Recommend me an OTP BMX bike for 12y old boy

Hi fellas, A friend of mine asked me for help on choosing some OTP BMX for his 12y old son. As i never ridden one i am quite useless :-) Could someone of you please recommend one that will not break the bank and do a good job in terms of reliability, rideability and looks ? Your help is much appreciated. Cheers

How tall/big is he, i'm guessing he'll want a 16 inch or 18 inch wheeled bmx if he's pretty small:

Good 16 inch choice: http://www.mirrabikeco.com/blend_16.html

If he's tall/big enough to ride a full size 20 inch bmx, then i'm guessing he's still not gonna be that tall (compared to a full size adult) in which case you want to go with a shorter top tube, around the 19 inch mark I would say, and chainstays as short as possible, sub 14 inch ideally, some slightly lower bars (around 6.75/7 inch rise), and a short stem should do the trick.

i don't know if wethepeople or fit make smaller bikes, but they make good OTP's

http://www.alansbmx.com/ is a good place to check out whats on offer, as well as http://www.winstanleysbmx.co.uk and http://www.customriders.com

race or dirt or street?

we can't have him turning up at the track on a dirt bike, or at the ramps on a lightweight race bike

i don't know if wethepeople or fit make smaller bikes, but they make good OTP's

http://www.alansbmx.com/ is a good place to check out whats on offer, and http://www.customriders.com

Fixed, winstanleys are scum, never ever use them unless you want the worlds worst possible customer service ever, and want to end up waiting months for your order to get sorted out.

If he's 12 years old there's no way he needs anything smaller than 20 inch wheels. for a start he's right at the age where he's gonna start to grow really fast too.
If he has a 16 or 18 inch wheeled bike he's gonna look like he stole it from his little brother.
My son has been riding 20 inch since last year on his 9th birthday.
GT make really nice off the peg bmx's...not too heavy, and look really nice. The one we got had proper 3 piece cranks too.

This is the one we got him...GT Fly.

If it is his first proper BMX I would emphasise choosing something with a good geometry/sizing and being lightweight. He wont need something super strong unless his doing massive street drops all day long. I managed a frame made of super crappy but lightweight thin mild steel from 13-15

Having something thats too heavy/bulky, and too big in terms of long wide cranks and long frame etc really kills the fun and slows down the progression of learning stuff like bunnyhop based tricks.

Thankfully BMX fashion is orientated towards making simple light bikes these days so it shouldnt be too much of a problem. Just bear in mind that many of the big commercial companies like haro & gt tend to make pretty crappy entry level bikes more orientated to trying to look good through gimmicks etc and are actually pretty heavy, way overbuilt, and dont have great geometry.

Of course if your kid is naturally gifted & a bit fearless then riding a slightly too big bike wont stop them ripping it. Heavy bikes can actually feel better/more stable if you have the balls to hit ride ramps/parks hard.

If you look at this 13 year old, (totally awesome rider killing it). You can see the big bike being awkward/clumsy to handle, a lot of the jumps towards the end are very 'dead sailor-ish' because its difficult to handle that size of bike beneath him. Same for the attempts at spins, the kid has clearly got the skills a better fitted bike would let him do a lot more, and smoothly.

Obviously it isnt affecting him too much, but for a new rider, perhaps not so naturally talented the awkwardness is greatly emphasised. Having a bad first BMX can be enough to put a kid off riding.

John Fahl, Park Edit on Vimeo

www.unitedbikeco.com

Just bear in mind that many of the big commercial companies like haro & gt tend to make pretty crappy entry level bikes more orientated to trying to look good through gimmicks etc and are actually pretty heavy, way overbuilt, and dont have great geometry.]

The GT's from the past two years have been some of the best entry level bmx's ever...if you check the weights you'll see that they've moved on from overbuilding them these days.
I looked at several otp bmx's last year and the GT's were better on weight and spec than pretty much all of them in the price range.
For a bmx around £200 they will always be heavier than top end bikes, but the GT's are great for the money in my opinion.
My son loves his.
For a start, how many people on here ever complained when they got their first bmx that the weight of the bike was limiting their ability to pull smooth 360 hops, or that the top tube was half an inch too long and was hampering their tail whips?
You got on it and rode it and had fun...and if it looked good too it was a bonus.
Seriously, check the weights and reviews of the GT's over other bikes in the price range and you'll see that for the money they're great bikes.

Fixed, winstanleys are scum, never ever use them unless you want the worlds worst possible customer service ever, and want to end up waiting months for your order to get sorted out.

too true unfortunately

Fixed, winstanleys are scum, never ever use them unless you want the worlds worst possible customer service ever, and want to end up waiting months for your order to get sorted out.

too true unfortunately

Agreed.

wethepeople make really good completes, avoid kink (i think..).
gt are a bit stuck in the past but we are talking about a bike for a 12 year old here, not someone who has ridden for years and wants to be threeing double flights, or whatever the kids get up to these days...

Oh, and there will be a dedicated bmx shop opening in east london in a few months run by riders who very much know their stuff, so if you can hold on for a while..

p.s. wethepeople make by far the best completes...

I can't help but think he'll love it whatever. Having GT or some other well known brand will be good bragging value with his mates. He prob will not want a 18" wheel because that's for the smaller kids and no one want to be associated with the smaller kids, you want to rule the smaller kids. Make sure you tell him how much it cost because that's what he'll be asked by ever other kid. If he gets into BMX more seriously he'll know what he wants specifically in a year or two.

I think Scott is right, it's unlikely the bike will be limiting his performance much, he'll just be having fun (you know what kid do). Really this is true of most people, it's very rarely the bike that stops you achieving something.

I disagree... if I had a bike as light as I have now when I was 13, I would have found riding trails and learning tricks much easier.

The kid has got to already be into it though if he get into it in a year or so he'll know what he wants. If he was already into BMX he'd know what he wants now. If he doesn't know what he wants now why bother getting something super duper. Something like Scott suggested will be more than good enough.

The point is that, especially for a young kid, it's easier to ride a light bike than it is to ride a heavy bike. Thus, whether or not he knows what he wants, weight should be a consideration as much as anything else.

But what £200 otp bmx is gonna be significantly lighter than any others?
The Gt was about the best i found weight wise. Obviously if you can afford to get your 12 year old an expensive and lightweight bmx that's ok...but for all we know the kid in question could get bored of it in a years time and may only even use it to get around on. That's why people buy cheaper bikes to start their kids off on.

In my opinion...get a bmx that doesn't have pegs, giros, or any other gimmicky shit on it, and that he likes the look of and he'll be plenty happy....then if he starts getting really into it then you can look towards more expensive and lighter bikes.

Half the reason i see so many new mountain bikers crashing on the trails is because they never put in the time on the heavier rigid bikes that people did years ago and so they never learned the same skills and gained the strength...they go out and buy a full suss bike with disc brakes and just get too used to the bike doing the work.

It's also a good way to teach kids the value of things...that if you want the finer things in life you have to work towards them and put your time in on the cheaper stuff first.
If you can get him a superlight bmx for the right price that will stand up to being thrown on the floor and crashed like a kids bike will be then get it....otherwise, like i say...get one from a trusted company that he likes the look of and will be happy to ride with his mates.

My first 20" BMX was very similar to this. A really basic toys r us underneath. I bought it with saved busfares for £65 as a second hand bike, but from a bike shop. Retrospectively the price was a bit steep, but I have to say its possibly the most enjoyable bike I ever owned.

I slowly broke bits on it and upgraded them. Had mega wide bars on to start, but then I put tiny ones on, uprgraded brake ( a canti!) & cranks. On that bike I could bunnyhop higher than all my friends except for a 6'4" trials rider.

The main awesome thing about the bike was that it was super light, and by some freak occurence at the mass made shit bike factory, they created something with perfect geometry. Id get older guys asking for goes on it and having more fun than they're 'proper' bmx's

Ive got a photo of me riding it somewhere, must dig it out. The bike got stolen and I ended up buying a heavy mega overbuilt circa 98 'proper' bmx as I thought it was a good idea.

Rode that bike for a few years, it made BMX really dull for me as I only ever really enjoyed hopping about in the city. I just kept hoping the beast of a bike would break so I could get something else. It totally killed all the fun of riding. But I stuck with it because I dont like wasting stuff and id spent a lot of money on it - eventually giving up on BMX.

I'm not saying buy an expensive bike.

I'm saying don't buy a heavy bike.

Riding a heavy bike helped fuck my back up and thus helped make me quit riding.

Lightness and low cost aren't mutually exclusive.

But whatever, it's up to him at the end of the day, I ain't here to argue.

and like i said....find me an off the peg bmx for around £200 that is significantly lighter than say a GT fly.

Unfortunately, weight IS dictated by cost where bikes are concerned these days.

and like i said....find me an off the peg bmx for around £200 that is significantly lighter than say a GT fly.

If you pick any basic non-bmx brand £100 bike (the type with no Gyro/pegs etc) it can suffice like it did for me.

For a new proper BMX, id recommend nearly anything over the big corporate brands like GT.

This for £225 is a world above that horrid GT.

Im sure I could find something Sub £200 if I look for a bit longer.

My kid hated the subrosa....it's not a world above the gt in performance or components either...or weight.