Wassell Trials Featured in VMX #35 and........

[Dennis Jones]

I'm more than a little disapointed in the article. Since I have owned 1% of the total production of Penton trials bikes I like to think I know a little about them

I'm not trying to dis VMX as it is a fine publication and there is no way the eds can know all the facts about any given bike. While some of the info in the feature is good some of it is just plain wrong.

It lists Mitsubishi as the main importer and that John Penton struck a deal with them and painted all the bikes he sold orange (300 according to the article) Anyone who knows anything at all about these bikes knows that the orange tanked bikes were the leftovers that did not sell and were altered into the Woodsman (35mm front end, Husky 125 pipe, chopped rear frame loop to except enduro fender, ect) just to try to get rid of them.

I think it is popular thinking that around 700 trials bikes were sold as Pentons and around 300 of the Tyran MX version were sold by Mitsubishi.

While the bike in the feature has been restored with no expense spared and is beautiful it is not a correct representation of a Penton or Wassell trials as they are calling it as it is using one of the frames that had been buggered to make a Woodsman. The rear frame loop has been cut off and turned up and re welded, extra brackets welded to the left side of the frame for the Husky exhaust, and stantions for fork stops like the chromemoly frame Pentons. The little bikes did not come across the pond with any of these.

Overall the article does a pretty good job of going over the W.E.Wassell history it just neglects that John Penton brought them to the USA.

A lot of people around the world read the very respected VMX and it make me sad to think they will read this thinking that is the way it happened and that this bike is a proper representation.

Dennis Jones

[firstturn]

Dennis,
  Excellent points.  I thought of some of the points you made when I read the article.  As a person I regard as the expert on these bikes I appreciate you auditing the article and thanks for all the help you have given me on the Wassell Mudlark and Woodsman.

Ron Carbaugh

[3putt]

Dennis,  I have a copy of a magazine "On two Wheels" published in UK.  It does NOT give a date, Volume 7, Part 100, but I suspect  approx 8 to 10 years old.   In it there is a very nice Article on W.E. Wassell LTD, and includes information and some nice photos of his efforts into building motorcycles, and why it did not work out.   The article advises Wassell produced approx 2000 bikes total.   This includes 1000 Tyrans for the American MX market and sold thru Distributor, Mitsubishi Company.   The remaining 1000 were Wassell Antelope Models.   Of these, 50 were sold in the Canadian Market, 250 sold in UK, and the remaining 750 carried the Penton Badge in the US market.    I bought this magazine several years ago on E-Bay thru a UK seller.  It advises the production staff was 2 men (on occasion 3 men) and a girl, and they produced 2.5 bikes a day.   It gives some history of the beginning, with BSA Bantam engines, then Puch, and finally Sachs.   Regards,   Nelson McCullough

[Dennis Jones]

Thanks for the added imput Nelson. I have not read that article, maybe I can get a copy from you.

Uncle Ronnie you have probably had 2% of them pass through your hands.

Considering how few were made it is amazing how many still exist.

Dennis Jones

[Lew Mayer]

I may have a copy of that article. Let me check.

Lew Mayer

[firstturn]

Dennis....OK between You, Lew and me what % of the Mudlarks have we owned[].  I thank both of you for your help.

Ron Carbaugh

[Paul Danik]

I have always wondered about the involvement of Mitsubishi in the Wassell/Tyran saga.

 Were they already importing and selling other brands of bikes and felt that the Tyran fit into their existing dealer network, or was the Tyran their first dab into the motorcycle market?

If it was their first dab, why and how did this Japanese company, I do believe they are Japanese, decide to import and sell the British Tyran?

I have a folder of papers printed on Mitsubishi International Corporation stationary, the papers contain a lot of distributor to dealer information, the papers came with the Tyran inventory I picked up a few years back. I just Googled Mitsubishi Internation Corp. and that is quite a large company and they still use the same logo so it must be the same company. http://www.micusa.com/  It just doesn't add up to me unless they thought this was the next big player in the industry.

Any answers out there....

Thanks
Paul

[marsattacks]

This is an interesting phenomenon that crops up with a vintage magazine such as VMX, which I really like. Unlike a writer for a modern publication, a writer for VMX not only must be a motorcycle journalist, he must also be part historian, folklore artist and storyteller.

Unless he has rare access to a truly authoritative source (such as contemporaneous records or factory personnel), the researcher/writer must rely on the received wisdom of whomever he has contact with at the time his article is in queue for publication. And even though it is quarterly, I'm sure the publisher of VMX does not allow for a level of factual research or peer review or expert vetting that would come close to what one would encounter in academia. Moreover, the space limitations handcuff the writer to a few selected points likely to have broad appeal to the readership.  So, perhaps the greatest fault of such an article is that it portrays facts in a manner that makes them seem unfailingly correct, when in fact they are simply well-intended but unavoidably error-prone narrations. Probably the best remedy is a fact-based email to the editor, which VMX is good about running. Even better would be a Wikipedia article, which is more likely to preserve and correct the history of Wassel into a time when all dirt bikes are electric. Such an article would be an antidote for any inaccuracies in VMX or other sources, should any future Wassel devotee wish to devote the effort to acquaint himself with all the facts.

As for Mitsubishi, I "speculate" based on received wisdom that it wanted to cash in on the projected but unrealized explosion of interest in the observed trials world. If you have read this far, I ask your forgiveness. Regards, John

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