'Austria' stencil on Penton seats

[tdavispossum50]

Years ago, 1972, a friend bought a 125 Six-Day brand new from a Houston dealer.  The seat had "Penton Austria" stenciled on the back of the seat.  I hadn't seen one like it until last month!  A barn find Jackpiner had the exact, same "Penton Austria" seat.
Does anyone know what years, and/or models these appeared on?

[Paul Danik]

Greetings,

   Having no first hand knowledge of the answer to your question, I reached out to the director of marketing and advertising for Penton Imports "back in the day" for his input.

   He stated that to the best of his knowledge, in Italy the Penton / KTM Sportcycles were branded Penton for a period of time and were sold in decent quantity. As to why they were branded as Penton and not KTM he felt that the folks in the marketplace held the name Penton in great esteem and for marketing purposes it was a winner to brand the machines PENTON. The seats on those machines could very well have been branded PENTON AUSTRIA.

    I can add a small parcel of information to this question. When a Penton / KTM was uncrated in the states there were two tags on the handlebar. I have the two tags here for a Jackpiner that I own. One tag was the build tag for the MOTOR and one was the CONTROL-SLIP for the motorcycle. One the MOTOR tag there is a place where the designated market is indicated, the USA market would most likely get the PENTON USA style of branding on the seat and such, and the European market getting the PENTON AUSTRIA style of branding on the seat and such.

   We discussed two concepts as to how the PENTON AUSTRIA seats came to the US market. Possible the factory ran short on the USA seats and just filled in with the European branded seats.  OR

   I don't know who your Penton dealer was, but Houston area based Richard Sanders was not only one of the largest Penton dealers in the United States, he also had visited the factory and had bought a machine for use while in Europe. Having known Richard I wouldn't doubt that he possibly bought a few extra machines while at the factory and had those shipped back as well thru Penton Imports, and quite possibly those would have been branded PENTON AUSTRIA.

   I have a number of seats hanging at the shop and will look for PENTON AUSTRIA on them, and possibly others will do so as well. If we find others in different parts of the USA with PENTON AUSTRIA on them then possibly they were used to fill in when PENTON USA seats were not available. If the PENTON AUSTRIA seats are found only in your area, possibly Richard was behind those making there way to the USA.
 
   Fortunately there are others with possible first hand knowledge of the answer to your question around, hopefully we may get more input from them that will either give support to what is stated above, or possibly not, either way all input is surely wlcome.


Hope this helps, interesting question for sure.
Paul

   

[tdavispossum50]

I think you may be on to something, Paul.  Both bikes were from Texas.

[454MRW]

Both my early 74 250 Hare Scrambler, which origin was unknown but I'm from Illinois, had The Penton Austria seat cover on it originally, as well as my very first Penton, wish had a California title and was a 6 day 125 had the Penton Austria seat cover on it. Mike

Michael R. Winter
I enjoy rebuilding and appreciating Pentons!
1974 250 HS Penton
1976 MC5 400
1978 KTM 78 GS6 250
L78-79 MX6 175-250 KTM's
1976-78 125-400 RM's
2007 CR125R Honda
1977 MC250 Maico
2017 KTM Freeride 250R

[SouthRider]

Paul - many seats sold by Competition Cycles in Kenner La (New Orleans) by Don Burgess also had Austria on them.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

"We the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible, for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, that we are now qualified to do almost anything, with nothing."

1972 Penton Berkshire 100
1983 Husqvarna 250 XC
2011 Jayco 31.5 RLDS
2009 Chevy 2500 HD Duramax

[Paul Danik]

Greetings,

   Thanks for the input. I am now guessing that more Penton Austria sightings will be forthcoming. Might just need to add this question to the list of questions for the "ask the experts" portion of the June POG meeting.
   
   Paul

[tdavispossum50]

Many thanks to all!  This gives me a solid research 'starting point.'
Todd

[rob w]

Link to picture of "KTM Austria" seat cover, from MC5 ->
https://photos.app.goo.gl/LWBGsFTQku28hSap8

[Toolsurfer]

Got the same cover as Rob W on my 74 1/2 250 . I removed cover and then removed stencil for my archive. My machine always in MI new to now .