Aluminum Pegs
A stunt bicycle, also known commonly as a “BMX” bike, is as good as its parts. If you’re looking to do sick rail grinds and allow for a buddy to easily hop on your bike as you travel around your favorite biking spots like the shore boardwalk or mall parking lot, you’ll need pegs.
Aluminum pegs are just one type of peg available for bikes. Steel and copper pegs exist but you most often see either aluminum or steel on bicycles because copper is a soft metal. Steel and aluminum are good for the wear under stress of 100 – 200 lbs. whereas copper will more quickly erode under such conditions.
Customizing Your Bike
When customizing a bike for stunts at a half-pipe or terrain park, you want all the best parts. This means that the following areas of your bike should be thoroughly worked over for performance:
- Suspension
- Tires
- Brakes
- Pegs
- Handlebars
- Seat
By improving as many of these parts of your bike, you’ll be increasing your chances of pulling off phenomenal tricks and executing perfect form. Seats allow you to be comfortable and unhindered when moving during an aerial trick. Pegs allow you to grind over metal and polished surfaces. Good handlebars are light and have quick response time. Tires will vary depending on the course: either way you’ll want good traction. Suspension is especially important performing aerial tricks because when you land, you land with significant force. All aspects, including of course the frame itself, form a great customized bike capable of tricks.
Why Pegs Improve Performance
For stunts, pegs improve performance because a good technical biker will be able to incorporate several types of tricks during a run. If a biker goes all aerial and lands many solid, large jumps, that’s a great trick. When a biker executes phenomenally large air tricks that are very difficult after a culmination of small yet impressive tricks, he runs the crowd. Pegs improve performance only so much as you use them during your biking. Try grinding on all kinds of surfaces including rails and benches.
Perhaps more utility than performance, the age old use of pegs on a bike is being able to transport a friend along with you on your back pegs. For a generation stuck between puberty and driving age, bicycles are a major mode of transportation! If you’ve got pegs on your bike, your crew effectively has risen by one when riding the streets looking for things to do. Aluminum pegs are lighter than steel pegs so they have the advantage when it comes to transporting people.
Finding High-Quality Aluminum Pegs
If you’re looking for high quality aluminum pegs, there are three places to look first. First check out Coalition pegs – they make phenomenal aluminum pegs. Next try Victory pegs. They are highly reputed and are represented by professional bikers. Lastly, check out the Tree Bicycle Co.’s “Trick Stick” aluminum pegs. These models vary in price but expect to spend a couple to a few hundred dollars.