Early Hetchins frames mostly used the Brilliant lug pattern. Pre-War frames differred more in their geometries than in their lug patterns. The lugs were based on Chater Lea components. Pre-War frames are easily identified by the flared head lugs: headset bearings were inside the head tube (an idea which was re-discovered 60 years later and used on mountain bikes).

The Hetchins Register lists approximately 50 pre-War and 35 post-War Brilliants.

Brilliant lugs on a 1939 Anglo-Continental racing frame.

1938 Brilliant; note the pre-war fork crown.

It was a lot of work filing the longish points down; over the years they tended to get filed less and less. This 1943 Six-Day already has markedly longer lugs than the 1930s frames above.

The Brilliant proved to be a popular and durable pattern; a batch was made in 1953 and it reappeared in the 1958 catalog (the one pictured here is a 1962 frame with original paint). Longer points along the head tube and external headset bearing typify the post-War Brilliant.

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