Cannot Choose

It all depends on what you want to do and where you want to ride.

Personally, I'd take the Mongoose mountain bike as I ride a lot of off-road as well as on-road, and with the suspension and the tyres I've got the best of both worlds.

I'd take a mountain bike over a BMX any day. With gears, shocks and a decent size, they're much more superior in my opinion. If you're planning on taking it down to the skate park though, I'd probably go with the BMX.

bsthebenster said:

I'd take a mountain bike over a BMX any day. With gears, shocks and a decent size, they're much more superior in my opinion. If you're planning on taking it down to the skate park though, I'd probably go with the BMX.

Exactly!

With a mountain bike you've got a lot more usability on it, and if you so wanted you could even take it to the skate park and show off your moves. Although, building ramps from the dirt on some wasteland would be a better option.

I would say get the mountain bike too.
Not only does it have more uses, these cycles have always appealed to me aesthetically.
I own the matte green mongoose status, and I love it. It's just sized but since I'm shirt, no one notices.
Also these bikes are well built. I hit it with my car before. It survived.

Seems like a contradiction.

You mentioned wanted to get "back into cycling" but then you mentioned a crappy department store mountain bike that's not much good for anything, or a BMX bike, which is cool if you want to hit a vert ramp, but is not something I associate in any way with "cycling"

I'd get the BMX bike and hit the local BMX track or skate park, because that's at least cool. You can't do anything cool on a Mongoose.

ABNPFDR said:

Seems like a contradiction.

You mentioned wanted to get "back into cycling" but then you mentioned a crappy department store mountain bike that's not much good for anything, or a BMX bike, which is cool if you want to hit a vert ramp, but is not something I associate in any way with "cycling"

I'd get the BMX bike and hit the local BMX track or skate park, because that's at least cool. You can't do anything cool on a Mongoose.

Nonsense! You could go on an adventure with a mongoose, discover new trails and learn more about the area! That's pretty cool in my books.