Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126056
The Penton-KTM 250cc Motocrosser One of the best motocrossers on the market also happens to be the last of . the ' tr~ly competitive dual purpose bikes. Can it be? A compet itive dual p urpose moto rcycle in 1976? The Pent on-KTM in stock form is very close to what Bauer. Van Veith oven, Moiseev and Kavinov use in GP competitiqn. It comes with all the goodies ri\tlt out of the box. Jack Penton found tha t his special test t imes imp roved with th e new MX frame end suspens ion, He's experimenting with one for Six Days use. ? By J im Gianatsis j The latest races .m this year's 250cc World Championship GP Series have seen Gennady Moiseev on a KTM picking up moto wins at almost every race and quickly closing the championship points lead of Husky's Heikki Mikkola. tt was in 1974 that Moiseev won the 40 250cc Championship ' o n a KTM that was basically a stock machi ne. Last year an injury p reven ted Moiseev , from retaining his crown b ut now he's out to get it bac k with a vengence. The bike which Moisccv is using this year is the newly designed KTM motocrosser, t he first real ly serio us moto cross bike the company has offered to the general public. For those of us ' not too familiar with the name KTM, the bikes are sol d in the United States east of the Ro cky Mountains as Pentons. It was Uncle J ohn Penton wh o first intro duced Pento n/KTM bik es to America an d who, alo ng with sons J ack • an d T om, and Pento n em ployees Dan e Lei mbach and Carl Cranke, have helped to develo p the Penton/KTM bikes in to one of the best enduro and ISDT machines in the world. Up un til this time the Penton/KTM b i k e s have been d u al p u rp o s e enduro/motocross .mach ines with the accent on enduro design: The entire Penton clan is enduro riding oriented, so their bikes have never really been stressed as motocross machinery. But now, with .t h e introduction of the Moisecv Replica 250cc motocrosser, Penton/KTM is actually offering a true GP machine which is the same bike as being raced by Gennady Moiscev and other KTM factory riders in the World Championships. Other bikes in the Moiseev Replica lineup include 125cc and 400cc Penton/KTM motocrossers. Handl ing is what the Moiseev Replica is all about . E xcept for the KTM engine, the . motocrosscr is new from the knobby tires on up. The chro me moly steel twin-downtube frame is much lighter. than before, and features cantilevered Marzocchi gas/oil shocks which give the rear 4.50 x 18 Hi-Point/Metzler tire 9 in ches (230mm) of travel to soak up the worst terr ain possib le. These Marzocchi shocks are thevery latest series n umber 4 un its with larg er 1/2 inch d iam eter " shafts and are specifically design ed fo r Ia y do wn sus pension. A specific air p ressure in t he sh ocks doesn't see m t o effect the way they pe rform, and filling .them with 30-4 0 psi of air gets the j ob , d o n e : T he stan dar d springs were excellent for our test rider's weight of 160 pounds an d only a li ttle e djus t in g on th e: cam tc:nsioncr was required to dial in the proper ride heigh r, Up front are the very latest leading