There is a school of thought that all of the claimed benefits of the unconventional British geometries, be it Hetchins, Bates, Baines, Paris or what have you, was a lot of hogwash (if I may be permitted the Americanism) and that the real objective was just marketing, i.e. making one's product stand out from the many marques available at the time. I would concede that the Baines Flying Gate and the split seattube on some brands, if used to radically shorten the wheelbase, probably did change the handling, although not necessarily for the better. Otherwise I tend to agree with the above school of thought, notwithstanding the fact that I own a curly Hetchins and two Bates, one new one and another from the 50's. The curly Hetchins look cool, or at least different. Perhaps that's all you can saw about them, but perhaps that's enough.
Regards,
Jerry Moos Big Spring, TX
Harvey M Sachs <sachshm@cox.net> wrote: Scott Minneman wrote:
Since we've been discussing various Hetchins bikes recently, I stumbled across this one that it looks like a fellow list member is selling. Ebay item #7221807103.
The engineer in me keeps saying that there's no possible benefit from those zig-zag chainstays, but another part of me is starting to find them intriguing enough that a Hetchins will probably occupy a spot in my garage...eventually. This one is too small for me. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ It's my understanding that Hetchins' partner, Jack Denny, brought the "curly" stays to the partnership. To me, curly stays are simply an elegant way to get the weight and flex (in both directions) of a much longer wheelbase w/o actually having the long wheelbase. If, of course, those are your goals.
I hope this is taken as mere heresy: some folks take this stuff very seriously.
Fortunately, there very nice Hetchins out there with conventional stays, and one of these days I'll get mine (from Palo Alto) posted at wooljersey.
harvey sachs
mcLean va.