Your Colllection: 1969 Penton
Monday, April 30, 2012 | 1:55 PM
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PrintThis weeks collection comes to us from Ron in Arkansas.
A few pictures. The 69 Penton was bought new original owner. Bone stock with the original Metzler tires on it. I rode it yesterday. The one picture is of me on it after a race at Bay Mare Calif. in 1971, The Penton has never had the cases split. The other bikes are my 1966 CL 160 Honda, she purrs also, and my 1974 Honda XL 100. I ride them once in a while now to keep them going.
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Too cool. I remember racing against the Penton Brothers at a place called Ligonier
MX in Indiana. I was on a SL 125 Honda beat them the third moto. Yes, MX ran three motos back in the day. There was only four classes 100, 125, 250, and open.
No B, no C, no D classes. Also my race buddy Rick Walsworth raced for Penton
mid seventies. Great memories. These bikes had 6 speed gearbox but 12 neutrals.
I remember well Ohio I accually raced against one of them on a bultaco 1977 it was a 7 speed
Kick on shift side also pain in the tranny
The tracks in Ohio always had a 175 class also. But the 70's fiberglass tank 125 Penton's were rocketships! With 400 Metzlers on the rear, they made the early Japanese MX'ers look like toys. And they handled like no other.
Yes I also remember when we had only four classes, 3 motos and the motos were set for about 20 mnts. I raced against the 100 Pentons when I stared in 72 you could not tell if they were 100's or 125's though? Once I got my MX 100 fast enough I could keep up with the Pentons. WE had Rickman Mettese's at our shop and I am pretty sure both had the ball bearings in the Transmision shafts that the gears ran on. Be glad you never had to spit the cases. Also has an SL 100 Honda but it did not last very long with me? First race was on a Yamaha 100 enduro with knobie tires and a Bassini pipe, The bike finnaly lasted 3 motos and I got a 5th in my 5th race. The stock air filter would not stay on finnally put a foam boot filter onit.
Dusty tracks hard packed or mud, flat landing on all of the jumps and rubber bande starts. Sweatshirt,blue jeans, linemans boots and some kind of goggles if you could keep them on?
Good old days.................
I had a new XL125 1975 new and my 15th birthday outran 7 cops on that baby. They got me the next day after someone told them who I was.
The cop told my mom they better get me into racing bikes because I was pretty good.. Guess what my mom said after they left??? No Way in Hell. So I picked up a used TM125 and had my friends dad sign me up. Good Days for sure
awesome to here the old bench racing. I remember sitting on Rickmans and Pentons in a showroom in Flint, Michigan. Man their grips were thin! I still have a bassani hanging in my barn...
Grrrrrr. When I'm 14 and 15 I rode Hodaka in the 100 class and just could not beat this mid-20s-with-a-ponytail hippie guy on a Penton. I could hang close, but his chassis was too good and he walked me on the straights (my Rat was strangely fast and I never got pulled like that). I had to pray for the famous Sachs miss-shifts. This was District 11 (SW Ohio) & nearby.
30 years later I am at the Mid-Ohio AHRMA event and talking to a longtime Penton dude about Ponytail. He says, "oh yea, that was *******, he raced out of our shop. That was a 125, we just switched tanks. Green to red, if I remember right."
Cheating hippies!. I am mad all over again. That’s just so wrong.
Got a little revenge, though... next year I'm 16, riding a CR125 and Honda gives me a 100kit. OH YEAH. He could still pull me but I had the chassis and weight advantage. Stomped his butt for 6 weeks before the district banned the CR100 kit. Too many protests, they said.... HOLD ON: Never occurred to me until right now, but I wonder if Ponytail protested? GRRRRR. I just kicked a chair.
I believe the above penton is a iron barrel 5 speed. Really nice bike...wow ALOT of misinformed rookies ...no ball bearings in a Sachs ..Kicker on the left was common on euro stuff and not a problem. Rickmans had Zundapp motors not Sachs. Penton never had a 7 speed ..those were Hercules(DKW Sachs Herules were all made by the same company but the Hercules had a 7 speed of a different design)..if they (the dkw sachs)would have shifted better we would maybe still be riding those brands.....
tonewall, I agree w/about everything except the bearings. Never had one apart but worked on Hodakas and their "ball-selector" system. I thought I remembered that the Sachs had a similar system. They had balls (LOOKS like a ball bearing) inside the shift shaft and engaged the inside of the selected gear.
And the Rickmans; you could get a Rickman with anything from a Hodaka to a Triumph.
Braap, braap, BRINNGGG, clunk, braaap.
Better with the Koba shift kit, or was it Coba?
1977 Bultaco 7spd butt munch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et8ORBbuegQ
"The Sachs/DKW/Hercules transmission was a 1930’s design that used a “T-Bar” shift selector, with detent BALLS in a HOLLOW SHAFT, and a saw-toothed selector, to move the shift forks instead of the slotted shift cam we all know and love. While this design might have worked great on mopeds, or 50cc kids bikes, the transmission didn’t hack it for the rigors of competition motocross."
Super Hunky
He alive an kickin... http://superhunky.com/
sorry ..i have had more than a few apart and it has detent pins which positions the shaft which centers the shift key in the gear.there are NO balls. A koba kit didn't work much if any better than a brand new shift key with correct adjustment . The whole system worked terrible at hi rpm....A Hodaka is different and but does have a moving shaft that crams balls into correponding notches in the gears. super hunky or no super hunky,no balls in the Sachs. truly enjoy his writing though. monkey butt was hilarious. no bul 7 speeds period .MrMX (lol)..before you start calling names and look completely ignorant check some facts... .the 370 is a 5 sp.
Wow you guys must be old. The day we picked up the Koba kitted Monark down in Harbor City, we stopped by to meet Donnie Emler at his little shop down the alley. The shop had just completed putting a CR125 engine in an XR 70 frame and were testing in the dirt lot. Wild days but great memories.
Just a quick brappp, 175 class didn't start until mid 70's.
I believe the shift kit for Sachs was a Kolbe Shift Kit. Ah, had one in
my '73 Monark GS 125. Got it from Scott Wallenberg's Dad thru Yamaha of Gary.
Rickman frames could house just about any engine. Good stuff. Yes, knew quite
a few guys putting the 125 cylinder on their Penton's.
Hey Larry just a reminder that the 175 class; was also called the (Old mans class) in the 70,s As in over 30 Always had Buck &Roger; Walsworth With Roger Lewis myself, Ken White Mike Larroco Even Gene Ritchie would join us on ocassion, great times and still fun today
curt k
very cool. That seat tank juncture,...hurts. By god, thats when real racers raced....huh czmark? ;o A pair of O'sh kosh bibs, a cigar, dark shaded safety glass's.....by god..........lol....
I never split the cases on a penton so I did not know,gee it has been a while but I think that Monark got the "A" engine and the Rickman 125 got the so called "B" engine? WE used to fluch out the tranny with deisel fuel between motos then of cours fill the trannny back up with oil and some kind of additive. Then they shifted good for about 30 mnts.
@Welker
The Sachs had a std motor and the upgrade ported version refer to as :GS
One way to tell a GS is the countershaft cover is cut at an angle
and std motor had the full cover over the coutnershaft and mag.
@ Curt yup good times give me a shout at Red Bud next time you are there.