FLYING FARRAGO


A frame has turned up with Experto Crede lugs, curly stays, a vertical tube similar to a Flying Gate, and a seat tube and seat cluster arrangement from a little-known defunct builder named Waller. I surmised that a genuine Hetchins might have been crashed and repaired from the bb backwards, but Trevor Jarvis is of the opinion that it's a hack job.

I might just mention that the whole point of the vertical tube is to shorten the wheelbase, not lengthen it.

Non-Hetchins bits are marked in red. (Photos courtesy of the owner.)






















Below are some photos gleaned from the Internet of the Waller design. It is hard to make out in the side-on photos here, but the vertical tube was actually two thin ones which were brazed to the bb shell wide apart.







Below, unedited correspondence between myself and Trevor Jarvis:

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Flying Farrago
Date: 2024-10-18 12:42
From: editor@hetchins.org
To: trevor34@tjcycles.co.uk
Trevor,
Please have a look at the attached photos. Any idea who might have made this? Flash

On October 22, 2024 at 5:09 PM Central European Summer Time,
trevor34@tjcycles.co.uk wrote:
Hi Flash, thank FrownFrown you for informing me this orful cock up. To cut up a perfectly good Expert Creda like this is pure madness even if he had made a good job of doing the work. You will note that the vertical tube is not vertical, Chris [Yeomans] and I know why this is, and the include a bit of Waller. You have asked who might have made it. "A pure madman" How did you locate it. ???? Trevor

On 2024-10-22 16:32,
editor@hetchins.org wrote:
Greetings Trevor and Chris [Yeomans],
I surmise that the original Hetchins was crashed and 'repaired' from the bottom bracket backwards. The provenance is unknown. It turned up in someone's garage recently.
Cheers,
Flash

Reply:
The original Hetchins would not have been crashed; it has been cut up to this configuration. Trevor



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