Reader Submittal

Another Fantastic Ride From Ted Guthrie. 1975 Can-Am 175 TNT

When I was a kid growing up in Canada I used to drool over this exact model. I didn’t know much about bikes at the time but I knew what I liked. The look, the lines and those awsome colors. not to mention the performance for the time. It might have been a real handful for a 12 year old 🙂

Thanks to this fantastic find by Ted Guthrie (owner of the earlier posted Penton 6-day) I can see that my lust was not misplaced! What a great ride! And I think it’s great that you use it for it’s intended purpose instead of locking it away!

Thanks again Ted for sharing another great ride! If yo have more don’t hesitate to keep them coming!!

Ted Writes:

Thank you for running the pics of my Penton Six-Day. I very much appreciate your generous comments regarding the bike. Good thing the pictures aren’t any better or you would see all the flaws. Haha.
Thought you might also enjoy this ’75 Can-Am 175 TNT. I picked it up a couple of years ago. The bike came from an estate sale, sold by the family of the original owner.


It is all-original, runs perfectly, and came with title, toolkit, owners manual, and even some cans of original Can-Am branded two-stroke oil.
The weekend after I bought the bike, I rode it in a 75-mile, vintage enduro. The old “Canned-Ham” ran great, but the combination of totally blown-out shocks and too-stiff forks made it nearly impossible to keep it pointed straight down the trail.
Since then, I’ve cleaned the bike up some, and installed new stickers on the tank (to replace the original, screened-on graphics). Still to be installed are new sidepanel/numberplate stickers, along with repros of the “175 TNT” graphics on the sidepanels.
But, it looks and runs great, for a 34-year-old trailbike. Truly a survivor. I like to think the orginal owner would be pleased with where the bike ended up and how it is being cared for.
Ted Guthrie



We interrupt our regularly scheduled blogging!

I know I was going to go modern for a while but I just received this outstanding reader ride from Ted Guthrie. A beautifully restored Penton 125 Six-Day. While I’ve never considered myself a true “restorer” of motorcycles (I prefer the term resto-mod) I have struggled with enough old bikes to really appreciate the level of effort that goes into a bike like this. The really great part is that it’s really done out of love of the bikes. You’d be hard pressed to ever make a good living (much less become wealthy) doing this kind of work. But I’m constantly amazed at the work that I see out there and that people send me. Keep sending them in. It’s MUCH appreciated!

Ted Writes:

Hey, great site you’ve got. Some of the best pics, of terrific variety of bikes, I’ve ever seen. Attached are some photos of my recently completed 1973 Penton 125 Six-Day. Bike started out as a total junker, which had sat outside for years. It now starts first-kick, and runs perfectly. Incidently, the Steel Tanker you have the pic of, which was taken at the AMA museum, belongs to the original owner – Al Born – and the bike is serial # 003. Yep, it is the third Penton ever built. Al is among the original group of riders, who were hand-picked by John Penton to receive (and race and win and promote) the first ten Penton motorcycles produced.
Ted Guthrie
Historian
Penton Owners Group




Another fine Sam Simons Reader Ride!

Sam Writes:

Hi Steve,
This is the 1975 E-start Commando I owned a few years back. It was quite a looker and performer;absolutely stock,and originally purchased new by a airline pilot in Ohio. I didn’t suffer any electricalprobs as others did. I preferred the 1975 model for the shift location, and that black/gold/alloy visual combination was stunning……

It Sure is! thanks again Sam!

Brilliant Concept bike!

OBIBOI sends in the following conceptual design. I think it fantastic and I’d love to own one. He’s a very talented designer. Check out his homepage at http://motosketches.blogspot.com/

“Hi
SUPERDUCKZ

I send to you this render of my personal idea of “CONTAMINATION BIKE”
Based on HUSQVARNA engine It’s a SUPERMOTARDFLATRACKSCRAMBLERCAFE’RACER!
What do you think? “

BRILLIANT!!

New Reader Rides!

Reader Lawrence Austria has submitted a 3 for 1. Some beautiful Cafe Rides and a really tasty scooter. Thank You for sharing such excellent work! You have a great eye for motorcycles!

He Writes:

Hi!I saw your site while browsing the net and I just want to share my resto project. Above are the pics of my bikes, first is my 1966 Ducati M160 Special racer then my 1964 CB77R Racer and lastly my play bike the 1958 NSU Prima lll K Limited Edition. Hope you like it.

Lawrence Austria

Philippines


Awsome custom cafe racer. UPDATE!!

Brian sends in the following…
“You asked for pictures of custom cafe racers. This one is my custom built 203lbs cafe racer that gets 115mpg. Thanks for looking. Brutallly honest crititcism is appreciated. “

Hi Brian! I think your bike is absolutly freaking brilliant! I’d love to know a little more about it. Tell me about that cool frame fork and wheel setup. What size engine? etc… really really terrific build there. Where are you from? I can think of a few twisty roads that I’d love to ride that beauty.

Here is Brian’s response. This is is even more trick than i Imagined. Way to go!

Steve,
Thanks for the reply. This bike was built completely with lightness being the key issue. I made the frame completely form scratch using thin wall tubing. The back cowl was hand formed. The forks are inverted dirt bike forks but I had to make new triple clamps and clip on handle bars to fit the wider front tire an also the fender mounts.

The rims are from the fat rear Schwinn chopper bike. The rear rim was respoked to a dirt bike hub and the front on respoked to the most rugged down hill mountain bike hub i could find. The Schwinn chopper bike rims are 4″ wide and just happen to fit the Pirelli Sport Demon 110/90-16s perfectly. Total weight if the front wheel totally assembled with the tire is a hint under 11lbs. The rear a little heavier, due to the heavier dutyu dirt bike hub with the sprocket and heavier disc brake. Running friction was also a consideration.

The front disc brake is an Avid BB7 which is a ball bearing mechanical mountain bike brake, which totally releases the front disc when not braking. Since my rear swingaem pivot point is further back than normal and you get into the distance between the motor sprocket and the rear sprocket changing as the swing arm pivots, I needed a different type of chain tensioner. There is a ball bearing idler sprocket mounted to the swingarm and as the distance between the 2 sprockets becomes smaller due to rear suspension compression the idler sprocket deflects the chain and keeps the chain tension constant at all points of the suspension travel. Calculating this point where the idler sprocket should be mounted was a real bitch. The bike looks a little small but dimensions of the wheelbase, seat height, seat to handlebar relation is the same as a Yamaha YFZR6-S. The only difference is the seat to peg distance is longer by 4″ on this because I”m a tall guy.

The engine is Honda crf230. I chose this because it’s air cooled and has an alternator for lighting an electric start. Top speed is 78mph. I took this up the mountains toour 10000 foot peak on really windy roads and it stuck to the corners like glue. It’s like driving air since its so light. This was partly inspired by the new version of the 50cc Honda Dream Cafe Racer, but i wanted more power for the highway but still thelightness of the Dream. The speedo is also a frictionless system, using a magnetic sensor for the digital speedo, a TrailtechVapor which also is a tach.


Some of the bikes posted on your page has been a great inspiration to me. Thanks for putting the time into it for all of us to share ideas and see what others have come up with.
I will be building more bikes, each one is a new learning and engineering challenge, and having web pages like yours is a good source for inspiration and ideas. Please keep up the good work.
If you have any questions or want to share ideas, please feel to email me. I hope my bike is worthy of your website.
Thanks again,

Brian

The Pleasure’s all mine Brian. Keep them coming!!

Doug Nye’s Badass Kawasaki KZ900.

Sun rims, big bor, sidewinder boxed swingarm… Goes like stink!

Sweet Old School Reader Ride! KZ750 Cafe!

Before

After…
(mostly) 1980 Kawasaki KZ750-H1 “LTD”.

Long story short, I traded a $50 Peavey guitar amplifier for this bike, then had to dig the bike out of a sand dune in a junk yard in Amarillo, TX. I moved it around with me for a few years while I was in music school before I had the time to get into it. I replaced bearings and rebuilt brakes and carbs, found a seat for it and bought some tires, got it on the road and went around for several years like that, and didn’t even have to get into the engine!

Fast forward to April 2008. I decided to freshen up the top end, replace some leaky gaskets and such. I found that the forward cam chain guide was broken in two, and apparently had been for some time. The engine never complained!

One thing led to another and I ended up taking it down to the frame and redoing a whole lot of stuff. Now the only things original are the wheels, frame, and the top end of the engine! The bottom end is from a 1982 LTD750, tank and fork is from ’82 GPz750s, the seat is an Airtech Streamlining fiberglass piece for a Yamaha TZ250-U.

Reader Ride! Triumph speedmaster!

I spent a very pleasant day riding one of these a few years back These are some seriously unappreciated cruisers. Reader Paul S. didn’t think I’d want to post this beauty but I’d never pass up a chance to show off a nice Triumph. From the sound of things he may have a nice early V-max and an XS360 for us down the road. I look forward to seeing those rides! Keep em coming folks!

Reader Ride! Bmw R80 RT

Scott Sends in his R80 distance eater. One of these days I’m going live that dream and get my hands on one of these and ride the wheels off of it.