Re: [CR]Hetchins puzzlement

(Example: Production Builders)

From: <OROBOYZ@aol.com>
Date: Tue, 12 Mar 2002 08:15:19 EST
Subject: Re: [CR]Hetchins puzzlement
To: gregb51@hotmail.com, Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org


In a message dated 3/11/2002 10:29:46 PM Eastern Standard Time, gregb51@hotmail.com writes:

<< Are there two different Hetchins makers? >>

Greg: You might want to go visit the Archives <A HREF="http://www.phred.org/mailman/private/classicrendezvous/">CR List Archives</A> t and read the many remarks made this past year about this situation. Many list members grew tired of hearing us talk about it!!

The short version is: Yes, there are in fact currently three sources for "Hetchins"!

The most continuous source is that of David Miller in Lancshire, UK. He is part of a lineage which goes back to the Hetchins family. He, in turn, has licensed Hetchins frames to be produced in Australia by Clive Rodell for that market. Most recently Mark Joynt at Omega Cycles in Kent, UK, has staked a claim that he is the legal maker of Hetchins bicycles and he has the web site and a new full color brochure he recently sent out. He states that David Miller & Company have never registered nor copyrighted the Hetchins name and that it was legally up for grabs... And he grabbed. Hence the controversy.

The bottom line is that the lineage and validity of Hetchins as a distinct make is now undermined and those of us who collect and enjoy Hetchins bicycles are further reinforced in our belief that the "true" Hetchins bicycles most likely ended production around the early 1970s when the family and Jack Denny had less to do with their making.

Dale Brown
Greensboro, North Carolina