Hi everybody from a newbie. I was recently given a Penton Trials 125. I went to the old message board to try to ID the bike but it didn,t help much, so maybe one of you experienced folks can help me.
The bike has the following numbers:
Frame head: W649ST
Sachs engine side cover: Sachs 1251/6B
I do know that the motor is a Sachs 125-6B but after that I'm lost. I was told by the person I got the bike from, that the frame is a Rickman??? The tank, side covers and both fenders are all aluminum with numerous Penton decals.
Any help that can be provided to this proud new owner would be greatly appreciated.
By the way, Great site, I will definitely visit often.
Thanks in advance,
Shannon
given ????
how come nobody ever gives ME cool bikes ???
Jus kiddin' ... good luck w/ your bike !!!!I think you'll find these guys here to be the best the sport has to offer !
Welcome to the world of Wassel!!! The "W" in your serial number stands for Wassel. Ted Wassel was from England and he built those machines. They were sold in the USA as Pentons, there is a long story as to how this all came about, but for now we will stick to answering your question. I own two of those machines, W672ST and W644ST. I think that the ST portion of the number could indicate machines that went to the "states", or that it was a Sachs powered Trials machine. Both of those thoughts are just guesses. Most of the machines had the Sachs "A" engine in them. The "A" engine had heavier flywheels and had a little more bottom end power. The "B" engine had lighter flywheels and was more of a race engine. Either way those trials machines are quite desireable and are fun to ride. If you can post a picture of your machine we can tell your more about any particulars of your bike. Hope this helps!!! Paul Danik
If you want to see and read about Penton Trials machines try doing the following. Go to the main page of this site and click on links, scroll to AHRMA and click, scroll down to the AHRMA links and click again, you now scroll down to Barry Ely"s Penton page and click again. WHEW!!! Now click on Penton-KTM photos and articles and you will find some Penton trials pictures and writeups. If you get to where I hope you do you will find a wealth of info. Good luck and happy clicking!! Paul Danik
Thanks for the info guys. I went to a meet here in Florida today and saw some awesome riding. So now I'm really wired to get this bike in a competion. Looking forward to more input.
Shannon
Were you at the AHRMA motocross today by chance? They ran near Ocala at a new location and I was curious how this track stacked up versus the Hard Rock track that I ran on several years ago. I hope it is more vintage friendly!!! Paul Danik
No, I was at the FTA ( Florida Trials Assoc.) 2 day Fun in the Sun meet near Webster Fla. It is about 45 minutes south of Ocala near Bushnell. The Vintage Trials is at Marion Park tomorrow. I will be there too. This park is supposed to be very vintage friendly. By the way, the meet today was a very well put together affair. The area is around an old phosphate pit, and it has a great assortment of rocks, hills and switchbacks. The FTA put on a first class event. Kudos to those guys.
Shannon
Paul & Shannon
Just got back from Florida AHRMA trial & mx. the mx track was great for both the vintage & post vintage. I have never been to Hard Rock but every thing I heard was the new location is better.
Unfortunatly the trials terrain was not so good. The only thing they had to work with was the mx track but Bob Ginder & Company still laid out 8 challenging sections. They got even more difficult with the monsoon that arrived Sunday morning. I managed to get a first place in Classic Int on my Wassell (they don't call them Mud Larks for nothing)
Shannon I have 4 of these bikes and love to ride them. I also have a few different printed articles I would be happy to send you copy's of. Hope to se you at some trials.
Dennis Jones
Dennis,
Great job of keeping those Pentons in the winners circle!!! Could you please post the frame serial numbers of your machines. I am trying to gather a little info on the number of those machines that made it to the USA. Are all of your machines in trials trim or do you have some of the "altered" machines, such as the Woodsman or Cafe Moto Cross. Thanks and good luck! Paul Danik
Hey Paul,My 2 Bikes have the serial numbers W732ST and W701ST,Funny the first is suppose to be a 72 and the second a 73 but it has a lower serial number.Whats up with that?
Congrads Dennis, I glad to that the vintage meet didn't get rained out. I should have made the trip myself but it really rained hard here all day and I'm not that far from the site so I didn't go. I would be very interested in any info you can provide about my Wassel. I would very much like to determine the year and I also need a good picture of the seat as mine is missing and I would like to fab one as close to original as possible. Thanx in advance for your help.
Shannon
Bob,
There is no year code in the Wassel serial numbers. We have 5 serial numbers here, the low one is W644ST and the high one is W732ST. As far as the production year at Wassel I think these bikes are all about the same. Penton did the " updates" on the machines to get them out of the warehouse. Some of them arrived in the states with the alloy cylinder and head engines while the Pentons were coming in with old style cast iron barrels. Penton did a little switching of the engines to put more of the newer engines in their machines. Hence the first Wassels out had a cast iron topend 5A engine and the latter ones had the alloy top end 5A engine. The Woodsman and the Cafe-MX were invented by Penton to move a few more of the machines out of the warehouse. I have a guy in Warren, Ohio who has 2 more Wassels sending me his serial numbers and Dennis Jones is going to post his two serial numbers. I am curious to see how close they are all bunched. Shannon, look at what you started!!!! THANKS, this is fun and fills in some blanks in the history of the Penton/Wassel trials saga. Paul Danik
Paul, All of my Wassells are in trial trim. I saw my first Woodsman at Mid-Ohio last year . I have never saw or heard of a cafe before? Here are my serial numbers.
W663ST-1255A
W245ST-1256A
W220ST-1256A
W430ST-1256B
As you can see they are all over place. Shannon you can email or call me with your address.
[email protected] or 800-333-0438. I am always looking for parts or parts bikes if anyone has anything lying around.
Dennis Jones
Now we have a range of serial numbers from W220ST to W732ST. Any other Poggers with a Penton/Wassel trials machine please join in and post you frame numbers and if your machine is in trials trim, Woodsman, or cafe Moto-cross. The "point of discussion" topic at the next POG meeting is the Penton/Wassel trials machine so please feel free to post any info that you may have. Thanks, Paul
I have a bike in trials setup Frame #W328ST and it has the A engine. I have very little info on this bike and when I went to Barry Elys website it says it is no longer available. I know the fenders are not orginal but not sure what the orginals were I have a photo in black and white and they appear to be the metal type. Any help with information about this bike would be appreciated.
Walt
Paul, Heres a new number for your Wassel/Penton book, I had my Pentons at Mid-Ohio last sumner, along with my 125 Six-day (007) and 100 Berkshire, I had my 125 Penton Trials. Mine is all original, just like new. Mine has the 125/5A motor and frame # 735ST and is titled 1976. I sold a few of the old Woodsmans and I don't think there were two alike in the lot. One thing they did have were them big O 350/21 Red Dot front tires. Hi-point must have had a bunch of these tires to get rid of at the time. My Penton came with one along with a big O 400/18 on the back. I've replaced them with triles tires. Later Dave
Walt, the original Wassel fenders were metal. We now have Wassel serial numbers from W 220ST - W 735ST, a range of 515, does that mean that 515 were imported??? I sure don't know. Now that Barry's page is back up and running be sure and check out the Wassel info contained there. Also check out the photo section of this site for two interesting Wassel machines. Thanks for the info and keep it coming. Paul
From the information in Don Morleys Classic Two Stroke British Trials Bikes there werr 1000 Wassel Trials bikes made as well as 1000 MX bike that were sold here in the USA under the Tyran name. 90% of the bikes came here to the USA. The frames were designed by Jim Lee of Dalesman fame. They were soon unprofitable due to the currency fluctuations of the 70's as Sachs engines became too expensive because of the rising german currancy. The Wassels in my view are the best looking trials bikes eve built. I have one of the Tyran MX bikes and a Dalesman Scout Enduro bike and would love to have one of the trials bikes. I friend of mine has some nice ones and exhibited them at the Baltimore motorcycle show. Looking for a good Tyran/ Wassel tank if any one has one . Thanks
Hi all!
I have a 1977 Woodsman in enduro form, except for the Wassel seat!? My numbers are W457ST with a 125A5 engine. It have the round Siver Vase Team Decal on the side. Looks as someone replace the enduro seat with a Wassel seat, because it has small rub marks that looks as if it were made by a seat.
Mine is #W624, Mud Lark, 125cc 5A Aluminum Cylinder. Just to add to the confusion! I have a friend who has a 125cc "Cafe Motocross" w/ Red Dots, Headlight/taillight speedometer. Sounds like the invention of the 1st Dual Sport machine to me?
Guys, didn't think I'd been away from this site for so long..... great thread going here, very informative, so thanks for that.
I live in England, I have a 1976 Wassell trials 125 (sold as the Antelope over here), it's got ally head and barrel, I'll dig out the frame no for your records.
Tim Wassell is still alive, runs an engineering company in the Midlands here and I spoke to him a year or so back for some background info etc, tho I don't have his contact details to hand. His family originally ran Wassell's wholesalers, one of the biggest in the country, but when the father died the brothers couldn't keep it successful between them and wound it up (mid-80s?).
He said he made about 2000 MX and trials bikes in all and that 80% went to the States (tallies with the Don Morley details). They sold all the spares to a bike shop in Birmingham (UK), and I've spent best part of the last year trying to get them to sell some parts to me!!!! How the hell did we ever have an empire???
They did manage to post me an original Wassell trials brochure which I'll scan and post here for you, if interested. Can also post a pic of my bike, though it's only part-restored at the moment.
The original trials model had ally mudguards, an option was a high or low-mounted front guard (wow - those guys knew how to spoil you!). Shocks were by Girling, they folded in the '80s too but sold all the tooling etc to Hagon, who made a set to match the originals on my bike - seem pretty good too.
I was renting a garage a few years back and a guy who lived next door saw the bike one day, asked me what it was, then went indoors and brought out the workshop manual and years' worth of receipts - he'd owned it for a few years, didn't think the guy he sold it to would look after it so didn't pass the stuff on.
Sorry about such a long post - hopefully some of it's of interest. If you want more details of suppliers, please ask.
Cheers,
Adam
Guys, didn't think I'd been away from this site for so long..... great thread going here, very informative, so thanks for that.
I live in England, I have a 1976 Wassell trials 125 (sold as the Antelope over here), it's got ally head and barrel, I'll dig out the frame no for your records.
Tim Wassell is still alive, runs an engineering company in the Midlands here and I spoke to him a year or so back for some background info etc, tho I don't have his contact details to hand. His family originally ran Wassell's wholesalers, one of the biggest in the country, but when the father died the brothers couldn't keep it successful between them and wound it up (mid-80s?).
He said he made about 2000 MX and trials bikes in all and that 80% went to the States (tallies with the Don Morley details). They sold all the spares to a bike shop in Birmingham (UK), and I've spent best part of the last year trying to get them to sell some parts to me!!!! How the hell did we ever have an empire???
They did manage to post me an original Wassell trials brochure which I'll scan and post here for you, if interested. Can also post a pic of my bike, though it's only part-restored at the moment.
The original trials model had ally mudguards, an option was a high or low-mounted front guard (wow - those guys knew how to spoil you!). Shocks were by Girling, they folded in the '80s too but sold all the tooling etc to Hagon, who made a set to match the originals on my bike - seem pretty good too.
I was renting a garage a few years back and a guy who lived next door saw the bike one day, asked me what it was, then went indoors and brought out the workshop manual and years' worth of receipts - he'd owned it for a few years, didn't think the guy he sold it to would look after it so didn't pass the stuff on.
Sorry about such a long post - hopefully some of it's of interest. If you want more details of suppliers, please ask.
Cheers,
Adam
Hi..... frame no. of mine is W941ST, engine no. 7176916, registered on 25 Sept 75... hope this helps.
Cheers,
Adam