History of Haro BMX Bikes

Haro Designs

The company was founded in 1993 by Bob Haro.

While the company was growing, Haro was also growing the sport of freestyle BMX. He travelled around the country performing demos of radical trick riding that had not been seen anywhere before. As a result, Haro earned the title "The Father of Freestyle". During the early eighties, the company grew rapidly by expanding its product line and establishing national and international distribution. The BMX boom was in full swing and the company built a reputation for developing innovative, top-of-the-line BMX and freestyle bikes and accessories. Haro Bikes' most popular BMX/Freestyle models were the Master and the Sport.

Haro Bikes

The first Haro bikes were manufactured by Torker.[1] In 1982, when Haro introduced his own line of racing pants, his sponsorship by Torker and Max was terminated.[2]

Although injuries forced Haro to relinquish his riding duties, Haro Bikes subsequently compiled a virtual "who's who" list of talented riders including Bob Morales, Eddie Fiola, Mike Dominguez, Ron Wilkerson, Brian Blyther, Dave Nourie, Dennis McCoy, Mat Hoffman, Mike King, Pete Loncarevich and many more. These riders won nearly every title there was in both BMX and freestyle. Media attention quickly put Haro Bikes in the spotlight as an industry leader with a bicycle line focused on the high end "Master" and more moderate "Sport". In 1986, Haro's design of the "Master" was at its climax with what is typically regarded as its most beautiful form with uniquely designed Haro Group 1 components, paint over chrome frame and forks, and uniquely designed flip-up pegs. The 1986 "Master" in team issue neon green with all original components has become highly collectible. In 1987, The "Master" was made over to reduce the cost of the 1986 model.

Company's sale

In 1988, Haro sold the company to a bigger bike company and agreed to a five year consulting contract that provided continuing product innovation and a premium image for the brand. At the end of five years Haro left Haro Bikes and started a graphic design company that continues to provide leading edge design and marketing services to a wide range of customers.

In 1993, the company was again sold, this time to a group of investors headed by Haro Bikes' Vice President since 1981, Jim Ford. With its new independence, and Jim leading the company as its President, the company re-established its focus on Bob Haro's original vision and began a rebuilding process that followed a sharp decline in the BMX market dating back to 1988.

Within one year, key management positions were filled and a new dealer base was established. A new competitive BMX racing team was formed and superstar freestyle riders Dave Mirra and Ryan Nyquist were signed by Haro soon after.

Reputation re-established

Haro's new products re-established its reputation for innovation and performance. By 1999, sales had exploded and Haro Bikes was again recognized as one of the top brands of BMX and freestyle bikes.

The sport's popularity has reached new heights, thanks to greater television exposure ESPN's X-Games and NBC's Gravity Games. In fact, Haro Bikes sponsored riders have combined to win over ten medals since the X-Games started in 1996, the most of any bike company. Dave Mirra is the most decorated X-Games athlete with eight medals, six of them gold. Recently, Haro Bikes has taken major steps to establish its presence in the mountain bike market by signing former UCI World Champion Downhiller Mike King and the current UCI World Champion Cross Country racer, Michael Rasmussen of Denmark.

Dave Mirra has recently left Haro Bikes to make his own company Mirra Bike Co.

Haro Bikes currently sponsors BMX riders Ryan Nyquist, Dennis Enarson, Cory Nastazio, Marcus Tooker, Colin Mackay, and Ronnie Napolitan.

source: wikipedia

Cheap BMX Bikes For Sale

Finally wanna buy your own new BMX bike? Wanna learn all those outstanding stunts on your own? Go and check the best deals for BMX bikes on eBay. I recommend getting your BMX from eBay. There are some really good cheap BMX bikes for sale.

Yes, probably the best way to get a good new and cheap BMX is to look up something on eBay or just go to some local shops or maybe second hand bike shops.

BMX (Bicycle Motocross) is a kind of bicycles that tend to have 20 inches wheels. There are 2 kinds of BMX - BMX racing and Freestyle BMX.

I personally don't own any BMX bike, but my friend has one (a freestyle BMX) and he is damn good. The stunts that he does are just amazing. Many people say he deserves a better bike, as his bike is nothing special, it's one of those cheapest BMX.

You can also take your BMX and go into a forest to learn new stunts there. But the best place to learn stunts is probably in a city and it's good to have friends with more BMX experiences.

Best of luck with your new BMX bike!

Andrej

BMX Freestyle Bikes

Street
Street riding involves maneuvers on obstacles that are typically man made and not designed for bicycles. They can be, but are not limited to, stairs, handrails, ledges, curved walls, banks, unusually shaped architectural designs and even a simple curb.

Through online surveys and magazine polls, it has been found that a large percentage of riders today participate in this discipline. As in the other forms of freestyle riding, there are no specific rules; style/aesthetics, skills, and creativity are stressed. Street riders tend to have no brakes if they do it is mostly straight cable not gyro. Usually they have front and back pegs on one side of the bike. They also have a tendency to ride without flanges on their grips. Some people like this because the flange gets in the way when they are doing a bar spin trick. Others mostly just like it because of the clean look.

Park
Skateparks are used by BMXers as well as skateboarders, inline skaters and freestyle scooter-riders. Skateparks themselves can be made of wood, concrete or metal. Styles of riding will depend on the style of the parks. Wood is more suited to a flowing style, with riders searching for gaps, and aiming to air higher from the coping. Concrete parks usually tend to contain bowls and pools. However, it is not unusual for riders to merge the two styles in either type of park.

Concrete parks are commonly built outdoors due to their ability to withstand years of exposure to the elements. Concrete parks are also often publicly funded due to their permanent and costly nature. Parks made from wood are popular with commercial skateparks due to ease of construction, availability of materials, cost, and the relative safety associated with falling on wood instead of concrete. Parks designed with BMX use in mind will typically have steel coping that is less prone to damage than concrete or pool coping.

Vert
Vert is perhaps the most extreme of the freestyle BMX disciplines. A half pipe consists of two quarter pipes set facing each other (much like a mini ramp), but at around 10–15 feet tall (around 2.5 to 3.5 metres) high. The biggest ramp ever used in competition is the X-Games big air ramp at 27 feet tall. Both ‘faces’ of the ramp have an extension to the transition that is vertical, hence the name. Coping is a round metal tube at the lip of the vert that helps freestyle BMXers do grinds, and stalls on the lip of the vert.

Riders go up each jump, performing tricks in the air before landing into the transition having turned 180 degrees (assumptively. variations include 540, 900). A typical run involves going from one side to the other, airing above the coping each side. Also possible are 'lip tricks' - tricks on the platform at the top of the ramps before dropping into the ramp.

Trails
Trails are lines of jumps built from dirt (heavily compacted mud). It can also be named as a pack such as a 4 pack, 6 pack and 8 pack. The jumps consist of a steep take off, called a lip, with an often slightly less steep landing. The lip and landing are usually built as separate mounds, divided by a gap. The gap is measured from the topmost part of the lip, horizontally to the topmost part of the far side of the landing. Gaps typically range from only a couple of feet to over twenty feet. A moderate gap is around twelve feet.

Trails riding is sometimes also referred to as “dirt jumping”. Most trails riders maintain that a subtle difference exists in the style and flow of “dirt jumps” and “trails”; trails riders focus more on of a flowing smooth style from one jump to the next while performing more stylish tricks, while dirt jumpers try to perform the craziest tricks they can over larger, less flow-oriented jumps.

Although many regard trails and street as being completely opposite, the attraction is similar — trails riders build their own jumps so their riding is limited only by their creativity and resourcefulness.

Trails riders usually run a rear brake only as they have no use for a front brake, and usually a rotor (gyro) to make it easier to do barspins, as they do not have to spins the bars back the other way to untangle it, which is hard to do on trails. In general, trail/dirt jumping bikes have longer wheelbases (chainstays) than other BMXs to aid with stability.

Flatland
Flatland BMX occupies a position somewhat removed from the rest of freestyle BMX. People who ride in the above disciplines will generally take part in at least one of the others, but flatlanders tend to only ride flatland. They are often very dedicated and will spend several hours a day perfecting their technique.

Flatland also differs from the others in that the terrain used is nothing but a smooth, flat surface (e.g. an asphalt parking lot, basketball courts, etc.). Tricks are performed by spinning and balancing in a variety of body and bicycle positions. Riders almost always use knurled aluminum pegs to stand on to manipulate the bike into even stranger positions.

Flatland bikes typically have a shorter wheelbase than other freestyle bikes. Flatland bikes differ from dirt jumping bikes and freestyle bikes in one way. The frames are often more heavily reinforced because the people riding flatland often stand on the frames. This shorter wheelbase requires less effort to make the bike spin or to position the bike on one wheel. One of the primary reasons flatlanders often ride only flatland is the decreased stability of a shorter bike on ramps, dirt and street.

A variety of options are commonly found on flatland bikes. The most unifying feature of flatland bikes is the use of four pegs, one on the end of each wheel axle. Flatland riders will choose to run either a front brake, a rear brake, both brakes, or no brakes at all, depending on stylistic preference.

source: wikipedia