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Okay guys, what's up? So today we're going to be talking about the top five BMX bikes that you can
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get for under $500. This list is as of like right now because you know if I would have made this
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list last year we would have seen some other bikes like the Division 4Ts, the Kink Whip, you know
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some of those bikes. Now as time changes, bike prices go up, some bikes go out of stock, some
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bikes are hard to find. So as of right this second, this second, right now, these are the best bikes
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that you can get for $500, okay? $500 or less. And I think it's important to note
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you know, I always talk about the free bike recommendation, but if you guys just, I will find the right bike for you
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because some of these bikes might not be it. There's a lot of things that go into it. You know, the top tube size, your budget
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what skill level you are, things like that. Because if you are a brand new rider, you might not need a bike that costs $500
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You might need a $400 bike, $300 bike. Or if you're really experienced
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you're going to have to up that budget to get something decent. Okay. Anyway, anyway, here we go
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Okay. I wish these were in a particular order, but they're not in a particular order. Bike number five
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is going to be the Sporosa Salvador. So the Sporosa Salvador, it has a, you know, the 20.5
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Salvador option. It has a 21 inch Salvador XL option. And then it's got a Salvador free coaster
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and a Salvador park. So there's a lot of Salvador options. Quality wise, they all score very
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very similar. Quality-wise, the XL, the Salvador, the Salvador Free Coaster, like they're all the
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same. The variances you run into is like how good it is for street, how good it is for park
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and things like that. So anyway, the Salvador is $400. It's on sale right now. It's $100 off
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So even for $500, the full MSRP, this is still a decent bike. I think it scores like a 3.6 in
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quality on the Dougsterbob app, but basically it's not a full Chromali frame. It's only a
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Tri-Mali frame and finding a full Chromali frame in 2023 for under $500 is damn near impossible
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So this is cool. We got Tri-Mali. The thing that you need to worry about is the back end of the
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bike doing a McTwisty because this back end right here is high tensile steel and this is Chromali
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so that's good, but this is bad. High tensile steel, no good. It comes in the 20.5 or the XL 21
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inch option. It only weighs 25.9 pounds. That's pretty solid, but the rims are single wall. And
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again, that's another thing you need to worry about. That back rim could potentially do a
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McTwisty and bend up because it's single wall, especially if you're a heavier rider
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With the quality of this bike, I wouldn't really recommend it for anybody who weighs less than
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or who weighs more than like 150 pounds and that's pushing it again because the high tensile steel
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the single wall rims, these parts will just take a lot more abuse especially if you're heavier
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they're gonna they're gonna bend and and break okay. So trimali frame, chromali steer tube on
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the forks that means the legs are only high tensile steel. It's got a rant trill top load
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stem. Everything on it is fully sealed. Even the hub, which is important, usually on a bike with
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the similar quality to this, you're going to see an unsealed front hub. This one's got the sealed
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hubs. And okay. And so that's the bike. Okay. The Salvador is on the list. It's under $500
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And right now at the sale price, it's like an exceptionally good deal. For $4.99, I'd say like
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you could probably spend a little bit more and get something quite a bit better. For $3.99
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You can't really beat this. If you do get this bike, just make sure you're under 150 pounds
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because I don't want you to put unnecessary stress on the bike and cause problems and have issues with it
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I do not want that to happen. Okay, next on the list is going to be a fly bike
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It's the Fly Electron. Okay number four on the list the Fly Electron Now here the story with fly As I make more stuff more content I noticed that Fly bikes are pretty good They really good actually But two years ago they were
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not so good. This bike, this Electron BMX bike, which I have here in a box, I need to
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do a video on it, but I'm waiting on Fly. Anyway, I'll get a real hands-on review on this one
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for you guys, so stay tuned for that. But two years ago, this was like a $500 bike, and $550
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and I'm like, hey, you know, this is kind of overpriced. And now for $400, the same price
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as the Salvador, let's see what you get. One, it looks nice, okay? It looks very nice
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and you get different options, 20.5 or 21 inch, and you can choose right-hand drive or left-hand
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drive, and you can choose the color. I appreciate that Fly gives you the option here because some
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people would rather do left-hand drive if they grind on the right side and some people would
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rather do right-hand drive you know like it's nice to be able to change that on a complete bike and
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you cannot do that on any other complete bike except like the high-end Sundays and the high-end
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with the peoples those are the only other options so this for a $400 bike that gives you the ability
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to choose right-hand drive left-hand drive it's incredible very incredible okay but what makes
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this bike worth $400? Well, it only has a chromoly down tube. Everything else is high tensile steel
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And so where the Salvador had a chromoly front triangle and then a high tensile steel back end
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the Fly Electron only has a chromoly down tube, which is cool because primarily if you have issues
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with high tensile steel, it's going to be this head tube crinkling. And so I've had this happen
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a number of times, but I nose case something and then the high tensile steel frame just
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twists in like that. And with the Chromali down tube, that's going to stop that from happening
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It's not a huge selling point, but I understand the sentiment. I understand why they did that
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I get why they put it there. The forks are Chromali and it's a one piece steer tube
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with high tensile steel legs. So very similar to the Salvador. Okay, the bars are high tensile steel
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This bike only weighs 24.9 pounds and it's a loose ball front hub
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So that's what I was talking about there on the Salvador again
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is that like most bikes with this level of quality are gonna be a loose ball front hub
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and that's exactly what the Electron is. So I wouldn't recommend the Electron
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over the Salvador right now because the Salvador is the exact same price
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When the Salvador is its $500 MSRP, that's a little bit different, okay
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But when the Electron is the same price as the Salvador, the Salvador is gonna be a much better option
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But the Electron is a solid bike that scores in the threes or so, okay
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For quality, it scores in the threes. But if we step it up
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I'm trying to decide which one to do next for number three. I think we're gonna do another fly for number three
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This bike is $80 more than the Electron, but it is much, much better
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It's $479. Bike number three is going to be the Fly Proton
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You, again, can choose right-hand drive or left-hand drive in between the colors
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and you can decide if you want it brakeless or you want to have brakes
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Just get the brakes. Get it with brakes, and then if you don't put them on, that's cool
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Okay, but if you... Anyway, get them with the brakes so you have that option
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They look nice. And one thing that's cool is they have a Proton Street
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and they just have a street-specific version. This bike has pegs and hub guards
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And for a bike under $500 to come with four pegs and four hub guards is actually crazy
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That's actually crazy. I can't think of any that come with pegs and hub guards
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especially around this price point. You get like the Kink Williams for $1,000
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comes with pegs and hub guards I think the Street Sweeper for comes with pegs and hub guards but that way more than this bike Anyway it looks beautiful It only available in the 21
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inch top tube, and that could be a bummer for the smaller riders who want a cool bike with pegs and
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hub guards. That's a bummer, okay? But 21 inch is good for me, so like we're chilling
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Quality wise, we've got a full Chromali frame. We've also got a full Chromali forks with a one
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piece steer tube and full chromoly bars. So already, like this is silly, okay? This is
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absolutely silly that the Electron is $400 and it's only got a chromoly down tube and a chromoly
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steer tube. That's really it. For 80 more dollars, you get this much better bike, pegs, hub guards
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you get full chromoly frame, full chromoly forks, full chromoly bars. It's like, yo, this is crazy
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This is a crazy step up. Everything's obviously fully sealed. Okay. And it weighs 24.6 pounds
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right under 25 pounds. This is one of the best values that you can get. And I've definitely
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slept on fly bikes in the past. I've ignored how good fly bikes are. And yeah, I've ignored it. And
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I've got a list on my list is to hit the fly bike 2023 reviews. They've been making crazy changes
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and crazy moves. And I definitely appreciate that because I think they're making moves to get more
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people into the sport at a better price point. And that's exactly what I want to do. So this is
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awesome. Now it's important to note here, these cranks, I think I saw Samuel say that it seems
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like 48 spline. That's what I thought too, but they're not, they're like 16 or something. They're
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better than eight spline for sure, but they're not 48 spline, but they do have that 48 spline
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design. I know I thought the same thing, but that is not the case. Treble three piece. So anyway
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they're like 16 or something. They're better than eight, but they're not quite 48 spline
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Anyway, that's the Proton. But next on the list, number two gets even better
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but the price goes up a little bit. We got Haro. This is the first time Haro's made it on a list
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where I wasn't talking bad about bikes. So everyone say like, congrats to Haro. Somebody
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brought this bike to my attention in a live stream actually. They said, hey, what do you think about
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the Midway? And I'm like, Haro is a scam. And then I looked at it and I was like, actually, this is a
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good deal. This is a solid bike, good price. I was hyped on it. And now it's $100 cheaper. So we saw
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the Salvador, $100 cheaper. We saw the Electron for $399. Now the Midway is on sale for $399
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and this bike is, I'd say, close to Proton quality without the pegs and hub guards for
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80 bucks cheaper, so that's crazy. Anyway, the Haro Midway, this is the 2021. It's got a full
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chromoly frame, full chromoly forks, full chromoly bars, nine-inch rise bars. It's got double wall
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rims. It's a solid bike. Now, the thing here you're not going to see is close attention to detail
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that you would see on the Proton. So for example, just look how clean this Proton looks
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Nice, clean, attention to detail. It's got really nice parts. The Haro, I'm not talking bad about it
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but the attention to detail is definitely gonna be different on a Haro
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and on a Mongoose because these bikes are like more mass produced
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And so they just don't have the same level of attention to detail. As a base quality bike
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getting this full Krimali frame forks and bars is super important, especially for 400 bucks
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because then you can make upgrades. And upgrading your pedals, upgrading your bars
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upgrading your stim, upgrading your wheels, like that's a lot cheaper than upgrading your frame
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And so getting this with full Kermali, super important because you don't have to worry about upgrading
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Anyway, I'm impressed with this Haro bike. It's kind of heavy. It doesn't have the weight listed here right now
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but I think if I remember looking at it on Haro's site, it was about 28 pounds And so this bike is significantly heavier than the other ones But as a full Kermale bike this bike going to be solid weight limit of you know 180 pounds maybe even more because it solid okay
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full chromoly everything this is great for this price is actually insane because for 500 like
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that's a good price you can't find very many bikes with this level of quality for 500 you definitely
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can't find it for $400, okay? Definitely can't. Definitely can't. But now number one. We're going
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to do this bike as number one because I don't talk about them very often. But the Colt Control
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is a bike that I have definitely slept on. I've always overlooked it and said, hey, just buy the
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Colt Devotion. It's important to note though, the Colt Control is a 20.75 inch top tube, which makes
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it better for riders between five foot nine and six foot, where the 21 inch top tube is really
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only good for those people over six foot. And I think the control fits a wider range of riders
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I think the 20.75 inch top tube is going to fit more riders. And I like that. I appreciate that
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aspect because it's like most high-end bikes are going to be 21 inch top tube. And if that's not
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the right size for you, buying a bike is really frustrating. And I totally get that. Okay. Anyway
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we got full chromoly frame. Full chromoly, oh, chromoly steer tube on the forks. That's different
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That is different. So that suggests that the legs are high tensile steel. Colt and Fit are very
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misleading about their bikes, but this is, this is, this is interesting. This is not good. Anyway
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the bars though are full chromoly and it's got a double wall rim in the back and a single wall
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rim in the front. So that was one thing I stress. If you guys can afford double wall rims front and
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back. Go for it. Okay. But if you cannot, having a single wall rim in the front is going to be just
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fine because the impact when you're doing tricks, it doesn't apply to the front wheel very much
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If you nose case something, if you do, you know, if you do something crazy and hit the front wheel
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obviously it's going to take that impact. But when you're riding majority of the time
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this back end is going to take the beating. You learn 360s, you learn 180s, this back end goes
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and the wheel gets dinged, you break your wheel. So it's important to have a double wall rim on the back
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Single wall rim on the front or double wall rim on the front is cool, but I wouldn't say it's a super high priority thing
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So for 500, you can get this full Cromali Colt Control. It's a good bike
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And I'm gonna rank it as number one because this isn't based off of sale price
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But if we talk about what we're seeing right here, what I would recommend
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the best bike on this list would be the Haro Midway because it's only $400 and you've got full chromoly
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you've got double wall rims, you've got all of that. So the Midway is a step up in quality from the Colt Control
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and it's $100 cheaper. Aside from that, the Proton would be the next best thing
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because it's also full chromoly. It's $80 more than the Control, or $80 more than the Midway at the sale price
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but it comes with pegs, it comes with hub guards, and it's a beautiful looking bike
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And that would be the next best one, okay? So anyway, those are the top five bikes
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right now that you can get for under $500. All of these bikes score at least a three in quality
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score. Some of them score closer to a five, 5.6. And just to give you some context, the Kink Whip
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scores like a 7.2. And unfortunately the Kink Whip is not on the list this year because the Kink Whip
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is over $500. And some of these bikes, like I would honestly say to go with the Proton over the Kink
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Whip this year. That is interesting. In the Kink Whip review, I was saying, Hey, I don't know. I
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I don't know what the best value is gonna be, but I think it's gonna be the Proton right now
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And it's sad, but hey, you know, no kinks are on this list
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The kink gap wasn't even good enough to make it on this list. Very unfortunate kink, very disappointing
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But anyway, that's the top five bikes under $500. Let me know in the comments
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if you guys agree or disagree with that list
