So my son is starting BMX racing in a couple of weeks. I decided, if I'm going to the track anyway, I might as well do some racing.... great interval workout for road and 'cross racing. I started shopping around for a 24" BMX cruiser but these things are tanks! Even the $1500 redline Flight Pro Cruiser weighs over 22 pounds. I understand BMX bikes take some abuse, but no more so than a mountain bike. My hardtail, front-suspension, 27-speed, mtn bike weighs less than that with 26x2.2 inch knobbies. I'm thinking a nice carbon frame would be a good starting point to begin a weenie project but haven't found any cf BMX bikes and most aluminum frames weight over 4 pounds. Crazy!

Anybody ever heard of a lightweight BMX frame?

_________________
TED ESSENFELD
Schoorl, Noord-Holland, Nederland
Bike Pics
English Custom Steel Internal di2
Litespeed Ghisallo

I dont think they make lightweight bmx frames because of all the abuse they go through.

Sure probably with road technology, you could have a 500-600 g frame, but one crash and its toast. Its not if you crash, it when you crash in BMX

Maybe your son might be interested in the way these guy shred the trail with MTB's No doubt these are in the 22-25 lb range.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE792g55GUw

_________________
I never took drugs to improve my performance at any time. I will be willing to stick my finger into a polygraph test if anyone with big media pull wants to take issue. If you buy a signed poster now it will not be tarnished later. --Graeme Obree

I asked a student of mine -- BMX pro rider.

He says no such thing. They will break.

BMX bikes take a hell of a lot of abuse Ted. I'd strongly urge you first to just get a bike that you'll be able to share your son's passion with and then over time you'll learn if you in fact want to go WW on one.

Just my two cents...

_________________
Seven Axiom Ti, Reynolds UL Fork, Campagnolo Super Record 11

In Progress: Salsa Podio, Alpha Q GS10 Fork, Campagnolo Chorus 11

I caught the bike bug in 1977 with a Mongoose Supergoose. I just don't remember it being a tank. And seriously, how can anyone suggest a mountain bike doesn't take the same abuse (if not more) than a BMX bike? I can see a UCI pro level mtb course being groomed and relatively smooth, but the stuff I ride on pounds the crap out of me and my mtn bike. Anyway, if 22 pounds is WW in the BMX world, so be it.

_________________
TED ESSENFELD
Schoorl, Noord-Holland, Nederland
Bike Pics
English Custom Steel Internal di2
Litespeed Ghisallo

I went to a bmx track yesterday with my 4 year old son, first time for me there in a long time, maybe 6 years and at least 10 years since I was even half commited to it.

pro bmxers usually can make the most power in the start of any cyclists and they are usually big heavy blokes so coming up short on jumps etc would really hammer the frame. I think Wade Bootes was one of the most explosive powerfull riders ever tested by the AIS, up there or even above guys like Shane Kelly and Sean Eadie.

I have a ex pro world-cup raced bike from 1998 and it's aluminium with cromo forks and cranks, it's all still nice and straight no cracks, I know the team bikes were never really "off the rack" frames so I would only assume the bikes in store are just even a bit more heavy duty.

great fun though hey, my arms and neck ache today and I only rolled/manualled most of the track and jumped all the small stuff. Little bloke ripped up and down the rhythm section for hours.

Not a 24, but the GT Powerbox 2 is a part CF frame

_________________
Success is how far you you bounce back up after being knocked down

I ride a Haro db44 team bike which is now under 18lbs with stock frame,wheels,crank and brake.
I think you can buy the frames on their own.

Bmx stuff is SOOOO heavy so i'd make the best of what you can get.
KHE do some nice parts ,Cirrus bars are a geat buy

First to answer your actual question. Carbon bmx frames.

Mongoose made the first that I know of, if you find one stay away they were extremely fragile.

Currently you have GT with the UB2. MBK from France makes a full carbon bmx and personally I think it's one of the coolest bmx frames to ever come to market. However neither of these come in 24.

A year or two ago I saw a really, really nice custom that Serotta did, it was carbon tubes with ti lugs. Imagine an ottrott in a bmx frame. I imagine if you could get them to build you one you'd be looking at a $5000 or more price tag.

Go back a couple of years and you'll find a mix of carbon tubed alloy lugged frames. Both FMF and Avent made them in cruiser. The Avent is not too difficult to find in expert cruiser which is a kids cruiser, but is difficult in pro cruiser.(I know because I'm still looking for one to match the micro my daughter has.) The FMF isn't too difficult to find. These look really good, but honestly aren't any lighter than the light aluminum frames out there.

A bmx ww project is fun, I've done it a few times for myself and my daughter. The problem is as was mentioned, bmx parts are built for abuse. I'm lucky in that I'm light (130 lbs) and after 20+ years of bmx I'm smooth and not rough on my bikes(relatively) That's allowed me to get away with mixing stuff from outside the bmx world. Places to save weight are things like the seat/post/hubs/spokes/cranks/seat collars etc... anything that you can pull from the road or mtb realm. Take for example the Redline you mentioned. While the flight cranks are light for bmx they are still almost 1200 grams. Replace it with a Storck Isis mtb crank, a TA ring, a Ti ISIS bb and a bb adapter and you save about 1.5 pounds, a little over 600 grams. Several changes like that and you can easily knock 3-5 pounds off a stock bike, but you quickly add thousands to the price. You can now get carbon rims from companies like warp9 as well. It's possible to build a ww bmx bike but it can be as expensive as doing a road project. My advice would be to get something like the stock Redline, or buy a used supercross or something similar and ride it for a year. See how you do on it and and even if it's something you want to stick with. Then you have a nice foundation to start a project from.

_________________
Fair Wheel Bikes

Fair Wheel Blog

Friend me on Facebook for behind the scenes updates

sounds crazy madcow, lucky you are light. At the start of the new millenium, lots of folks were using some basic road and other non bmx parts, campa carbon record seatposts, road seatclamps and light saddles, xtr v brakes and levers.

I knew some kids so crazy would jump anything, smooth racers, but fearless and one guy actually ran his profile cranks one notch back on the spline they were that bent and twisted

When you are real big nothing Ti in axles, pedal spindles or bb spindles is a good idea, esp if you have not been to to track for a while and can't manual or smoothly jump it all. It's weird when you ride some else race bike and think, haha your pedals are bent, then hop back on your own bike and work out its yours bent.

Here in Aust some of the real fast young guys are using ultegra road pedals and shimano road shoes I have noticed.

One thing for sure the GT and the Redline stock 24 race bikes are incredible value for money, even good buys at rrp.

i think even in 1999 a good mate had a Sunn frame with carbon mixed in with the cro mo and carbon forks etc, was a very light bike for the time.

How about this?

_________________
TED ESSENFELD
Schoorl, Noord-Holland, Nederland
Bike Pics
English Custom Steel Internal di2
Litespeed Ghisallo

I built up a 'light' bmx race bike, PK Ripper frame, supercross fork etc. 20 pounds.
My SE Racing Quad at 26 pounds is soo much more fun to ride the PK gathers dust unless my wife comes to the track with us. My FS mtb is 5 pounds lighter, My IF Ti is more than 11 pounds lighter, my Lynskey procross is 9 pounds lighter, my Quad is my fave.

Thanks xnavalav8r. It has got me thinking about getting my ancient early 80's Malvern Star Supermax thats still somewhere in the back of my mums garage and restoring it...

_________________
http://climbinglama.blogspot.com.au