Hetchins Swallow - 1970
Owned by Patricia Killiard
I acquired this lovely track frame almost by accident when it arrived with another frame I was looking at. It was as new and had its original custom paint job. The previous, and only, owner was a teenager who used it for track and roller racing. The bike had been built up as an out and out track machine with ultra-close clearance using sprints. Having decided that I wanted to ride it on the road I knew I would have to use 26" wheels to get brakes to fit so I had to work around this. I don't do fixed-wheel so the first build was with a pair of 26" Conloy Asps on large-flange double-fixed Airlites with tied and soldered spokes. I used a single speed freewheel. This was fine for a while but wanting to take it to hillier rides we substituted a Sturmey FM for the rear wheel.
Soon we were deciding which machines to take to L'Eroica and considered Italian but someone pointed out that there would be hundreds of these already so we decided to take a couple of Hetchins as an example of UK machines. Having already toured on "le strade bianche" of Tuscany I knew that a good range of gears and good brakes would be a priority. Back in the early 50's a situation arose where virtually all serious riders in the UK were riding road/path frames with fixed-wheel but some eventually decided to try out gears. It was known for Sturmey to be used to do this as it was a simple option but again no serious club riders were found on hub gears. The next option was the Osgear and the rear opening ends of a track frame were well suited to the Osgear set-up as the wheel didn't foul the strikers when it was removed for punctures or maintenance. This allowed an ideal Osgear set-up with the striker forks close to the freewheel. Some riders however used their ingenuity and managed to fit Simplex and the like and to this day you will occasionally find such gears with a rear-facing hanger. The frame is early 70's so it was appropriate to fit a Suntour gear which was sold at the time and was a landmark gear in the history of derailleur, being the first to use the slant parallelogram. Most of my machines have Simplex or Gran Sport gears. Later models of the Suntour are available with rear-facing hangers but we had one made for this earlier model. Putting all these factors together I came up with the Hetchins in its present build. It is a fantastic machine to ride and very responsive on the hills - I sailed through L'Eroica on it and both of our Hetchins attracted a lot of attention in the peleton and at the finish, as did the South of France bars.
| Frame | Hetchins 20” Swallow track frame no.H
10239 (1970). Top Tube 20 1/2”; finished blue red and gold |
| Wheels | 26” Conloy Asp rims on Blumfeld SF G/F
hubs. Spokes 15/17 |
| Chainset | Chater Lea 42 tooth ring |
| Pedals | Lyotard quill with Christophe clips and straps |
| Gears | Suntour 5-speed with 14 – 17
– 20 – 24 - 28 freewheel |
| Brakes | Universal side pull and levers |
| Stem/Bars | R O Harrison 8cm custom steel with South of France bars |
| Headset | Campagnolo |
| Saddle | Brooks B17 Swallow |
 Above: Detail showing the seat cluster
with wrap-round seat stays, also the paint job and 531 transfer on rear
of seat tube
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 Above: Detail showing head lugs and South of France bars. Left: Detail showing side of Swallow head lugs and Bonum style fork crown |