Abigale has asked for a BMX for Christmas, wants to use it for messing around on, local track and a few jumps. If it was a mountain bike there would be no problems, I havent got a clue with BMX

What should I be looking for

Tracey

have a look on here, they are very good for complete bikes, as with MTB you get what you pay for but if you think she'll get into it look at Eastern, Fit, United, Subrossa, Wethepeople

http://www.winstanleysbmx.com/

See also AlansBMX

Track and jumps? I'd be tempted to go for a "race" bike…

Mine hehe! it depends there are some decent bmx bikes on the alans bmx website. Fashion is to have small gearing, slammed seat, alot of thought goes into the look. Always flat pedals, back brake only or no brakes. There probably is a difference between street, park and trail bikes but not as obvious as XC/downhill

Depends how serious you feel she will use it, alot of off the shelf bikes come with own brand stuff we the people and salt components are the same company.

As with mtb most of the brands produce good products such as fit, fly, odyssey, federal, FBM, sunday, a bike co, wethepeople, terrible one, profile, g sport.

Did you have a budget in mind?

If local track and jumps means BMX race track and trails, then a race bike will probably be better.

How old is Abigale?

How tall is she?

You probably wont want something with a 21.5inch top tube and 28inch bars if shes only 5 foot tall.

Hadn't thought about a budget yet but don't want to spend too much, but dont want to buy junk.
Would want to buy new and a full build

Tracey

Abigale is 11 she is 5' 2" and has long legs, she has no problems in throwing her bike down a hill side or going back up. I think she fears that if she goes out local without us then there could be a good chance that her existing bikes may walk

Tracey

Does she have a colour preference?
From girly peachy colours a Haro X3 would be good:

to more sedate offerings like the WTP Arcade:

Also what sort of weight are we looking at for BMX's, her Giant Reign weighs in at 32lbs

Good off the shelf BMX's are 25-30lb, mines 30lb on the nose, but would probably survive a nuclear war and/or Josh Bender riding it, and make my parents cry if they knew how much it cost!

For a budget, £250-£300 buys a full bike thats at least 50% cro-mo (many still have hi-ten top tubes or seat tubes to cut costs). Always get cro-mo forks, down tubes and headtubes they'r cheeper than denstist bills!

Cassette hubs are better than freewheels, but cost more

14mm axels are stronger, but costly and heavy, and the trend is to go smaller (3/8ths axels) on raceier bikes.

3pc cranks are a must IMO.

Most off the shelf bikes are one size fits all, otherwise at 5ft2 i'd say go for 20.25TT's.

Secondhand is good for bargain hunting as expensive custom builds often don't hold any value, and if you can spot faults in an MTB there's nothing scary on a BMX.

Go for a bike which is Full Cro-mo I'd say. Mine was £200 second hand (decent frame with average parts) and I've gradually upgraded it as I've gotten more and more into it – perhaps spent about £250 more on it since I got it.

I'd recommend speaking to Stodgy (Dave) at http://www.radBMXshop.co.uk – tell him I recommended speaking to him and I'm sure he'll look after you even if it is just giving you some good advice on what to get.

He's a top guy and always willing to sort people out with bikes that are right for them rather than just selling anything to anyone. Give him a call.

Another good site to browse is http://www.sourcebmx.co.uk – their site is better laid out that most with lots of glossy pictures and shiny things to tempt money out of your wallet.

My list of bits to look out for are:

Full Cro-mo frame and fork
3pc cranks
Micro gearing (10-28t or 9-25t) especially if she is going to ride park – makes it easier to get over the coping – this includes a cassette hub).
Chrome rims (especially back)
Brake (rear only is fine)
Right size frame for someone her height)
Nothing too heavy – mine is about 26lbs

A bike around the £300 mark will have most of this on, if you spend more you'll get more but this is about the price point where bikes get good.

There is a difference between a park and race bike (I won't mention Dirt and Flatland) and it really comes down to what she wants to use it for.

I wouldn't bother getting Abigale a BMX bike with a gyro, pegs and all that street/park gubbins if she's not gonna need it.

Any of these any good

Haro 2

Perv Voyour

Tracey

That second one looks a cracking little bike – micro-adjust post too. I'd ditch the Gyro though – I know there are folks who'll disagree but coming from an MTB background I've always found a straight cable easier to set up and more powerful (run it long enough and it'll still allow barspins – not that I've needed to 😉 ). At 5'2" I find anything over 20" toptube too long but most reasonably priced off the peg bikes are spec'd with a 20" TT frame anyway. I think most has already been said up there but also check out http://www.customriders.com – quick (usually next day) delivery, good prices and online stock levels.

Thanks for that, shes going away tomorrow for a week with her new school.
Will have to decide when shee gets back home

Tracey

I saw some new wethepeople completes for around £300 on extreme direct. Weigh in at 25lb's which is pretty impressive for a £300 bmx.

Worth checking out but it doesnt look like they come in pink.

For what its worth, my mate had a 2006 or 2007 WTP addict and it rode really nicely, felt like a proper bmx whereas sometimes the real cheap ones feel a bit 'wrong'

like mike says, forget all the stuff on it that she wont be using like pegs and a gyro.

check out what s.e. racing do along with haro,redline etc.after a ride on a race bike compared to some of the above,she will soon find out the diffrence in weight and how nice a race bike is to ride and jump.she wont need anything stronger being new to it all,get one the right size and it will be more than strong enough for what she will be putting it through.

also, in mtb we would most likely go for a steel hardtail given the choice these days but its not so much of a big deal in bmx.most of the new school race bikes are alu and are fairly stiff (not a bad thing in bmx) ive bought a haro team issue for its stiffness (quite a bit over what i had but by far not the stiffest out there) and the speed out of the gate compared to my steel mid school bike is quite a bit.

first things first though, get to a bmx track and hopefully turn up when racing is taking place.ask to check out and hopefully ride a few bikes.then maybe blag a shot of a street/park kinda bike to see what she thinks of that.

get to a track first though ;O)

Thanks for all the advice it was a great help. Abigale had decided that she wanted the pink Perv from Chain Reaction, however since looking on Tuesday they have now sold out. Today after a lot of trying out she has finally decided and we have sent an Eastern Jane to Father Christmas [got £170 of it as well]

Tracey

Well done that looks bang on! Great price too.

Hi Tracey
The pic shows 20" in writing but they are talking wheel diameter there.usually in bmx they will have a size written down like that on websites/catalogues,but they will be meaning top tube length. The Jane has a 21" top tube.not sure if thats a mistake but its 21".
I am 5foot8 and have moved onto a top tube an inch longer. its harder to jump and throw around although its a bit more roomy for sprinting.a few other older riders have recently bought new bikes with longer top tubes and have found the extra inch a bit of a jump as well.. some not enjoying it as much as they expected.
please try and get her to try the Jane and also try out a few shorter bikes as well to see what she thinks.in 2 or 3 years time and at 5 foot 8ish? she will still be able to ride the shorter top tubed bmx no problem at all.. and by that time,a bmx is usually WELL past it anyway!

thank the lord crc were sold out of that!

imagine her family and friends asking what she got from santa?

A pink perv!