Steel Tankers awaiting shipment at KTM.

[Paul Danik]

Are you looking for something to do as you drink your morning coffee out of your John Penton signature coffee mug ? Try counting this room full of Steel Tankers as they awaited shipment from the KTM Factory back in the day. If you have a minute or two, I will tell you where that photo came from.

A number of years back, while visiting John Penton at his home, John handed me a modified Campbell's Soup box from his attic with some hanging files in it. "Here, go through this stuff sometime, maybe you'll find some items of interest", said John as he handed me the overloaded box. That box sat next to my desk till the weather turned cold and I had some time on my hands. I told Judy one morning at breakfast that I was going to go through that box before lunch, YEA RIGHT, about 4 days later I was getting close to the end of looking at and reading all of the gems that John Penton had found interesting and had saved over the years.

One of the last things I turned my attention to was an envelope full of film negatives which I took to a camera store to have developed, when I picked up the photos, this was one of them. I mentioned this photo to Jack, he said that as the bikes came off the assembly line they would be wheeled into this room and lined up perfectly, as they awaited shipment. Some of the bikes would be taken by the European distributor, and some would be loaded into a container headed to the US market. Jack said that 105 bikes would fit into a US bound container with the crates being 7 deep, 5 wide and 3 high. The crates fit in the container so tightly that Jack's Uncle Ted made a clamp of sorts with 2 plates that slid along the sides of a crate and when attached to a tow motor with a chain, and pulled, it would tighten itself to the crate and pull it out. Uncle Ted was one problem solving guy!

Possibly some of you will tell us how many Steel Tankers you counted in the photo. If by chance you do not as of yet have a John Penton signature coffee mug, just click on the link below to be transported to the POG SHOP page of the Penton Owners Group's website and order up a mug or two, and be sure to browse the other items that are available there as well. You can take my word for it; your coffee will taste much better out of one of those John Penton signature coffee mugs!

https://www.pentonusa.org/shop/