Vintage 1000 Dual Sport Ride

[Rick Bennett]

Just a few days out now. One of my reasons for doing this trip was to learn something about Penton sportcycles and their Sachs motors. Having rebuilt the motor for this ride I thought I had done a good and complete job. During my 100 mile testing I found that the clutch dragged slightly and it made finding neutral hard when stopped. I pulled the clutch cover and found metalic paint in the oil. This is not the motor I had been racing but a spare off the shelf. Apparently the bush under the layshaft wheel is a bit too loose and along with a few teeth being lightly pitted from previous rust, the gear is grinding itself to death, even with Spectro 80 gear lube. Back to the spare parts on the shelf I found a better gear/bush and have cleaned up the mess in the case. Fresh oil in and I will be hitting the road for Chattanooga Thursday morning. Rebuilding 45 year old motors is not always easy and every one has a different set of challenges. One of the motors I disassembled to look at for spare parts has 1/8 inch of mud in the bottom from having no rubber boot around the clutch cable. It was running like this. Tough motor!

Rick

Looks like I may be leaving in rain, yippee.

[Richard Colahan]

Best wishes on a great trip Rick!
We'll be looking for updates along the way.

Richard Colahan
1969 V1225
Upper Black Eddy PA

[Rick Bennett]

Packing day...last day home. I am finding out it is not what you can take but what you have to leave home. Not much room on a 125.
Rick

[Paul Danik]

Rick,

   All the best to you on your endeavor. Keep in touch.

Paul

[3putt]

Rick,  Here's  wishing You a SAFE AND FUN RIDE  !!!   Nelson McCullough

[Rick Bennett]

58 degrees and raining....will hold off leaving for about an hour. I will be glad to be on the road. Tired of packing and repacking.

Rick

[Pat Oshaughnessy]

Every Cloud has a silver lining. I hope the weather clears for you.[8D]

[Rick Bennett]

Ok, sorry for the delay in posting but no WiFi at the two places we stopped at on the road. We left Ohio in the rain on Thursday morning and headed south. Sticking to back roads took us down route 44 to 303 west then south again on the west side do 71. Fuel stops are around 100 miles apart. My Six Days is getting 50 mpg. This bike is just amazing. I have absolutely no problem keeping up with Randy's 350. I can easily cruise at 55 with power to spare, even loaded with camping gear.

Lessons I am learning...
It doesn't matter what you spend on rain gear, you will get wet after an hour at 55 mph.
You dry out pretty quickly once the sun comes out, except for the sloshing in your boots.
This beats working.

The rain stopped long enough to mostly dry out when we stopped for gas. I filled up, added oil into the tank and shook the bike to mix the oil in. Heading off down the road got me about 50 yards before the motor quit. A check of the fuel filter showed the problem, it was full of oil, not gas. Shake the bike a bunch more, restart and kill a neighborhood full of mosquitoes and I was off. From this point on I stirred the tank with my large screwdriver before returning the fuel tap to on.

Guess what...it started raining again. South of route 70 I got to thinking that it would be nicer to stay dry instead of camping in a tent and called on a WW1 flyer buddy and asked if we could stay in his hanger near Jamestown. This worked out and we stopped for the night at 250 miles completed.

Guess what...it was raining when we woke up. No sense in waiting so we hit the road. No staying dry and my boots still slosh. We passed into Kentucky and it dried out a bit and the sun came out. Further south, guess what...it started to rain. The Penton is running GREAT. It doesn't care what the weather is doing. Most of the trip has been trying to stay off of divided highways, but it doesn't always work. When we do have to run with the semi  trucks I stay in the right lane and run 60 with no problem. Around the 500 mile mark we found a nice place to camp. General Burnside Island was right by our path south and not crowded. Pitched the tents, made dinner and serviced the bikes.

Guess what...it is raining when we woke up. Packed up wet tents and off down the road. I really like this Penton adventure bike. It is a blast to ride on the road. Yes, my boots are sloshing again after nearly getting them dry over the campfire last night. Stopped for breakfast at a roadside diner just as the sun came out. While eating, checked the weather for the last 120 miles into Chattanooga. 90 percent chance of, you guessed it, rain. No sense in hanging around...off into the storm. My boots are sloshing. I am starting to consider drilling some drain holes in the bottoms.

Rolled into Chattanooga and used the gps to find Adam of Speed Deluxe, the founder of the Vintage 1000.

Oh yea, forgot...my VDO died a slow and painful death, along with my headlight. I also lost one chain adjuster bolt on the road. Other than that...my Penton runs GREAT.

Stopped at Autozone and purchased two new lights and a bolt at Ace Hardware.  Out for Mexican and your up to date. Heading out at 5 am tomorrow morning for a sunrise ride and then maintenance before the 1000 begins Monday morning.

What a blast...my boots are still soaked. My Barbour jacket actually does as well as my Gortex pants.

Guess what...it is still raining.

Rick

[Rick Bennett]

Morning ride canceled on account of rain but it seems to be stopping. Boots spent the whole night in front of a fan and are much dried out. The plan today will be to change my transmission oil and generally check the bike over. We stayed at Luke and Fritzel's house so no camping for last night or tonight. They are both riding the event, Luke on a Suzuki 250 Savage and Fritzel on a 79 XL 250. Both have ridden the 1000 before.

My 74 125 is mostly stock except for the PVL ignition, aluminum tank and rims, and Kenda 270 tires. Other than balancing the crank to a different spec than called for in the manual, I didn't modify the motor. Timing is at 2.6 mm. When doing the rebuild I was careful to shim all the shafts to the tighter end of the specs. The carburetor is a Bing 27, 140 main and no. 5 needle, 273 needle jet. Jetting has been perfect. The spark plug is NGK Iridium. The 15/57 gearing matches the power band really well. I made one more adjustment to the upshift stop and lowered the shift lever one notch before leaving. I missed 5 shifts the first 250 miles, 3 the second 250 and only 1 yesterday. All my fault for not holding the lever up long enough. Almost all were in going from 5th to 6th. No downshifts have been missed. The gearbox seems to be getting easier to shift and my left foot is learning after a year of riding a 75 CR125. I am burning Spector Golden concentrate at 50 to 1. Fuel so far has been 93 octane car gas. The motor seems to be running ok with this fuel. When I left home the first tank was 100 percent gas and the motor made a bit more power. Adam informed me the first part of the trip we should be able to find 100 percent fuel.

Coffee is done, more later.

Rick

[Rick Bennett]

Serviced the bikes today and ready to ride tomorrow morning. Changed out my transmission oil and installed some new LED lights. The oil was clean with no more metal from the clutch side.

Rode to the riders meeting and just returned. We meet at 7:00am tomorrow morning. Adam assigned groups for the first day. I will be with two Hondas, a 350, 450 and a BMW. The other riders are all enthusiastic and most seem capable. One or two left the meeting to finish up some last minute repairs.

Will write more when I can.

Rick

[Rick Bennett]

Back to the adventure...
After arriving in Chattanooga on Saturday Randy and I had one extra day on our hands. We made contact with other riders and were housed at Luke and Fritzel's home. Sunday was spent repacking for the 1000 and running around the city to pick up some last minute items. At 7:00 pm a riders meeting was held at one of the restaurants owned by the chef that would cook and provide all the food on the trip. All the riders  and support crew were asked to introduce themselves and what bike they would be on, along with if they had been on previous 1000s.  The group didn't quite know what to think about me giving it a go on a 125, especially the veterans of the group. We received our roll charts and other papers and spent the rest of the evening making strips for each days ride. Most of the roll charts were six to eight feet long. We were to return to the restaurant at 7:00 am the next morning to begin.

Day 1
Monday
Arriving at the take off point, breakfast and coffee was available and all took part. For the first time you had a chance to see the others bikes and size up your competition. A very interesting selection, mostly Japanese, and half dirt and half road bikes. All had to carry what their rider felt would be needed for the task ahead. Some carried a little and some packed even "the kitchen sink". Soon we were off winding our way out of the city and off on a great adventure. The mileage for the first day was around 165, held short on purpose, to allow for breakdowns, on unknown bikes. Very few repairs were needed as this day was mostly road miles. We were assigned what group to ride in for the firs day only. I have no idea why or what the reason for this. It was a short day of riding and we reached camp early, in good weather. Everyone was excited to be finally off.

[Rick Bennett]

Not only was the choice of bikes an interesting mix, so was the choice of riding gear. All but one wore full face helmets. Basically you have the choice, try to stay dry or give it up and dry out after a hosing. Both work to a point, but neither is perfect. I choose to wear a pair of Gortex rain pants over jeans, not only for water, but to stay cleaner in the dirt. I also wore a Barbour jacket with waterproof hydrogen sweatshirt under when needed. The Barbour works well, not too heavy in the heat, and somewhat waterproof. The large pockets were very handy for carrying a hat, lunch, camera, and yes...TP. The pants have a large cargo pocket for my wallet and phone. Keeping dry feet turned out to be the problem for me. My Gortex hiking boots were damp the entire trip. I started with wearing one pair if sox and ended up wearing all three pairs I had brought along. I will have to rethink this for the 1000 in August.

I packed a small 40 degree sleeping bag, Thermorest air mattress, and lightweight two man tent with small vestibule. The tent is larger than necessary, but nice to get your gear in out of the rain and you want to leave your stinky boots and sox outside. I use Wolfman waterproof bags for holding everything. They stay dry, hold up to crashes and have excellent tie down straps.

I packed very few tools and spares. This is a crap shoot. Other than my headlight problem and flat rear tire, all I needed was two stroke oil and chain lube. I did carry a spare air cleaner and used it. One of my biggest fears was ingesting dirt into the motor. I only packed one tube, a 3.00/21, it worked fine in the rear when needed. I carried and used a CO2 tire inflator and used all three cylinders to get the tire back on the rim properly. We ran thru a lot of rocks and I wanted the tires fully inflated. Chain lube used was my drained out transmission 80 weight in a Titebond glue bottle. This along with center stand worked well. I lubed every morning and sometimes middle of the day. Chain adjust only in the morning and not every day. I brought along a spare chain block but didn't use it. I brought and used half a dozen JP rubber bands, they work great.

[Dale Fisher]

Early in the ride:

[/URL]

The end:



Dale Fisher
Penton Owners Group - Memberships - POG Merchandise
Mudlark Registry
Facebook - Penton Owners Group - Administrator
Facebook - Cheney Racing Group - Administrator

[Rick Bennett]

Ok...made it home at 4:30 today. Rode 2867 miles in 13 days. It was a blast! Will I do it again? Yes, in about eight weeks, on the Vintage 1000 mountain ride. I will give it another try on my trusty Penton Six Days. Off to the showers.

More later

Rick

This bike is awesome!

[Pat Oshaughnessy]

The Prep. work you did on your bike for this ride paid off! Good Job! Dont let that knee get infected. Happy Trails![8D]