Bike Anti-Porn - When Things Go Wrong

Excellent my Hetchins made the anti-porn page I must have done something right!

It should be possible to get a quite nice straight stay Hetchins 531 frame for less than the price of a new 631 frame, and the Aluminium frames which are really better than that are more expensive still. You're showing far too much reverence for a very ordinary frame of which there are probably thousands of examples still kicking around.

I picked the frame up of ebay for just over £400 its almost exactly the same dimensions as a custom Ribble 753 road frame I had built 15 years ago and that was £370 then. I'd be surprised if you could get such a nice frame that fits so well for that much these days, definitely not one with pretty curly lugs!

In my post on current projects I mention I'm not happy with the wheel/tyre combo and the crank isn't quite right (a more elegant chainwheel would help), and I went to quite a bit of time to remove all logos from all the parts to keep focus on the great frame.

My Dad has a Hetchins from the year before this one (1960) obviously full period components and was last ridden 15years ago, by me for about a couple of miles.
It's back in the garage roof collecting dust again.
I figure bikes are for riding so mine is going to get ridden!

As Ed pointed out the frame is un-touched from original (was restored to original colours a few years ago), and to swap everything out for other parts is a pretty quick job.

Oh and it rides very nicely...