Hey everyone and welcome back to another Tuesday tip where in this video
I'm going to be teaching you how to tell whether or not a BMX bike is a piece of junk before you buy it
So the title on this one might be a little bit harsh but I see so much misinformation going around on the Internet
and so many people
asking questions
Of is this bike worth this?
price and they're asking about bikes from people who are trying to sell their complete bikes from five years ago for the price that they
Paid for them when they very clearly been ridden
and so I wanted to make this video in hopes that it would prevent at least one person from overspending or being
completely ripped off when buying a BMX bike and there are very
Obvious difference between a BMX bike like this one for example and a bike that you might find at Walmart
That is labeled a BMX bike. This isn't a video talking about those differences
The difference is that I'm going to be talking about are ones
That might not be so obvious to someone who is just getting into BMX and just wants to buy their first
Legit BMX bike because upon first glance to someone who is just getting started the two might appear very similar
When in reality?
They are two very very different bikes held - two very very different standards
And this is really important especially when it comes to safety. So to start this one out
We're going to be talking about the absolute easiest
ways to tell that a bike is at the lower end of the spectrum and of those the most
apparent and obvious lies in the bottom bracket any modern brand-name BMX bike made in the past few years that contains an
American unsealed bottom bracket or a
One-piece crank set up is without a shadow of a doubt at the lowest of the low end of their complete bike
spectrum so with that being said
I've already showed examples of
American unsealed bottom brackets with three piece and one piece crank setups and now you're seeing on the screen a mid bottom bracket with a
three piece crank setup any bike that you might be looking at with a mid bottom bracket on it is a
surefire way to tell that that bike is at
Not at the lowest of the low end of the spectrum while the bottom bracket is the most obvious
Indicator of quality on a BMX bike we can move to the front of the bike to see a little bit less obvious indicator
But also something that if you know what you're looking for
you can definitely tell when a bike is of lower quality and that is the type of headset bearings and
setup of the headset on the bike
so on lower-end complete bikes that usually come with press in cups for
Unsealed or sealed bearings to come into usually on the low end
It's an unsealed bearing setup the difference between this and an integrated headset setup like the one that's on this bike here
is that on the integrated setup the place for the bearings to go is actually
machined into the head tube of the bike and while this might sound complicated to some of you there is a
Very easy way to tell whether or not a frame that you're looking at is
integrated or has these pressing cups and that is just by looking at this area on the frame a
frame that has the pressing cups or an unsealed headset has a very
Obvious break in the frame where something was pushed in whereas a frame with an integrated headset has no obvious breaks in it
And it's just a cleaner
look where you can tell that this frame was made to have something put into the head tube on it and
Hopefully the pictures that I'm showing on the screen have given you a better illustration of this in an understanding for it from there
We can move back to the bottom bracket
area to the sprocket of the bike a sprocket on a bike is another possible indicator of quality because
Complete bikes at the lower end of the spectrum often come with a very thin steel sprockets on them
so if you're looking at a bike and it has a very thin sprocket that appears to be steel the difference between
Aluminum and steel is usually visually apparent and the thinness of the sprocket is a dead giveaway on this one
aluminum sprockets are usually 5 to 7 millimeters thick and then a steel sprocket is something like 3 millimeters thick and like I said,
It's just very obvious. And those are the three most obvious indicators of quality on
Neck's bike, but when it comes to these things it all comes down to the cost at the price point of $100 or less
You really don't have to worry a ton about these things because under $100
It's usually going to be worth it unless the bike is
Completely ridden into the ground and destroyed already, but this is something that you don't need me to tell you how to figure out
It's pretty clear and obvious and quite honestly
I would never pay more than 75 to $100 for a bike that has an unsealed headset or
Unsealed American bottom bracket or a one-piece crank and a steel
sprocket on it because more often than not there are better deals out there for the same or just a
Little bit more money as long as you know what you're looking for
so when it comes to that hundred dollar price point
When we're going above that and you have checked all of the boxes. It has an integrated headset
It has a mid bottom bracket. It has an aluminum sprocket above $100. You can check a few more things
We won't go super far into detail with them
But I have them for you right now the first and probably most
important of these things that just barely didn't make the top list is whether or not the bike has
sealed hubs on it
And if you're new to this, you might not know what seal hubs look like on a BMX bike
so hopefully these pictures can give you a
Little bit more clarity and this is another thing that comes into play with price if you're talking about that hundred dollar price
mark
And you're talking about an unsealed hub on that bike
You're really not losing out on too much because you're not spending a ton of money
Definitely under that hundred dollar mark, but on the flip side
If you're spending around a hundred dollars and you're getting a bike that has sealed front and rear hubs
You know that you're getting a better value and that's why it's important to take a look at these things
to smaller things that you can take a look at that aren't totally
Guaranteed because they're easy to switch out are the seat and the tires when it comes to the seat on lower-end
complete bikes
They will usually go with a seat and seat post combo that are connected together with no
adjustment for obvious reasons and is cost savings and then when it comes to tires
Lower-end complete bikes will have tires that can accept lower tire pressures
So if you're looking at the tires on a bike and it says something like 35 to 50 psi
You're usually looking at a lower quality tire, which could be an indicator of lower quality parts on the bike
So if this is something that you see you might just want to take a look at other
aspects of the bike and once again at those lower price ranges
you really don't have to be quite as picky and on the flip side again if you see tires that say
110 psi on a bike that someone's only asking
$100 for you know that it has a higher quality tire on it and that's just a better value for your money
So that's it for these specific parts and other indicators of quality that you can look at on a BMX bike
But there's one other thing that we haven't quite talked about yet. And that is the difference between having
Aftermarket and brand-name parts on a bike and having the lower
Quality brand-name parts on a bike just like the other things that I've talked about
This isn't really set in stone because anyone can change out any part on a BMX bike and someone could put the absolute best
Cranks on an unsealed American bottom bracket with an unsealed headset and it could mean absolutely nothing
But if you're looking at a bike and you see huge brand names all over
The parts on the bikes that are actually stamped into the part and not just a sticker on it
Then that could be an indicator that a lot of the parts are aftermarket or of higher quality on the complete bike
That was bought and that could be another way to tell that you're getting a better value for your money
So for example higher-end complete bikes
sometimes come with the brand-name parts from that company on them one great example of this is that there are some
Sunday complete bikes that come with the Odyssey clutch free coaster on it, which is a
$200 or more wheel
But they come on a complete bike that is like four hundred fifty five hundred dollars and with that
you know that you're getting a better value for that bike because
You could sell that hub and make half of the money from the bike back. It's like sagging towards me. It's definitely
Sagging towards me. I don't have it tight enough. Okay, I had to fix it, and I noticed that the microphone was filled up
So if there was a change in audio, I'm sorry, it's good now, but as I was saying this isn't set in stone
But it's definitely something that you want to keep an eye out for
Whenever you're looking at a complete BMX bike to buy and when it comes to buying a whole BMX bike
you usually aren't going to want to spend the amount that someone paid for a bike unless
it's brand new and you absolutely
have to have it because the value goes down as soon as someone rides something and there's
usually much better deals out there where you can get a custom bike that has mostly aftermarket parts on it or all
Aftermarket parts for a very good price
this guide was more for the person who's looking at buying a complete bike that might be used and doesn't know quite
Exactly what they're looking at yet. So hopefully it helped you. Let me know if it did in the comments down below
I hope that I saved at least one person from overspending or getting ripped off by someone on the Internet
And with that being said if you guys bought your bikes on the Internet used and you are comfortable talking about it
Let us know what you bought and how much you paid for it
Seems like a great way to start a conversation down there in the comments
If you did enjoy this video and you're new here hit the subscribe button down below
I make tips and tricks videos just like this one every
Tuesday as well as BMX and news videos on fridays and other types of riding videos and streams throughout the week
I want to thank you guys for being here and watching and I sincerely hope that this video at least helps someone
Because it was a nightmare to make and with that. Thank you again for watching and we'll see you tomorrow for another video. Goodbye
You