BMX bikes are a particular kind of low bike, with smaller wheels than usual, that can be used for racing. They are specifically designed to be light weight, strong and streamlined for speed. Also, they are acknowledged as the ideal bike for riders who want to perform tricks.

BMX stands for bicycle motocross, which refers to the origin of the sport: Children saw motocross races on the TV in the ’70s and wanted to emulate them. Since they had no motorbikes of their own, they used their bikes to race around similar dirt tracks to the ones they had seen.

Although there are a few older specialized BMXers, most good ones move on to other cycling or motorcycling sports. Among children today, the BMX continues to be one of the most popular model of bike around, and is often requested as the ideal Christmas or birthday present. Even if they have no intention of competing in competitions, children just love the aura of the unique design which exudes fun and more fun. This on ongoing popularity is reflected in sales of BMX magazines.

This popularity has surprised many as the sport of Bicycle Motocross suffered a sharp decline in ’80s and early ’90s and was considered pretty much dead, only to experience an exciting revival in the mid -’90s which is continuing to this day. Today the sport has grown in popularity to the point, where it has gone from participation by mainly under 10s to inclusion as a new Olympic event in Beijing 2008. It’s certainly here stay!

BMX is nowadays one of the range of extreme sports like skateboarding and snowboarding, and comparable tricks can be performed with the bikes to the ones the boarders do. The sport of Freestyle BMXwas invented to allow BMXers to focus on doing tricks in skate-parks instead of racing, and has since arguably surpassed the popularity of BMX racing altogether, as this is the style that the ultra famous BMX bikers, Mat Hoffman and Dave Mirra, take part in.

So, you can see that the BMX Bike has a wide range of fans, and hence its appeal for street riding, free styling and its original purpose bicycle motocross.

By Desmond Walford

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The process of buying used bikes can get exceptionally stressful. While it is possible to get your favorite brand of bike in your budget in the second hand market, there is a lot more uncertainty involved. That makes planning the entire process quite important. In this article we shall tell you questions that you should answer before acquiring the bike.

Understand your biking need

You must not start your bike search before deciding the following things.

* Budget: Always decide on the amount that you intend to utilize for buying the used bike. Once you start the search it is likely that you will get attracted by a good bargain and pay more than what you can afford.
* Necessary requirements: There are some requirements that you can not do without. If your wife is going to use the bike as well then you need a bike that will easy for her as well. Talk to your family and friends, decide the requirements and write them down on a page.
* Your expected usage pattern: The importance of mileage on your purchase decision is decided by your usage pattern. If you are going to be traveling on your bike throughout the day as in case of salesmen then better go for a fuel efficient one.

Factors that impact the quality of used bikes

* Age: The maintenance requirement of a bike goes up with time and beyond a certain age the maintenance requirement goes up sharply. The money that you save by going for a second hand bike might be spent in maintenance unless you consider this point carefully.
* Usage: The quality of the used bike that you are going to buy depends extensively on the usage pattern of its previous owner. A bike with a sales person would have been used far more than one with a software engineer.

Making the final selection from available used bikes

If you have followed my advice till now, you would have prepared a list of requirements and your budget. Now eliminate all the bikes without proper paperwork. Take the bikes for a test drive and eliminate those that do not feel well. Read up the reviews on bike review sites. If the original vehicle is having engineering trouble then most probably the used version will have issues as well.

By Pradeep Kar

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