Can you help Tom Penton?

[OhioTed]

Did any news of the whereabouts of these bikes come out of the ISDT RR?

[OhioTed]

Update:  I did get in touch with Jim Hollander, but Jim says Tom must have him mixed up with someone else.  Jim started riding Rokons in '73, and never had one of the bikes Tom describes.  More detective work is needed!

[TGTech]

Ted,

Marcia was riding a complete KTM engine Penton at the RR event in Tulsa. Now whether it was Tom's or not, I don't know. I forgot to ask her about it.  

Dane

[OhioTed]

Thanks, Dane.  However, if that was one of the originals, it has been altered.  Too bad Tom never took pictures or recorded the serial numbers of, these Sachs bottom-end/KTM 175 top-end hybrids.

[john durrill]

Ted ,
 You could try talking to Jimmy Thornton , ( [email protected] ).
 He told me he saw the bike ( at least one ) and may have ridden it.
John D.

[Jeff D]

The bike Marcia had at the Reunion was a '76 model, orange tank GS.  Don Cutler had a hand in getting it back into running condition after several years of sitting idle, and it performed flawlessly for Marcia all weekend.  She topped her class with a gold on it....typical Penton results!  The bike is supposedly an ex-Tom bike, but it is certainly not the 125/175 of which he spoke of in the interview.  Two seperate animals.


Jeff DeBell

[OhioTed]

Thanks for the confirmation, Jeff.  At least that gives us one more idea of where NOT to look.  

Thanks also to John for the tip about Jimmy Thornton.  I've sent an e-mail to Jimmy, to see what he might know.

[Jeff D]

The bike Marcia had at the Reunion was a '76 model, orange tank GS.  Don Cutler had a hand in getting it back into running condition after several years of sitting idle, and it performed flawlessly for Marcia all weekend.  She topped her class with a gold on it....typical Penton results!  The bike is supposedly an ex-Tom bike, but it is certainly not the 125/175 of which he spoke of in the interview.  Two seperate animals.


Jeff DeBell

[OhioTed]

Thanks for the confirmation, Jeff.  At least that gives us one more idea of where NOT to look.  

Thanks also to John for the tip about Jimmy Thornton.  I've sent an e-mail to Jimmy, to see what he might know.

[john durrill]

Ted,
 I was looking through old posts for some D cylinder info and found this

 It was from post  titled Home Page Photo
I dont think this will help but it looks like the Bike Tom was talking about.
John D.

[Kip Kern]

Neat bike John, looks pretty easy to reproduce!

[john durrill]

Kip,
 The big part is getting the cylinder to case height right and mating the cases and cylinder .
 After that is pretty much bolt on stock parts. 72-75 cylinder and head, 72-73 pipe and carb.  
 12 spring clutch , add a roller bearing in place of the 6202 main and play with the air boot and intake manifold. If you use the A engine you would want the last version 6 A type cases because they have enough meat cast in the transfer area to be opened up with out a lot of welding. 6B cases would work and may have been what Tom had. The B crank would be 1& 1/2 lbs lighter than the A. That engine would find the pipe quick [].
Mine was a little more trouble because the cylinder base was a lot different from the 72-75 175 cylinder. The 72-73 pipe had to be modified to fit the newer cylinder. The Lectron needed a better angle and more clearance so we had to make an intake manifold up.
 I'm not the sharpest tack in the box so it took me a lot of try's on some things to get the parts to play well together. When i roll the garage door open I still catch them fighting every now and then [:I]
 It would  have been a lot easier if we lived with in driving distance of Forest chuckle chuckle!

 John D.

[OhioTed]

Thanks so much for providing the image, John.  That thing is gorgeous!  Sure wish we could get Tom to check out and comment on this info.  Hey Jack - could you give Tom a buzz on this?  I've tried e-mailing him, but got no response.  

Back to that picture, wonder if someone would be willing to build some stands like the one holding that 125/175 hybrid up.  What a beau-ti-ful setup.