1952 Hetchins Magnum Bonum

captnslow

Dirt Disciple
I've always had a bit of a thing for the post war British bicycles with fancy lugwork, especially the Ephgraves and Hetchins. So I was delighted to spot a rather petite Hetchins Magnum Bonum on Ebay stripped to just a frame and fork. This looked like a project!

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First thing was get to it home to Australia from sunny mother England and have a close look at it. I had some basic information from Hetchins.org as the frame had legible and and matching numbers on frame and fork.

“Hetchins Magnum Bonum E24151 is listed in the Hetchins ledgers as a Magnum Bonum. There are no further details, no price, no date of sale. This is quite unusual and does suggest a special provenance; frames gifted to employees or special friends were also listed without dates or sale prices. Nearby frame numbers are listed as having been sold in January and February 1952”

The particular specification of this frame – originally a complete lack of chrome, no mudguard eyelets and no markings or Hetchins logos of any kind confirms it’s heritage as a ‘racer’. Hetchins was known to assist competitive cyclists in and around London. Their production shows that in 1952 they manufactured 434 bicycle frames but only 398 were ‘sold’, with the other 36 being ‘gifted’. The vast majority of these ‘gifted’ bicycles are noted as ‘Magnum Bonum’ which was Hetchins preferred lug pattern for sponsor provided bikes.

Six were provided for the men’s team racing in the Tour of Britain that year, and it is thought that a further ten or so men’s and two or three ladies sized frames were produced to identical so called 'Tour of Britain' specification. Hetchins bicycles at that stage were only built to order.

The 'Tour of Britain' specification comprised front and rear Cyclo Benelux 4 speed derailleurs and was designed for stage racing and grand fondos. A key link to this frames provenance was the presence of Cyclo dropouts front and rear, with the rear dropouts being highly unusual in that they integrated a direct derailleur attachment 'hanger' bespoke and used only for the Cyclo Benelux rear derailleur in 1952 and 1953.

This frame also being of 'ladies geometry' therefore was highly unusual as very few ladies raced in ‘Continental’ races. This thankfully narrowed down the provenance of the bicycle substantially.

After much research and discussion, it is thought that this frame was most probably one used by Brenda Crowe, one of two ladies that were supported by Hetchins and known to have entered 'continental' races.

There is a photo of Brenda Crowe competing posted in a Time Trial in Britain on Hetchins.org which shows her riding a single speed frame of identical geometry fitted with a right hand operated rear brake only.

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Hetchins has confirmed that the frame was a ‘Jack Denny’ production originally manufactured with rare non-eyelet Cyclo type 906/906a dropouts featuring an integrated rear derailleur hanger specific to the Cyclo Benelux derailleur, and originally set up with a 4 x 2 gearing arrangement as per both the 1951 and 1952 Tour of Britain winning machines – a feat repeated in 1953 as well.

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Hence this ‘gearset’ was marketed by Cyclo Gearsets alternatively as the ‘Benelux’, ‘Benelux Sport’ and ‘Tour of Britain’ gearset – all with slightly differing aesthetic details. The Tour of Britain gearset was identical to the Benelux Sport in all regards but featured a plain chrome rear derailleur pivot nut in lieu of the Sport’s enamelled badge.

The rod front derailleur is worthy of separate comment. In pre-race media coverage, the Hetchins bicycles were shown fitted with a French Cyclo lever front derailleur. However, race photographs show that a new design of rod shifter was used during competition. The 1952 Tour of Britain Hetchins bicycles are the first known use of this front derailleur that was not formally released to the public until the release of the Mark VII rear derailleur in about 1954.

As the frame showed some rust and bubbling under the paint it was decided to fully strip and restore the frame to 'as new condition'. Upon stripping, indentations were found on the frame which correlated with a single downtube shifter and two compression band indentations on the seat tube which correlated with a Cyclo rod front derailleur installation.

Together these provided a reasonable level of confidence that this frame had originally been configured as a 'Tour of Britain' specification Hetchins. Now, to find the correct parts.
 
1952 Hetchins Magnum Bonum Part 2 - the treasure hunt

Determining what a 'correct' or at least 'period correct' specification that the bike was originally built to took a fair bit of reading. Among many other interesting articles and archived photos inspected that shed light upon the typical specifications and configuration of early 1950’s racing bicycles was this gem of a summary table from Hetchins.org under their ‘restoration’ tab particular to 1950’s and 1960’s bicycles

HUBS - British Hub.Co. Airlite Continental large and small flange. Solite, Racelite, Bayliss Wiley. Continental Fratelli Brivio (F.B.), large and small flange. Harden, large and small flange; undrilled large flange hubs are known as 'Bacon Slicers'. Blumfield, large and small flange.

CRANKSETS - Williams. C34, C45, C1000, C1200, B100. Chater-Lea. Gnutti. T.A.

BRAKES - GB. Hindiminium. Courier Plus. Sport Mk. II. Mafac Racer/Competition.

PEDALS - Chater-Lea, Sprint and Standard. Allez. Lyotard N0.23, Faucheax Road, No. 15S, No.45 Piste. Campagnolo. Constrictor, Boa, Viper, Asp, Cobra. Webb. Phillips, Credalux, Apollo.

TOE CLIPS & STRAPS - G.B. Professional. Christophe. Constrictor. Catos.

HANDLEBARS & STEMS - Cinelli. G.B. Dawes. Allez. Il Primo. Titan Stems. Kint Maes bars.

SADDLES - Brooks B17, B15, Swallow. Ideale (French). Mansfield. Leatheries, L.99, L.20, L.710.

SEATPINS - Campagnolo (1956 on), Reynolds dome (early 1950’s)

RIMS - Fiamme. Weinmann Alesa. Constrictor Asp, Boa alloy, Cobra, Supalitti.

GEARS - Campagnolo Gran Sport. Simplex, JUY543, TOUR-DE-FRANCE, 303 TOURISTE, JUY51. Huret, Bobet Model, TOUR-DE-FRANCE. Cyclo Benelux, Mark 12, Mark 7. Sturmey Archer Hub Gears (many variations).

CHAINS - Perry. Reynold. Brampton. Sedis.

Further background work identified that the factory standard headset fitting for all Hetchins in 1952 was a Gnutti headset with no other options listed. Bayliss Wiley bottom brackets were also the sole factory specification noted in their catalogues.

So at this stage I had a rough 'shopping list' knowing all too well the reiterative process of what's available in the market versus what was at least 'period correct' and a know Hetchins 'option'.

After much searching I uncovered a matching early 1952 gear set, comprising a 4 speed Cyclo ‘Benelux’ Tour of Britain rear derailleur and matching ‘Benelux, Tour of Britain rod changer which are the same as those originally specified for this frame, along a matching Cyclo Type B 4 speed derailleur.
The Cyclo Benelux rear derailleur is specified as having a total teeth difference capacity of 15 teeth (quite impressive for the day) with a maximum capacity of 23 teeth for the rear cluster. The rear cluster that accompanied the derailleur was configured as 16-23 teeth leaving an 8 teeth difference possible for the double chain ring configuration with which the bicycle was originally configured.

Lady Luck smiled upon me as I unearthed a rare matching Chater-Lea dual chainring crankset in size 44/36 (8 teeth difference). Found soon after was a pair of Chater-Lea “tommy bar” rat trap racing pedals, and soon after that a matching new (old stock) Baylis Wiley BW14 bottom bracket to suit the double chainring configuration. This gearing configuration provided the lowest gearing generally available in 1952 being a lowest 36/23 gear – very handy if any hills are involved.
Original GB Professional toe clips from the early 1950’s were found and restored. These, along with a new Renolds Coventry Elite chain of early 1950’s manufacture, settled the main drivetrain configuration issues.

A new (old stock) Gnutti headset from the early 1950’s was found in Italy still in it’s original box but suffering from some signs of the years passing. This was stripped and re-chromed along with polishing the bearing races.

Finding early 1950’s wheels or even parts thereof in usable condition is quite a challenge. Wheelsets of the day were typically either Conloy (Constrictor Alloy) or Dunlop Special Lightweight rims and there was a penchant for large flanged hubs with the top two brands being Harden and BHC, with BHC being considered to be the better due to frequent bearing failures experienced with the Harden hubs. BSA and Bayliss Wiley also made high flange hubs of good repute.

After much searching I managed to procure separately a pair of Conloy Asp clincher rims in the typically English pattern of 32/40 and a pair of BHC Racelite high flange hubs similarly configured. Both rims and hubs were fully restored and laced using modern but correct gauge 15/17 butted stainless steel spokes. The front wheel has been laced with the traditional 32 ‘3 cross’ spoke pattern and the rear with the traditional 40 ‘4 cross’ spoke pattern.

French Clement ‘gentleman’ of the period correct racing dimension 22 x 630 (7/8” x 27”) tyres from the early 70’s are the closest I have yet found to what an appropriate would have been in the 1950’s. The originally fitted tyres would almost certainly have been the Dunlop ‘Road Racing High Pressure’ tyre of the early 50’s in size 7/8” or 1” x 27”, and even if found, would certainly no longer hold air at the required pressure to be ridable.

Hiduminium (also known as RR5:cool: and an abbreviation of “high duty aluminium” was developed by none other than Rolls Royce as an aeronautical alloy which had little alternative use in England after the war in other than the manufacture of light bicycle parts (and later on in the manufacture of the Concorde supersonic airliner). Racing bikes therefore were typically fitted with a plethora of ‘Hiduminium’ parts, as is this bicycle – including seat post (classic dome top by Reynolds), brakes and levers (all by GB) and all of ‘early 1950’s’ manufacture (very few parts were date stamped back then). Brenda’s bike in the photo above features both a GB Superhood lever and GB Coureur rear brake.
The bar and stem fitted is a Titan stem with matching Maes Kint bar – a documented extra cost option for 1952 Hetchins builds.

New GB Coureur brake pads and holders were found to match the brakes and new stainless steel gear and brake cables have been fitted within new ‘vintage pattern’ cable outers. The saddle and bar tape are Brooks leather, the saddle being a B17 model which was in production by 1950 and remains so today.

Now for the frame...
 
1952 Hetchins Magnum Bonum Part 3

Part 3 - The Frame

The frame was stripped of all paint, had all rust removed, any remaining light pitting filled with bronze/silver solder and then polished. The frame was copper plated twice and polished to ensure a homogenous smooth base and then nickel plated prior to polishing once more. The frame head tube, stays and forks were then chrome plated and all lugs polished.

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The frame was then painted in a typical style for a 1952 Hetchins with a protective clear coat topping over all decals which have been reproduced by H Lloyd in England to match the originals decals of 1952.

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1952 Hetchins Magnum Bonum - Part 4

Part 4 - The Build

Build List:-

Frame and fork - 1952 Hetchins Magnum Bonum by Jack Denny with braze on gear cable stop on chain stay and braze on rear brake cable stop on right hand underside of top tube. Fitted with Cyclo 902/902s Benelux drop outs

Bottom Bracket - Bayliss Wiley BW14 to suit double chain ring drive

Cranks - Chater-Lea cottered fluted cranks “two bolt”

Chainrings - Chater-Lea double chain ring 36/44 with Chater Lea adapter

Pedals - Chater-Lea ‘Tommy Bar’ racing pedals fitted with GB Professional clips and Brooks leather straps in colour Honey

Rims - Conloy 'ASP' alloy 32/40 clincher

Hubs - BHC Racelite ‘double sided’ high flange hubs 32/40 fitted with Gripfast Wing Nuts

Spokes - 15/17 gauge butted stainless steel

Tyres - Clement Gentleman 22 x 633 Clincher high pressure

Saddle - Brooks B17 in colour Honey

Rear derailleur - 1952 Cyclo Benelux 4spd Tour Of Britain, capable of 15 tooth difference

Front derailleur - circa 1952 Cyclo Benelux Tour of Britain rod changer

Gearing - Cyclo Type B 4 speed 16-23

Chain - Renold Coventry Elite

Shifter - Circa 1952 Cyclo Benelux friction 3 – 5 spd

Brakes and levers - Circa 1952 GB Coureur Hiduminium calipers and GB Superhood + levers and hoods

Gear and brake cables - Generic stainless cables in 1950’s generic style outers.

Seat post - Reynolds Hiduminium dome top

Headset - 1952 Gnutti Extra – as fitted as standard to all 1952 Hetchins

Stem - Titan chromed steel

Bars - Titan ‘Maes Kint’

Bar Tape - Brooks leather colour Honey

And the (almost) finished product...

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Just some further cotter pin filing, a second Coloral repro bottle, some fiddling with the drivetrain, adjustment of the saddle and levers and it should be good to go.
 
That Sir is simply gorgeous, I doff my cap to you. A lot of work and an interesting read, again well done and what's next then?
 
Re:

Nothing more than a slight bar rotation and I need to move the levers about 5mm further down the drops. I generally build them with the lever ends roughly in line with the bottom of the drops as a starting point. Similarly the saddle needs a slight adjustment (a little backwards and nose up), the cotter pins need a bit more filing and I need to break in the chain - its really stiff even though its just out of its wrapper. Oh and I'm still awaiting the arrival of another Coloral repro bottle. At that stage I will be pretty happy with it.
 
I found the bottle cage in Turkey of all places - having a bit of a rummage through a bin of bits at a market. There was a guy on Ebay selling Raleigh twin bottle bar cages out of Greece a couple of weeks back and they looked remarkably similar.
 
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