Don't you think heavy bike generally stink for freestyle? The inertia just slows everything down. And if the bike has great geometry, do you think a 35 lb bike is unbunnyhoppable? Or probably can't pull off a 360 with a heavy bike?

But my 32lb 87 GT Performer is somewhat heavy but it my best bunnyhopping bike! Has the best bunnyhopping geometry of all my 11 bmx bikes!

I keep my heaviest bike, a 2000 Schwinn Powermatic Mag - for ground tricks and it's hard to bunnyhop it high but it's only 32.8 lbs. It's my "practice on a heavy bike" bike. I keep it because it was Jay Miron's bike.

Especially the MID School era - tons of heavy bikes! I'm very glad the new trend is to lightweight bikes but unfortunate they're going brakeless too... Trends suck!

So what's your rant on a heavy bike?

i'd prefer my bikes be relatively light, but i'd rather have a heavier bike with geometry i like, than a light bike with bad (to me) geometry. i've definitely had light bikes that i hated.

A couple years ago for the MN Faction BBQ bunnyhop contest, we purposely built a heavy bike for everyone to use. It was built on my old Kink Empire Rev B frame (an 8lb frame). It weighed in at 37.5 lbs built.
The Bunnyhop contest winner won with a hop of 36".

This year the exact same person won riding his own new school bike. Light, everything. He won with the exact same height - 36". And didn't even clear it as cleanly.

I don't know what that means, but clearly weight isn't everything. Since the days the the Kink was my rider, my bikes have gotten lighter, but I haven't exactly gotten any better.
As coasterbrake says - geometry is more important the weight.
It's my opinion that you can adapt to the weight. If you can't hop as good as you want or 360 you just need to ride more.

And the last time I pulled a 360 was on that Kink BTW...
-Bill

I don't know the weight on my bike, but it is quite a bit heavier than today's bikes.. But the kids at the park are jealious my bike keeps on going and they are griping about how often they replace stuff.. That being said, I wouldn't mind a little lighter bike.. But, I'll save the really light stuff for my race bike..

Brian

yeah heavy bikes are a pain to bunnyhop!
What do you think we rode in the early 80's? Everything weighed 35lb. lol

I like my bikes to be between 25-30 lbs. depending on use...bunnyhoping and 360s @ 30 lbs is not a problem..If anything a few extra lbs provide more inerita due to more mass..But requires a little more strenth..
The weight is proportional to the riders comforts..All personal choices..Some like em heavy some like em lite...

I just built up a Haro Backtrail with triple wall rims and the thing weighs a bit. In some situations, I would rather have a heavier bike because it doesnt seem as squirrely.

BITD we usually had only one bike. I only had a race bike so that doubled as my street bike. So my everyday rider was approximately 23 lbs. Great for jumping.

I don't understand the "no brake" thing. I'm sure it is because local riders are just copying some pro rider who decided to be unique. My freestyle bike is a new school Quadangle and it has a front brake (OMG!!! Can you believe that!!!). I watch kids trying to endo (I guess its called a foot jam now) and then do tailwhip. Most cannot do it because they can't smoothly stop the front of the bike using their foot. I come along and hit my front brake, endo, and tailwhip (using my gyro) in very smooth fashion. I then look at the kids breaking their toes and ruin their sneakers and tell them, "if you had a front brake...."

The extra grams of weight that brakes add are insignificant. Being able to stop before a bus hits you is priceless.

Those newschool kids doing front wheel brakeless endos and tailswhip are doing a different style hard trick. Yeah, newschool brakeless tricks are way harder and cooler than old school front brake tricks, but not many can pull them off.

Someone demonstrated to me how to do a front brakeless tailwhip and man is it hard!

A bike with awesome geometry is still good even though it's heavy, like 35 lbs +.