Haro Shows Off New Aluminum Trail & Enduro Bikes

 brushed aluminium makes everything look good

 @johnny2shoes: Very practical to own as well. No paint to chip is nice.

 It's amazing how just like the most basic 4 bar brushed aluminum bike looks so good.

 Looks like an old aluminum v1 smuggler

 @johnny2shoes: They should just clear the brushed aluminium one with a simple logo and send it!

 @johnny2shoes: what about polished aluminum like an old GT

 Haro was my first MTB in 2010. Good to see they are making some good sensible bikes again!

 @mior: I have one of these. I don't ride it but I just can't let it go. It's just cool.

 @mior: oof don't get me started. especially if hugging a juicy bit of thermoplastic.

 @mior: Sadly its nearly impossible to get a truly polished alloy for production these days due to safety and environmental challenges. Brushed finish seems to be as close as anyone can get... is anyone offering a truly polished raw alloy frame?

GT used to "ball burnish" their frames to achieve the "polished" look

 @dstroud70: I ride my 93ish RTS as my main xc bike lol

 @FarmerJohn: what are the safety and environmental challenges? i was able to get my gt frame from nearly corroded and super dull to eye-hurting shiny with a tub of polish and a whole day.

 @mior: You rubbing it out in the corner of the garage is a lot different than large scale production. Another challenge that I recall is blemishes- small dings or scratches in a tube can be hidden with a dab of filler and paint to keep the reject rate low but with large scale production, the reject rate goes through the roof. If you polish a tube to hide blemishes, you are effectively reducing wall thickness and sacrificing durability

 @NRZ: the logo is a bit oversized…

 @FarmerJohn: yeah that is a good point... when i removed the BB i found what looked like walnut blasting medium so maybe thats how they did it? the bike has blemishes for sure but its cool af

 @mior: balls.

 Change the name from Haro to Hard and I’d buy one.

 Luckily gen 1 privateers still exist

 @zyoungson: they discontinued the gen 1 bikes long ago

 I still can't believe they messed up the aesthetics of the Gen2 so much ...

 Privateer taking it to the grave that the Gen 2 isn’t ugly and is going to sell.

 This is a lot what a raw Patrol looks like ! But I own a raw aluminium spire , hard for me not to like this bike !

 I have a Gen I Ohlin's LE and I thought the same exact same thing. But be warned, these bikes are all boat anchors.

 @Shitass: Yes but for anyone interested plenty of them for sale on fb owner's group. Cheap and geo/standards are still current (apart from UDH). Great bikes if you don't mind the weight much.

 Exactly

 That bike was and still is rad.

 ...except that I would trade my patrol for the shorter chainstay on the Haro. 440 is just too long to bunny hop

 Haro Nyquist R1 in poo-brown.
Must’ve weighed like 40kgs or something.

 The trunnion shock

 @Frank191:
That’s what I was thinking.
Why a trunnion shock?

 @WTF-IDK: exactly. And I got downvoted for some reason…

 @Frank191: trunnion is a non issue if the frame is straight, and the particular shock used is robust enough that the shock body won't crack, which they all are these days.

I would rather have trunnion VS a tiny shock with poor leverage rate that needs crazy high pressures.

 @Glory831Guy: Trunion still puts excess wear on the shock. Not a huge amount but it's not an ideal design.

 Yep came to say the same thing — nothing earth shattering, but would buy for those reasons.

 No because with the RAAW bikes you're getting way better value somehow. I'm not sure how, but trust me the frame (and no shock) is way more valuable at $2600 than this complete bike at $3300.

 @The-Wheel: Sarcasm is strong with this one.

 @The-Wheel:

RAAW makes your wallet raw ....

 I think it would be cool if they sold some of these in the old school graphic/color schemes. I’m considering this on now — if they do that, I’m definitely in.

 He was hired 4 months ago-he probably just got done onboarding, aint getting a bike made that fast.

 I'm willing to bet good money that it comes back something like this; "while we did enjoy the way it handled the downhill, the weight and pedaling performance was lackluster. If you're into this kind of thing, this might be the bike you're looking for." Or some variation thereof with a lot more words that would get a passing grade from a freshman English professor.

 @LiveFreeorDie:

But bruisers they do like (gucci brands like RAAW) get praised and words are used to describe their tank-like tendency in a positive light instead.

It's the pre-opinions some reviews have that are slightly lem and misleading.

 No, an Australian feminist writer.

 Considering the other bike seems to be named after Daley Ranch, another So-Cal trail system, you're probably onto something.

 Harco Gright

 came to post this. For those folks who want a Sight without a high pivot or high price tag.

 Haro has a BMX background, though I don't think 435mm is particularly short. And remember that on most full suspension mountainbikes, the chainstay grows a bit as the rear suspension compresses so sagged geometry is usually a bit longer.

 @vinay: Yes, but that's true of essentially all bikes, so if 435 mm feels too short to someone, it will feel just as much too short on this bike with 435 mm chainstays as whatever bikes they're referencing. Well, unless 435 mm was a bit short on the hardtails they exclusively rode until these Haros persuaded them to try rear suspension and the 437 mm dynamic length of these chainstays make all the difference.

 @R-M-R: Considering how small these differences are in CS length between brands or how small they are between frame size (for brands who actually grow the chainstay along with the other frame dimensions), 2mm might be the difference. I primarily ride my hardtail so yeah, that's my reference indeed. I don't ride loads of different mountainbikes, let alone different full suspension bikes. But my perception from reading these bike reviews here on PB is that 425mm and shorter is considered short and 445 and longer is considered long. Then 435mm would be about middle ground, wouldn't it? Regardless of course, for someone who considers 435mm too short, this one is too short. Point was, Haro is big in BMX bikes. The designers have a perception of how their bikes should be and customers also have expectations of how Haro bikes would ride even when spec'd with dirt-worthy wheels. It just wouldn't make sense for them to cater to the Pole audience.

 @vinay: What you've said is mostly true, the issue is that it wasn't very relevant to MartinStuflesser. He's already decided 435 mm is too short for his taste. Unless he's referring to a hardtail (his profile picture shows a bike with rear suspension) and ~2 mm makes a critical difference, the statement about dynamic chainstay growth - while true - is irrelevant to him because the same effect occurs on the rear-centres he has deemed too short.

To address the separate topic of typical chainstay lengths, which was not the original topic: 425 mm is extremely short. Only about 2% of all 29ers ever made have had a static chainstay length of 425 mm or less - and many of them are small brands, catering to niche preferences. Such lengths are slightly more common for frames using 27.5" rear wheels, but it's still extremely short. It could be argued that the ideal length is in this range and such dimensions are rare only due to the difficulty or impossibility of executing such a design with the size of the wheels we use. The counterargument is current trends are toward chainstays that are longer than what is dictated by the packaging challenges.

It's true that the typical range of chainstay lengths is remarkably small, considering the differences in terrain, riding styles, body sizes, and wheel sizes, so maybe we should experiment with lengths outside this range, but that's a whole different conversation. To go back to what started our conversation: regardless of what's normal or ideal, MartinStuflesser just likes longer chainstays.

 I love that there are some bikes left with short chainstays… well actually not. But at least, we get 435 here.

 @R-M-R: Yeah, maybe I should have limited my post above to that one sentence just beyond halfway: "Regardless of course, for someone who considers 435mm too short, this one is too short." I might subconsciously limit my bike review reading time to the ones with the shorter chainstays and without the big rear wheels so I must admit my perception of what currently is short, medium and long is probably skewed. Then again, whatever Pinkbike reviews is a subset of all bikes being produced anyway so even if I'd read them all, my perception would have been skewed.