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REVIEW: Fingers Crossed BMX – Fully Complete

Words: Ben Pearson
Photos: Robin Pearson

It’s your first run at these trails, and you don’t want to kook too hard in front of the locals. A couple of years have passed since getting heckled by @PJturns when you just about scraped through one of his more challenging lines, but you can do this. You roll round a gentle right-hand berm and cruise over the first mellow double. The bike you’ve borrowed from a familiar face feels a bit weird, but so far so good.

Next up is a downhill entry into a tight left hander, which you remember is followed by two steeper tables that the other riders looked awesome on just a minute ago. The speed is increasing alarmingly, so you go for the brakes to make sure you don’t blow the corner. A slight misjudgement and the front wheel locks momentarily on the dusty, slightly bumpy hardpack. You’re already imagining flying out of the top of the berm. Somehow the bike finds grip, digs into the corner, and you are into the takeoff. You pull up and the bike responds with an unexpected agility, feeling immediately responsive and flickable just like a ‘normal’ BMX. Still, that compromised corner means you will case the landing horribly.

“Somehow the bike finds grip, digs into the corner, and you are into the takeoff. You pull up and the bike responds with an unexpected agility, feeling immediately responsive and flickable just like a ‘normal’ BMX…”

Mysteriously you don’t case, but still there is no way you can get over the next jump clean after riding so scrappily. You pump through the bombhole and the takeoff hard, to give half a chance of not chainringing the next landing. However, you shouldn’t have worried. The bike flies off the lip, and the recalibrations happening in your head start to multiply. You’re going to overshoot, massively. The big tyres sail past the top of the landing, and you brace for the impact that will probably throw you off and directly into the nearest tree. It never comes. The landing is cushioned, almost gentle, and your wrists and ankles live to fight another day. Pulling out of the line (taking it a bit easier on the brakes this time) one thing becomes clear; this bike is totally on your side. Back to the top for the next run…

What we have here is a first impressions review of the Fingers Crossed full suspension BMX. Alongside BMX I ride (and occasionally race) downhill and enduro bikes, so was keen to see if Fingers Crossed could take some of the positive aspects from MTB and combine them with the elements of BMX that we know and love. If Ruben Alcantara handed you a Penny Farthing and told you it was the next best thing in BMX you’d probably be inclined to agree, but we’ll try to keep it as objective as possible.

Appearance-wise, thankfully this is no shrunken mountain bike. Obviously you notice the bigger tyres and the suspension, but it’s only when you put it next to a normal BMX that the extra length and slightly slacker angles become apparent. Those tyres actually give an effective wheel size that’s a bit larger than normal too, but they fit well with the overall look of the bike. The three prototypes are also very well finished; clean welds, a couple of interesting detail touches, and a considered setup demonstrating the development work that has clearly been put in so far. That effort shows in the way they ride as well. Each prototype has a slightly different tyre and suspension setup, but none of them feel rough, harsh, or uncontrolled in any way. These feel like the finished article.

“Each prototype has a slightly different tyre and suspension setup, but none of them feel rough, harsh, or uncontrolled in any way. These feel like the finished article.”

The venue for our test ride was a trail spot just outside Malaga. The jumps were small to medium-sized, with a handful of lines running down a hill. Riding here, you really don’t have much thinking time. The speed builds and takeoffs and berms arrive very quickly, so you need to be ready and know what’s coming up. Thanks to the gradient, there’s no need to land perfectly, pump, and build speed like you would at a normal set of trails; instead you manage it with the brakes and concentrate on the next set.

When you start to link it all together, it’s a huge amount of fun. Some of the helmet cam footage that Fingers Crossed have been posting will give you an idea, but a test ride is what’s really needed to appreciate how much these bikes are capable of. Those seemingly endless dusty doubles and berms might look flowy and fun, but they’re quite different to the trails that we normally think of. I’m not saying it would be impossible to ride these trails on a ‘rigid’ BMX, but the bumps, lack of grip, and the need to control speed would make it quite a daunting task. The Fingers Crossed bikes are able to tame lines like these enough to make them manageable, but still give you those BMX trails feelings.

“The helmet cam footage that Fingers Crossed have been posting will give you an idea, but a test ride is what’s really needed to appreciate how much these bikes are capable of”

What does it feel like then? A BMX or a mountain bike? Well it certainly doesn’t have that twangy, lazy feeling you can get from big wheels at slow speeds. Although the Fingers Crossed sits slightly into the suspension travel, it’s still nimble, stiff, and robust like a normal BMX. Also there’s none of that remote feeling you sometimes get from suspension bikes in corners, especially regarding the front end. Perhaps this is thanks to the BMX geometry as well as the relatively short suspension travel and smaller wheels, but you quickly key in to where the limit of grip is in the corners (and what happens just beyond it).

Through corners and takeoffs, it’s pure BMX agility. As the suspension compresses, the bike effectively shortens and feels fast and responsive. In the air it’s much the same story, and knowing you can get away with less than perfect landings encourages you to kick the bike around. What it doesn’t do is punish you. The bigger tyres and suspension that give you all the extra grip also smooth the edges off the impacts of the trail. You still feel them but you’re able to focus on your line, rather than keeping your feet on the pedals, or your eyes in their sockets.

Finally the stopping power is much more at the MTB end of the spectrum. With the speed that these bikes can generate, it makes sense to have a decent braking setup. Hydraulic disc brakes might be surprising the first time you go for the lever (remember that front wheel will lock…) but it doesn’t take long to get used to consistent, progressive, and largely silent braking. Maybe leave the barspins at home though.

Where this bike is going to work well is on jump lines at bike parks, downhill trails like these, and even some flowy singletrack lines in the woods. It doesn’t replace a conventional BMX for street and skateparks; although I’ve no doubt you could still have a good time there. What it does is open a door to a different kind of riding; something which is still BMX, but with less harshness, more dirt, maybe even more of a motocross feel. If you’ve ever wanted to ride a BMX outside of the usual places, this might just help you do that. Ruben is stoked on how these bikes ride, and with good reason. Keep an eye on the Fingers Crossed Instagram for updates on when the finished bikes will be here. (Ed: ETA Spring 2022)

Last few runs through the pinball line, and you’re feeling pretty sharp. You know where you’re going now, and can trust the capabilities and reactions of the bike that’s centred underneath you. Ripping round corners and pinging off takeoffs; it goes right back to the heart of why we all started riding bikes in the first place. Eventually the mistakes start creeping back in though, but this time it’s nothing to do with the bike. It’s become almost totally dark, but you’ve not been able to stop going back to the top for one more run.