Haro X3 Build

I have a 2009 Haro X3 that I'm rebuilding. I rode a lot back in middle and high school, then kind of stopped in college and got a hardtail 29er to ride. A few years ago I bought some parts for the Haro and never put them on and forgot about it. Found them a few days ago and figured I'd finally build the bike back up as I'm not working with this whole virus thing.

This is what I had, everything to convert from gyro back to be dual cable. I could never get the pads to engage the rim at the same time, so I figured having both sides separately adjustable it would help dial it in.
SST ORYG dual lower cables
Odyssey Evo II brake
2 london mods (one to be converted to just act as a guide)

Also had a pair of Shadow Gutteral grips, a WTP Feelin' 2.1 tire and a Federal 2.1 tire.


I ordered some other new parts after taking a look over the bike again (hasn't been ridden in maybe 2 years). Stem bolts and all 4 axle bolts were rusting so I ordered the Shadow solid stem bolt kit, and Mission Alloy axle nuts. I could never get the chain tension and position right even with the chain tensioner, so I ordered a Shadow Interlock V2 with the breaker. I also was never a huge fan of the seat on this bike (the print or the shape). I always thought pivotol seats looked really clean, so I ordered an Animal Luv Seat and pivotal post.

Plan was to strip the bike down, remove stickers, clean it up some and install everything.

Can see how dried up the stock tires were.


I always did like these little finger holds at the back of the stock seat though.


Torn down and cleaned up.


Stock rims, kind of surprised they're not way bent up.



So here's where it started to go awry... I noticed the sprocket had some worse wear I didn't see before, so I figured I'd take it off and get a new one. It would also be a good time to re-grease the BB. Took it apart and the non-drive side bearing was blown out, the lockring wasn't tight (not loose enough to wobble or feel wrong) but enough to wreck the cage.



Found a snowmobile preload adjustment lock ring spanner fits the American bearing race perfect. Before I found this out I was beating it with a chisel with no luck. Also Aerokroil is good stuff.



I originally was just going to get a bearing replacement kit. I personally find lots of cheaper crank or bottom bracket implementations on BMX bikes or MTB's to be a total PITA to work on. Tapered crank arms that need special tools, threaded in BB's that need special tools, this American BB setup that you have to tighten by feel to either not bind bearings or destroy them being loose... I ended up finding you can get setups that use mid bearings in American races. I just wasn't a fan of having the sprocket stay in place by the crank arm only (this Haro setup just uses a boss for close clocking, and the race holds it tight). Doing some more searching I found this Salt setup (Rookie sealed BB crank) that includes the BB and crank as a whole 'conversion' kit. I ordered this and a new Salt sprocket this morning.
https://us.sourcebmx.com/products/salt-rookie-us-mid-sealed-bb-cranks?lang=en¤cy=usd&loc=us
https://us.sourcebmx.com/products/salt-pro-sprocket?variant=31478669508669

I think this will work perfect, still easy 8-spline, no stupid threaded on races and retaining rings, sealed bearings, and can bolt the sprocket to the crank arm.

Here's a photo of the london mod that will be just the guide (where the regular front guide is). So the cable ferrule could fit through I had to drill out the holes with a 15/64 bit.


So here is where I am now while waiting for all the parts to come in. Will mount up the tires and probably the brake arms and remove the BB races.

Got some parts in. Still missing the most important stuff though, BB and cranks. Can't really do much more without them.

New tires all mounted.


The new lot. Showing my new Haro old school stickers from ebay, Not sure if they're reprints or actual old stickers.



Only OEM sticker I left on.


The upper london mod I planned to use for cable routing didn't work as planned, the bolt head was too wide to fit in the mount. I had to grind it down to fit. Kinda janky looking but still better than a velcro strap or tape imo.



I put the london mods opposite of each other to get the most space between each to keep the cable line as straight as possible. Got some ferrules off Amazon to use after cutting the cable housings to length.





The Shadow stem bolt kit didn't fit right. To me bolts are bolts, I'm not sure why but these are a touch larger diameter (didn't bother to measure) than the stockers. They were tight once they met the stem ID counterbore. I drove them in (and you can see where the anodizing wore off the OD) but it'll work.



Bolted the brake arms on, left the lines at full length until I get the wheel on (which depends on the cranks and chain) so I can adjust them then. Got bars and new grips on also.

Looks pretty good so far. I'd probably suggest just buying a new stem instead of forcing the bolts in though. Stripping the bolts would cause strength and integrity issues and the stem is a pretty important area to keep you from taking a header into those bars. Interested to see the full build. Keep it goin man!

Thanks for the kind words! I think you're right, for now I might just put the original bolts back in. They just had a little surface rust that was just cosmetic. I just got the Shadow ones to make it look better, but like you said probably not the safest thing the way they went on.

Finally finished this. Took a bit for the parts to come in. Sorry for all the text here, didn't take as many photos as the tear-down because I was excited to get it back together. Feel free to just look at photos if that's your thing

Salt sprocket and adapter.


Here's the crank minus the bearings, middle spacer, and US to Euro 'conversion' cups.


Put the cups in, then the bearings. One side cup was very hard to get in. Also I forgot to put the spacer in so I had to take one side out again (beer may or may not have been a factor ), fortunately the opposite side was fairly easy to tap back out. Put spacer in and pressed it all back together.

BB in with spindle.

Used a caliper to measure the distance from inside crank arm pedal boss to frame so I could see how aligned they were, I only needed one of the small spacers on the non-drive side to get them within half a mm (I believe the thin spacer was 1.5mm, photo above you can see they supplied 2 thinner spacers and 2 thicker).

Chain Setup:
Had to ditch my Redline chain tensioners unfortunately. For the Shadow Interlock chain I lined up my old one with it to get as close as possible for length. Broke it to length and it would have been VERY tight with the rear wheel slammed. I added one link and it fit good, but with how the chain tensioner is setup it was exactly between the two axle set points and would not fit. If the adjustment bolts on them were about 5mm longer they would have worked in the front position. Oh well, was able to jam a screwdriver handle between the tire and frame and get the wheel square and the chain tight.

Brakes:
The brakes weren't TOO much of a pita to setup. Hardest part was getting the cable ends into position without them moving when trying to tighten them down. They had pre-applied loctite on them so the allen didn't spin very easy. Somewhat helped to get the arm position close without spring tension applied first, then preload the springs and tighten it down. I adjusted the pads with no toe-in to the rim, and was able to get both side pads to touch the rim at the same time. I must say this is the best (bmx) brake system I've ridden, very responsive. The pads that came with the system are a little harder durometer, no squeal besides the first few times trying to bed them.

Seat:
Love this thing, shape feels better than the stock one and the pivotal looks much cleaner. Wish they would have at least told you the key size to install it (had to google it) though. Does anyone have photos of these things taken apart? I was under the impression this whole time it was just a bolt riding inside a curved ramp but seems to be more than that. If the bolt snaps/strips on are you screwed with these?

Also found some 'classic' Haro stickers on ebay, I think they're just reprints but still cool. Wish the one for the headtube was a little smaller though.








Had fun on my short ride today, been a few years since I really rode a bmx. I'm absolutely terrible on it but been out of work with this virus thing and watching Scotty's Youtube kind of inspired me to start riding again.

I forgot to add, I do NOT recommend these pedals. I originally bought them for my 29er hardtail that I mostly use for longer rides and on my trainer for Zwift. They're advertised as low-profile and that they are, the bad part is the spindle area in the middle is taller than the rest of the pedal. After a while you can feel a pressure point on your foot directly over the spindle. I put them on the bmx thinking it wouldn't matter as much as you're not constantly pedaling. Still felt it on my short ride so far...

Oh and I accidentally put my rear tire on backwards (see previous comment about beer).

Looks good man. Dig those old school decals too! How does that BB conversion thing feel? Can you notice any thing different about it? I've never seen those and didn't know they had them.

Thanks! To me it doesn't feel any different than before. Them being sealed bearings vs the non-sealed I think negates any difference you would feel from them being smaller. I'd recommend the kit if you would want to go this route. The only thing I'm not a huge fan of is the spindle could be a little wider, you have to be careful tightening the crank bolts so one side doesn't pull the spindle over.