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US EXPERT / PRO RACER

Serial number in the inside of the left dropout, "drilled" vent holes only in the loop, nice Western style letters in the brake bridge, Exp TT length 18"-18 1/2", Pro TT length 19-19 1/2", Exp-Pro TT O.D. 1", Exp-Pro DT O.D. 1 3/8". (Pics of a 1984 Pro Star but the Pro Racer frames are the same!)

US HOLLYWOOD (1985 model)

Serial number in the inside of the left dropout, "drilled" vent holes only in the loop, nice Western style letters in the brake bridge, TT length 19 1/2", TT O.D. 1", DT O.D. 1 3/8". The chainstays are welded a little lower on the seattube then the TT.
Later Hollywoods were Pro Racer frames in Hollywood colors.

JAPANESE PRO RACER

Serial number in the inside of the left dropout with a "baseball" logo at the end. Drilled ventholes in the loop. Same nice Western style letters on the brakebridge like on the US frames. Japanese forks are made by Tange and there is Tange engraved in the steering tube. Also, there is a little venthole at the end of the fork legs.Thanks to Arno from France.

Japanese Nora Cup and Made in Japan decal: Japanese frames (don't know all of them) had a Japanese Nora Cup decal with the dates "upside down". 1985 on top of 1984. Japanese frames had a "Made in Japan" decal under the BB. Sometimes that "Made in Japan" decal was replaced by another one "Made in USA". I've heard Japanese frames who were build up in the USA were re-stickered as "made in USA".

Velo 2000 PRO RACER (Taiwanese)

Velo 2000 was the importer for Hutch in France. They had a agrement with Hutch to order frames in Taiwan for the Europian market. It was a investment of Velo 2000 and Hutch got there share of the sales. These frames were sold in 1986/87.
Serial number (start with 123) in the inside of the left dropout, same place like the US frames but different font. Drilled vent holes in the loop and behind the seattube. Western style letters in the brake bridge but again a little different then the US

frames. "keyhole" slot in seat tube (seat tube is 5mm longer above the TT then the US ones). Dropouts are rounded at the end of the slots. Fork has a little different designed dropouts. Welds are not so clean! Size and measurments are the same like my 1984 US Pro Racer.

Velo 2000 JUDGE (Taiwanese)

Velo 2000 was the importer for Hutch in France. They had a agrement with Hutch to order frames in Taiwan for the Europian market. It was a investment of Velo 2000 and Hutch got there share of the sales. These frames were sold in 1986/87.
This frame set has the same details like the Velo 2000 Pro Racer above. Serial number (start with 064) in the inside of the left dropout, same place like the US frames but different font. Drilled vent holes in the loop and behind the seattube. Western

style letters in the brake bridge but again a little different then the US frames. Dropouts are rounded at the end of the slots. Fork has a little different designed dropouts and the dropouts have inside a different place of weld. This frameset was bought orginaly in 1987.

BLANK BRAKEBRIDGE US MADE FRAMES

There are early Hutch frames with a blank brake bridge, not mistaken with the later Hutchins frame. The early blank brake bridge frames are US made, none serial number and the same like the frames with stamped brake bridge. The brake plates are very thin, most of them cracked, and are welded in between the seat stays (by Hutchins frames they are welded on top of the seat stays and are thicker!) There are 2 theories about those frames:

  1. Hutch experts and collectors always thought those frames are made after the drilled brake bridges because the drilled ones easely cracked. They say those frames were made by Thruster.
  2. I've spoke with Rich Hutchins Jr. with his dad next to him to help out. They said Hutch never sold Hutch frames with a blank brake bridge! After the first drilled brake plates (who cracked) they changed to thicker drilled plates to solve this problem. Richard remembered that he allowed Thruster to build a batch of "Hutch" frames with a blank brake bridge. Thruster could sell that batch to get money back from a bad deal with Hutch. Richard felt bad because of something his business partner did with Thruster. In this way Richard tried to make it up with Thruster. Maybe those frames are made with tubes Hutch ordered but never paid? Who knows?
I've asked if it could be that they run out of stamped brake bridges, but Rich said "no way" because those were easy to make and they had always lots of them in stock!

Note: In 2012 the orginal Heidi Mirisola's factory Hutch bike (raced as in 1980-81) was for sale on ebay. After seeing good photo's of the frame, we could see it had a blank brakebridge! So, Hutch factory riders raced a blankbrakebridge frame at a point! This is proof that those frames were made for Hutch and were sold as Hutches (even in Holland popped up such frame).
Found out there were not only Pro Racers with a blank brakebridge, but Special K frames too!
What to think about theory 2 now?

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