Buyer’s Guides – BMX Time

Want to try pegs for your street, park, or flatland tricks? Or is it time to change your old pegs for a colorful shiny new set? Either way, buying new pegs is always an exciting time. As you know it's my style, I'll show you a quick list with my picks for the best BMX pegs (with links to Amazon) in case you're in a hurry, and then I'll go deeper into the subject. Here we go: Best BMX Pegs: PEGSIMAGEMATERIALWEIGHT*LENGTHDIAMETEROdyssey MPEGSchromoly8.75 oz /248gr4" /100mm1.3" /33mmOdyssey Graduatechromoly corew/ plastic sleeve7.4 oz /210gr4.5" /114mm1.5" /38mm25NINE Aluminum/PCAluminum corew/ plastic sleeve4.8 oz /136gr4.33" /110mm1.5" /38mm25NINEAluminumAluminum4.4 oz /124gr4.33" /110mm1.5" /38mmNovatecSteelSteel8oz /227gr4.33" /110mm1.5" /38mmAmotorAluminumAlloy2oz /58gr4" /100mm1.1" /28mm* Weight of each peg That’s the quick answer. However, there’s an answer even quicker than that. Let's say you were just passing me in the street and asked me “hey, Martin, what are the best BMX pegs I should get? I’m running to the store right now!” I’d yell back “get the Odyssey MPEGS!” That'd be my first answer if I quickly had to pick one, based on their quality and taking into account that chances are you want those pegs for grinding stuff at your local spot, so those would be just perfect for street. However, the best pegs for you depend on a couple of factors like your riding style and preferences that we'll go over below. So now we'll check out each model of my picks in the table above and then we'll dive into the BMX pegs world with a complete buyer's guide. Odyssey MPEGS Odyssey is one of the best brands for BMX parts and their MPEGS are the perfect option for street. They come in full chromoly which makes them stiff and at a great price for the pair. They are the best choice for a beginner or for any street rider that needs high-quality reliable pegs, able to withstand massive loads of grinding. For them, the MPEGS are definitely the way to go. You can find them on Amazon here. Odyssey Graduate The Graduates are sold by the unit. It's possibly the best peg on this list in terms of quality and versatility. It features a chromoly core with a plastic sleeve. With a plastic sleeve the core of the peg remains protected and what you wear down when grinding is the outer plastic. Sleeves are replaceable, so you can just get a new one once it's ruined. With plastic sleeves you save some weight and you avoid the metal CLANG every time you grind metal or concrete which could be a plus if you prefer a quieter riding. Plastic also tends to slide better most of the time compared with other materials. You can find it on Amazon here. 25Nine Aluminum/PC These 25Nine pegs are a great choice for any riding style unless you do heavy grinding 90% of the time. If that's the case, then stick with chromoly pegs, since aluminum is less resistant. However, it's still good for grinding and it's super light. Aluminum is lighter than any other metal, but on top of that, it has a plastic sleeve, which makes it even lighter. If you ride park most of the time and weight is a thing, this is a great choice. Plus, you have a sweet variety of colors to choose from. You can find them on Amazon here. 25Nine Aluminum These are the featherweight version of the ones above. They're not for doing too much grinding, though. Aluminum would bend and break within the first week if you hop on rails and ledges all day. However, I wouldn't discard them for park. That being said, I picked these as a great option for flatland. Aluminum is the material of choice for flatlanders as they don't need a sturdy and tough surface to grind on. It's perfect for saving weight while having a solid platform for their tricks. You can find them on Amazon here. Novatec Steel Here's a popular option for beginners and kids. These are not the typical BMX pegs, so I wouldn't really recommend them for serious riding or if you expect them to withstand a lot of abuse. However, I do believe they're a great option if you're not too sure about your style and you just want to experiment with pegs to see how you like them. You can find them on Amazon here. Amotor If you're looking for a cheap but safe option for your kid, here it is. Same as above, not recommended for youth/adults who'd expect something else from them. These are perfect for adding a lot of fun to a kids' bike, as 'first pegs' for trying out some new tricks, and for taking a friend for a ride. You can find them on Amazon here. [ BMX Pegs Buying Guide ] How To Choose The Right BMX Pegs There are a couple of things you must take into account when buying BMX pegs, the most important being your style and level. Do you ride park, street or flatland? Are you just starting out or you already know what you're doing and want to try something different or step up your riding? Beginner How many pegs you run and where you put them depends on what you'll be doing with them. In the beginning, just one pair should be enough. Usually, you grind on the same side as your front foot, as you'll feel more comfortable landing and taking off of your front foot, which is usually your dominant foot. I definitely recommend metal pegs to start with. They are less slick and withstand a lot of abuse. Your pegs shouldn't slide too much at the beginning, the less the pegs slip around the more you'll be able to feel and control what you are doing and correct the balancing issues as you go. The faster you go the longer you slide. Metal will allow you to learn exactly where your bike needs to be, where your body should be, so you can master your balance at a speed you'll probably be more comfortable with at the beginning. Metal might be slower out of the box, but in the long run, it'll teach you to ride faster. Since you're just starting out, you're very likely to tear the end of the peg leaning too far in while you're trying to slide, thus, metal pegs will last longer. If you want to be more respectful to the things you are grinding you can start with plastic sleeved pegs, but you should keep in mind that they'll slide around more and will be a bit harder to control on most surfaces. For more support on first grinds and tricks, you can think of buying something longer than standard, as it'll help you hit fat rounded ledges. However, anything beyond 4.5” will be too much and the leverage will begin to strain your axles. Street A huge percentage of freestylers ride street. If you belong to our team and spend your days grinding on handrails, ledges, and all kinds of stuff, then pegs are already part of your life. Old school pegs were metal and you'll find lots of riders saying that real BMX is about metal pegs ('Steel is real'). However, you can use both plastic or metal for street. As a general guide, aluminum is too weak, it will bend and break sooner or later. If you love the CLANG! every time they hit a rail, then look for chromoly pegs. If you love to be quieter and have a better sliding, then go with plastic. Park If you're gonna hit a park often and it's mostly wood and the ledges don't have angle iron, or if there aren't so many ledges in your area, metal pegs would be a bad idea. You'll get more love from skaters running plastics. Think of them, metal pegs would seriously damage wooden ledges which would make sliding with a board much more difficult. However, if you're mainly doing stall tricks on quarters or don't depend heavily on your pegs, aluminum can be another option. But, again, the majority of park riders run plastic pegs. Flatland For flatland, you'd need something grippy, light, and knurled/grooved most likely. Pegs for flatland won't do any grindings, won't hit any rails of ledges, their only job is to support the rider's weight, thus, any material will do. The best choice then would be the one that offers more versatility: aluminum. Regarding length, I'd say go with long pegs (4.5") if it's your first pair. Longer pegs will provide a wider area for your feet which is extremely helpful for nailing your first tricks. Types of BMX Pegs: Metal vs. Plastic As we've seen, the materials of the pegs can make a world of difference in the riding experience. They weigh, slide, last, and perform differently. Let's take a closer look at each material to see what they have to offer. Plastic Pegs 'Plastic pegs' are not 100% plastic, they are metal pegs (metal core) with a replaceable plastic sleeve. They definitely wear faster than steel, that's instantly obvious, but they sound like the perfect option in some cases and according to certain preferences. For instance, they're quieter for riding street. While lots of riders love that CLANG! of metal pegs hitting a metal rail, some hate it and prefer a more low-profile riding. With plastic pegs being less noisy, you can ride certain spots for a longer amount of time before you get kicked out (and do less damage). Plastic pegs slide better on most surfaces. It's also good for aluminum rails as steel doesn't slide well on aluminum. They provide more options for grinding unwaxed stuff as plastic wears off, and it'll slide better on an unwaxed ledge better than a new metal peg. Plus, plastic pegs are skate park friendly. They don't damage the wooden ramps and ledges as metal pegs do. Chromoly Pegs Chromoly is an alloy of a bunch of metals that make a tough material. Its name has numbers, like '4130 chromoly', '4140 chromoly', and many more. The numbers represent a different percentage of each metal present in its composition. 4130 and 4140 are probably the most popular for BMX bike parts. Chromoly is the most popular metal for freestyle bikes and parts since it's stiffer than any other. It's perfect for street riding, for which you will need your pegs to withstand severe abuse. They'll last much more than plastic or aluminum pegs. While it's true that in most cases plastic slides better, that actually depends on each one's perception when sliding. Yes, some materials slide better on certain surfaces, but your feeling when sliding might make you feel that metal slides better than plastic sometimes. And obviously, your perception is what matters and you might feel plastic too grippy when grinding certain rails. Aluminum Pegs Aluminum is lightweight and a bit flexible. It's the material of choice for racing bikes, but not for freestyle bikes. If you want to do lots of grinds then don’t go with aluminum. It's weaker than chromoly, so it'll wear down, bend, and break sooner, and you'll see yourself needing new pegs in a couple of months. However, there are certain situations in which aluminum could make a lot of sense. If you really care about weight, then you could try something like aluminum core with a plastic sleeve, to save a couple of ounces. Aluminum can perform well in parks too. Lots of park riders run aluminum pegs since they don't damage the wood that much and is good for lip tricks on quarter pipes (plus, aluminum doesn't slide that well). Last but not least, aluminum is perfect for flatland. It's light and does the job of holding your body while you're balancing and spinning around doing stalls, chinks, hang 5's, rocket manuals, and so on. Titanium Pegs I'm not sure if you'd still find titanium pegs on the market these days. Maybe you'd find them used. DK and Snafu had Ti pegs a while back. But they're a thing of the past. Titanium is both light and strong and that's why it's a great material for cycling in general, but is way more expensive than the rest of the materials, and for a pair of pegs it really doesn't make a lot of sense. Maybe the greatest thing about titanium pegs was that it made sparks when hitting or grinding concrete or steel rails and ledges. Recap of the features of each material: MaterialFeaturesBest ForPlastic Pegs- Light- Quiet- Slides better- Park- StreetChromoly Pegs- Stiff- Durable- Loud- StreetAluminum Pegs- Light- Flatland- Park Length 4.5", 4.75", and beyond are what's usually called long pegs. With a long peg you get to lock on a lot of tricks much better and you have that extra length that will serve you to land better and to have a wider platform for flatland. If you're a beginner, then long pegs will be helpful. Once you get better, then you can try shorter pegs and see how you feel them. Shorter pegs (4") would make sense if you already know what you're doing. Usually, you lean into a grind, but the end of a longer peg is further away, meaning that the end of the peg acts like a pivot point. The longer the peg, the harder it is to lean into the grind. And they have extra leverage in your axle, so you're more likely to bend the axles. How To Install BMX Pegs How hard can installing pegs be? You're right, it's not hard at all. However, there are some things that are good to keep in mind. What will we need for the installation? Depending on the peg, you might need a torque wrench with an extension (15, 17, or 19mm). If you bought a pair of pegs you should have one with a small hole and another with a bigger hole. The smaller hole goes in the front axle (3/8") and the bigger hole goes in the rear axle (14mm). In case you're installing a rear peg, it would not screw properly directly into the front axle as they're made by default with a bigger hole. However, that's not a problem because all pegs come with a reducer (a little ring) that'll serve as an adapter to transform a 3/8" axle into a 14mm axle. So you must first put the reducer into the peg (and make sure it's pressed in so it doesn't fall inside the peg), then you put the peg into the axle, and then you screw it in. On a male axle, the process is pretty simple: you take out the nut, put the pegs, screw it and that's it. On a female axle, you should put the screw inside the peg first and then insert it into the axle. If it has a washer, then you must remove it as the peg will act as the washer. Don't put the washer between the peg and the drop out (just store it to use it in case you want to remove the peg in the future). If you'd use the peg with the washer, it'd create a little space between the peg and the drop out that would provide room for the peg to move and do a little play and with every landing that movement will make leverage into the axle and most likely will end up bending it. That's why the peg should sit flush on the drop out. If you're adjusting plastic pegs, you might feel like the plastic would compress a little when you reach the end, and that's normal, just give it an extra nudge. When putting the pegs on your rear wheel make sure there's an even gap between both brake pads. You might need to use your other hand to hold the wheel in place while you start tightening it. Tips For Using Your Pegs Grind on both sides. If you're a beginner (or not), try to learn to grind comfortably on both sides. It'll open you up to more setups than if you were to grind on only one side. You'll appreciate it more and more as you progress. As a general guide, try to never get too used to doing anything one way.Get hub guards too. They're not required, but they do protect your hubs and make grinds a lot smoother, especially if they're chromoly. Hub guards will prevent you from landing on your driver or spokes. Here's this uniguard from G-Sport on Amazon that will protect your drop out too.Apply wax to ledges and rails and everything you use for grinds. You'll slide better, it'll be more fun. Here's the most popular wax on Amazon.Don't rotate your rear metal pegs if you want to slide better. Metal pegs slide better when worn in. The flat surface slides better and helps lock in the grind. How To Maintain Your Pegs If you want your pegs to wear down even, rotate them every day after you grind.If you want your pegs to maintain a cleaner look, only rotate them when they’ve been worn down quite a bit (if you're running metal pegs, keep in mind that worn down metal pegs slide better). Related Questions What side should my pegs go on? Most BMX riders run their pegs on the same side as they have their front foot, which is probably the side that feels more comfortable. However, some riders use them on the side if their back foot. You can try both sides and see which one feels better for you. Try to ride parallel on a curb then hop to it. Then do it again on the opposite side. See which side feels like more natural hopping up. That's the side you should put your pegs on, at least at the beginning. As you master your grinds you might want to try double grinds and other stuff for which being able to grind on both sides is great, then you'll want to use all 4 pegs. Should I run 2 or 4 pegs? Running 2 pegs is what's most recommended when you're a beginner. As you gain confidence and expertise, getting 4 pegs really opens up a lot of extra possibilities for your riding. For instance, when a spot has a more appropriate/fun setup for your weak side than for your dominant side. Some days I just like to practice opposite and switch footed grinds. The only thing that sucks is your back foot might occasionally hit your rear foot depending on your foot placement preference. I ride with my feet more in the middle so my feet don't touch my pegs as much. The same principle applies to flatland. Running 4 pegs gives you the possibility to do multiple tricks on both wheels in the same session. Conclusion The Odyssey MPEGS are the way to go for beginners and street riders. For flatland you can try the 25NINE Aluminum, and for park a great choice is the Odyssey Graduate or the 25NINE Aluminum/PC. Whichever you buy, experiment as much as you can, try to use them on both sides and both wheels, and most important... have fun! 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