heavy, or is that just the cheap Mongoose Decade Air my bro’s missus bought him a few years back..

Not really the person to ask, but main difference to me when building them is the weight, and the quality of components.The play-bikes are usually over built and often have shoddy components and giro headsets, race bikes seem to be a lot lighter, with minimal extras(Yesterday I moved 2 GT Power Series Pros in boxes left over from last Christmas,and they felt almost empty compared to some of the jump/playbikes that’ll nearly put your back out when lifting them).

No you aren’t the person to ask as you clearly have no idea! 🙂

When BMX went underground in the 90’s a lot of bikes became very heavy generally to make them stronger, massive steel tubes, 3 piece cranks, hefty wheels and bars/forks. Hard street and ramp riding needed these stronger bikes. My friend had a Homeless Mack with G-Sport forks bars and hubs and I think it weighed between 40-45lbs.
Over time and especially in the last 5 years or so the “freestyle” (as opposed to race) bikes have taken on lighter tubing and changes to BB and fork systems which has kept the strength but saved a load of weight, really helping with some of the huge jumps and tricks people are able to pull. No brakes seems to be the norm as well now which will save even more. There might be the odd flatland bike which is aluminium but they are generally still all steel, albeit much better ones now.
Race bikes have always been much lighter and you will see most made of aluminium with much lighter wheels bars etc. As they are only for speed and straight smooth jumps they don’t need to be as strong – they are generally longer as well for stability (not too sure about that though)
If you want to do anything other than straight jumps you are better getting a freestyle BMX (so called trail bikes used generally for dirt jumping will be the closest to a race bike). You can do all the tricks on a race bike but you’d have to be pretty skilled and very smooth and light on it not to damage it often.
I’ll admit that all the bikes do tend to look similar nowadays since brakes have been removed and less people use pegs on freestyle bikes but you only have to ride one of each to appreciate the difference.

I know this is very simplified so don’t flame me but I hope it helps.

Your friends bike was probably still from the era of the heavier bikes at a guess.

Remember just cos it’s heavier doesn’t mean you can’t do anything on it. My friend with the 45lb BMX could bunnyhop over 3 feet high from flat. 🙂

Hi-Ten frames opposed to cro-mo means lots of wall thickness needed for strength, ergo lots of weight on any cheap bike. It was the same bitd, but you were rarely exposed to high end street/ramp bikes then as everyone just made do. These days race bikes are still very light, high geared, similar to what they used to be. Street/jump/ramp bikes have evolved into quite similar machines, but as the riders progress the bikes need to be able to take more abuse so they get stronger and either more expensive or heavier. Flatland is slightly different, but the bikes more or less look the same and no one can do it anyway.

Flatland is slightly different, but the bikes more or less look the same and no one can do it anyway.

As an ex (rubbish) flatland rider I know this to be true.

So what price does a decent play bike cost?

as long as it’s full cro mo, any park bmx is a good starter

Mugboo – you’ll be right with anything around £400. You’d be amazed just how good a BMX you get for that money these days.

my £200 24″ cruiser weighs 27lbs, i think almost all of that is in the cranks and handlebars.

it’s great at the race track, and lots of fun on dirt jumps too.

smaller wheels would make 360 tail whips easier, but really, that’s not something i will ever worry about.

24″ wheels are less terrifying for an elderly mtb’er like me.