Wow. Bicycle controversy that does not include the name MASI. Cool. Richard Rose (Toledo, Ohio)
-----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-admin@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-admin@bikelist.org] On Behalf Of Mark Reilly Sent: Tuesday, November 26, 2002 2:48 PM To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: [CR]hetchins
Hetchins....
Well it all started a couple of years ago when me and my business partner were registering domains names, we tried hetchins.com and were astonished to find it wasn't registered, we did so immediately. We were always under the impression that the name was owned by a pop mogul or some such, however subsequent checks were made and in fact no one owned the name, company or indeed domains.In the past few years there had not been a single advert for Hetchins, no address to write to, no number to phone!, why because there was no such company. We thought this was a crying shame given the heritage of the brand, our next step was never taken with money in mind, just through a passion for bikes. We purchased all the correct domains and paid all the government duties and registered Hetchins cycles ltd, a bona-fide business, not someone working from home, not giving out their address, phone number or even having a website.
We wanted to re-create the greatness of the brand from years gone by and set about making tools for lugs and chain stay jigs etc. We make absolutely everything in our own workshops, all by hand in the traditional fashion as taught to me by the brilliant Ron Cooper, a frame building artisan in my eyes. Only after we started to market and produce frames did we receive -one and that has been the only one to date- an email from a mr David Millar, claiming that he owned the company. Again checks were made but it seems as per our first checks, he didn't own anything. If he really did then surely he would have the following things:
an official website hetchins.com etc a genuine business address (you cant find a land address for his supposed enterprise anywhere in the uk)
Frame building, who makes his version of hetchins frames? does anyone ever ask?, we make all frames ensuring that when you but a hetchins its made by hetchins, us. Mr Millar even lets another company make fake hetchins in Australia! surely that's not correct, we can't stop this due to the legal costs involved.
Never at any time was it our intention to cause all of this fuss and controversy, we do believe that we had and have every right to do what we did, both legally and morally.
Many Thanks
Mark