The adrenaline rush of BMX or bicycle motocross began in the 1970s when teenagers began racing their squishy bikes on dirt track around southern California, trying to emulate their motocross stars and idols such as Lars Larrson, Preston Petty and Mike Goodwin.
The biggest inspiration came in 1972 with the screening of the cult documentary “On Any Sunday”, which showed kids riding their sting ray bikes of road, in its opening scene. Soon after companies started developing designs and manufacturing bikes specifically for off-roading and use on dirt tracks. With economic success, the sport of BMX was born.
Fast forward 30 or so years. Gone are the days of frisbees tied with a string, acting as knee protectors. In a world of high-end BMX gear, bikes that cost upward of $2000, hundreds of BMX events all over the globe and thousands of customizable bike parts, shoes, clothing, accessories, safety gear – it has become hard to see the forest from all the trees.
What started so simple has become a major subset of the $7.3 billion bicycling industry, so let me make it simple for you and tell you about the differences and what you might or might not need, helping you choose the right bike and BMX gear.
Frame
Try and go with Chrome Moly instead of aluminum. Both are common steels in racing. BMX “dudes” usually go with Chrome Moly because it’s stronger and not as stiff a ride. Aluminum is half the weight of steel but only 1/3 the strength. Going to your local shop you might discover that frames from both aluminum and Chrome Moly (or cromoly, cromo, CrMo) weigh the same. This indicates that the aluminum tubing has a thicker outer layer to seemingly match the strength of Chrome Moly, but don’t get flunked – it’s still not as strong as Chrome Moly.
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Aluminum has a limited life and eventually will corrode and give up on you. Chrome Moly, on the other hand, will never die on you if you don’t let it rust in your basement while you make yourself the third PB&J sandwich.
Brakes
Whether you ride with brakes or not is 100% up to you and your style. It’s a question of opinion. Keep in mind that brakes will make your bike marginally heavier which might influence your tricking. It is widely considerate obsolete BMX gear
Pedals
Go with plastic. It’s cheap and it doesn’t hurt as much as steel when you eventually ram it into your body. Getting a big one jammed into your shin, trying to impress your friends and the cute girl, 15 minutes after arriving to your skate park is NOT what you want to happen to you, trust me. It hurts bad.
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