Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/742659
Vintage Bike of the Month By Kevin Donovan Roach Resurrection - Installment 1 How many of you reading this have a vintage bike squirreled away in the barn, basement or shed that took its last breath when Carter or Reagan was still in offi ce? You either parked it there when you got something newer or you picked it up on CL with every intention of bringing it back to life, but there it sits getting crustier with each passing year. You know the bike I'm talking about, the one every six months or so you take a peek under the tarp and start to reminisce about how much fun you had tearing it up on it, or one like it when you were in your teens or 20's. You're thinking about how it sounded, felt and smelled…and then… the "wife side of your brain" tells you to just forget about it, you can't turn this into a rider so you would be better off to just cover it up again. Yea, that bike. Well winter will be here before you know it and you could do the same thing as last year, park your ass in a chair and watch football every weekend or you could grow a pair and seriously take another look at the beast in the barn and think about resurrecting it. Liking the sound of any of this? Great! I'll be doing the same thing. Back in October, I came across a post on the NETRA site where a member had given up on a couple of `72 Penton Six Day's he had stashed away and was looking to hand them off to their next owner. I was a little late reading the post and Kurt had already called dibs on them, but then decided he would pass, so they landed in my garage. I purchased these unseen just based on the description "Both could probably be restored, or make one bike out of the two". e PO was kind enough to deliver them to my place and I have to say they were the very defi nition of roaches! e photo I took is way kinder than reality, as "crusty" does not begin to describe these bikes. at stated, a quick survey of the bikes proved the seller provided a pretty accurate description, stating there was probably enough there to make a single bike. My initial plan was to squirrel them away and get to them when I get to them as I am already working on another project. en I started thinking it would be fun to do a low budget build, basically starting with what I just bought and trying to cobble together a respectable rider on a budget. So here's the basic plan. In 1972, a new Penton Six Day listed for $899.00, kind of arbitrary, but my goal is to see if I can turn this pile of stuff into a respectable runner and do it for $899.00 or less. Mind you, I have no intention of building a beauty queen here, but I do want to end up with something that runs well and looks decent. I should add that this is an aggressive goal for any build, but even more so given the November 2016 37