Penton Wassel

[Dale Sonnenschein]

Hello

A friend of mine has a Wassel and we are trying to figure out the year it was made. The frame # is W553ST. It has a 6B motor.
How many years were they made?

Thanks

Dale

[Jim Schneider]

I am no authority but I recently sold SN W656ST (not whining, but goodness, it went for an extremely reasonable number).
Somewhere during the many years I owned it I found information on production years and frame numbers. Indications were it was assembled in 1972; and it is one of the higher frame numbers I have seen. The engine identification means very little, I think...it took five Sachs engine cores to assemble the nice running unit it is now. As most folks know the Penton/Wassell project was mostly taken on to use up excess cast iron barrel/head engines in Penton inventory. I believe the project was fairly short-lived. The resulting bikes were beautiful to look at but did not set any high standards in Observed Trials rideability. The enduro versions shared this trait, I'm told. Perhaps a more knowledgeable POG member can expand (or correct) what I have written.
Jim Schneider

[Cal Alexander]

I've read up quite a bit on the Wassell's having owned and restored five so far. Also had some discussions with Ted Wassell's grandson Tyler about his grandfather's trials adventure. From what I gathered the Wassell Trials were made in one production run spanning from 1972 to early 1973. About 1000 bikes were made with about 700 sold in the US, 200 in Canada and 100 in the UK. All of the bikes originally came with the Sachs Alloy 6 speed B motors until the infamous article in I believe Dirt Bike which criticized Mr Penton's Trials Bike with its MX engine. At that point several bikes were converted to the Sach A cast iron cylinder motors and their hard to get Sachs B motors used on Penton Six Day bikes. They are definitely interesting bikes and beautiful to look at making them highly desired in today's collectors world.

[Dale Fisher]

From what I have been able to assemble from creating a registry of sorts.

I have found the following in searches. 

W006-B thru W097-B were frames designed for the BSA Bantam engine.

Earliest found frame with a Sachs engine is W226-ST and the highest number to date is W960-ST

Nothing has been found in the 101 to 199 range which leads me to suggest the Sachs series offered beginning in 1972

jumped to numbers starting with "2".

Most 800 and 900 numbers are all in the UK.

Unclear on how many arrived and when but many were here for quite some time.  A bike that arrived in 1972

might have taken up to two years or more to be sold as a later model, a Cafe MX, or even later a Woodsman.

[Cal Alexander]

Just to build on Dale's feedback a little, one of the bikes I restored was frame W 185 ST. It had a Sachs B motor on it that appeared to be original to the bike. Some of the components like the chain oiler and foot pegs were slightly different than the later bikes. Frame #185 is the earliest one I've see so far.