Long shot . . . . .

[Crockett]

I've just recently started surfing the vintage dirt bike sites and have been amazed to see how many people are into the old classic MX bikes. Very cool ! I found this site a couple of nights ago and was truly stunned to see pictures of what was  my first dirt bike, a '69 steel tank Penton 125. I never really entertained the idea that someone would collect,restore and even race these bikes.

Then I had a crazy idea . . . .  I wonder if I could locate my old Penton !

Just for the hell of it here are a few identifying clues specific to this bike the last time I saw it.

'69 Penton 125 w/Green & white steel tank

Yellow Preston Petty fenders with rubber mud flap out front
Green plastic front number plate (headlight and mounts in a box)
Cast aluminum dual plug holder w/plug wrench hose clamped to frame
Two pipes - factory "up pipe" and aftermarket "down pipe" w/silencer
Hidden toggle Kill switch up under tank
Side case was broken inside from a thrown chain and repaired with
epoxy and a piece of plexi-glass! (I was 14 at the time!)

That's about all I remember except that it was sold in about 1975 in Bakersfield California.

and one more thing . . . . forgive me I was young . . . it had 1974 Suzuki TM125 front forks on it ! The Penton got the short end of the fork deal, but those big Ceriani(sp?) forks sure worked great on the Suzuki after I converted them to air!

Very cool site guy's you've taken me back a few years for sure !

'Crockett

[Crockett]

More info after reading model i.d.section on this site:

Might have been a '70 model not a '69 due to pipe mount for "down pipe"

Had black and gold S&W rear shocks like the ones picture on Bob McCulloughs #147 bike in featured bikes section.

"Crockett

* Note
Forum moderator please notify me or repost this if it's not in the correct forum.  Thanks

[slvrbrdfxr]

Hi Crockett,
Welcome to the Penton Owner's Group Page. The Steeltankers you mentioned on the featured page are owned by my brother Bob and I. We rode them back on the weekend of Oct 22-24,2004 at the ISDT Reunion Ride at Zink Ranch in Tulsa, OK. I was aboard #147 and my brother was aboard #247. Funny you mentioned the S&W shocks on my bike. I spent a frantic couple of days looking for replacement shocks for the bike after I blew out one of the OEM ones on a shakedown ride just a few days before the Zink race. I ended up robbing the S&W's from one of my Can Ams and they worked real nice until I blew one of them out during the ride that weekend. I'll be replacing the shocks again before next ride. My bike came from West Virginia and my brother's bike came from eastern Pennsylvania so I doubt either one would be the one you owned. I'll try to get my brother to post a link here to some other pictures of our bikes. Good luck in your search and I hope you are able to locate and be reunited with your old Steeltanker.
 
Dave McCullough
Tulsa Trail Riders

[Big Mac]

Crockett - Sorry, I don't have your old bike. BUT don't lose faith! Never know when the phone will ring with some stranger standing in his gargage on the other end, describing the Suzuki forks on his Penton.

I bought a '73 Harescrambler project bike from a guy in WA, that came with an old expired title from when originally sold down in the Los Angeles area. No telling how many hands it had passed through or how it ended up in the Seattle area. I spent about a year going through it until I was satisfied, then got to thinking about the bike's story from the original owner 30+ years ago.

So I pulled out the old wrinkled and faded title, and on the back written in pencil was a phone number. Dialed it up and asked for the name showing on the title...the guy had the same number!! I was chatting with the guy who had rolled it onto the line for the first time.

It would have been very cool if the guy was as enthusiastic as you are about the whereabouts of his trusty old Penton, but he was a bit underwhelmed...recalled some MX racing on it back then but said it handled poorly, had bad brakes and he traded it off for some other newfangled mount within a year or so. Oh well. Hopefully some guy somewhere will be polishing his restoration project and like me, and start thinking about how to track you down.  Good luck!

[firstturn]

Mac,
  I apprecciate your story, but what a disappointment to find someone who could care less.  I have done similar and located people that owned bikes previously and were delighted to know about the bike and that it was still intact.  Congratulations on having a '73 Harescrambler.

Ron Carbaugh

[Gavin Housh]

Welcome Crockett. I owned a 1971 steel tank like yours, and a TM 125 Suzuki. I never thought to switch the forks. Those Suzuki forks would bend all the time. I'm still trying to find my old Suzuki. It had all the good stuff, Webco head, CrMo swing arm, After market pipe, 32mm Mikuni, ported cylinder, GP seat, S&W freon gas shocks, Aluminum rear sprocket, and nickel plated frame and swing arm. The only thing it needed was a Maico or Ceriani 35mm forks. The last I heard this bike was in Desert Hot Springs near Palm Spring California. I sold it for $375 around 1980. I kept the penton and later got a CMF 72 125 Penton that I still own and race today. Thanks for the memories. G man.

[Crockett]

Thanks for the responses guys, I really didn't think that the pictured bike of Big Mac's was mine but I was really taken back by how similar it looked with the S&W's on the back !

This and several other sites have been veritable time machines for me here lately, dragging me back into to my Dirtbiking days. I found an old ad on this site for another time machine bike for me.  .  .  . while certainly not the classic my '70 Penton was the ad was for an '82 RM465 Suzuki which was the last dirtbike I ever owned.
An awesome bike, had the same frame as the 250 RM,that unreal open bike power and 12" of travel front and rear ! I can hardly believe that bike is about to turn 23 years old ! I was 22 when I bought it new. I'd love to find one of the RM500's they made in '83/'84.

Anyway, so much for longing for lost loves! I guess I just need to decide if I'm gonna get back in the game or not !

'Crockett