My only experiance with Pentons is with the CMF bikes. Actually ,it was a brand spanking new, 1972 Jackpiner. I went from a Japanese MX bike to the Penton,after seeing one in a local bike shops show room.
It was real expensive for the time but hard to resist.
The Penton was a little bigger than the Japanese bike but it was much better balanced. It may have been heavier but you could not tell when you rode it. It didn't have the displacemnt of the 250cc bikes that I was often faced with competing with ,but it had enough power and the handling to get the job done. The bottom line is,I thnk it was light years ahead of most of the other bikes in many ways.
My question is ,were the earlier steel tanker bikes ahead of the compititon like the CMF bikes were?
Also ,is it correct or appropriate to say the Penton motorcyle is an American motorcycle? I always have.
Randy Lamp
Well, I probably shouldnt answer this since I was born the same year as the first Penton, but look at what was available in '68. No Japanese bikes could come close to it in '68 and in '69 the Yamaha AT1 was pretty good, but I wouldnt call it a match for a Penton, at least not stock. DKW and Zundapp had some OK bikes then, but all around I'd say yes, the Pentons were about the best you could get in the 100-125 size at that time.
I've always thought of, and called, Penton an American bike. I know it was constructed by KTM, but to use a modern term, the "Intellectual Property" was John Penton's.
Brian
'72 Six Day (on loan from Ernie P.)
In 1968 I bought the first DT1 Yamaha imported into the state of Michigan. I rode it for two years in the enduro circuit in the Michigan and Ohio region. Fallen Timber Enduro, Jack Pine, etc. But during the second year of this, the Penton Six Day (American bike!!!!) was beating everybody, so I put up the Yamaha and bought my steel tanker (rode the Berkshire International Two Day in 1971) and I have been a Penton man ever since even though I didn't get on a motorcyle for 29 years from 1971 to 2000.
In 2000 my son, who was coming home from college for the summer, called me in May and asked me to "get that old bike in the barn" running so he could ride it. I told him I thought it needed a clutch and he found the Penton Owners Group and Al Buehner who proceded to convince me to take it to Mid Ohio and ride it, since it was the year of the Penton. I was hooked!!!!! The rest is history and my barn now has over a dozen Pentons (and KTMs) in it, all incredible machines. It still has a lonely DT Yamaha in it also, the bike that got me off the street and into the deep woods.
My first bike was a 1952 150cc NSU that I bought at 16 in 1958. Second was a 1958 Triumph Bonneville that I bought in 1960 and the third was a 250CC R27 BMW that I bought in Germany in 1961 to get around on. Fourth was a Susuki X6 Hustler in 1965 or 6. Fifth was a 200cc Bultaco Sherpa S that I campaigned on in the District 14 Scramble races (2nd in district) in 1967 and 68 then the DT1. I've always loved motorcycles. "Dashing through the woods, on a 50 horsepower sleigh..."
Teddy