SlickJoe

I ride mostly street and on dirt trails, mainly riding around a college campus (I do not care much for vert or ramps or whatever you call it). The bikes I am looking at are the Icon Intro, the Icon Option, and the Five Star Intro. All of these are by Mirraco. I used to ride a Haro Mirra 540 but it was stolen and now I am riding some lousy no name brand mountain bike. I am so used to BMX bikes that I really want to get a new one, but the only bikes available near me are basically only Mirraco. What do u guys reccomend? Oh and I am 5'6" and weigh 140 with an athletic build

EDIT: So maybe it is just because I havent ridden a freestyle/bmx/whatever bike in so long, but the bikes at the store seemed like the gear ratio was all screwy, in that every bike i tried out seemed to have no resistance when I pedaled. It seemed like i was moving my legs very fast and going nowhere and i felt so freakin awkward and the salesman said I could spend all this money to get it changed, and that did not really make me too happy. Am I just crazy or are all bmx bikes like that, because i remember my Haro Mirra 540 to have lots of resistance when I pedaled and it felt so right.

bmxinvasion

see if the shop has this BLEND ONE.
If you’re going to shell out 400 bucks for a new bike, it better be good, right? The One is our most affordable 20-inch in our Blend series, and it’s loaded with everything you need for fun on ramps and street.

SlickJoe

Ya they had a bike called that, but that bike is just a little over my price range (I want to keep it under $350)

Or do I have to spend $450 for a decent bike?

bmxinvasion

the mirraco completes have the standard bmx gearing,28/10

https://www.danscomp.com/serve.php?se...=faqs_tech.htm

try haggling with the dealer for a better price

SlickJoe

Thanks for that website bmxinvasion, that helped explain a lot. So, after remembering my chat with the dealer today, he mentioned how I have to buy seperate gears (I guess thats what I have to get, since "gear ratio"... "gears"... it makes sense to me) So I am guessing I have to know what gears to ask for. What is a good gear ratio for a lot of resistance with a 20" wheel bike? Or what is a more "common" ratio used for lots of resistance? Because there is a LOT of combinations on that chart, and for all I know, only half of them are even practical. The bikes I tried out had 28/10 (thanks bmxinvasion) and with 20" wheels go 56" per full revolution of the cranks, and I felt like I should have been putting at LEAST twice as much force into the pedals. If anyone knows what the stock gear ratio for the Haro Mirra series of bikes is that will help out a lot. Would I want something like 32/10?

If it helps, I always ride my lousy 21 speed mountain bike with the gear settings on 3 (the one with only 3 options) and 7 (the one with 7 options). What gear ratio for bmx is similar to this setting (perhaps just about but not as resistant as that)??

ascend

All BMX bikes are like that; that's why it's "standard". All the gear ratios on that chart will feel about the same; the difference is only in the weight and amount of ground clearance. The same ratio has been standard for like 20 years, ie even way back in the racing days -- so it's perfectly possible to go fast on a standard BMX.

If you're feeling awkward it's cause you're not used to it; go read about cadence somewhere. But on a BMX you're going to be spending most of your time either coasting or accelerating (you don't generally pedal at high speeds for long distances, or pedal while sitting down much at all) and the standard ratio is basically the sweet spot for accelerating.

SlickJoe

Oh ok straight. I'm just not used to it obviously.

DeadSailor

well just to bring it up first. the BlackPearl is what you want to be looking at. thats their dirt/street bike. the blend is a park/street

id stay away from all the other models, they really dont have anything too special about them