what year and color 250

[wildman]

Ihave a 250 Penton with frame# 511 87703. It has Sun rims, Ceriani strait leg forks, and strips that go across the sides and up over the tank in front of the gas cap. My question is: Is this bike considered a 1975 or 1976 because of the 11th month of manufacture, the sun rims and tank stripe? The real question I have is should the tank be red or orange? I have scraped down the old paint and it only looks orange.I've had some disaproving remarks because  "250 Pentons were all red". Thank you, Pentonites.

1975 250GS in Mich.

[tmc3c]

Wildman, I had the same problem, my tank was red and I thought the 100cc was only penton that was red but found out that a 250 could also be red and after talking with the people in the know here I found out mine which is a 1976 250gs was Orange. Then came the problem of finding out what color orange was the original and a good friend of mine here in POG sent me a NOS side cover that was orange and I got a color match, and that is :Dupont urethan base coat,code ys017 =orange and ys914= yellow for the # plates. Hope this helps

Thomas Carmichael

[OUCWBOY]

Wildman,
Based on your frame number, your bike is a 1976. I could be wrong, but I understand that all 76s were Orange. Regardless of size. I know that I have seen a 125, 175, and 250 in the orange color and not sure about the 400.

Donny Smith

[Rocket]

Wildman
Your bike would be considered a 76.  I imagine orignally it was orange.  The forks are correct being straight leg Cerianni's, but they could have been leading axle Cerianni's or Marzocchi's.  Do you have a Bing carb or a Lectron?  The forks that you have, do they have the rib on the front of the slider?
Rocket

[wildman]

Rocket, the bike has the single rib on the forks and a bing carb. I know with most jappo bikes the last couple months of the year starts the next model year but the euros did it differently. For AHRMA purposes I guess either 75 or 76 would be considered "like design". As an aside, this bike got a 6th place trophy at last years Vintage ride put on by the Cycle Conservation Club of Michigan, which is where I got the "wrong color" remark. Thanks for everyones helpful comments, Wildman

1975 250GS in Mich.

[tomale]

Wildman, just to mess things up my 76 came Red. I know it was red because I am the only one that has ever owned that bike. During that year the bikes were imported as both red and orange. Mine has KTM stickers on the tank, that too is stock. Mine has the 35 marzokes on them. There is a set of 35mm cerani's sitting in my shop as well. They look really close to the marzokes. They are not for sale they have been promised to a racing friend for a 400 project bike. Now you know and the next time some one gives you a bad time about the color of your bike, you can defend your self properly.
By the way, welcome to the best place to be next to riding.

Thom Green,I own and ride a 76 250 MC5 MX which I bought new.

[rob w]

Hi Dan, Hope to meet you this week, will call you tomorrow.

What you've discribed (#511 *****), stripe on tank, and all, you have a 1976 Cross Country model, it should be orange. All '76 Cross Country models were orange that I know of.
All 1975 250's were red, that's where some confusion started probably.
And in 1976, if the frame number was 550-*****, then you'd have a MC5 model and those were mostly orange in the east and red in the west.

See ya, Bob

[tomale]

Rob, Thanks for making that clear, you said it much better than I.

Thom Green,I own and ride a 76 250 MC5 MX which I bought new.