Bikes Of My Past: Haro Sport Bashguard Bmx

I was a keen BMX'er as a kid, you'd either find me wheelie'in my local high street and bunny hopping my friends or skating backwards wearing my Bauer Turbo's. I loved BMX it was the closest thing I could get to riding motocross, which was the biggest passion of my life back in the day. I thought I might of lifted the AMA supercross title one day, even though being a UK boy. To me the 90's were when the best BMX's were made. The 80's produced some iconic bikes which are worth a few quid these days but if you look at them now, the fitments look crude and the frames look weak. The 90's brought out chunkier frames better finished fitments (Remember UFO Giros?) and lairy paint jobs. I used to go to my local BMX shop back then and oodle of over the latest BMX's. The shop I used to go to usually had Mongoose Villans in the window and this was the bike I wanted for a long time as a 7 year old. I did have a motocross bike at the time so having a nice new Mongoose was Unlikely, I didn't Mind I loved Motocross. Back then there was no internet ( Feel so old ) so the only way I knew about the latest BMX's was when I had a rare visit to my nearest bike shop or when the local naughty boys had nicked a bike, (Odd wheels, big give away). That was until "Cable" was installed into our streets in the mid 90's in the UK. hahaha, do you remember this?! Bam over night my house had every channel and was opened up to all what America had to offer. I just remember it being so colourful. The Xgames had not long started and I felt like I wasn't the only one who loved BMX. Then I start getting pocket money too and found Ride Magazine in the sweet shop and could afford to get it! Now I could watch BMX and read BMX too!

BMX goes through trends depending on what the top riders were riding and what the magazines were putting on the front cover. The time I stopped BMX'in was when the BMX with no character started to come and what you see today. They had no flair, no charisma they just looked like industrial metal with wheels on, I don't like the bike of today. I'm trying to find a quirky BMX that is out today to tuck away for the future but there just aint one. The flavour of the month when I was riding in the early to mid 90's was flatland. I remember the colours in the magazines so vividly, you had to have a chrome frame too. My eye's were opened to REAL BMX's, pro frames, pro parts and pro tricks. It became clear who where the top 2 BMX manufacturers, GT and HARO. Yeh there were other top makes making top bikes, KHE dominated the flatland scene but I wasn't interested in flatland that much. You can't deny that GT and Haro were the FORD and GM of the BMX World. Bob Haro was a pro rider and gave credit to the Haro bikes. So after staring at pages of RIDE for 30 days until the next issue came out, I was wanting a real BMX, motocross was expensive and I needed my dad to take me out on my KX80 I thought about selling my Motocross bike and using the money to get a BMX.

So as I started getting Pretty good on my Ammaco Freestyler, I started to make new friends and meet other BMX kids. Word get round when you have a motocross bike or "Scrambler" as we used to call them back then and I got offered a Haro Sport Bashguard as a swap for my KX80. I remember this vividly and the Haro was in the same colour scheme as in my picture above ( Hence why I tracked down that frame and forks ). I really wanted to do the swap, I would of had a BMX no one else had, my KX80 was a really old and not worth as much as you may think so I was getting a deal. My parents wouldn't let me swap and rightly so. I lusted after a Haro Sport ever since. That was until I got my GT Performer Black Light in 96'. I was always a GT Fan but this vivid memory of the swap for a Haro Sport meant I always wanted one, one day.

A few years back one came up for sale, an ex display bike. It came in it's original box and had minimal paint damae on the dropouts only. The bashguard, a distinctive feature of the sport was un touched. This is the bike you see in my picture above. I didn't want to build it up, nor did I want to ride it, I bought to capture the fond memory of my yoooof!

Leave a comment in the comment box of what you used to ride.

My List goes,

• 1970's Mongoose (Wish I still had this)
• Ammaco Freestyler (Snapped the handlebars after a month after doing too many wheelies and bunnyhops)
• Dyno VFR (Briefly owned)
• Gt Performer Black Light (Giving away by mum whilst I was at school one day) This is the bike I want the most.
• 2 Haro Sports
• Haro Zippo
• Haro Shredder
• 2 Mongoose Vilans
• GT Pro Performer
• Many Gt Performers
• Gt Black Light