that day i found a Haro Master

a couple days before christmas i was driving back from the city dump, when i noticed a building with a bunch of bikes surrounding it. i'd been by it many times but the bikes were a new addition. naturally, i had to make a U-turn and inspect. when i pulled up, there was an older man getting out of a small pick-up. i asked him him if the bikes were for sale and if i could look around. he obliged. most of the bikes were department store junk, with the exception of a few road bikes. as soon as i ventured inside, a neon green Haro caught my eye. when you spend hours and hours as a kid looking at these things in magazines, they tend to jump out at you in real life. the state it was in was heartbreaking and laughable at the same time. it had 144 spoke lowrider wheels and a 3' seat. i probably would have crapped my pants if i saw someone riding it around like that. in case you didn't know, all old BMX bikes and stuff from the 80's are highly collectable and hard to find. the Haro Master was arguably in the top 3 of freestyle bikes (hutch trickstar is #1). i asked him what he wanted for it, and he told me to make an offer. i threw out $30 and he said he needed more. he showed me around the shop and we chatted for a while. homeless and addiction problems for years, now he's into church and fixing up bikes for people. he ended up being a really nice guy who was enjoyable to talk with. we came back to the Haro and i ended up getting it for a bit more. he taunted me when he disclosed that he has more old BMX stuff in storage. i'm going to be paying him another visit soon.

mongoose "californian"

so my friend gave me this bicycle over the weekend. it's an '85 mongoose "Californian". i basically bought the same one brand new when i was a kid. i asked my dad to buy it for me and he declined. he had a better idea: scrap enough aluminum cans to raise the money. so he would drive me around to collect cans. we would hit the baseball diamonds after everyone left, dig though trash cans, and walk the sides of roads. i have to admit, as a young kid i was pretty embarrassed and didn't understand why he couldn't just buy it for me (we were far from spoiled). after about 7 months, i had enough money saved to buy the bike. i think it was around $170. looking back, the whole experience was a valuable learning lesson for me. so you can imagine, getting this bike brings back memories and nostalgia. my plans for the bike are to clean it up and replace some of the parts. the grips, tires, brakes, and seat are all newer. i want get OG parts or at least reproduction. i don't have much of my old BMX stuff, but i do have my number plate. i'm defiantly going to run that.