I new here. Any help on this TS before i build it?Its serial # is 0745385 .It has no baseball on it.I was told it is U S made.What is better US or non US?And why?Need help with year to.84 85 ?Thanks for any info,,

Got a pic? Sounds US, which predominantly is a good thing, but quality can vary from frame to frame, sometimes drastically. TS's are awesome, but I've seen some with such bad weld jobs I wouldn't want them for nuthin'.

that is an American serial number. the "baseball" symbol is Japanese. both of those are good. the Japanese frames were probably more consistent.

the Taiwanese frames were sometimes questionable.

Do u know what year it might be.I think its 84,85,86?Here are some picts.

Looks like a 85 US Tstar to me. Do you have forks for it??
The fork pegs were longer on newer ones just FYI.
Rick

Thanks for the info all of you.Yes i do have the forks .They are the older ones.I belive they are the shourter ones.They look like 1 1/4"Im gessing same year.

074--- 1985 end of usa made ,my frame is 0745825 thats only 440 apart from your frame and mine also has short pegs

Thanks for the info. So does that mean the last 4 digets is how many were made?

maybe (probably not)...

the way Hutch worked with serials was they'd order a batch of stamped dropouts that started with "whatever" first 3 digits followed by 4 consecutive digits. they'd dump them into a box (along with whatever was leftover from the last series of #s) and just grab them. what order they were actually used in, nobody knows.

even though your # would seemingly indicate being the 5825th one built under the "074" prefix, what order the dropout was grabbed in...could'a been the first one - for all anyone knows.

you can really only approximate when a Hutch frame may have been built by the first 3 digits, but even then it just a guesstimate.

sounds like a US made one for sure,
Jap ones had a baseball, and most with longer pegs some with cable guide
Taiwan frames had the serial no on the BB I think

my US Trickstar has no serial no., so i think its a early frame?

Don't mean to hijack but if 074 is say 1985 then is 064 older or newer? Just wondering.

Rob

i got my "064" during winter of '84/85.

I know the serial #'s don't mean much. I was told the key hole slot in the seat tube was done in '86 models. Is this true?

Thanks, Rob

no concrete proof, but it seems so if it's an american frame. speculation from several places thinks they may have been using pre-fab Tange seattubes at the time.

Cool, thanks for the info Coasterbrake. My frame is american made.

The location of the serial also is a clue. The US are on inside of left dropout. Overseas are on bottom of BB shell. There are some with serial on outside of drop, but I don't remember the significance. Japanese maybe?

most Japanese were also in the inside dropout.

the ones on an outside dropout were USA quality control mistakes.

also have an "074" TS. As I am completing my build, what brakes are gen. correct? Any help would be great. I bought 901's but they are not right.

901s would be OK, but i've heard their tucked-in shape hits the framestand (never tried, myself). you could really run most Dia-compes and be correct. MX1000/900, Nippon (883), FS880. all these were available during the Trickstar era.

The 901's did indeed hit the frametand. Thanks for the suggestions. Now to keep my eye out for them.

901s on the front give killer leverage and clear it perfectly.