Beautiful Penton Woodsman for sale on ebay

Started by Gordon Brennan, January 28, 2017, 12:50:24 PM

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Lew Mayer

I haven't seen a Bantam Woodsman but I did see a Wassell/Bantam trials bike at Mid-Ohio one year. It looked cool. Don't know how the power was for trials.

Lew Mayer
Lew Mayer

Gordon Brennan

This is as close as I could find.

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Paul Danik

I found the article on the history of Ted Wassell's entrance into the world of motorcycle production.

The Wassell Trials machines that were designed to be BSA Bantam powered were sold as a rolling chassis only, or what is often referred to as a kit bike. The reason being that the folks at BSA had no interest in selling Ted new Bantam engines right off their assembly line. A rider would simply buy the Wassell trials rolling chassis and then source his own BSA Bantam engine, which according to the article, were fairly plentiful. The article states that 50 of these units were produced in 1971.

Ted Wassell still wanted to build and sell a complete motorcycle and in November of 1971 he visited the Milan Show and liked what he saw in the latest Sachs engine. An order was eventually placed and the Sachs powered Wassell Trials machines were then built. Soon John Penton entered the picture....and we know most of that story :)

Paul