Mirage By John Bentley

After suffering a major injury, breaking my right arm in 2025 battling for the National title, I had to spend a year off the bike having surgeries etc. I was, and still am, worried that it will be the end of my racing days. I want to remain involved with BMX. I love the sport and have always thought about starting a brand. I am naturally a problem solver in life and have always been able to offer ideas to create solutions to certain situations, whether that be with human lives at stake when I spent 12 years with the Ambulance Service or offering solutions within the building trade. It’s a sought after skill.

I spoke to Alan Woods about using his brand name Mirage he had in the 80’s and he agreed to let me use it. He has said he may continue to do some old school products with the name, but he is happy for me to use it for modern products too. I see solutions everywhere, brands using idlers on BMX bikes creating unnecessary ‘drag’, so I have invented a system for the Supercross bikes to ‘ditch the Idler’ with my new SuperChips for the Vision F1 range and the RSX alloy frames. These are awesome and will actually take every brand of hub, unlike the SX version that I have seemingly panicked them into making. The SX bikes are awesome, I love the geometry, the feel, the weight, but I don’t want to be dragged back by an idler. I’m gonna be giving some feedback to Meybo about theirs too, as I have an idea for them that could make their idlers much more efficient. My SuperChips will be available any day now as they are being shipped over to me.

I love Titanium. I was stoked to hear certain brands are making Ti bars. Why we spend thousands making our bikes super stiff and then flexing on the gate through the bars is crazy thinking, but the price?? What?? We can do better than that, not sure what they are in the USA but £400 in the UK is nuts. Titanium is cool, it’s sexy, it’s the next big thing. Carbon is so last decade and who really trusts carbon handlebars? I have produced two titanium bars, 8” and 6”, and kept both super wide to be cut to your specifications so both junior riders and cruiser riders can use the 6” rise. I like to call them ‘as flat as you dare’ with a 1.5 degree upsweep and a 2 degree backsweep, anymore and you will feel inverted on the gate. They are very lightweight, but the selling point is the rigidity. You can feel the efficiency down the hill, the 2nd, 3rd, 4th pedal come in fast and strong. It’s the future. We are offering them at a much more affordable price, although still expensive as it’s titanium. I want to make more Ti products. I’m looking at cranks and maybe even a frame at some point. I’m getting sick of looking at the generic Temu/Ali Baba Carbon frames online.

We also have the lightweight BMX Specific inner tubes. Available for kids skinnies (451mm), standard 20” and also 24” cruiser, all available with a super long valve for use with carbon rims. The science is there for the TPU tubes, rolling weight can account for 10x saving per wheel, so effectively if you go fast enough a 100g saving turns into 1kg per wheel. I can absolutely feel it instantly. The difference between mine and others is they are based on road cycling. They are super light but maybe too light. A rim brake generates heat and burns through the tubes. Also, they are made at 0.1 of a mm and pinch very easily to puncture. The weight saving is pointless if they can’t finish a lap. Mine are made 0.3mm to withstand the rigours of BMX racing and although a few grams heavier, you are still saving over 100g on a standard tube. Don’t ignore the science here.

I also have your general t-shirts, stickers with the brand name on, golf umbrellas on the way lol, but I am always looking for innovative ideas to make BMX racing more efficient and faster to the first jump. Maybe one day we can get rid of the 8M hills and just rely on our bikes and leg power to get us over huge pro sections, but that’s a whole different debate ha ha.

I have opened a Shopify business online which will be showcasing the products at miragecycling.com, but the products are also available on AlansBMX.com and we are currently discussing options to sell to other UK retailers at trade prices.