Messages

If anyone wants to contact me about the bike my number is 202-210-1596 and my email is [email protected]

Thanks

William R Gahrmann

Word of caution here!!!  Spoke patterns are not universal!!!

I got the Excel rims on my Penton 6 Days from Buchanan and they also provided the Heavy Duty Stainless spokes.  According to BSR, Excel rims are nippled for a Japanese hub spoke pattern, not a European hub.  This is what I was told by the good folks (heavy sarcasm) at Buchanan AFTER I ordered my wheels and after I started having massive problems lacing them.  Because of this you will have to lace one side in the opposite direction from what it was.  I was unable to do this inspite of the fact that I have laced wheels before and ended up having to have mine done by a wheel specialist.  It is my understanding that the Sun rims are correct for the Penton or other Euro hub bikes and would have laced on the same way as the old rim.  Also the Excel rims Buchanan supplied me along with the spokes and nipples were NOT drilled for the correct size of the HD nipple.  I had to slightly overdrill EVERY hole.  All in all I thought the service from BSR was atrocious and the people I dealt with were rude and insulting, especially their comment that I was obviously an "amateur" who "didn't know anything about wheel lacing" and that "everyone" knew that they would have to lace the Excels backwards and I should have just bought the Suns (although they certainly didn't supply this information at the time of purchase).

Having said all that, now that they are done they look and perform fabulous but if I had known all of this going into it I would have gone with the Sun rim.  Also I wish I could say I will never deal with Buchanan again but the truth is they are pretty much the only game in town, I will not however deal  directly with them again and will avoid them at all reasonable costs.  In spite of the fact that I have laced wheels in the past I have found someone locally who does them for $25 and at that cost it's not worth my effort.

Good luck on the Husky!


William R Gahrmann

Hey where's the bike at, how much do you want and do you have pictures?



William R Gahrmann

I have three of Marks stands, I think they are great.  I have one for my Penton, one for my Rickman and one for my Suzuki.

Thanks for the great stands Mark!

Will Gahrmann


William R Gahrmann

So I think my plan of attack is to try the bars off my Wombat and see if I like that bend, then compare that to the solid MSR bars and if I don't like either of them I will consider the "vintage" bend from Renthal

Thanks for your input everyone!

Will

William R Gahrmann

Dwight, what are the rise/bend/pullback specs on those?



William R Gahrmann

Thanks for all the help guys.  I'll work something out, they are only mildly tweaked so I'm sure they can be straightened but ultimately I would like new tubes.  I'll try Frank and see what I can come up with that way, otherwise I'll keep my eye out for some nice tubes at Mid-Ohio or on evilBay, if the 35's come up first I'll probably go that route.  Meanwhile I'll check the length on mine, a little longer would probably be nice, I can always through some longer shocks on back to keep the geomatry the same and pick up a scad more ground clearance.

In other news, the new Circle F was adjusted to clear the rear shock and I rounded the corners off on the mounting tabs, they aren't any wider than the stock ones and once the pipe is mounted you can't tell a difference.  I sent the pipe to Jet-Hot for their Sterling Hi-Temp ceramic coating and it should be back next week.  It turns out the Akront wheels I was planning on using were drilled for a conical hub so I ordered some new Excels from Buchanan and had them drilled for the heavy duty SS spokes and nipples, they should be in late next week too.  Hopefully I will have the bike back together in time for the AHRMA National at Camelback.

William R Gahrmann

Glenn, my frame is a late '72/early '73, frame number starts 211xxxx. so it should be the same as yours.

Gavin, The pipe I sent him as a model was exactly what you described, a regular Penton head pipe with the bazooka removed and a pickle on the end.  I usually leave the flange on too but it was removed for the engine rebuild and never replaced until now.

Looks like it's gonna have to go back for some professional "adjustment", the kind of thing I usually do myself with a torch and big ole hammer....

William R Gahrmann

Glenn,
I'd have to check my frame number to verify but I don't think my bike is a '74, I believe it is a '73 but I have parts on it from several different bikes so don't judge by what you "see".  I THINK (and that's always scary) that all you would need to do to adapt between the two would be get the pipe from Circle F without the brackets welded on and tack them into place yourself.  I don't know a lot about Pentons though so I could easily be wrong.

and yes Steve, Kevin at Circle F will be producing this pipe either as you see it (with his silencer) or without the silencer so you can put Al B's repop Penton silencer parts on it.  As a matter of fact the very next pipe that he makes is going to be without the silencer so we can do a test fit on my bike with Al's parts.

William R Gahrmann

It occurs to me that I might have the rubber spacers on the pipe brackets wrong which is pushing the pipe to one side.  It's been over a year since I took this bike apart, can anyone tell if they are right?  Otherwise I'm gonna have to start looking at the book....

Will

William R Gahrmann

The pipe is here and on the bike!!!  

It is going to take some adjusting since the silencer hits the reservoir on my old beat up Works shocks (the top is slightly bigger than the stock ones).  It slid into place easy as could be, right through the airbox, past the carb - rotate and slide the manifold onto the bolts.  All went well until I tried to snug the manifold bolts back into the final place and that's when I realized it was hitting the shock.  I tried flipping the shock but it still touches.  Also the silencer needs to be tweaked out a bit at the tip so it parallels the frame loop for that cool straight back look.

Please ignore the background clutter and the fact that my bike is a big old hunk of crud, I know I should stick to mopeds...

Got some preliminary pics up on my Yahoo! Photos at

http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/wrgahrma/my_photos

in the "Penton Six Days" folder

Let me know what you think.  After a year this project is finally coming together.



William R Gahrmann

Jerry,
Well I'm glad you asked!! 'cause that's one of my next steps and I was looking at those new nylon bushings, scratching my head and trying to remember back to last year this time when I took it apart....



William R Gahrmann

The brackets are a little large but keep in mind that this is the prototype.  I don't remember the brackets on his other pipes being inordinately large.  I'll have a look when I test fit it, it's possible that once we have the bracket itself marked for the bolt location he can work to reduce the size.

Tolerance is a funny thing, you don't want too much or too little!



William R Gahrmann

I just got the pics of it yesterday. It will be available soon both without the silencer installed so you can add the parts from Al B. or with the Circle F silencer installed (The bitchin' cool MX race version!). A friend of mine is buying a prototype of the model without the silencer and is going to be the guinea pig for test fitting the parts from Al B. I expect we will have to go through some tweaking with the mounting brackets, or possible airbox clearance. Hopefully it should fit fine since it was made from a original pipe in very good condition

He will be shipping it to me this week for test fitting.

The pics are available at:

http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/wrgahrma/my_photos

in the folder "Penton Six Days"

I will add more pics when I get it mounted. Please let me know what you think. There are some obvious differences such as you lose the ridge and shaping from the original in the headpipe area. I believe the volume is pretty close to the original, as are the cone dimensions so I expect the power charecteristics to be similar but I asked him to tune it towards a little more low end and mid. Full testing will obviously have to wait until I get some wheels built.



William R Gahrmann

William R Gahrmann

I just got the pics of it yesterday.  It will be available soon both without the silencer installed so you can add the parts from Al B. or with the Circle F silencer installed (The bitchin' cool MX race version!).  A friend of mine is buying a prototype of the model without the silencer and is going to be the Guinea pig for test fitting the parts from Al B.  I expect we will have to go through some tweaking with the mounting brackets, or possible airbox clearance.  Hopefully it should fit fine since it was made from a original pipe in very good condition

He will be shipping it to me this week for test fitting.

The pics are available at:

http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/wrgahrma/my_photos

in the folder "Penton Six Days"

I will add more pics when I get it mounted.  Please let me know what you think.  There are some obvious differences such as you lose the ridge and shaping from the original in the headpipe area.  I believe the volume is pretty close to the original, as are the cone dimensions so I expect the power charecteristics to be similar but I asked him to tune it towards a little more low end and mid.  Full testing will obviously have to wait until I get some wheels built.



William R Gahrmann