This got a quite good response on Facebook, so here it is for those who'd like to see it. I've taken the text from there to save writing it all out again.
About four years ago, I snagged a bargain on eBay. £20-ish and some postage got me an uncommon Haro Basher (I think it's mentioned on here, but I can't find my original post), made in about '96-7. Some I've seen have an 8-Ball disk, this one's is Fusion.
After years in a shed, the rust fairy had been and sprinkled her brown dust liberally over the chrome. Here, the parts are in a paddling pool soaking in water and Oxalic Acid.
There's no getting rid of some if the pitting on the chrome (which wasn't exactly great in parts to start with), but the rust itself is all gone.
The plastic bashguard itself is attached with two allen bolts, one of which snapped when trying to remove it. I had to drill out the threaded part and re-tap the hole with a replacement bolt. That was a fun couple of evenings.
So I started building in earnest over a couple of weekends. We old fogeys believe in brakes, even front ones!
That's a Standard 990 plate with a Dia Compe FS990, the brake blocks stop it pretty well to say they must be 15 years old.
The original crank arms were one-piece. In the mid-2000s I bought some 3-piece ones and thought I'd lost them. When I cleared the shed to move house, there they were. The tyres are original Haro Multisurface, with plenty of tread on them.
That thing on the seatclamp is a home-made adjuster arm (ie a twisted strip of metal with holes) for the centrepull I was going to put on there. It was a tad heavy so there was a bit of a rethink.
No chain yet, that's why the wheel's so far back in the dropout.
Dia Compe Big Dog brake on the rear, and though they appear on eBay occasionally, you don't see many with the original adjuster on them. Works pretty well after a bit of strip-n-lube. Never rated it at first, which is why it stayed in a jiffy bag for a dozen years or more.
More shed treasure. No idea where this Profile Chainwheel came from or when, but it was lighter than the steel one that came with the bike. This is more of a 'how I'd have ridden it in the 90s' bike than a show pony, so it's fair game.
Must cut those crank bolts down at some point, too.
Almost done. The rear cables are chrome, which makes me want a front one the same. The bars are GT 4-Piece, not original to the bike but the kind I used to have and remember liking. These aren't identical (broader tubing), but close enough. Another eBay bargain from about 5 years ago which have been in a crate in the shed at my Mum's for almost as long.
The brake levers have been on a few bikes now, bought in the 90s because I remembered Dave Slade (namedrop namedrop) used them and I liked how they looked. They work OK, but they'll never match Tech-77s. That locking button can get annoying, my fingers somehow home in on it.
My second pair, the first were nicked along with the rest of the mountainbike they were on in about '94. These must've been replacements, I don't really remember. More shed treasure, really.
So this is a bit before the previous pic, but shows the bike off quite well. The seat's not really the right era, but it's not a great big problem to me. It could be swapped over if something more in keeping and lighter came along.
Still no pedals.
The ones I have are Peregrine ones, which only fit a 1-piece crank. So, I'll have to take them apart to measure the length of the axle before trawling eBay for some cheap replacements. As I only want the innards, the shells can be knackered, so that should be a cheap fix.
Parting shot, looking forward to taking it out for a spin. Once it's done, I'll at long, long last be able to line it up with the other three. One for every decade I've ridden in, from the 80s to now.
Hope you enjoyed the ride!
