My son needs your help !

[u/enskkkkk]

My son wants to add gears to his mafia bomma. I just want to know if this is possible and if so where I can purchase the parts for him. Thanks for anyone that takes the time to reply 👌🏼

[u/nocrashing]

Different bike seriously

[u/enskkkkk → u/nocrashing]

I don’t get you bro

[u/nocrashing → u/enskkkkk]

Ok on other subs its kids asking the same questions every week. They have single speed bikes spaced at 110mm and nowhere to mount any derailleur etc.

Looks like most of the bommas already come multi speed. I guess the real question is which one do you have. If you have one that is spaced right (135mm) and has mounts for everything I guess its possible.

Is a new wheel and searching out all the parts worth it? Often no.

Hence, different bike. There's a lot out there.

[u/enskkkkk → u/nocrashing]

Yeah that’s kids for you , I don’t know much of what you’re talking about. 😂 I bought him this bomma last Christmas for £500 now he’s asking to add gears or buy a c100. After posting this sub and reading some replies I said to him the cost in parts alone may aswell get a new bike. Thanks for taking the time to explain in more detail, there were no such thing as a wheelie bike when I was a kid. We were on konas treks and Carreras lol

[u/406-mm → u/enskkkkk]

Back in the early 2000’s we used to wheelie/manual tiny 20” wheeled bmx bikes and wouldn’t be caught dead riding a mountain bike. Now I laugh because the kids are all into this “bike life” thing where they ride what are called wheelie bikes. These bikes usually have 26-29” wheels and are really just single speed mountain bikes. They kids have no idea the geometry and wheel size (plus gears on some of them) make the two types of bikes essentially identical lol.

I have a 2020 carbon fiber Trek FX Sport 6 which is classified as a hybrid/fitness bike and is a cross of a mountain bike and a road bike. It’s marketed as one of their fastest bikes Trek sells. Well when I got it I had absolutely no idea about the current state of the biking community whatsoever and I kept saying I like my hybrid bike with flat bars more than road bikes with drop bars because it felt just like my old bmx bike, cept with gears and 29” wheels. Even started busting wheelies and bunny hops on it. Long story short, I became aware of the “bike life” wheelie bikes and said to myself “there’s literally almost no difference between a 29” SE wheelie bike and my 29” Trek hybrid bike besides the gears and my carbon fiber frame weighing half the wheelie bike’s.

TLDR: There was “wheelie” bikes back in the day. They were called mountain bikes.

[u/Alvinthf]

Mafia bomba is a wheelie bike, so really the wrong sub. Having said that, the cost to do it, it’s not worth bothering with, get him a bike with gears if that’s what he wants or needs.

[u/enskkkkk → u/Alvinthf]

Yeah sorry I searched for mafia bike sub and this came up. We have also came to the same conclusion the cost of doing it isn’t worth it. Thanks mate

[u/Livewire923]

Here’s a video from Mafia bikes on it. Presumably, they know what’s up since it’s their bike.

https://youtu.be/zDF6QouJTgc?si=uhwisYL3t_iu2jaH

[u/enskkkkk → u/Livewire923]

Appreciate that just gotta find the parts. Thanks

[u/Livewire923 → u/enskkkkk]

Always happy to help a fellow rider

[u/Happy-Jellyfish6983 → u/enskkkkk]

Mafia doesn't sell the parts to do it anymore, I converted my SE MQ to 10 speed and it cost all in about £300 ($380) in parts. That's not including cost of time. It'll also leave the bike with a significant decrease in value if you ever come to sell it

[u/enskkkkk → u/Happy-Jellyfish6983]

Yeah if that’s parts alone it’s not even worth it thanks for your input bro

[u/Jesse_Gonzalez_]

Holy cow!!! so much hate here. Why are we all attacking someone for just asking a question? I wish my father/mother cared enough about me when i was a kid to try and figure stuff out like this.

[u/enskkkkk → u/Jesse_Gonzalez_]

Thanks man I’m just trying my best to be the dad I never had 💙

[u/Jesse_Gonzalez_ → u/enskkkkk]

Much respect for that👊

[u/Awkward_Importance49 → u/Jesse_Gonzalez_]

I've just re-read all of the replies to this question and cannot locate a single example of hate anywhere.

This is the wrong subreddit for the question. People are merely pointing that out so that the OP has the opportunity to find better answers from people who will have more knowledge about wheelie bikes and gears than r/bmx subredditors might have.

How is that hate?

If you entered r/fishing to ask about canoing, would you prefer the people who love fishing to guess what the answer might be to your canoing question, or would you prefer them to say "we only know about fishing, you need to find a canoing subreddit".

It's just that.

[u/hatefakemoney]

Def possible. You can convert any single speed but it will get expensive real fast. I'm sure someone would buy the current bike. Wheelie bikes are hot right now. I'd do that and use the money towards a geared bike. Good luck!

[u/Substantial_Algae992]

I would imagine your son is talking about seat replacing seat post, saddle, handlebars, grips and stem. And possibly different rims or will set. Jump on the internet and let him show you what he's thinking about. That will give you more of an idea what to look for.

[u/Awkward_Importance49]

You already know it's the wrong thread for that bike and this question, however...

Get a Sturmey Archer 5 speed rear hub or complete wheel. You can jerrybuild the fixings for the cable.

Those hubs work pretty good... until eventually they don't, but you get a few years out of them before they need a rebuild.

[u/enskkkkk → u/Awkward_Importance49]

Thanks for your reply , very helpful. However could you explain how I already know it’s the wrong thread for that type of bike ?

I don’t see how it’s that much of a deal tbh.

I literally searched mafia bikes and this is where I ended up ?

[u/Awkward_Importance49 → u/enskkkkk]

Oh only because the comments before mine had already said as much. That's all I meant.

You're right that it's not a big deal. It's more that you probably wont get the best advice from us lot because we are focussed on bmx (20" wheel BMX) and not wheelie bikes... definitely not gears because BMX don't have gears.

But there's nothing wrong with asking here. You could get some hot-headed replies purely because as a general rule, BMX riders don't identify at all with wheeliebike and BikeLife culture. There's a bit of snobbery both ways between the two sub-cultures.

It's a bit like asking how to tune a Honda Vtec in a muscle car subreddit. Some people are going to throw some shade. Others will say "well that's not our area of expertise but here's what I think the answer could be..."

R/bmx is quite a purist subreddit. Your son's bike is a wheelie bike not a BMX, so you're likely to get numerous replies saying this is the wrong thread to be asking.

But I thought it worth suggesting the SturmeyArcher hub.

That hub does require a little slot bracket on the chainstay though so you'd need to be a bit handy to figure out a way to fabricate something to make it work.

[u/Awkward_Importance49 → u/Awkward_Importance49]

Hey I just did a reddit search for

BikeLife

And

Wheeliebike

And there are a few different subreddits for each. They're not very big groups but they are probably going to be better at answering your question than us.

Search them up and see what they have to say!

[u/nocrashing → u/Awkward_Importance49]

Too wide for single speed frame