SOS World Premiere Clip

Check it out, this is the video recap from the Summer Of Shred World Premiere (pics below). Haro team riders Phil Sundbaum and Eric Porter were shredding up a storm, as well as a bunch of other riders from the movie.

Summer of Shred World Premier

Last Friday night, the Summer of Shred World Premier went down at the Skatebarn in Renton, WA. This wasn't your average movie premier where people just sort of stand around trying to look cool with a bottle of lukewarm beer in their hands...this premier started with autographs and an open ride session with Phil Sundbaum and Eric Porter along with the other pros who appeared in the movie at 3pm. Everyone rode until about 9pm and then it was lights out and time for the Summer of Shred World Premier. The premier ended with a raffle for a Haro Thread One, the same model of bike Phil rode in the Summer of Shred. Phil handed the bike to lucky winner...they guy who won it was obviously stoked and had Phil sign the bike for him.

Eric Porter, Darcy Turenne (OK, so she rides for Norco but we still love her!), and Phil Sundbaum signing autographs.

Look for upcoming Summer of Shred viewings in other cities across the country...we'll post dates and locations here as we get more info about them.

The Product Toss

If you can't make it to an upcoming viewing, you can also purchase your own copy of the Summer of Shred through Video Action Sports.

Packed house watching Summer of Shred.

Heartland Love

It's not all that often that people take the time to review a comfort bike, so I was nonetheless intrigued when my co-worker Tim "Masi Guy" Jackson, forwarded me a review that somebody wrote about their Haro Heartland Express LE.

The post came from a blog simply called "Jon's Bicycle Blog"...so I would assume the owner of the Heartland Express LE is named Jon. Jon's relationship with his Heartland Express LE started when he decided he needed what he described as a "Florida Bike": a bike he could do decent mileage on, was zippy, and was comfortable. Based on his love for his Masi Gran Corsa, Jon decided to check out what Haro had to offer (for those of you who don't know, Haro and Masi are "sister" brands...we share the same ownership and same building). After doing his research, Jon headed to one of our dealers called The Energy Conservatory where he purchased his Heartland Express LE.


Jon goes on to describe his first ride about his Heartland. He set out for a quick 10-mile ride without any water, tools, or tubes. As he headed down the Pinellas County Trail, he soon discovered that he was doing more than just cruising along on his new comfort hybrid, we was flying along at 20 mph. As he continued along at his brisk clip, thoughts about being "deceived" by his perception of his Masi road bike entered his head. Never in his wildest dreams did he think he'd be able to pedal so smoothly, quickly, and comfortably on a comfort bike. He pedaled onward until he realized that it would be getting dark soon, so he reluctantly turned around and pedaled home, basking in the "I love my new bike" glow.


At the time he wrote the review, Jon had put on over 500 miles on his Heartland Express LE. In his own words, Jon says, "And I still love the bike. 500+ miles later, it’s my weapon of choice here in Dunedin. It’s not comparable to the Masi, but that’s not its purpose. I can roll out, do 20 miles, and roll home, or roll into work and back. Or just pick up groceries, or toss a tent in the saddlebags and head out to camp".


I couldn't have said it better myself.


It's great to hear feedback this good about a bike that we put a lot of effort in "getting right". Since the comfort category represents a large chunk of Haro's business, we really wanted to make sure the new Heartland series was spot on. We looked at lots of different comfort bikes and examined what other manufacturers were doing right and what they were doing wrong. We looked for ways to improve the common comfort bike. In fact, we even went as far as purchasing a very popular comfort hybrid that one of our competitors makes just so we could analyze how it rode. The brand will remain nameless, but underneath the flashy looks and big brand name was a bike that had such poor handling, it's a wonder anyone buys them.


Once we had done all of our homework, product managers Pat Crosby and Wayne Doran set off to make what we feel are the best darn comfort bikes on the market. Here are just a few of the things that make Heartlands superior:

• We steepened up the head angle so the rider wouldn't feel the dreadful "wheel flop" our competitor's bike had.


• We got the seat angle right...it's just slack enough to be easy on your back, but not so slack to where you can't pedal efficiently. The super-slack seat angles that some of our competitors use that put your feet too far in front of you just isn't efficient. Once you start to pedal up any sort of an incline, you'll see why.


• We welded the seat stays higher up on the seat tube; this provides a better platform to mount racks and child carriers. We noticed many of our competitor's bikes welded their stays too low on the seat tube, making rack mounting difficult or impossible.


• We added extra water bottle cage mounting holes: 2 pairs on both the standard and step-thru frames. Having an extra mount is nice if you want to mount an extra bottle for longer rides, lighting system, or a tire pump.


• We use sealed bottom brackets and cassette rear hubs for longer life and less maintenance.


• We use nice tall bars to put you in a comfortable, upright riding position.


• And above all, we use the most comfortable seats and grips we can find.

I could go on and on, but I'll stop there. I guess one of the points I'm trying to make is we're not all that surprised that Jon loves his Heartland Express...a whole lot of "love" went into making those bikes.

Happy trails, ya'll...

Jon's Heartland Express LE

(Ex Post from Bike Biz Babe)

Welcome to the all-new Haro MTB and Asphalt bike website!

Surprise! If you are a frequent visitor to the Haro Bikes website, you’ll see things are obviously quite different than they were yesterday. If you have never visited our website, better late than never, right?

One of the first things you’ll probably notice is the fact that our new site is blog based, so it’s highly interactive. We’re committed to updating the blog on a regular (if not daily) basis with news, stories, pictures, videos, and anything else we think you’d be interested in reading and seeing. You’ll also be able to leave your own comments and feedback…in fact, we encourage you to chime in and leave comments.

I’ll also be handing the blogging keys over to our athletes and some of my Haro colleagues so they will have the ability to bring you Haro news from wherever they happen to be in the world.

While you are here, be sure to check out the 2009 bike line. Many months of blood, sweat, and tears went into the creation of these bikes. We are truly proud of our new bikes…sure, we’re a little biased but we are all convinced this is the best Haro MTB and asphalt bike line ever. We hope you like what you see.

So grab a cold one, sit back, and enjoy our new website and the 2009 bikes.

Cheers,

Jill Hamilton
MTB/Asphalt Brand Manager

Yep, that's me!

Phil Sundbaum's African Adventure with Hans Rey

Africa...

I just got back from a two week trip to Tanzania with Aaron Lutze, Hans Rey, and Caleb Smith. We went there for Hans' charity Wheels 4 Life which raises money to donate bikes to people in 3rd world countries living in poverty so they have some mode of transportation so they can make it to and from work and to do daily chores like going to the market or getting water. We were able to raise enough money from flips for life to bring ten bikes of our own to donate to the villagers.

This was by far the hardest and most rewarding trip I have ever been on. We traveled from village to village learning about these people's lives and seeing how they live on a day to day bases. All of the bikes we brought were donated to one village in particular and to be there first hand to give them something as small as a bike that we use as a toy will literally change their life.

After seeing the way some people in the world have to live and now knowing how easy it is to do something so small that makes a big impact on a persons life I am going to do my part to help from now on. This is something i knew was an issue but never could have pictured what it was really like until I was there and had to live it myself and only for a short bit not my entire life.

You see a lot of charities on tv and can drop some change into a jar at the store but you never know where the money will ever end up. I would encourage any one who reads this to log onto to http://www.wheels4life.org/ and take a look at what Hans is doing. You can do just a little bit and everything will go where it needs because it is taken there and handed out right to the people who need it the most.

Go to http://www.summerofshred.com/ to get all of the other details and pics from this trip.

Haro cruisers go "On Surfari"!

"On Surfari" is a surf/travel/humanitarian style TV show hosted by Shayne and Shannon Mcintyre, it airs on Fuel TV and is also commited to rasing funds and generating awareness for those less fortunate.

Here at Haro, we watch this show regularly and really enjoy how Shayne and Shannon connect with the locals and capture the culture in all the really interesting places they travel to.
We thought it would be cool to see if Shayne and Shannon would be interested in a couple of new Haro cruisers so we e-mailed them through the On Surfari web site.
They responded and were totally interested in checking out our new bikes. After exchanging a few e-mails and phone calls, we set up a time for them to come in and pick out a couple of bikes to take home with them to Puerto Rico.

It just happened that Shayne and Shannon were in California this week for the ASR Show (Action Sports Retailer Show) and had time to stop by our office with their new daughter Coral.
Shayne and Shannon exemplify what our cruisers are all about: a comfortable, laid-back lifestyle. Our Zimzala cruiser name comes from the surf dictionary and means "A free spirited person who finds peace with sand between their toes".

We hope Shayne and Shannon enjoy riding their new cruisers and look forward to seeing them again real soon.

Check out On Surfari at http://www.onsurfari.com/ or check air times on Fuel TV: http://www.fuel.tv/

What's the Virtual Link System engineer been up to?

As I'm sure you can imagine, the man who created and engineered our patented Virtual Link System we use on our Sonix and Xeon full suspension bikes is a pretty smart cookie. Well, smart is sort of an understatement since Neal Saiki is actually a rocket scientist. He is a former poject manager for NASA. He's also responsible for creating the first human powered helicopter. A little closer to home, he's designed bicycles for some of the biggest names in the industry like Haro, Santa Cruz, and Mountain Cycle. Yeah, he's a smart guy alright.

Neal has a new project he's been working on for the past few years: electric motorcycles. Think these are cheesy little electric bikes you'd likely see putting along in the slow lane? Think again. Neal's Zero X electric dirt bike accelerates from 0 to 30mph in less than 2 seconds. In fact, they rival the performance of many 250cc gas-powered bikes in terms of power and speed.

With so much attention being given to alternative-fuel vehicles, Neal's Zero X is really starting to get some attention in the media.

Check it out!

Wired article

USA Today Article

http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/