Guys:
Just to hop on this conversation...I had a great chat via eMail with Chris King last year re internal headsets. He hates them. Says they wreck head tubes because the stress is on the tube, not the races. I sent him some shots of 1930's Six Day Paramounts made with internals. Nothing new, but I think they look great on the new Alu/Carbon compact frames.
Bob Fulghum (ful-jum)
Soigneur to the Cycling Stars
Swedish Plus Massage Therapy
Chicagoland
USA
> Tom,
> I have a Nulli Secundus (#503574) that was made in
> April, 1950. It
> still has the internal headset. I was under the
> impression that the
> Super Special was renamed for the 1949 Earl's Court
> show to introduce
> the Latin Series lugs. I am not sure when they
> stopped using the
> internal headset but it was not related to the name
> of the model. My NS
> has round forks and orthodox stays. My guess is that
> it was built to
> complete an order Hetchins might have taken at the
> 1949 show.
> David Cooper
> Chicago, IL
>
>
> On Feb 18, 2005, at 1:17 PM, Thomas Rawson wrote:
>
> Pete,
>
> As you know Im just a student of this stuff. And I
> like thinking about
> it about as much as owning the bikes. I do attempt
> to merge what we
> believe we know with the kind of thinking I used to
> do as a Product
> Manager (gun industry). I guess that could be called
> conjecture. But my
> hope is to challenge conventional wisdom/thinking so
> that eventually a
> better understanding of what went on emerges.
>
> This is the kind of thing that led to Flash
> rewriting of the Hetchins
> manufacturing history and relationship to Bob
> Jackson a couple years
> ago. That history, for anyone interested, is in the
> CR archive and can
> be found on Flash' website. Flash, Len and Hilary
> Stone are way out in
> front of all of us on the subject of Hetchins. Its
> fun to try and catch
> up.
>
> Its my understanding based on interaction with Len
> and Flash that the
> Super Special, introduced in 1945 (and ran to
> approximately 1950), was
> renamed (with minor physical changes) the Nulli
> Secundus. That renaming
> occured in 1950 at the same time the Latin Series
> was launched. We tend
> to think the launch of the Latin Series was
> significant and quite
> unique in the bike bus, particularly at that time,
> for a couple
> reasons. First it was a series or system - not just
> one new model.
> Second and I think more important, it was another
> example of Hetchins
> attempt to set themselves apart from everyone else
> by using proprietary
> lugs. The "early" (pre Latin) models that you prefer
> eg. various
> Brilliants, Competition, Massed Start, Anglo
> Continental used purchased
> lugs from companies like Chater Lea. Problem was,
> from Hetchins point
> of view (I conjecture) that their lugs looked pretty
> much like everyone
> else's in the '30s and '40s.
>
> The Super Special is special in that its lugs were
> unique - unlike
> anything generally available on other bicycle
> brands. Since no one is
> around from the time and there are no marketing
> committee meeting notes
> left behind, we dont know what went into the choice
> of the the term
> "Latin Series" nor where the names Nulli Secundus,
> Experto Crede,
> Magnum Bonum, Magnum Opus, Vade Mecum came from. We
> can however see the
> Latin derivation. The Super Special therefore is the
> first of the
> Hetchins with distinctive, proprietary ornate lugs
> and its success I
> conjecture, contributed to the creation of the Latin
> Series. The Super
> Special sans internal headset bearings was renamed
> Nulli Secundus and
> was part of the launch of the Latins. It can
> therefore be thought of as
> the first Latin.
>
> And to Mick - with regard to Six Day models they
> came both ways - track
> dropouts or set up with gear hangers. What makes a
> Six Day a Six Day
> (sorry) is the crushed seat tube.
>
> Tom Rawson
> Oakland, CA
>
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