Funny thing about John's Monty Python comment. Good stuff!

Bill, it's sad to hear about Richard. I knew the family well, even Richie JR whom I'm sure cost his father tons of money as the TM in the 80's. Eric Carter and I certainly had a grand old time as kids stickering the town car with thounsands of stickers at a national. Looking back on it we were just kids but the paint job was ruined, none the wiser.

The car was also trashed as Richie fell asleep behind the wheel following my father. Charles Townsend says he woke up when Richie hit a guard rail... man we were tough on rentals bitd.

If anyone from the ABA has contact information I wouldn't mind getting in touch with Richie Jr.

Me also I hope you disappear.

You're not Mr HUTCHINS and the retroactivity for the HUTCH's name is a joke.

Why cbrgil continue to sell on E Bay expensive false HUTCH pad set ?. Pay the copyright for ?.

It is a friend to you ?. A UK friend of business ?

Not a Monty Python comment a stupid comment.

A monkey business....

John i know nothing about Hutch,, i have only ever seen 1 in the flesh in 36 years.. but the pics i see of them r amazing.. id love to have 1, but im not in the position financially.. but i like ur idea and wish u luck.. glad u diddnt buy the name of the pink panther.. inspector clouseau would be livid...
cheers

Makes you wonder why all the "Frenchie's" are the ones not happy? What gives?

John, I am not much of an old schooler any more, but wish you the best of luck. Looks like you have done your homework.

Congrats.....

RC

Yes sir, sometimes it is

Deanna, those are interesting tidbits and I know they relate to the broader picture. I can tell a similar story of my time at the cad/cam company, which was the few years prior to and ending with the dot.com crash of 2000. If that event had not happened, we certainly would have bled the company to death. But that was the corporate culture at the time, which came from the top down.

Ooops! My bad! Sorry, guess I wasn't paying attention again

JOhn are you the guy from Appleton that we have been trying to get together for a year or so now? We have emailed back & forth if you are. We defffinetly need to meet, my health issues have stabalized.
Congrats on the acquistion, it sounds like you have done your research on this and are doing it all top notch. It is guys like you that I wish would reserect the other companies instead of being sold overseas to make lo quality crap that they just want to cash in on the name. You on the other hand want to make the bikes as good or better than they originally were and keep with what made them great to begin with. I never had a Hutch back in the day but 2 of my good freinds did Mark & Dan and they were absolutly beatifull. Marks had aerospeeds & son lite hubs. That memerty of those guys bike and another guy Kelly who had an amazing Redline Proline & Cinelli made me get back into collecting 4 years ago. It is those memories that made me want to get BMX bikes, and well as with most of us it acumulated into a mass of parts & bikes. I have sold alot of my bikes due to medical bills & atty fees to get 50/50 custody of my kids. I still have a Hutch I beleive Pro Racer witch needs a new head tube and maybe seat mast if I can not the stuck post out.

So with all that said I wish you well and will be looking forward to seeing and maybe buying some new Hutch products. If you are herein otwn and need some cheap labor for help in your venture look me up
Scott

Hey Scott,
Yes, I am the guy from Appleton. Send a PM or gimme a call if you are able or interested in going for a scoot around town.

By chance are you referring to Mark Peters, Dan Muench and Kelly Bielfus(sp?)? Mark was a big JMC guy and had several DY's and an AP. He sent the DY's back to Jim for custom head-tube angles and custom colors. The AP got lifted from Appleton West HS since Mark didn't lock it up, so hopefully that turns up someday as a local find. I bumped into Mark 2 years ago at Rockford. It wouldn't surprise me if Jim Melton even remembers Mark from all of his requests.

Dan is still around too. A buddy of mine ran into him recently.

Kelly? Well, Kelly is Kelly so if you know him you know what I mean.

We all raced Oshkosh, Green Bay, Sheboygan, Manty indoor & outdoor; and also the Janesville Nats and 1984 Rockford indoor Nats.

Xenophobic Hillbilly !

John speaks about your true projects for Hutch.

The prices of new Hutch items.

Give indications.

Why certain seller always sell false piéces Hutch quietly?

They would be the ones. Dan owns a drywall comany now, mark I have not seen in years or Kelly but Kelly was allways a good BS'r wasnt he. Do you remeber Class Sysles & Bill Pratt? He is back in town now. We deffinetly have to get together, I can not ride to good anymore I have a really bad knee that does not bend well, but lets do lunch Give me an email and maybe we can do lunch next week or the week after.

John...congratulations on the purchase!!
ive never owned a hutch, but like many others, i seriously cant wait to see what's coming.

good luck!!

Awesome, now that you mention Cinelli, wasn't it gold with red trim? Something beautiful, if I remember correctly.

Pratter did most of my vintage lace jobs over the past 4 years. I read in the newspaper 2 weeks ago that he just opened up a small, exclusive-style bike shop in Neenah I think. I gotta check it out.

I just ran into Jay Cartright (I think it was) at Oktoberfest last fall. He was a co-owner of Class Cycles if I remember correctly. Just missed his yard sale. He had every issue of all the BMX mags from BITD and sold them dirt cheap. Still checking the thrift stores for them.

Sorry the thread got off-course. I'll send you a message.

Hey, by chance does that Pro Racer have a phone number on the BB? If it does, call my mom and get in touch with me. I would love to have my old F/F back.

Not Steve Pratt, Bill Pratt. Steve is his younger brother. Steve quite the bike shop he was at and now works at Saturn in Appleton, he may have opened his own shop again, I knew his missed the Beach Front shop he had. Bill is now managing the shop Steve did, he moved back from Minesota last year. He is diging up pics from Class Cycles from BITD so I can post them, I spent all my money there lol
Kelly's Cineli was gold with Cineli bars & stem, and all the Campy parts they came with. He had it stolen for the insurance money Dumb [please review the site FAQs]

Hmm, sounds like it might have went for a swim in the Fox River. There's a channel under the College Ave. bridge that I've already thought about dragging an under water camera through. The water's so murky though.

John

Congrats on the Deal, I was just talking to a friend of mine Jay Becht who owned part of Hutch/Hutchins at one Time when they moved here to Louisville, I was telling him that it would be cool if someone brought back the Hutch name with all the interest in the Vintage BMX market,
well cool it looks like that will be happening,
once again Congrats and Best of Luck with the New adventure,

Joey

Congratulations John looking forward to owning a NEW Hutch

John, received decal set yesterday. Very nice quality. As i have read all that has been said to this point i'm a bit miffed on your comment to me via email when buying the decals. I understand your wanting to go about this the right way. If your going to make pedals, would'nt that offend someone who owned an all original pro star. Thanks again for the decals very nice. Greg

????????

PM sent

Joey, thanks for the comments. Perhaps Jay would like to shed some light as to all the products and ballpark quantities he made with that machine shop in Louisville. A supply of "original Hutch" parts has surfaced over the past year or so and been made available on eBay, and it would be nice to confirm for the record books that he was the source. The tell-tale sign is all the color combo's and sizes of the 2n1 stem lock. It woud be nice to have a clear list of the parts that were made during that time, if he is interested in contributing.

None of this is of importantance for my venture, but I'm sure many people would appreciate the info for historical reference.

are you only after the vintage market? or do you think modern day racers will pay these prices when they can get a better/stronger/larger pedal cheaper?
i'm confused about your market research. mine shows ALL pedals even with the TI spindle option are under $220.


http://www.danscomp.com/products.php?cat=P...amp;show=Pedals
http://www.danscomp.com/products.php?pages...als&by=NAME
http://www.brooklynmachineworks.com/site/storeindex.html
http://www.crupibmx.com/pedals.htm

i think it's good that you bought Hutch.

Hopefully he will modernize the design for the current market.
Offer a replica also, but that will have a limited market.

im confused as to what will be offered too. this is only my opinion. i think if you go after the old school and retro parts it wouldnt be a good idea. lets face it theres alot of guys who like the old scool stuff but thats not going to cut it. you need to go after the young kids and the new trends. freestyle/streetriding is so huge right now its unbelievable. i have a local bike shop thats been around since the 70s and went through all the racing,freestyle,dirt jumping trends and now he is out of control. selling completes for over 1700-2000 like hes giving away candy. the kids come in pick out a frame/forks/cranks/wheels/ etc and build complete custom bikes. i say do the research and build a lightweight high quailty chromoly new school frame. go head to head with s&m the top frame builders now. people are still wanting the american hand made frames and it shows.they are selling the frames alone for 375-400 now. i dont see to many kids around here even worring about racing bmx as much as before, hell at the track there mostly riding street/freestyle bikes there. my new eastern wieghs in at 20 lbs 6 oz and is full chromoly everything with no ti. my lightest bmx racebike wieghs 23 lbs and is all alumn.bring back the high quailty hi performance hutch name and build some new school frames then worry about the retro stuff after. but thats only my opinion. i hope this works out well for you. i look forward to supporting you and the new hutch bikes. good luck

HOLY CRAP!!! They are spending that much on BMX bikes? I mean, even back in the 80's you could do that but it was few and far between.

Are you saying it is somewhat normal to spend 1K plus in todays market?

i have spent 4200 on 2 bikes last year. and im not even riding that much. theres a kid that has the ti eastern here 18 lb bike 3200 its crazy but the parents are spending the money. they have completes now that run 1000-1375 and everybody knows completes dont have the top of the line parts on them, well of course unless its a hutch

Yes... it can easily be done. There are plenty of quality completes available in the $300-500 range but when you go the "boutique route" and build a custom bike, sky's the limit. Shimano DXR cranks for example will set you back 3 bills then quality set of clipless pedals, you are almost at $500 and you don't have the frame set yet.

This is precisely what I hope to do. I believe I stated in my intro my thoughts regarding the exponential potential for new-school products that have a subtle flair of brand-specific details. I believe both o-s and n-s efforts go hand-in-hand, but I do need to generate initial captial to be able to invest in n-s product. The established market of vintage is the tool to take me there.

Hutch has always been marketed as a "boutique" product with premium-quality at a premium price compared to compedators. I will not deviate from that formula. I agree that freestyle is bigger than I understand it to be, and my personal challenge will be learning about and adapting to that market.

We have had a few PM's and you know what I think.

It will be interesting to see what you come up with.

Hey John, if you need anyone to "test" these products, I would more than be happy to give you my address to send the parts to!

^^^ im with stupid.

EL EM AY OH

Hey John,

any ideas on what you're gonna do with CW?

Only the restoration decals that I have been offering, and also pad sets. I'll be concentrating on the Hutch brand for now.

Wow what other brands have you aquired? It's like us 40 year olds just went through a time machine and all our favorites bikes are for sale.

Changstar

I'm working on 1 or 2 more, but nothing solid yet. I'm more interested in working with existing companies or rights-holders for re-issues facilitated by them, along with properly re-issuing Hutch myself.

Jack Witmer has made it public that he wishes to sell Cook Bros Racing, so all you entrepreneurs, there ya go. Nice thing about CBR is that the established market goes beyond BMX.

John

I have not said anything on this subject untill now and I am very curious to see what comes out of your factory. You refered to the HUTCH product as "boutique" I am haveing a hard time seeing HUTCH, probably the largest manufacturer of BMX products in the 80's as "boutique". I know that some products had limted numbers but lets face it there are more HUTCH products on EBAY than any other BMX product right now. I wish you luck in your endevore and would love a set of aerospeeds that I can use hint hint.

John

John,

Does this mean you will be joining Greg Hill at Rockford wanting to "talk" with me?

John,

Congratulations on the big announcement! I guess this means I don't have to keep it a secret anymore. I have no doubt that you will be successful in this endeavor and I look forward to supporting you in any way possible.

Regarding the comment below about the Hutch chrome plating I am going to have to raise the BS flag on that one. Sure, Hutch was well known for their gleaming chrome parts (average quality by today's standards) but to go so far as to say that they were all hand polished is beyond absurd. Polishing a set of handlebars, much less an entire frame and fork set, is a labor intensive and time consuming process even with powered equipment. Doing it by hand, three times per part, would have required a staff of 100 working around the clock to keep up with the volume of parts that Hutch was producing on a daily basis back then. More info coming soon!

+1, no hand polishing after it was welded. From the jig into the tank.

TObin still owes me 5 bucks LOL !!!!!!!!!!!! Damn so that is the reason you bought those goose rims off me I want my cut!!!!!!!! 99.9 percent of waht you make. (I am J/k) been A rough couple of weeks.

I Will strike Up the subject with Jay next time I see Him, he doesn't talk much about the Old Hutch Days, I do remember asking him what he did with all of the old Hutch stuff, As far as I can remember he told me He sold it all to someone quite awhile back, Not sure Who ? (that person may be the one selling it on ebay)

I did email him about the old Hutch/Hutchins name, and if he still had the right to it, my reason for that was just like you I thought it would be cool to bring that name back, and if it could be done, he told me that if it was brought back royaltys would have to be paid to the Hutch sporting goods company, he didn't really say if he still had the rights too the name or not, so I'm just guessing he didn't since you have purchased the right to the name,

I will give Jay a call and let him know, and see if he wants to Add any Details about what was made when worked for or owned his part in Hutch.

I'm not one to nose into other peoples business, so if you don't mind me asking what is the deal with the Hutch sporting goods company are you straight with them is everything cool, hell are they still in Business?

Once again Congrats on the new business Venture with the Hutch and CW names I wish you the Best of luck, I look foward to seeing the Hutch name again, though i do not collect the old school Bikes I do still have my 1982 Hutch FF hanging in the closet at the parents House I loved that FF

If you have any questions you want me to forward to Jay I will be happy to do so just send me a PM..Hopefully he might shed some light on some of his part in the Hutch history,,,

Modern Day Racers aren't after "Boutique" Parts. A good percentage of racers could care less about old school. Good Luck selling razor sharp beartraps for $300 to Racers that all run clipless Pedals. The only market you have with the modern day racer is the 35 and over 1st timer that comes to the track in his cool, back in the day mentality. All dressed up in his hutch gear. Soon to realize that he has to switch to clips to keep up.Why buy the rights anyway? your already making hutch stuff and boasting on your auctions that your product is the best. MoToDoG

I believe John said $199!





Clips suck!

dude, he said $299 with Ti spindles. still pretty intense. $$$$$$$$$$$$$

Not exactly an accurate statement, but acceptable for a passing conversation.

They are long gone.

In regards to comments about chrome: remember that there's a big difference between production chrome and show chrome. The earliest literature from Hutch shows that Richard was trying to market the triple-plate show chrome. But as they started cranking up the volume, a thinner production chrome was necessary just to keep up with demand and also increase profitability. It's not that production chrome is bad, it's that Richard simply set an insanely high bar for quality in the earliest days. Which leads me to...

...my Rockford 2008 build, which will showcase some very rare 1st-gen parts, hand-made by the actual hands of the people who first conceived the product. Some of those parts later morphed slightly and went to production-style manufacturing, while others were too hand-made and too expensive to be viable to the general market. When you think of those parts being physically crafted by the guys that gave birth to their designs, it certainly adds to my appreciation of them.

Regarding chrome:

I was sure that Hutch and other brands of the day (early 1980's) were only using chrome over nickel. Wasn't is just a two-coat process back then?

The earliest catalogs also specify "triple plated show chrome" on other items such as the cranks (1st-gen) and also their own chroming service (excerpt):

NEW - Our own special chroming
chromed 7x rims
chromed wheels with chromed hubs and spokes
chromed x-caliber clamps
chromed Suntour clamps

john - you get my email?

But without they are $199, which isn't bad considering NOS Hutch pedals are $350 and up!

Mmmmmmmmm Heidi!!

Actually, USED ones in FAIR shape are going for a minimum of $350. NOS go for $500-$750