Merry Christmas to me. I've been curious about these 22" BMX things for years and I couldn't resist any longer with the current sale prices.
Definitely a touch of midlife crisis with this one. I can't afford a Porsche like the grownups in the Chat forum so I bought this instead. In fact, maybe I don't have Porsche money because I dedicated my late teens and early 20's to nationwide BMX riding and house parties? Makes ya think.
I just thought it was the right time to try one. There are pump tracks and trails popping up all over the place and junior is about to graduate to a bigger bike. I'm not going to just stand around watching him have all the fun.
I might save it until Christmas so we can have a double NBD from Santa. I'll post some pics or videos of it in action and report back on how insanely difficult it is. I might buy some arse-pads in anticipation of the first looped out coccyx slam.
Looks terrifying, good luck and enjoy!
A&Etastic! Enjoy and speedy recovery 😉
Pump tracks are excellent fun for the returning bmxer, flowy trails feel without the need for massive amounts of skill/bravery.
Very nice.
You'll need a longer seat post and mudguards for riding to work though.
Nice! I used the same excuse for an n+1 moment 🙂
Awesome, I keep looking at these and being tempted! I came to MTB from BMX and always think I should give it a go again. We have good skateparks/pump tracks/trails spots around here. Let us know how it goes 🙂
I've just been for a blast around the block now that junior is asleep.
Holy shit it's fast. I'd totally forgotten. When you stomp on the pedals a few times it really flies! Going that fast on the MTB takes way too much effort.
Pulled up for a few manual attempts and looped out. Pulled up to hop a kerb and looped out. Pulled up to try a 180 and felt like I dislocated my shoulder on the way up and broke my wrist on the way down.
This is going to be an experience.
Ha ha. Awesome write up. Nice
Nice!
Looks teeny for a 22”, but maybe the big wheels make the frame look smaller than it is?
How long is the top tube?
I'm interested in a 22" BMX but really can't justify one as my current BMX has been sat in the garage unused for years....
Top tube is 22 & 1/4. Bars are about the same height as my DJ bike but I haven't had them side by side yet. It's definitely more roomy and comfortable than a regular BMX, that much is obvious as soon as you straddle it. After a brief pedal around on a 20" at the weekend I have no desire to ride one of those!
I bought it from here- https://4downdistribution.com/collections/complete-bikes-1/products/cbfi10bk
I forgot to mention last night that the rear brake is non existent. I can pedal with it fully engaged. Probably a combination of cheap plastic pads and chrome rims. You can buy soft compound pads. If this one doesn't improve when it's bedded in I'll change them.
I bought this for the same reasons, its heavier than the sun with forks softer than Mr Soft from the Trebor ads, I couldn't jump if my life depended on it.
I can actually jump, kind of. More accurately I USED to be quite good at it but we're going back 20 years now. So I can remember how it feels to boost a lip and nosedive into a steep tranny, even if my body isn't willing to do so. It's such a frustrating feeling to technically know how to do something but have all the technique completely missing.
On a good day I can feel the 'pop' coming back and I can push into jumps properly and generate some height. Then I have a 3 month break until the next ride and start from scratch. Then I'll have a bad day, and I'll just use speed as a substitute for technique and crash into every landing and go home in a huff.
Next summer I want to go somewhere like The Track in Portreath and ride nothing but jumps for a couple of days and see how much progress I can make.
50% of my broken bones are from jumping bikes, I'm not sure the the self preservation bit of my brain will let me progress.
Chrome rims brake better (in the dry) but they’re likely polished rather than plated as chrome plated Alu rims are rare and expensive.
better pads will help, but support will running the straddle as close to the seat tube as possible to improve mechanical advantage.
Too late to edit, but should read "but so will running the straddle....." No idea where "support" came from!
This thing is mental
It's like a perpetual motion machine for pump tracks. I didn't think the difference would be so dramatic. I can do 1 or 2 full laps on the 26" DJ bike before I'm gassed and this thing does 4,5,6 laps with minimal effort. It's so fast!
It was pretty sketchy today, it's so cold and greasy. Brake is useless. The tyres means if you wander off line or try to ride across a hump at the wrong angle it just slides out. I can't wait for a warm, dry day.
Jumps and manuals were at a minimum. I don't have the rhythm yet on the first ride but I cleared some of the smaller stuff. No boosting and tucking yet.
I think I'm going to enjoy this thing. I want to get comfortable on the back wheel and popping jumps and hopefully I'll graduate to Bolehills in the summer.
40 is the new 14.
Yeah I bought a cruiser bmx a few years ago - it’s a bit of a shonky old Haro but on billy bonkers tyres it’s exactly that. On decent pump tracks you just find yourself going uncomfortably fast at times and I don’t really have the skill for it. Only had one crash but been very close to another on 10’s of occasions. I won’t be out on it until the tracks have dried up a bit though….
Enjoy - it looks good!
Charnock is a great track, hugely underrated
Chrome rims are the best braking surface for BMX. There used to be a great guide for setting up u-brakes on Bikeguide (Sheepdogs brake guide I think) but not sure if it's there any more. From memory I used to clean the rims with a foaming bathroom cleaner (maybe Cif, whatever my mum had in the cleaning cupboard haha), then rough up some soft pads on the garage floor. When setting the pads he suggested to toe them in with a bit of card under the back edge to stop them squealing. There's a bit of a knack to getting u-brakes just right, mine used to lock up fine even when I was heavily overweight. A stiff caliper like the Odyssey Evolver helps too.
Charnock is great and it's always empty. Unlike Hillsborough where I'm always scared to drop in because of all the kids running horizontally across the track like it's an obstacle course. Colliding with a kid while I'm on a hot lap is not something I ever want to have to explain to a hysterical parent.
As correctly pointed out above the rims aren't actually chrome they're polished alloy. The caliper itself is set up perfectly so it feels good, it just has zero friction. It feels like the pads are made of ice. I'm planning to scotchbrite the braking surface and fit Odyssey soft compound pads. If that doesn't work I'll look at different calipers.