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“Ride” – Trailer

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The story of John Buultjens turned movie is now here…

If you keep up with the BMX news, you probably saw a while back that there was a full-length feature film being made that’s based off the life story of Haro‘s Brand Manager John Buultjens. The movie will be dropping soon, with some premieres already kicking off. Here’s a look at the trailer that gives you an idea of what’s to come. This trailer doesn’t give away a ton since John’s story is super deep and it’s a long road from when he was a kid on up to where he is today. Either way, we’re excited to see this one since it looks real solid.

John Buultjens “Ride: BMX Glory, Against All the Odds” Book Out Now

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The book telling the story of Haro Brand manager, John Buultjens, has just been released as a book, ahead of the full-length feature film…

Ride: BMX Glory Against All Odds John Buultjens Book

Anyone who has spent some time with John Buultjens knows he has one hell of a story and it’s an absolutely incredible one. What you might not know about the Haro Bikes Brand Manager is that he had a hell of a life growing up, leading him down the path to where he is today. There’s a full on movie about his story coming, but they just released the book to tell the story as well and it’s available NOW! Get the details below.


“Ride lays bare the harrowing beginnings and the tough life lessons learned by John Buultjens on his rise to BMX Glory, Against All the Odds. Raised by his poor family on Glasgow’s Drumchapel estate, he slept rough to escape his violent father’s beatings. Placed in a children’s home by his mother, he was then adopted by a bi-racial couple. After conquering his own racism, his life turned around, and the blockbuster movie E.T. inspired a love of BMX. Although spurred by bitterness, John’s emigration to Australia saw him take his sporting enthusiasm to new levels. Then came the call from California to lead Haro BMX. As their global brand manager, he now backs and sponsors riders across the globe. Hollywood has since turned his unbelievable journey into a movie, set for release in March 2018. Here, John reveals inner secrets including family murders, hatred, sexual abuse – and how his white-knuckle ride has taken him to the top against all the odds.”

The book is available now for $19.99 right here!

Haro Bikes – 2018 Lineage Complete Line

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Haro Bikes just dropped this video they put together featuring John Buultjens giving you a run through of the entire 2018 Lineage Complete Bikes line that will be released in March! As always, Haro have done an amazing job of combining modern features with the retro styles! All of these bikes look amazing, so hit play and get the full details!

“Feast your eyes on these!

With the influence of the 1988 line of bikes, BMX Brand Manager John Buultjens introduces the 2018 Haro Lineage complete bike line.

Haro Bikes 2018 Lineage Complete BMX Bikes  Team Master 26

Haro Bikes 2018 Lineage Complete BMX Bikes Team Master

2018 Haro Team Master 20″ and 26″

Haro Bikes 2018 Lineage Complete BMX Bikes Team Sport 26

Haro Bikes 2018 Lineage Complete BMX Bikes Team Sport

2018 Haro Team Sport 20″ and 26″ (2:18)

Haro Bikes 2018 Lineage Complete BMX Bikes  Group 1 29"

2018 Haro Group 1 “Pistol” Pete Loncarevich signature model 29″ (4:19)

We’re taking orders now and the expected arrival date is March 2018”

Sneak Peek: Haro – 2017 Mirra Pro Tribute Bike

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Here’s one we’re sure a ton of you will be excited about. Haro‘s Brand Manager, John Buultjens dropped this sneak preview of the frame and fork that will be used on the 2017 Dave Mirra Tribute Bikes that they are currently working on! Not a lot of details are available yet, but we do know that proceeds will be going to Dave’s family, and we assume these bikes will be pretty limited edition! We’ll definitely keep you in the loop as soon as we know more!

What do you think? Let us know in the comments!

Behind the Scenes of “Ride” The Movie

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If you have been on Instagram lately, there’s a good chance you might have caught some glimpses into a new movie that’s in the works that is based around BMX. More specifically, it’s based around the incredible life of Haro‘s brand manager, John Buultjens, and how a new family and BMX completely changed his outlook on life and his future completely. This movie has a pretty interesting cast from a number of pro riders to guys like rapper / actor Ludacris and more! Hit play to check out a news story on the movie that gives you some details. We’re really looking forward to this one. John’s story is absolutely amazing and unless you have crossed paths with him, you probably haven’t heard it. This movie should really open up a lot of peoples eyes well beyond BMX riders.

“Chris “Ludachris” Bridges, Sasha Alexander, Ali Afshar and John Buultjens are interviewed about their upcoming project “Ride” – KTVU CBS 2 News”

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Sneak Peek – Haro – HPF Tire

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haro-bmx-hpf-tires-2016-full

Over the course of the past few years, we’ve been seeing a lot of old school products being brought back to life between a number of brands like GT Bicycles and Haro. If you have been following Haro, it has been pretty rad seeing what John Buultjens has been making happen since he took the reigns. We’ve seen a number of retro inspired products surface over the past two or so years, and it looks like John isn’t done yet. We just spotted this sneak peek of the modern HPF tire next to an older HPF tire that we’re assuming is from the 80’s. No details on the tire yet, but we would imagine it will have the same tread pattern with a more modern size, appears to be a 2.20″ in the photo, but we could be wrong. We did receive a comment on Facebook saying that the tires will be available in 2.00″ and 2.20″ sizes after we posted this. So, if you are into the old school side of BMX, get excited. These have been two years in the making and we would imagine it won’t be long before you can pick these up through Haro dealers worldwide.

Check out more BMX Tires.

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The Return of the Classics

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haro-bmx-john-buultjens-postcast-snakebite-bmx-dig

It’s weird how thoughts can be triggered and once those thoughts are started, you really can’t get it off your mind. This morning when I hopped on the computer to get the day started, one of the first pieces of news I came across was that GT Bicycles added Albert Mercado, Dan Conway and Jeff With Glasses to their team. Now, initially it triggered this thought “Man, GT have been really taking steps in the right direction”, but that really just scratched the surface because then it lead to a more in-depth thought which was that GT Bicycles have really stepped their game up since they brought Ben Ward on board. Ben has been making the necessary changes to the team, product and overall image of the brand to really get people looking at GT as a freestyle BMX brand that is putting in some actual effort versus just producing bikes with no real image beside affordability. That lead to the thought of how Haro have really revived their reputation since John Buutljens was put in charge over there.

When you work in the BMX industry, you will undoubtably hear that BMX goes in full circle where trends will come and go, to return later down the road in a more refined (or possibly worse) way. We’ve seen a lot of brands come and go and we’ve also seen the reputations of brands and riders go from high to low or the other way around. In an industry that relies so much on trends and reputations, it’s no wonder that people in power have to walk a thin line to ensure that things continue forward in a positive way. You have one bad falling out in public, like when Stranger added Adam LZ and most of the team quit, or a product that completely flops, you can expect to see that snowball into a shit storm because social media thrives on drama and things that push the buttons of ethics and morals.

It’s funny how a few changes can lead to some pretty amazing things, though. Now, you probably wouldn’t notice it unless you really pay attention but it’s pretty obvious that since John Buultjens has taken the reigns at Haro, the team has become incredibly stacked and the products and brand have received a much higher approval rating than it did in years past. It went from a brand that was associated with this mass production that wasn’t really one of the “core” brands, nor did it seem to really care what these core riders cared about because Haro’s target was more toward entry level riders scooping bikes up through bike shops. I specifically remember a time when a kid showed up at the skatepark on a new Premium frame that he was really stoked on, until somebody pointed out that Premium was a sub-brand of Haro and that he was essentially riding a Haro. It was really weird because there really wasn’t anything wrong with the product, it was just that the association with Haro wasn’t exactly a badge of honor, and that bummed the kid out.

chad-kerley-ck-haro-bmx-bike
Haro released this sneak preview of the Chad Kerley signature CK frame that is in the works.

Once John took over, he put a lot of emphasis on the retro, old school roots of Haro which a lot of people were kind of wondering what the hell he was thinking. Why would anyone be stoked on a bunch of retro bikes beside these “old guys” who are far beyond this “target market” range of 13-18 year olds? Sure, it might have been something that was geared toward going against the current trends in BMX and paying homage to the history of the brand to shake things up a bit, but that was just part of why it was done. In our opinion, John was reviving the old reputation of Haro. That reputation that it was a core BMX brand that had a history of supporting some of the best BMX riders in the world, pushing those riders to show the world that BMX is a legitimate sport to the riders and the masses. They stacked the deck with riders that kids idolized and the older guys respected because they were riders that absolutely crushed it. Haro had DMC, Mat Hoffman, Mike Dominguez to name a few back in the day, which followed up with the crazy Mirra and Nyquist days that put the brand in front of damn near every kid. That followed up with a bit of a quiet period. Mirra left, they really weren’t doing anything innovative beside moving product, Premium was introduced but, in my opinion, never really gained that quality after market reputation because it was attached to Haro. It was in a bit of a rut that was holding the brand down from it’s previous history. That’s what lead to the shake up that lead to John being hired and it’s safe to say they’ve done a good job of reviving the brand to some of its core values. They put Dennis Enarson, Chad Kerley, Tyler Fernengel, Jason Watts and Mike Gray on the team, along with the legends Ryan Nyquist and Dennis McCoy still holding it down like they have for years. Mix in that team with some more appealing quality product and a much more appealing image than they had in past years and it’s easy to see the changes that have been happening that helped alleviate that rut the brand was in.

gt-bicycles-4-piece-bmx-bars
Preview of the new 4-piece bars that GT are bringing back based off their originals that started the 4-piece bar back in the day.

It’s a similar story for GT Bicycles. Over the last decade, GT kind of faded out of the freestyle side, sticking to their guns in the racing side of this sport of ours. Sure, they made some complete bikes and kind of dabbled in the freestyle stuff with guys like Jeremiah Smith kind of holding it down for them for a while, but there was never really much of a push to be innovative in the product department. At the end of the day, it was just this corporate brand that was going through the motions to keep the cash flow going.
I specifically remember the exact moment that I felt GT would be making some real moves to come back alive like it was in the past, though. It was at Interbike 2014, somewhere between the convention center and the hotel that I bumped into Ben Ward who had been kind of laying low after parting ways with Fit Bike Co., and Odyssey a few years prior to that. Ben had mentioned that he had just taken a new gig with GT and would be handling design work for them, along with their freestyle side of things. He didn’t say much at the time, but it was obvious that Ben would be putting a lot of work in his BMX role at the brand.

Immediately we saw a few shake ups with the team that ultimately lead to Brian Kachinsky, Rob Wise and Jason Phelan holding things down for the brand with Jeremiah Smith parting ways back in December. We started catching some sneak previews of some of their new products that Ben was working on, too. Then we got a look at a good chunk of new product at their Interbike 2015 booth, along with Ben filling us in on a few things he has been working on that wouldn’t be available for a little while. Now, today they announced that they have added Albert Mercado, Dan Conway and Jeff with Glasses to their squad, which is a pretty interesting combination of riders that we never expected to see representing the brand. But, it’s some new enthusiasm that the brand really needed to get some peoples attention again. It might not be on the level that Haro has went with, but seeing those changes are really good considering that a few years ago it seemed like GT didn’t really care to put much into the freestyle side of BMX.

albert-mercado-gt-bicycles-bmx
Albert Mercado with his new GT Bicycles setup.

The next piece of the puzzle is seeing what Ben has been working on as far as the product development goes. What you might not realize is that it can take about two years before you can really see changes take effect because production and development of products is not a quick process, especially when a large brand like GT are working a few years ahead of what’s currently “new” and just becoming available. It might be 2016, but I guarantee there’s plenty of talk about 2018 at GT. These changes and new efforts being made can completely change the image and reputation that riders can have for a brand drastically.

gt-bicycles-pool-tire-bmx

The classic Pool tire from GT revitalized with the new energy from the brand.

So, now that I’ve managed to ramble on and on about two of BMX’s more iconic brands that have been making some key changes to revive their images, all because of some sponsorship news that popped up today. I should probably try and wrap this up and get to the point. I guess what I’m saying is that it’s pretty awesome seeing what can be done when the right people are given the reigns to put a brand back on track. Am I saying that we’ll be seeing Haro and GT taking BMX back over like they did in the past? No, and I don’t think that’s their goal. I don’t think they’re trying to compete with brands like Cult, Kink, Wethepeople or Subrosa, but I do think they’re trying to be a little more involved and current with the freestyle aspect of BMX than they previously had been in years past and that’s important. As much as BMX appears to reject this “corporate” side of the industry, it’s still important to have these brands involved because they do a really good job of reaching beyond the small core BMX community, which is important to draw in more riders and sponsorship dollars that this industry does need to keep the wheels turning. I guess what I’m getting at is that I appreciate that these classic brands still care enough to do things the right way versus what might generate the most revenue and I think that’s important to a lot of other riders, too.

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Albe’s Old School BMX Show

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albes-old-school-bmx-show

Are you looking for a good time? Well, the guys at Albe’s have one for you! On March 26th they will be having and Old School BMX Show at their shop in Warren, Michigan (close to Detroit). They will have free pizza, cheap beer, a TON of old school BMX bikes on display and Haro brand manager John Buultjens and the legend Dennis McCoy there as well! You can learn more about the event and check out a few photos from last years event on the Albe’s Website!

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