Ran accross some pedals ... a buddy has, someone said they were titron, pre hutch pedals? huh?? any help would be appreciated! thx

Photo's?

I am trying to upload photos... says files too large....hmmmm?

the ones we talked about??
dion

Titron pedals were made by Bear developement in grass valley ca.

Titron pedals were made by Bill Grove. Bear Development was the distributor.

When and how did hutch get involved?

you better watch out, debruin might repop those next

Hutch purchased Titron and used the design to create their Bear Traps. The early ones you are referring to are very valuable and way ahead of their time. Those are true Titrons. The later ones are sometimes referred to as Hutch-trons because of the resemblance to the Hutch Bear Traps that followed. These were called Titron Bear Traps and the original cages say exactly that on them.

a set I bought a year ago, on my cook bros now:

The titrons had titanium shafts, Did hutch ever offer a titanium shaft?

they might have

yeah i tried to upload pics and same problem file to large?

i remember ordering hutch bear trap mini w/ti. spindles
out of stock....at least my pops said they were out of stock.
so i settled on suntour sealed .
dion

Dion...yeah...I am listing them for a buddy and i've had like a bunch of responses... i even tried to upload the pix here but the file is too large!

There is a big misconception among collectors (as is evidenced in this thread) with regard to who made Titron parts and many tend to think that Bear Development made them but that is definitely not the case. Titron Titanium Components was a totally separate company based in Pennsylvania and Bear Development was nothing more than a reseller.

Titron had an OEM agreement with Hutch and was manufacturing items to be sold as Hutch until Titron could not keep with the rapidly increasing demand and eventually led to Hutch purchasing Titron in 1981-82. Hutch also hired the owner, Bill Grove, to be the Designer and Production Manager at the Hutch factory located at 4030 Benson Ave location in Baltimore, MD. Bill was about 24 years old at the time.

Backing up just a bit...

Bear Development was a small family owned retail business based in Grass Valley, CA. While they were in business they sponsored a race team consisting of some local Grass Valley kids, the owner’s sons, and Scott Clark who was the resident pro. Bear also sponsored a ABA National in Seattle, WA which you can find in the May ‘81 BMX Action I think it is. As far as Titron is concerned, Bear Development was nothing more than a reseller (not a distributor). The misconception stems from the fact that Bear Development advertised Titron parts in every BMX magazine during that time so it was the first time many of us had ever heard tell of Titron. That was unless of course you lived and raced in and around central PA during that time. In the end, Bear Development was not around all that long because the owner (John Owens d.2001) and his wife got divorced in 1981 and the business was shutdown. The remaining stock of Titron items was left to a local bike shop owner and I acquired those items a few years ago.

Regarding the question about titanium spindles; here is the answer....

Q: Did Titron pedals have any titanium or magnesium parts?
A: No. This might be hard to believe but that fact of the matter is that there were only a few prototype titanium spindles every manufactured by Titron and none were ever sold with pedals. The Hutch mini pedals were the only pedals to come standard with mini titanium spindles and although full size titanium spindles were advertised as 'optional' with Hutch pro pedals there were very few ever produced with most of them being given to factory team riders.

Any other questions? Feel free to ask.

Great info Alan,, I wanted to know what are my spindles made from in the picture above?(blue logo titrons), thanks, claude

Hey Claude. Those spindles are 4140 chromoly with a silver zinc finish.

Damn, what took you so long Alan!?!

PS - I'm going to be in Sacramento in January

Brian! Hey man how are things? I know I have been off the radar a bit lately but I am always lingering. My Ironman training schedule is consuming all of my free time lately. We definitely need to hook-up in January so keep me posted and let's get together for some beerz.

Thanks for the definitive down low on the subject.
Mx Mug

cool info .
now im mad at my dad again .lol
dion

Did Titrons ever come with black spindles?

yes,with a very thin wrench flat and allen wrench spot in the back..black oxide was the finish.

Actually there were several variations of Titron spindles and with the exception of a few sets of titanium they were all made from 4140 chromoly steel. The collar where the wrench flats are cut was always about an 1/8" thick.

In no particular order....
black oxide, wrench flats, 3/16" hex key in end of spindle
black oxide, no wrench flats, 3/16" hex key
silver zinc, no wrench flats, 1/4" hex key
silver zinc, wrench flats, no hex key, stamped L & R

You might be interested in this - posted last week on the Groovy Cycleworks blog.
Also read the comments at the end of the post
http://groovycycleworks.blogspot.com/2009/...-this-year.html



Rody at Groovy Cycle Works apprenticed under Bill Grove after BG's Hutch days.
Bill (Grove Innovations) has recently been developing Hot-Rod tubular mountain bike cranks. The first run of new cranks seems to have been delayed, but is now near completion. Rody is co-ordinating down-payments on the new Hot-Rods via his Groovy website.

I had some really early titrons - got them when Hutch first started working with Bill Grove. I sold them so please don't ask me if they are for sale!

I do have a pic of them however...I loved the rough weld look on the frames...

Thank for the pedals John. They are currently in the hands of Bill Grove being fitted with a set of NOS cages.

No prob! Did Bill give you an idea of how early in the game those were made?
I always liked those better than the later Hutch versions cuz they didn't turn my shins into ground chuck...I still have scars!