Street Bikes

You see it often on TV and in the movies. If you live in a big city, it's likely you see it in your neighborhood or on your way to work. Kids (usually) riding bikes and doing daring, gravity-defying feats using walls, benches, and stairways as springboards. How do they do that?

Street bikes used for these acrobatic stunts, called street riding, are usually tricked out with plates and pegs that protect the rider from injuries and they help with the tricky maneuvering needed to accomplish such hair-raising moves. These rigs, as they're called, are most often single-speed bikes with slick tires and only one brake.

BMX and MTB bikes are two types of bike often used in street riding. Competitive street riding is often billed as BMX freestyle.

BMX street bikes are Bicycle Moto-cross(X) bikes, usually raced on a specially designed earthen track with any number of treacherous obstacles to overcome.

BMX racing, and the modified street bikes used for the sport, took the world by storm during the 1970s when a movie documentary, On Any Sunday, inspired the off-road cycling craze.

Street bikes in the MTB (or MtB) category are Mountain Bikes of durable design for riding over rough, rugged terrain. These bikes are ideal as street bikes used for street riding because they hold up well against the rigors of the sport.

Of course, street bikes don't always have to be used for sport, racing, or acrobatics. The bicycles your children ride are also considered street bikes. So is the basket-laden number your dotty Aunt Sally pedals to the market every Thursday morning.

Street bikes can be enjoyed for good, peaceful exercise or pleasure without the high-adrenaline theatrics. Even then, however, it's always a good idea to wear a helmet.