Goodbye, Haro
 

My '89 Haro Master (with all parts from my old '87 Team Master) was stolen. This bike was the holy grail form my childhood, bought new with money earned mowing lawns. I was 14 when I got that frame and merged it with my '87, and I rode in small town Ortonville, Michigan from sun-up to sun-down on Summer breaks.

I remember building my quarter pipe at 13 years old with my Dad, and the look on his face when he realized what exactly I was going to do with it.

I remember flatlanding at the fire station on Sashabaw Rd.- some of the only flat concrete within several miles from my house.

I remember riding down to the Cracker Barrel and getting a Snickers and a glass-bottle Gatorade.

I remember cutting half the height off that same quarter pipe and trailering it out to my friends grandma's house and lake jumping into the Holloway Lake reserve, the most beautiful lake in the woods I have ever seen to this day. I vividly recall the smell of the lake water and the pine trees being so intoxicating.

I remember riding the invisible half-pipe (rope slung over a tree branch tied to a motorcycle tire) in my best friend's driveway.

I remember riding in Union Lake with Taj and Ron one day and realizing these guys were gonna be pro some day.

I remember riding home in the pitch dark from friend's houses on cool Summer nights, being frightened by the sound of the rustling corn stalks just off the side of the road, yet invisible in the ink black darkness.

I remember riding home from my girlfriends house in that same inky darkness one night with a smile on my face after becoming a man.

Now, at 34 years old with 3 young boys, I was looking forward to passing this bike on to my oldest son when he was big enough to ride it.

Knowing that I'll never see my Haro again and that my son will never get to ride it breaks my heart worse than any girl ever has.

Goodbye Haro. Thank you for the best times of my life. I pray that God one day gives me the strength to forgive the one who stole you from me. I hope in the end you end up in one piece, with a child somewhere making memories the way I did with you. :thumb:

That was beautiful man. I'm truly sorry about this, and since you're nice enough to wish for forgiveness, I'll go ahead and wish that whoever stole it gets hit by a bus. America is going to hell in a handbasket and it makes me sick. People they just ain't no good.

word

Very sorry to hear that.

An eloquent epitaph! Sorry to here it

Sorry to hear that man... Earlier this week I had my Wallet stolen... at a freakin MCdonalds.
Had my license, My military ID, money, 100.00 in gift cards, addresses/phone numbers.
Passwords to numerous ROTC things, and a few setimental things, Like my Dads Uniform Patch and his challenge coin he gave me. havnt seen him in 5 months now.


I hope you get that bike back man.

Bike Theif's suck. Hope you get it back.

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that sucks! Great "ode to bike" tho.

As Yoko Ono might say, you say goodbye, and I say Haro.

Well done

That was beautiful, sorry to hear about your bike going missing. It's never fun no matter how long you've had the dang thing.

wow. quite an impactful bike.

Was that the year the Master had the integral bashguard?

Ya. It was pretty useless as far as it's intended purpose. The only places I ever used it was in my driveway; we had about 150 feet of railroad ties down the elevated side of the driveway that were stacked up about 4 feet tall, and whenever I came home or left I would hit it full speed and that metal bashguard would slide me about 50 feet down those ties. Of course I'd stand on the frame, do a one footer, barspin, etc. And my quarter pipe. I could plant that bashguard in a fakie disaster, do a boomerang and drop back in. I think I got some old polaroids somewhere :lol:

But back in '89 people were buying those bolt-on bashguards, and it really looked like that was the way freestyle bikes were headed. It was a tank for bikes back then, but by today's standards it's about average. It weighed in at 32lbs or so. But my '87 Haro was about 28lbs.