BMX Racing History · Chapter 9 · Legend Bike Co

Haro: The Company That Invented Freestyle

Most bike companies start with a bike. Haro started with a six-dollar number plate and a kid who could draw. Out of that came the first freestyle-specific frame ever built, the first great freestyle team, and a whole second sport that grew up alongside racing and then went its own way. If freestyle has a founding company, this is it.

The Kid Who Could Draw

Bob Haro grew up racing motocross around San Diego — fifty-some trophies before the money ran out — and got into BMX around 1976 on his brother's bike. What set him apart wasn't speed. It was the pen. His first published BMX art ran on the cover of BMX Weekly in December 1976, and by 1977 Bob Osborn had him drawing for BMX Action as a staff artist. He spent his free time at the San Diego skateparks, borrowing lines from skateboarding and putting them on a bike. The photo of his Rock Walk, shot by Osborn in September 1978, is credited as the first documented flatland trick.

Six Dollars, Shipping Included

The business started with number plates — hand-cut vinyl numbers on Preston Petty motocross plates, made for friends, including on tour with Scot Breithaupt's SE crew in 1977. In August 1978, BMX Action featured "Haro's Factory Plates" in its products column at $6 including shipping. That's the date the company counts from. Within a year, most of the pros on BMX Action's covers were running Haro plates; by 1980 the operation had moved from his parents' house in Spring Valley to its own space in Torrance.

The Trick Team

With Bob Osborn's backing, Haro and Osborn's son R.L. Osborn formed the BMX Action Trick Team, performing choreographed trick shows at races and bike shows — the first time anyone toured doing BMX tricks as the show itself, not a sideshow. In summer 1981 Haro took it national: the first Haro Freestyle Tour, three months and 18,000 miles in a Dodge van with Bob Morales and R.L.'s crew, backed by Vans and Oakley. They weren't competing at anything. They were inventing a profession.

The Freestyler

Riding ramps and ditches on race frames broke race frames. On the 1981 tour, Haro sketched what a freestyle bike should be, then pitched it to his frame sponsor — Torker — in the fall. Prototypes were tested in the skateparks by Haro, Bob Morales, and Eddie Fiola. Production started at Torker's Fullerton factory in 1982, and the Haro Freestyler launched that summer: the first frame and fork ever purpose-built for freestyle. Original Torker-built examples carry serial numbers ending in "F."

The same year, Haro spent five days as a second-unit stunt rider on E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial — the biggest movie of 1982, with a BMX chase scene burned into the memory of every kid who saw it.

Master, Sport, and the Best Team in Freestyle

By 1984 Haro was sourcing its own manufacturing and launched the two frames that defined mid-80s freestyle: the Master, for flatland, and the Sport — the first signature freestyle model, built for vert prodigy Mike Dominguez. The affordable FST complete followed that fall. The 1985 Master came in a neon green nobody who lived through it will ever forget.

The team became the gold standard. Dennis McCoy signed in late 1984 and dominated the AFA circuit. Ron Wilkerson came over from GT, did the first nothing air on a Haro Sport, and started the 2-Hip King of Vert series. Brian Blyther, Dave Nourie, Joe Johnson — who landed the first tailwhip air — Rick Moliterno, and a teenager named Mat Hoffman, who did his first 900 on a Haro Sport, all wore the H. Later eras brought Dave Mirra in 1994 and Ryan Nyquist in 1997, who stayed on the team for more than 25 years.

After Bob

Bob Haro hung up his own riding by the mid-80s after four knee surgeries. In the 1986–87 deal he sold the company to West Coast Cycle, stayed on under contract, and eventually founded his design firm — the one that, among other things, choreographed the bike sequence at the London Olympics opening ceremony in 2012. He was inducted into the BMX Hall of Fame in 1987. The company passed to Derby in 1988 and then, in 1993, to an investor group led by Jim Ford — Haro's general manager since 1981. Haro Bicycle Corporation is still going today, still independent, with the longest continuous freestyle lineage in the sport.

Timeline

• 1976 First published Haro art, BMX Weekly cover, December.
• 1977 Staff artist at BMX Action. Hand-cut plates for friends on the SE tour.
• 1978 "Haro's Factory Plates" in BMX Action, August — $6 shipped. Rock Walk photographed in September.
• 1980 Operations move to Torrance. BMX Action Trick Team touring with R.L. Osborn.
• 1981 First Haro Freestyle Tour — 18,000 miles. Freestyler concept pitched to Torker in the fall.
• 1982 Haro Freestyler launches — the first freestyle frame and fork. Five days of stunt riding on E.T.
• 1984 Master and Sport launch. Production moves to Taiwan. FST follows in October.
• 1984–86 McCoy, Wilkerson, Blyther, Nourie, Johnson sign. The 2-Hip King of Vert begins.
• 1985 Haro Racing Division unveiled at the ABA Grands with Pete Loncarevich.
• 1986–87 Bob Haro sells to West Coast Cycle.
• 1988 Mat Hoffman joins the team. Company passes to Derby.
• 1993 Investor group led by Jim Ford takes over.
• 1994–97 Dave Mirra, then Ryan Nyquist — a 25-plus-year run begins.