Everyone knows I like GTs, but I also like Haros.

And this is the one I’ve always wanted. Back in 89 when I was 13, I used to daydream about a black 88 Team Master with the same colour combo as the Team Sport shown in the 88 Haro brochure. I didn’t know you couldn’t buy a black Team Master at the time, but that’s how I always envisioned one.



Flash forward to October 2005. I get a phone call from an old bmx friend who works at a bike shop.
“Yo Rob… I got a P.O.S 88 Master frame set that’s going in the bin, you want it?” And I’m like “Yeah I want Cheezy Poofs”.

So I motor down there to see how bad it is, she was a pig. Cracked seat post, lots of rust, grinded frame standers and squashed drop outs. The forks were even worse. But on the plus side it was an 88 model and it was FREE !



From here on was a lot of repairs on the frame which I did myself. I never owned a Master and was just happy to be working on one at last. I tig welded the seat post which I thought looked factory, added metal to the frame standers and reshaped them.



Re tig welded.









I then gave my good friend Serva a call to organise a rechrome with my Streetbeat entry at his local chromer. $100 bucks a frame, I was happy. The frame came back in great shape and then I masked it up and powdered it in Gloss black. The powder looked good on the fresh chrome and I couldn’t wait to apply the AJK stickers.

I repaired the forks and traded them with some cash for a better set of forks with uncracked dropouts. I always wanted blacked out forks and stem just like the Team Sport in the brochure. I also powdered these.

Serva managed to find me most of the parts as the months rolled by, most of the parts on this bike were junk or broken …….lol. But to his credit they were either free or a small trade and I just kept making the repairs as I went. How many guys do you know would throw a free set of Peregrine cranks at you? Thanks mate!!

So here’s a list of the NOS parts, everything else was repaired.

Ame grips
Dominator seat with blue lettering
Peregrine seat clamp
Peregrine bottom bracket
Haro Compact disc
Suzue Hubs High polish
Peregrine HP 48’s High polish with custom made Ukai stickers
Haro tires
Dia compe 990’s Polished
Dia Compe Nippons Polished
Dia Compe front brake cable stamped 88
Odyssey Gyro cables
Izumi chain
Yst headset.


Special thanks to Serva, Raul, Pickle ditty, AJK and my mate Mic at the bike shop.







And that's all she wrote.

all i can say is SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
awesome job roberto

Very nice master!!!Good detail.

WOW!

Very nice build! Where did you find those tires in perfect condition???
Attention to detail is impressive... the brake cable date says it all. Great JOB!

Thanks, I got lucky on ebay and got 'em cheap from the States. They are awesome for 20 years old.
Actually I got lucky on every part. I didn't over pay for anything.

WOW,I needed that.A nice fresh build..Just plain RAD


Rob

Wow, that is a perfect bike. That's 2 black team masters with dgbdb's and yours and I am in the process of working on mine. Did you guys buy a set of ajk's Team Sport stickers just to get the TEAM sticker or did they sell it separately? I was thinking of changing mine to a team black/red custom instead of black if I could find the right stickers. Again that bike is stunning!

Yes Nitro, AJK sold me the Team sticker and Team bar sticker separately.

Good luck on your build, it's hard work choosing a colour some times hey.

Dude, I NEED that hat!


Oh, and the bikes OK, I guess.....LOL


Sounds like a labor of love to be sure, I'm doing a similar project with a beat 87 sport. Im thinking of going yellow and black to be different...

Great Job!

Nice work Roberto. Thats a beautiful Master. I gotta get you to do some work for me one day. Thats awsome.

Even sweeter in person as I was lucky enough to see it on the weekend and yes those tyres are so white.

Once I have sorted out photos I will post one with the owner.

Awesome bike! How's the Coke?

ROBERTO drinks Coke? I thought you were a Pepsi drinker? I looked for the picture of you in the Aparijo pose as proof, but that thread must have been culled.

Regardless... that build is awesome! I enjoy reading your threads as much as Timo's.
Nice work on bringing that mess back to life!

dude - what a beautiful job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOW! I think that might be the best looking Master I've ever seen. Great job! Good story too.

Dude, I'm (almost) speechless.

Much respect for anyone who can bring something like that back to life...welding and whatnot. Did you have the rear dropouts totally re-made or something.

20 inches of perfection.

Yeah, what he said ^^^!

What the...??

It was great to see it slowly come together.........sure is a beautiful bike. Now I just need to see it in the flesh....complete!!

Wow, just wow. Amazing job!

thats awesome! nothing like a bike shop build. even have the correct rims on it! A+ now go find an owners manual!

Hey Rob, I new this bike would look amazzing. Well done mate. i will have to get you my 87 master to do black and yellow I have the decals and everything else. We will have to bring the two babies together. may still do the show next year. It will have to be Brisbane though. Oh yea I also had a great talk with Brian Blyther last week in Vegas. He wants to come to the reunion! Yo Yo! john

There wasn't a lot of coke in that bottle. Let's just say without many freestylers at the show, Robert was hanging out with his mate Johnny Walker.

Hey Roberto,

In my limited experience, that is the best Master I've seen! Your attention to detail is unmatched.

What spins me out to is that you're doing it all from Australia as well, when a lot of the parts you aquire come from OS.

One thing I'm learning is that if you try to build bikes quickly, you only end up rushing them and in the end they don't come out as good as you would like. Better to have a few projects on the go, that way you're collecting parts all the time, getting stuff fixed, chromed etc.

Well done again, can't wait for the next one.

Paul

Thanks Paul.

I agree, the Master took two years to nail all the parts, but I also had 4 different projects on the go to make the time go quicker, that way I always felt like I was building.

I have two more finished bikes to unveil.

Yowza. I didn't like my black Master in 88, but that was the color Haro sent me, so I was stuck. But now I love them. Very classy looking, and that one (along with Bob's) is the best I've seen.

Very nice Roberto, i'm not a Haro man but i just might be now!

Your garage must be getting pretty full now so drop me a line if you want to sell me one of your sweet GT's!

Glad you guys like it. A difficult bike to build and at times it drove me to insainity I wanted to sell it. But not now ...lol.

I forgot to give props to someone who made a big effort to get this bike ready for the Ashmore Vintage Gathering Gold Coast Australia.

Many thanks to Gnarley (Chris) who stayed up late lacing my wheels. Not a single spoke scratch on the rims and he lined up the hub stickers with the rim stickers before he laced them to make a better presentation.

Thanks mate.




It was also nice to see it parked beside Pete Coopers fisrt gen Haro Freestyler and Gnarleys 85 Pro Performer.

Another nice build and big props to scotty serva for being an all round great guy

Roberto, that has got to be one of the best 88 Haro Master I have ever seen!


Congratulations!


Cheers,



Laurent

sweet 88 homie.. i got an 88 Master, i know the feeling that pro performers pretty bad *** too.

Sweet build up. I can't get enough of this stuff. I haven't seen a pre 95 bike in god knows how long. Pics is all I get to see.

Roberto,

I ordered my stickers for my black on black Master from AJK as you can see in the photo below my fork stickers are different than yours. Are those the stickers that came with your set? I don't see your fork stickers on their site for any color but I think the ones with my set are for chrome forks not black. I have black forks though.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z26/nit...-ma-set-blk.jpg

Yeah well spotted Nitro!

I had the same problem. My friend Serva came to the rescue there and had a friend who die cut some silver lettering and blue chevrons for the forks. The colours match so well that no one will notice they are die cut and not printed.

I keep a lot of pics that I find on ebay and I've seen 88 Masters and Sports with factory black forks, these must have been the early 88 models.

Take the fork stickers to your local sign writer and get them to cut you a set if you want to run black forks.

Hey Roberto,

One thing I forgot to mention is your tremendous ability to find all the exact parts for your build considering some parts are incredibly hard to find (tires, stem,...). And you are doing it from Australia!

When I look at the prices on the bay lately , it looks like it is perhaps one of the last 88 team Master we get to see complete around here. Hutch syndrome anyone?


Cheers,



Laurent

Hey Laurent! Yeah I'm doing my builds in Australia, but it took 2 years and some of the parts like the wheels, tires and brakes were sourced from the USA on ebay.

I saved money where I could, instead of forking out for NOS Superpros, I found a nos set of Peregrine HP48 complete wheels with the crappy non sealed hubs. I won this auction for US$145.

My mate Knarley who spokes my wheels pulled the spokes out and then I sent the rims to be mirror polished to match a NOS set of polished Suzue sealed hubs which I bought for US$80.

Those sort of deals don't happen everyday, but I searched ebay everyday for 12 months to find those rims and hubs and was outbid many times on a number of auctions. One day I got lucky.

I won the tires I think for US$95. The auction may have ended in the middle of the night USA time as people forgot to bid.

I won the stem for US$16. No one wanted it because it looked crappy and had grazes on the cap.



The fluted seatpost was free because it was bent.

The bars were free because they were rusted and grazed.

Here's a pic of the platform before repairs.



and now



I know that not everyone has the tools to make their own repairs, but that's how I found the parts. I couldn't afford to buy all NOS ones, but yes I think I had a little luck finding the parts that I did.

It also helps to have friends like Serva keeping their eyes open for things you need.

Good luck on your builds Laurent !!

what an amazing build, really inspiring!