#1 – Cheap Puncture Repair Kits.

I’ll start off with this one, because why not?… If you haven’t had one given as a present then you’re probably not gonna get it to be honest. You know those £1 or less shops that sell pretty much EVERYTHING you could imagine, but it’s all really crap quality? Well these types of puncture repair kits are a BMXers worst nightmare.

Picture yourself with a flat tyre down the local, you suddenly remember that your mom bought you one of those naff £1 jobbies and it’s back at home. You race home to repair said puncture, spend ages patching the hole… Only to find that when you pump it up, the glue hasn’t stuck and the patch is worthless. Back to square one! Or possibly a new tube is needed instead… Thanks mom.

#3 – OOPS! Wrong Tyre.

Ok… So next up we have a knobbly tyre. Notice anything about it right away? Yep… You guessed it! It’s not a BMX tyre. I’ve actually had this happen to me before, I mean it was a lovely sentiment. Don’t get me wrong, but surely you’d ask for a BMX tyre or what kind of bike it fits before you buy it. D’oh!

#4 – Hexagon Tool Thingy.

I’ll be very, very surprised if you haven’t had one of these badboys given to you before. It is quite possibly the most useless tool I’ve ever come across… Well the cheap hexagon tools which are made out of aluminium (or cheese) were. I think the steel ones were actually fairly decent.

Christ, one turn of a bolt on your bike and this thing would bend like one of Uri Gellar’s spoons. Seriously, don’t even bother. You’re better off just throwing it in the bin (not to sound disrespectful or anything mom!)

#5 – Cheap Allen Keys.

Speaking of tools bending… You know those really cheap Allen Keys that bend a full 90 degrees and sometimes even snap on you when you put a bit too much force on em? How about rounding issues? These could totally screw up the bolts on your stem/cranks/seatpost so I’d also suggest to stay the hell away from cheap tools!