Originally Posted by
hockeyref
CBRSTR,
When CycleCraft first hit the scene in IIRC ~1985 there were several factory riders that shared my home track (PGH- South Park). I had the opportunity to talk to the owner and couldn't talk my way into a factory ride, but I did ask if he would build me a frame. I was 6'3" & most of the stuff out there was too cramped for me. I stretched out the front triangle a little, gave it enough BB clearance to comfortably run 185mm profile cranks and balanced the rear triangle to allow easy speed jumps but not let the front end come up as quick at the Hutch. That Hutch had a really short rear end so it accelerated really quick and the rear stuck like glue in turns but the front would wash out quicker than "greased moose poop" (to use the jargon of the day) if you didn't pay attention and have your weight int he right place. The front of the Hutch came up really fast\easy because of the really short rear triangle but it was really easy to loop it out - the Hutch Pro Racer really was a Ferrari. With the CC I could speed jump\pedal over almost anything and it cornered like it was on rails (I didn't have to worry about the front end nearly as much). It was heavier than the Hutch at about 18# or so, but I had added the Cro-Mo 3 piece Profile cranks w\sealed BB and Suntour MX pedals with Trog cages. I was no longer afraid of breaking the frame as I did break two Hutch pro racers.
Yeah the Hutch candy apple was nice but I was part of the chrome everything camp.... and Hutch had some really nice chrome!
Hard to believe that was 30+ years ago!
You must have been really hardcore to brake two Hutch frames! My friend seemed to have every high end bike there was, he would let people try out every bike of his except his Hutch, and I was pretty jealous of it lol. In fact it was him I bought my Kastan off.
I only ever broke four frames frames. One was a GT mach one and I have no idea how did it. The other is my Kastan though I have the sneaky suspicion it may have been why my friend was selling it so cheap, I came along and managed to finish it off. The other was a Kuwahara... I got my best air, and landed too hard, cracked the entire bottom bracket. The last was my GT Freestyle, but by just being dumb. I had a "bash guard" on it and my friend had this broken down Dodge Omni in his yard. One day we thought it would be fun to bunny hop onto/into the grill with with the bash guard. The bash guard held up, but where it was connected to the frame didn't lol.
For me my biggest struggle was always handle bars and stems. I was constantly breaking them. The only setup that ever worked for me was the big GT block, I think they called it the Mallet? I bent it, but I never striped any handle bars with it, so I was really confused when they suddenly discontinued it in the 90's.
On a side note I managed to pick up a nice little bike on the weekend at a garage sale for pocket change. But I have no idea what brand it is. It might be a good bike to fix it up and give it to my nephew.