As they arrived to the dealers ?

[rob w]

In what form were the Penton Sportcycles distributed to the dealers ?
In a box ?
Partially diassembled ?
Complete rolling machines ?
Was there a box, or crate ?
How much assembly was required by the dealer ?
Paul...Dane...Jack....anyone...?
Just curious,thanks,
Bob W

[Mike Lenz]

They were delievered similer as to today in a waxed cardboard box with a wood pallet in the bottom, pretty much assembled except for the forks if I remember correctly.  I sure wish I had saved one in the box!!

[400gs6]

10 or 12 years ago I was at Cycle Design in Phillipston, MA. At the time, they had several 70's bikes still in factory crates.  They supposedly had a new 125 Penton among them.

[skiracer]

My 76 MC5 came with the forks and the front wheel strapped to the side of the bike.  There was a plastic cover on the seat, and brown paper over the gas tank.  It almost took as long to open the crate as it did to put the front end together and to put the oil and gas in it.  The bike started on the third kick, and it has been smiles ever since.  James

original owner 76 250 MC5
spare 76 250 MC5
82 Suzuki PE 175
02 KTM 200 EXC

[VICTOR MONZ]

When I bought my KTM 125 in 1980, I think, it was air cooled, and I was a bit "fuzzy" then, so the year may be wrong.  But anyway, I lived in Lorain, OHIO and would go see Rod Bush at KTM Headquarters to check on my bike, when it was coming, etc...I got a glimpse of the shipment and that was about it.  

Penton Bros. had it all assembled when I picked it up at their shop on North Ridge Road, as I couldn't go right to KTM.

Real neat though as Rod would let me sneak in the back once in a while and look around.

Just wish my memory was a bit better, too many "hard" miles on my brain back then.

Victor

[Paul Danik]

Rob,
   
    What did the crates look like ?

http://www.pentonusa.org/GalleryServerPro/default.aspx?moid=4671&hr=1

     A few years back when KTM was still warehousing the bikes in Amherst and the warehouse was filled pretty full, I walked into the warehouse and was overwhelmed by the fragrance that permeated the air. The smell instantly took me back about 35 or so years to being in the Penton R & D building which at the time was also being used to warehouse bikes, only they were Pentons. I mentioned this to either Jack or Dane and was told how the packaging material was pretty much exactly the same today as it was "back in the day". I wish I could have bottled that smell...

    I seem to remember that the front wheel and handlebars were the main items that needed bolted together after the bike was removed from the crate.  There was a bit of wood on the bottom that the bike was attached to so that it would stay upright. I had forgotten about the paper covering the tank.  

   Probably the item that I paid the least amount of attention to "back in the day", is now what I pay the most attention to.  That being the tags that were tied to the handlebars when the bikes were uncreated, common procedure for me was to cut the twine with my knife and pitch the tags.

   Today I search out bikes that have the original documentation from the factory still with them.  The Jackpiner that we picked up in Atlanta a year or so ago is a good example.  The owner still had both of the factory tags and the string that was used to attach them to the bars. The one tag is the engine tag that was on the engine when it was built providing the serial number, destination, size, ect.  The other tag contained the serial number for the frame, engine size, destination, ect.

In 2002 we bought a new 200 EXC for Chad and was able to bring it home "in the crate" and relive some interesting history.  Chad and I had a great time unpacking the bike and putting the finishing touches to it.  

Paul