Who has my Six Days?

[Marc Biro]

I am curious if anyone has frame #21158942? It was my first bike that my Dad purchased for me from Temple City Kawasaki in Ca.. He paid $1,230.20 for it, put $500.00 down and made payments of $30.42 a month for 24 months. I still have all the original paperwork on it!

Thanks

marc biro

[cubfan1968]

Marc, any luck?

Rod Whitman
Omaha, Nebraska
1972 Six Day (Rider)
1972 Six Day (Project)

[VICTOR MONZ]

I have a Six Day Frame # 21158941.9, pretty close....just kidding.  Maybe check the Riverside County Landfill !

See you soon Marc.

[OhioTed]

Don't give up, Marc.  That bike could be out there somewhere.  Did you ever hear the story of what Al Born went through to locate and recover his original ST bike?  Amazing.  Al could be a private eye.  

Also, despite all the current interest in vintage bikes, there are still tons of them out there, hidden away.  The one I am still chasing goes like this:

About a dozen years back, my neighbor comes riding over on an early Penton he had just acquired.  It was a Steel-Tanker, but I had never even seen one.  Early-70's CMF bikes were the oldest Pentons I was familiar with.  The bike was set up for mx, and looked and ran beautifully.  He wanted to sell it.  I was racing KTM's at the time, had no money or interest in something like the ST, and so asked around .  No one in my circles at the time wanted anything to do with the bike.

Jump forward six years or so, and via my involvement with POG, and understanding of what that guy had, I tried to find out where it had ended up.  Well, he sold it to a buddy who rode it and broke it, and now it MIGHT be in the back of his buddy's, dad's, uncle's, brother-in-law's barn, and they don't want to dig all the other junk out to get at it, and don't like anyone coming around, and etc, and etc.  

That's a shame, too, as that bike is likely right where he says it is.  But you know, there are people who just will not talk to you about selling something they own, even if you wave cash under their nose, or whatever.  

Not long ago, I got to go onto a friend of a friend's property, and look through his barns and outbuildings because, in addition to a bunch of old cars, this fellow reportedly has a bunch of old bikes.  Well, the bikes are there, alright.  They are BURIED in the middle of a falling-apart barn, with so much stuff (TONS) packed in around them, the entire place would have to be taken apart to get at them - and then the barn would probably fall down.  To look at the bikes, I  had to climb up on top of all this junk, walk across the top of it over to where I could barely see the bikes (no lights in there), and was literally standing on top of the bikes looking down on them.  That's how much junk is in there, and how tight it is.  End result was a bust, because I couldn't see anything of real value, plus the owner just hemmed and hawed around and no kind of deal was even discussed.

So, I guess this is a round-about way of saying that your bike could still be out there, Marc.  Just keep sniffing.  Or, get Al involved!

[Gavin Housh]

Ted your story brings back a story of my own. I had been racing at the VMD West at Sears point and I was ridding my 72 Six day. As I was sitting in the pits a fellow walked over and looked at my bike. After looking for some time the guy says "I know where there is a motor like that in a barn". I ask him where I should look for this barn and who I should ask for. He then gives me a rough description of how to find the place. A week or two later I drive out into the rural country side of Sonama county. I found the road he had told me of but I could'nt  find the right property. The guy had told me the name of the owner and also that he owned a Cobra. So I started stopping and asking any and everyone. I'd ask if they knew of this guy with the bad ass car. After several No's I saw some people moving some sheep into an enclosed area. I stopped the truck and tried to ask (over the loud barking of the sheep dogs) if they knew of the car owner Sachs engines and such. The woman replied "yes you got the right place but we're busy right now" and then asks "do you know anything about sheep, we need some help". I told her I had no experiance with livestock but I was willing to help. That meant if I could get close to the barn that had the goods in it I was willing to help with the sheep. There was a man that would shear the sheep and that turned out to be very interesting to watch. My job was to open and close the fence when the woman would bring the lamb in. The sheep exited under thier own power after being thrown to the ground and cut right down to the skin (and some times below the skin) with what looked like a large pair of scissors. It was just the three of us and the whole flock? was maybe ten sheep so it was over soon and I asked if her husband was around the ranch some place. She said no that he was working on his airplane down at the airport. Not feeling that it would be right to ask about what was in the barn without her husband there I thanked her and headed for the airport. After a thirty minute drive I arrived at the airport and started the procees over again. Walking around asking if anyone knew this guy Tim and where I might find him. Shortly I was able to find him and told him of the situation and how a young guy that had worked for him some time ago had seen my Penton at the vintage races and said that he may have a motor for that motorcycle in his barn. He thought for a moment and with a smile said "that guy never was very bright, the motor in the barn is a twin cylinder snowmobile engine"[:0]. Gavin

[cubfan1968]

Marcs search for that exact Penton brings me to my own story.

After Skip Page made me go to Baja last year I started liking these new style dirt bikes. You know better suspension the magic button thing and all that. Well I started putting my extra dollars into fine tuning my new Yamaha instead of my Pentons. My thought process was now  in order to save money I would take the best parts of the two 72 Pentons and make one real good one. Which brings me back to Marc's search. The one I tear down will be used as parts and will probably never ever be a full motorcycle again. I can't do this. So I hope Marc finds his motorcycle and I'll will continue with my project Penton.

Rod Whitman
Omaha, Nebraska
1972 Six Day (Rider)
1972 Six Day (Project)

[Rain Man]

Talking about fellas that won't talk or part with their stuff !!  It took me 6 years to get this hippies attention that had my 2 Jack
Piners I owned back in the late 70's.  
  I knew they had been sitting in his "hew barn" close to 20 years.  To make a long story short, I showed up on Thanksgiving day of 2001 and left a 36X36 poster with my name, phone number and my fianl offer on his front door.  $800 bucks for my old hew poo infested "junk o Pentons"  or see ya.
 I picked them up the very next day...
 I wonder what else that hippy   has in his barn !!!

Raymond
 Down East Pentons

[Marc Biro]

Great stories!

I do rememeber selling it to a guy I used to race with here in So. Cal but for the life of me I can't remember his name. I do however remember that he bought it for $725!

One other thing.... I was so excited when my Dad and I picked it up from the dealer that I was able to talk my parents into allowing me to bring it in to my bedroom the first night!!

marc

[OhioTed]

Marc, is there an "and . . . " to go with your story?  I mean, bringing a bike into the house is pretty typical, so where is the REST of your story?  Haha.  All kidding aside, there have been several times when we had a bike in the house, and I don't mean just in the basement.  For example, when my son was 13, and his pride and joy was a '93 KTM 125 mx'er, we brought it into the family room and decorated it for Christmas.  Don't think I'm just talking about us guys, either.  When we got the wife her first bike, a 1981 Honda XL250S, she brought it into the house, because she didn't want "her baby" to be cold during the winter months.  I've also got some pictures around here somewhere of my son, when he was just a little runt, "riding" (walking, actually) his '74 Honda MR50 up and down the hallway.  Oh, and did I tell you that each of our bikes have names?  It goes on and on . . .