1986 Haro Master Freestyle

1986 Haro Master Freestyler

Oh man, did I want one of these when I was a teenager.

The 1986 Haro Master freestyle in team Haro green.  The pinnacle of all things awesome.

So in 1986, BMX had fragmented a bit with racing taking place at dirt tracks, and freestyle going on in parking lots.  If you were fast, you raced.  If you weren’t fast (or simply couldn’t be pryed off of your bike between motos), you tried freestyle.  Freestyle meant jumps, quarter-pipe ramps, bar spins and any goofy trick you could dream up.

Anyway, that summer the Haro Freestyle team came to the Erik’s Bike Shop parking lot in my hometown of Richfield, Minnesota.  They had all of the stars: Ron Wilkerson, Eddie Fiola, Dennis McCoy, and I think Mat Hoffman.  After setting up their quarter-pipe and cranking up the boom box, those guys proceeded to blow our minds with rad freestyle moves and ramp tricks.  This was early extreme sports stuff, and it looked like sheer magic.

Flip-up fork stands

Places to stand all over the bike

Pins or rivets in the seat protected it when upside-down

The original and much copied Shimano DX pedal

Tuff II mag wheels

Frame stands were also a good place for a friend to buck a ride

This is the bike that the Haro team used for their shows, and it was the top of the line. The Master Freestyler.  Really the best bike in the whole ’80’s freestyle scene.  The frame featured all kinds of extra spots to plant your Vans while attempting flat-land tricks.  There were fold-up stands on the front fork, twin top tubes, and stands (not axle pegs) at the rear dropout.

Haro advertisement

The bike came freestyle-ready with mag wheels and Haro’s Group 1 parts, but you had to add a rotor (a cable de-tangler) up front so you could do bar spins without the brake cables winding up.  Other mods you could do included putting rivets or bolts in the saddle (to keep the plastic from getting scraped when the bike was upside down), and mounting the rear brake under the seat stays so you could step on the stays while attempting certain tricks.

This bike originally belonged to a local guy, “Rad” Ranney Montgomery.  The beautiful restoration work here was done by our friend (and quite a good freestyler back in the ’80’s) “Jammin'” Jason Elhardt.