83 HARO Build Diary & Voyage of Discovery.FINISHED (((FOR NOW AT LEAST)))

[Funkyworm]

In the short time I’ve been back in to Bmx I’ve discovered a few things, the first is that  getting back in to the whole BMX thing was a complete accident. It happened as i managed to track down a Rickman Freestyler pre Christmas & having never even built up a bike before I decided to attempt to build what was my something similar to my childhood bike from scratch & here I am 6 months down the line with 8 bikes !

If i’m honest I when i was a kid I really wanted an Original Haro Freestyler (type 1 or 2 ) I mean who didnt really? i t was Iconic right? I just loved the whole invention of BMX Freestyle & the look of the bike, but a Haro? Na they were way out my parents price bracket & I’d never get one right ??.....................................Until Now  




30 years later & only a few weeks back I kept seeing a this Gen 2 on the bay, I ignored it moved on bought some more stuff & didn’t really think much of it apart from the fact it was silly money & it had been on there for weeks. Anyway it kept appearing & one day i decided to just contact the guy & before you know it i was in the car driving to London & cutting a deal saving me over 1/3 of the asking price !!!! Having said that the final price was still way more than I ever envisaged paying for some chromoly tubing & welds.







The chrome is good, way too good to re - chrome although it's wearing slightly thin on one of the twin top tubes. The decals were pretty poor so after some long hard thought & some soul searching I finally decided that the best thing for the bike would be to strip the decals give the Frame a really good going over with the autosol in an attempt to really get it to look as good as i could.









Then I added & the new decals from Frog BMX they took (3 bloody weeks to arrive).







Im now at the interesting part :

 My second discovery since getting back involved in BMX is that generally prefer to build Frame Sets as opposed to building up a frames that originally came as part of a complete bike.

 The reason for this i think is that with a frame set you seem to get more of an (artistic license) with the build & you can put more of your own interpretation & personality in to it, whereby with a latter theres always a pressure I guess to build up a replica model & any deviation from the original spec tends to attract from some quarters the occasional back handed comments similar to " Amazing build but personally i would"... Blah blah blah....Bollox.

However since i started on the Haro I've found it a really difficult build, obviously as its an early bike & as sutch the parts list is more limited in terms or (era correctness). To be honest Ive never been a stickler for this quite anal approach but I do want to do the bike justice by at least still sticking to the original colour pallet on the decals . The last thing i wanted to build was yet (ANOTHER BOB HARO REPLICA) which has almost become a (Model) in itself but it's not one I've ever really liked the look of & I'm pretty bored of seeing them.  I know that Lee is planning one of these builds too & I totally respect the time effort & perseverance it will take to build that Iconic bike but it's just not for me.

Ive accrued some parts & really wanted to do something a little different & really enjoy the build rather than it be a labour of parts hunting. I have gone for the Vector Haro replica bars (as they just look right with the bike )  no one can say (Pull ya bars back with them) & I'm finding myself heading more towards a Mike Dominguez style ride at present .....

Time will tell, I have some white alloy hub Tuffs at the Aqua Blasters  so Ill be interested to see how these come out & I'll go from there but I'll update as I go along, I think I'll be sending some mx 1000's to the finishers for anodising in a dark blue or maybe even a custom green finish for a bit of a twist & I'll see where we go from there.  

Have just secured a Nos Suntour Seat Clamp to match the headlock & Chain wheel to the blue anno parts will match, just need to decide which way I go on the brakes & it's starting to take shape.

 

[fischflo]

Wow, that looks like seconds before the big bang  I wouldn't have the guts to peel off old decals, but the new ones seem to look alright 

[bodamus]

Looking good but if you want to keep it as era correct as possible you can't use Sugino CT Cranks and Tech 4 levers.

Maybe a set of Redline Flights or even a 1 piece crank set up?

Good luck with the build though it will still look great whatever parts you end up using

[Devilock]

Surprised you removed the decals, they looked ok...

If you've paid a fair bit for it then dont scrimp on the parts...take your time.

[Funkyworm]

Looking good but if you want to keep it as era correct as possible you can't use Sugino CT Cranks and Tech 4 levers.

Hmmm not sure that's 100% correct mate,

Here's how i see it !

  I don't know when the CT 175 came out but they were stock on the 84 Haro Master & as my frame is a December 83 production it would have been in the shops & sold in 84 so that crank would have been in the shops ! Also my tech 4's & 901's currently in the picture are stamped 1984 so If i used them they really are completely era correct.

It's just that as most of the imigary from the time features pictures of Bob Haro & his bike which was a (Gen1 1982) with MX 1000's so since then most people have put MX 1000's & Flight cranks on their Freestyler builds based off of this

http://www.harobmxcollector.com/gallery/bikes/our-collection/

[Funkyworm]

Surprised you removed the decals, they looked ok...

If you've paid a fair bit for it then dont scrimp on the parts...take your time.

Needed to mate, i wanted to bring up the frame as good as i could & the print was coming off of the decals where it had been cleaned over the years, I'm all for a survivor but I wanted this to look clean. The new decals are mint, cant tell the difference from the originals & the frame set looks transformed now its polished & has it's new colours. 

[bodamus]

Just an opinion mate your build it's up to you use what ever parts you fancy

I think Sugino CT's are more towards the later part of 84 so are Tech 4's.

[Funkyworm]

Just an opinion mate your build it's up to you use what ever parts you fancy

Ah totally, like i say I'm not too anal about era correctness I just like to build good looking bikes, besides back in the day we were always updating parts as they came out so this works for me just fine . I remember we were all getting rid of our MX 1000's & 900's in 84 when the 901 came out & then getting 880's in 85 for the front end.

 I have mx 1000's to potentially anno in blue if i decide to use them I"ll have to do this as no one ever seems to want to sell these & I'm tired of advertising in the Wanted section so anodising Is the only option to potentially go down.

Got to admit I love the Ct's but it's work in progress & nothings confirmed up as yet !

[AKGOFF]

I would have cleaned it and replaced the decals too. 
Looks nice.

Adam

[deeman]

Cool frameset,look forward to this!Keep us posted on the aqua blasting,i will be real interested to see how they come out

[TORKER mick]

very nice mate  build it your way and think outside the box like i did  it will be great to see something diferent

[Darren KAP]

     there's no rules on building bikes as long as your happy with it thats all that matters   

   looking forward to seeing it finished 

[dordymush]

how very dare you ian you bloody novice of bike building ya  .

[Funkyworm]

Cool frameset,look forward to this!Keep us posted on the aqua blasting,i will be real interested to see how they come out

I will do, the guys said he had another set of white ones in last week that came up differently to mine, first time around he reckoned mine looked yellowish in parts once done & was going to give them another go, I guess the thing to remember with white is that they will all come up differently depending on how they have been stored  how dirty they are & how much UV they have been exposed to. I doubt they will come up brand new but im not expecting them to so if i'm not happy with them I'll dye em.

He'll have soda blasting in a few months so this might also be an option as it's not abrasive & works apparently because of a chemical reaction that takes place on impact to causing the cleaning .

[griff]

lookforward to seeing it built - I would love one of these myself

[Funkyworm]

     there's no rules on building bikes as long as your happy with it thats all that matters   

   looking forward to seeing it finished 

Couldn't have put it better myself ! Nice one 

[HARODAVE]

 

Awesome thread and great story......  always loved a Gen 1 Freestyler

build it your way , its  your bike , its lookin good already , i can see you will keep it real looking ,we all updated parts as we went along b.i.t.d . no reason why yours shouldnt reflect this ....

STUNNING BIKE !!! 

 

Dave

[Spen69]

Do it your way Callum as we used to update our parts every time we had the money

Like the sound of anno green calipers- now that would be different

[Funkyworm]

Do it your way Callum as we used to update our parts every time we had the money

Like the sound of anno green calipers- now that would be different

This was the kind of thing i've had in mind for a while now for this bike  after seeing these Formos MX1000 copies, but having looked around I see that someone has actually already done this & on the same bloody bike as well       (((((((I don't know, i was trying to be original as well )))))))!!! GUTTED....

[ozone]

Do it your way Callum as we used to update our parts every time we had the money

Like the sound of anno green calipers- now that would be different

This was the kind of thing i've had in mind for a while now for this bike  after seeing these Formos MX1000 copies, but having looked around I see that someone has actually already done this & on the same bake as well       (((((((I don't know, i was trying to be original as well )))))))!!! GUTTED....

Use proper DC brakes and show the other guy how it should be done.  Snide DCs on a Gen One is just wrong IMO anyway.

Looking forward to seeing this finished.   

[Spen69]

Yep, do it right Callum it will look great

Use white Tuff pads ffs though

[GavinDavis]

Build it however you like.......and enjoy it 

Its a beautiful frame set and I think you were right to peel the decals, I know that I wouldnt be conpletely happy with worn ones either....even if they were original

[john4130]

i love the look of the green mx1000, wonder why they never did them bitd?

[brakedancer]

ive got a feeling this is going to be a great build......

[Funkyworm]

i love the look of the green mx1000, wonder why they never did them bitd?

Not sure mate,

I'm definitely going to look at getting some made up problem is most places wont do tech 3's without removing the pins as I think they are steel it ruins the process apparently CCA in Barnoldswick seemed to have managed this just fine if you look at dancetothedrummersbeat's adidas build.

Problem is with CCA is they are fooooking annoying as they keep ducking in & our of doing BMX parts depending on how busy they are, people seem to be getting bits done there & every time I call they wont do my parts saying that they have too much on.
Anyway Ive found someone else but i'm just checking a few details on which parts are steel on levers as I don't want to have to remove the pins just the QR levers on the callipers should hopefully have to come off.

Imagine if Dan did that