Trail Rider Magazine

• Good: Sachs 125/6B engine appears 100% there and while it is presently seized, I'm thinking/hop- ing that it is seized just from sitting. I base this on the condition of the shi er lever. It has got a bend in it that is pretty consistent with catching a stump or rock and I am unable to get it into or out of any gears, so my best guess before tearing into it is that someone hit something and trashed the shi er selector key and linkage and then just parked the bike. I hope I am right. • Good: Nice original fork brace which also came as part of the Enduro kit. • Good: Original aluminium front fender, decent condition. • Good: Original Magura 307 throttle assembly should clean up nice. • Good: Original chain guard is still on the bike, a little bashed and bent but I've fi xed worse. • Bad: Frame is really, really rusty and has some light surface pitting here and there. Can't even rotate either wheel from corrosion. is pup spent some serious time outdoors or in a really leaky barn. • Ugly: Exhaust is mostly rotted away, but I may be able to salvage the header portion of the pipe for some other project. • Ugly: Seat foam is rotted away. • Ugly: Fork tubes are seriously pitted from being out in the elements. • Ugly: Rims are nearly rotted through. So right out of the gate you probably noticed these bikes are both `72's but came with diff erent engines, suspension, carbs and ignitions. ere are two schools of thought as to why this happened. If you were to ask John Penton, he would tell you that Penton Imports were innovators who were constantly making changes based on rider/racer feedback. If a particular component did not perform well, they moved on to a better one. e other is that the popularity of off -road motorcycling was absolutely exploding in the 70's. Manufacturers were constantly scrambling to keep up with demand, so all of them did whatever it took to push bikes out the door. If that meant using diff erent brands of components based on availability, then so be it. While the Japanese were reasonably disciplined in applying changes that coincided with model year changes, the Europeans were notorious for using whatever was on hand to get bikes built. I personally believe it was a combination of both. I agree John Penton was most certainly pushing the folks in Mattighofen to build even better bikes, but Erich Trunkenpolz had a factory to run and you can bet that when a particular brand of component was replaced, they were not ferrying the old stock to the dumpster. Instead, it sat on a shelf just until they ran out of the newer bits and then it was used to get bikes built, but I am wandering here, so I will get back on point. e next step in the process is to put together a plan for the build. It doesn't matter if you're shooting for a 90+ point build or just cobbling together a rider. If you don't have a plan, your chances of success are slim. At this phase of every build, I always think of the line of Fred ompson's from e Hunt for Red October…" e average Ruskie, son, don't take a dump without a plan". Not that this has anything to do with building bikes, just something that rattles around in my brain which reinforces the point that all of us should go into these projects with our eyes wide open. Otherwise, you're just setting yourself up for disappointment or failure. My plans always start with a list of items or tasks associated with each major component for a bike; Engine, Frame, Forks, Body (Tank/Tins/Airbox/Fenders), Electrics (Stator/Coil/Lighting), Carburetor, Wheels, Exhaust, Shocks and Controls. Seeing that I know next to nothing about these two bikes, I will need to do some disassembly and get a better handle of what can be saved and what's junk. e wild card with this project is the motor from Roach 2. e bike has obviously spent more than a few years out in the elements, but I'm hoping the engine never got fi lled with rain. Assuming it has not, then this more than likely will be a doable project. If it has, then I just have a pile of random parts to use on some other future project. – More to come next time. Contributor Kevin Donovan lives in Foster, Rhode Island and wrenches on vintage European bikes as a hobby. November 2016 39

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