Who made the double engraved (front and back engraved HUTCH) brake bridge frames and when?
MCS was making frame parts for us after profile brake up but only parts where then shipped to us for welding in house witch also started the stamped brake plate first ones where only stamped on one side by then we had two shifts working around the clock to build frames to keep up with demand we had about 30 welders between the two shifts the problem was quality control was also starting to become a problem to keep an eye on so frames were going out with brake plates being welded in up side down so to fix this problem with out coming down hard on the welders we had the plates stamped on both sides and also during this time frame the jigs we were using aloud if the welder was not paying attention they could be altered a little due to some of the miner adjustments you see in the frames
i've seen cruisers and 20" frames with a double stamped brake bridge
don't know this but it must of been MCS since they did our 24 stuff
i do remember having the meeting about going to the double stamped brake plate just because i remember we were having way to many painted (black) frames in stock and not enough chrome we were still in alco place but i do believe they lasted over into new location before going back to single stamp
at the end of hutch i think we still had alot of black frames left
but i thought double engraved brakebridges were just one time made
yea but it was a lot of them our orders were like at 50,000 at a time
i see  some went to mcs for the cruiser and the rest used by hutch in-house. Did thruster got some too of those double stamped brake bridge plates?
i think so can not be sure on this either
How comes that the Hutch frames have slightly different measurements? Some pro racers have a 19,5 inch top tube for example and others a shorter. Also the head tube angles are different. Did all the companies who made Hutch frames use the same jig?
yea we made the jigs and we did have some problems with this thought we caught all of these off set stays before they went out but i guess some got though
probably we did make all of the jigs but that does not mean they were cutting there tubing wrong length
but still why have the frames a slightly different size? could it be that for example used a old jig and in-house another?
only thing i can think of is the tubes were cut at different length then what they were suppose too
no jigs were redone every year
all jigs were stamp with date code so we were replacing at different times of the year and not all at one time
do you have the blueprints of every years jig / frame size?
i did keep these frames i still have them they tabs welded all over them so each jig was always built the same
so could we find out when the pro racer had a 19,5 " top tube and when it was shorter?
Yea but my frames are all the same that's why I think each place was just making there cuts different from us
You didn't change the length of the top tube during a period of time and the headtube angle?
Only time i think it was changed is for the Hollywood series. The judge is a complete different frame
The Judge frame. When did Hutch started to think about that frame. How did it came reality? How much influence had time judge by the design?
Hence the judge frame, Hollywood frame, started with public suggestions on what they would like. first one judge frame changes we handed to Timmy after riding the pro frame it steered to slow for him and was too long wheel base for his riding style so the first judge was one we had been messing with from other suggestions we had from public we had that frame about 6 months before doing anything with it so Timmy came in and did not like the pro we handed this frame to try and he fell in love with still after making suttle changes for him at this point we still had no idea how to release this new design to the public with fear to hurting our pro frame sales. Timmy joking around with hutch came up with judge replica so with out telling Timmy in the beginning Pop made everything up stickers advertising and in production and then surprised Timmy with it. Timmy and my dad had a special bond those two together was always something funny Tim made it his mission to always imbarise my dad, Pop like it because you would always see him laugh about some of the stories I could tell you about are funny and good memories for all of us and then when Mike came along and you would have Tim and Mike gang up on my dad the gags they would pull out of this world.

In that ad the hollywood is a pink pro racer and the judge a white pro racer
yes all i had together at the time for photo shoot
So, for that ad the Judge frames were not ready?
the white bike with timmy was my bike i had just built for myself i never got that bike back i don't remember who it went too but i do know it was to a mag.
they made it just in time for add but not to put them together both of those frames were timmy's i put them together right after for him
The Hollywood. Mike Miranda's Hutch. I remember that the Hollywood was slightly different then the Pro Racer and after the pro racer used the same design as the Hollywood. Is that correct? And what was the difference between the pro racer and the Hollywood? Or was it just the color?
The Hollywood frame was basically the pro frame what we did do was took all of the frames that had blemishes in them that we could not sell we would strip and send for powder coating and Mike picked his colors because too this point we only did chrome that was our thing chrome. I remember way back at the beginning of hutch me and a friend of mine would take the color anodized items and use oven cleaner to strip and then buff the products to sell back then no one did polished items or chrome on alum. so we did it all.
So color was new to us and that is how we came up with Hollywood series.
you said the hollywood was a painted pro racer, but did hutch ever sold chrome hollywoods because i've seen chrome hollywood seatstay decals.
some were chrome plated at a couple of different times just because that frame was so close to the pro racer it was hard for my uncle to tell the difference sometimes hollywood did have suttle changes not enough for most people to pick up on
we had those decals made after we caught the problem realized we had a lot of chrome ones in stock miss labeled we had to back though and reopen all boxes had girls re-sticker them so you will find these both ways out there.
and about what changes are you talking about?
all of these changes i would have to go back to jigs and drawings to look at to remember i do know miner changes
and what was the difference between the pro racer and the hollywood? I remember first production run they were different and after the pro racer took the hollywood size. Is that right?
don't remember but i think you are right have to remember all of this was happening so fast for us most of the time we were fling by the seat of our pants
About the Pro Star.
Were the Pro Star frames just pro racer frames or were they picked out for there perfect finish/welds?
we only used certain welders for the pro star bad bob was one of them the tubes of the frame had an extra polishing process before they were bent and welded witch made for a nicer chrome plate the pro star was glorified pro racer
The aluminium mini and junior frames came out in 1986 yes? Who designed those? Who made them? How many were made? They broke and were recalled by Hutch. What's the right story behind those frames?
That is around the time frame I was the one who designed the alum. frames These where all made in house these where only built as ordered non where built for inventory there was only about 100 of these built most being the junior there was only about 30 of the mini's built witch I still have one of each one of these I kept for myself along with prototype things on these bikes that only  Rich Houseman and Luna had but those things are back in my hands also. only the first few came back broke witch was a fork problem and that is when we where going to start production witch is why we brought those back in and only did special orders from then on after that point we only had
There are rumours that someone kids had a accident with such frame that broke and that Hutch was sued by them. Is that true?
the one that we knew of that broke and we where threatened to be sued but it was a customer problem. Those frames went out with specific weight limits jump limits for race on jumping contest and the frame that broke kid was way over weight limit. so the law suit was dropped before it got anywhere.
Also were the failed aluminium frames the start of going down with Hutch the company?
This was the demise of Hutch what was : The cost of manufacturing our product in the us was very high and profit margins became smaller to stay competitive Pop refused for the longest time to go over seas for anything when all other manufactures have all ready gone over an we tried to comp. with our us product to everyone else's over seas stuff by the time he caved and went over seas it was to late it was kind of a slow fate for us to the public it looked like it happened fast but was not a fast end for us we tried everything to keep going we just kept making product for to long in the us and could not stay competitive. and also made some wrong choices in bring in help to managed the business side ( I can not remember his name ) and he was the one who put the nail in the coffin( I think it was Bill Belois ) not sure if that how it was spelled but he cut a lot of throats for us and my parents trusted him. He pretty much ran us deeper and personally think was steeling from my parents they figured this out but by then it was too late. I hated him from the day they brought him in along with a lot of other people but my parents where desperate to do anything to save Hutch but they gave this guy to much power and he took advantage of this. I think if my parents stayed in control and scaled way back on us product and moved into other building smaller we could have made it though the hard time. But they where starting to get beat up too much by the press that just think they gave up and where ready to move on
But the pro raider came out in 1984 I think. That was a Taiwanese made bike not? So, you had some overseas contacts already but didn't wanted to produce more there? Around 1986 Hutch went to Japan and soon after to Taiwan. But then it was already too late?
the pro raider was the first from over seas this was the early stages of us knowing we were in trouble with trying to stay in the us. but tried to keep adding over seas product and hope for turn around and i think they could of made it if it wasn't for "X" sindrom (that is what i called it)
What's the involvement of Titron (Bill grove) with Hutch?
dad bought his company and brought him in house best thing my dad did he took over manufacturing in plant
yeah i've noticed some parts were from titron with the hutch name on it
yup!
did bill grove also became a designer for hutch?
yes he brought a lot to the table. when we brought bill in is when we got serius about making parts only thing to that point was pedals big ones not small ones he did the small ones stems and handle bars seat clamp before him everything else is what he did
when did you took bill in?
it was in the benson place location sure with in first year there
84 then
i think so just remember when he first moved here from PA. he stayed with us and we had a bad snow storm and you have picture of half our drive way up that hill me and him would take turn with a tractor plowing drive way and we fliped it coming down the hill once and tried getting it back over before hutch sall us that was funny he was freaking out he just got in town and help me flip the tractor
every body ws scared of hutch except for timmy, mike and woody they knew how to put him in his place
was he really so a dangerous man?
no he wasn't he was just quit and no one knew how to take that some times
What were the first parts made for Hutch (by who and when)?
handle bars were first then pedals seat post clamp then stem
In the ads we can see the first pro stem had the allen bolds upside down. Was that design ever in production?
no proto type
our riders did use them but we had problems with them bending the shaft
stem project last about three months before we got it wright
there was four different models before one we went with
upside down allen bolts is the first version
and how was the 2nd and 3th version?
no pictures of them just did not work wright
1st version worked good just would bend so went back to that design and just changed a few things
we did produce some of these first run with bolts under
The Deep H pro stem was milled to fit the 2N1 headset locks. Many think that's the only real pro stem. But later deep H stems didn't have that milled area. Why did you change the design?
1st design was mine and yes it was milled to fit 2n1 every piece to this stem was milled the later version western style bill did and was no longer milled due to cost very expensive to do it was change i think the only thing that was milled on this one was western H over seas on milling
After the deep H stem came the stem with western H engraved. When did that came out?
there were three changes to this stem first was H was milled but straight letter then the western H bill grove change then over seas
all small parts went over seas 85- 86 time frame give or take
bill was the one who designed them and sent them the drawings, over seas i mean
the first westren stems were still made inhouse?
yes local machine shop was making them for me and pressing them together at hutch
overseas = Japan first and after taiwan?
not sure
with us pop thinks just japan

So far my talk about Hutch with Rich Hutchins Jr.
It's not complete but there is so much to ask and we all have a busy life….
Also, Rich Jr and Richard don't remember all facts because it's so long time ago, but they did there best to answer all my questions as good as possible.
I've asked Rich if I can open a topic on my message forum where you can ask him something or just leave a comment. It was ok for him and hopefully he can find the time to check it out and to write replies.
Hope you enjoyed the reading, for me it was a great time to talk with Rich.
Thanks Rich for this and hope you will get back to us on the message forum!

Johan
JJR