Hey I have a suggestion! You say you want to stay under $250? Well then, my bike was $230, and it's been a really good bike for me. It's a 2004 F3 Haro Freestyle bike, with three peice cromoly cranks, 100% cromoly frame and fork, good rims, Tektro U-brakes both in front and back, 39T/ to 14T gear ratio, a nice gyro, and good bars and tires. Since its 2005 now Haro has released their new line of F3's, and they look very sweet. They have a few part inprovments over the 2004 line, and there should still be a couple of different models that you could get for under $250. I highly recomend Haro, they've been making bikes for years, and some of them are pretty affordable. Heck, Dave Mirra uses a Haro bike, so they have to be pretty good! I suggest checking out their website: harobikes.com . They show all of their bikes there, and have all of the specs for each one. I hope my suggestion is helpful to you!
FLyBOy.