Greetings,
Richard Colahan sent me this link to a video from the 1973 ISDT that was made as a promotional video for Jawa and several other Czech companies. There is no English spoken, but the universal language of ISDT competition is most surely understandable. Great special test footage !!
Thank you Richard......and Jeff DeBell as well whom Richard says brought it to his attention.
It is hard to believe that the event took place 45 years ago. Never in my wildest dreams would I have envisioned that after all these years there would be such a nice social Group, and in reality numerous nice social Groups, whom collectively would have such a genuine interest in keeping these memories alive. If you are reading this my comment is most assuredly directed towards you, even though I may not know you personally :) Thank You !!!
So much of what happened "back in the day" can be traced back to one man's never ending passion and drive to make what he could envision become a reality, of course that is most certainly John Penton.
On a personal note, I would like to share something that just occurred in my life. Two of our grandsons, Luca and Dominic, were helping Judy and I get our Christmas decorations down from the attic when they spotted some very old trophies tucked into a corner and made mention of them. I sort of half jokingly said that if you each want one pick one out, as they are from the late 60s and very early 70s and were a bit crusty. To my surprise they each excitedly did pick one out and a little later when back in the attic each picked out a second one. Daughter Sabrina told me last night of how they took them home and really did a great job cleaning and polishing them and now they are on their night stands, later she even sent along some photos of them. I was amazed at what at nice job those youngsters did at making those old trophies shine once again :D
I am sure many of you have some old iron around the house as well. Possibly over the holidays when the family might be visiting you might consider offering up some items, and maybe you will be as surprised as I was at the response.......
Hope you enjoy the video..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unkamzPrUE4&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1_w388PROW9qBc_GOCFxszxk7TQYIvGM_q0PGpM62VIVDMxo9lc4zw2aU
Paul
Paul,
Thanks for posting this wonderful video.
Did the riders meeting bring back memories of your participating in that event?
Near the end of the video there was a check point and one of the support crew manning a gas can was wearing a Penton painter cap.
I also noticed the different arm bands that were being worn by team managers, ISDT officials, and AMA personnel.
Alan Buehner
Al,
If I am not mistaken didn't you attend the ISDT event ? Yes the video did bring back lots of memories, extremely grateful for what modern technology has allowed us to access. There were a number of different armbands used at these events. I still have my Trophy Team armband from Italy 1974.
I am going to list a couple of things I noticed in the video and at what time they are shown, in case any of you have an interest. The video is stopped quite easily to look at these items.
At 1:20 the Cycleliner is in the center of the frame with one of Penton's rigs to the left of it. Our cycles were hauled from Penton R&D to the event in that tractor trailer, if my memory is correct.
At 3:23 Jeff, Tom, Dane, Billy Uhl, Jack and Carl are shown leading Team USA in the opening ceremony.
At 3:48 Dave Dispain is shown addressing the crowd.
At 3:54 just to the left of the Czech rider's neck I am shown with Ed Schmidt just to the left of me in the frame. And you all thought that was Steve McQueen with geek glasses on for disguise :)
At 6:01 just behind Joel Robert is the Husky Liner which was a sister to the Penton Cycleliner, in general terms.
I remember being at the awards ceremony / presentation at a resort up in the mountains, It was called Eastover. It was all pretty neat. I might have to look up that place on the next trip up that way. We stayed at the Pittsfield Motor Lodge and I still have a postcard from there. We looked up the place a few years back when we visited Jim Hollerich's incredible Museum, it is still there but with a different name. Below is a link to Eastover, pretty neat video to see if you wish.
http://www.eastover.com/
When it was time to take the Penton Team photo Jerry West found a spot just a short walk from the hotel that provided the backdrop he wanted. Today that spot is a muffler shop. I just have to say it was a very proud moment to stand with that group of gentlemen and have that photo taken. The link below will hopefully take you to that photo.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/425809647505835/?jazoest=2651001206751721037311411199835210599101771208966548010111166561141097368116528110476778955871011117810210810281586510012012090824512048728710553691027855815250831128711388738067789511179711091084511787898249721178111265
I also remember the day I walked to the mailbox at the nursery to get the mail and there was this little package addressed to me, when I opened it there was my Gold Medal.
The time between making the ISDT Team and the event was like Christmas for me. The UPS truck would pull in to the nursery and in each delivery would be all sorts of items provided by Team supporters such as boots, riding outfits, fanny packs, ect. I still have most all of it as well as pretty much every correspondence associated with the event.
If you have watched the John Penton movie you know I got a little emotional when telling of when John Penton said that I didn't owe him anything for the trip to the Fort Hood and Potosi ISDT Qualifiers and that I would be getting a new Penton Cycle from him in the near future. All I can say is that is just how much it all meant to me, and to gain recognition from The Man himself was extremely gratifying and appreciated. I asked Todd Huffman to let me redo that part of the interview and he just laughed at me....no way he said....:)
Paul
This is a great video. Thank you Paul for posting it. I was at that event, I missed the first day. My brother was there and called home after the first day and told me one of our friends was coming up that night and he would pick me up. I bugged my mother so much to let me out of school she finally had enough and told me to go. I was one happy camper. We got there late that night and stayed with my friend in a hotel. I camped the rest of the week. What a great time!!
Yes, I was there as a spectator with one of my riding buddies, Mike Rand. We hauled our bikes to the event in my Ford Van and we camped out at a campground.
On Thursday there was an afternoon check point set up next to the campground. My buddy and I set up our folding chairs opposite where the checkers were and we had front row seats right where all the riders had to stop. Since I was a Kawasaki fan (at the time) I was looking forward to cheering on the Kawasaki riders. Of course we got to see and cheer for all the US riding including my hero, Malcolm Smith. [:p]
The most amazing thing for me being at that check point was seeing and hearing the first group of bikes which were the 50cc bikes. I could not believe that those guys were riding such small displacement bikes. And they were fast. They took off quickly and it sounded like they were shifting to the next higher gear every 2 second. It seamed to me that they had about 10 gears in those transmissions.
If I could go back and do it all over again, I would have spent more time at the impound area and visit the displays that the manufacturers had set up.
Alan Buehner
I was lucky enough to be able to ride the 2013 AHRMA ISDTRR and never really knew what parts of the 2013 course matched the original. Was the Hollerich museum area where the original parc ferme, etc. located at? Wonder if there'll be a 50th anniversary event? Those in the know please advise.
Can't remember ever throwing a rock at my ride. Minute 8:05. Poor ole Husky.
The field where the grass track was in 2013 was the same in 1973. Also, the test that went up the rocky mountain trail was part of the 1973 event. I think there was another trial that was used in both events. And, several of the road sections were the same..... The 2013 event was fun, yes?
Quotequote:Originally posted by derek martin
I was lucky enough to be able to ride the 2013 AHRMA ISDTRR and never really knew what parts of the 2013 course matched the original. Was the Hollerich museum area where the original parc ferme, etc. located at? Wonder if there'll be a 50th anniversary event? Those in the know please advise.
1976 MC 5 Original Owner
1976 Penton 175 XC
I rode my 1971 greeves pathfinder at this event, all the rocks were tough on it and me but it finished well.good event
dennis l.brown
Good to know - thanks for responding. That event was very fun and memorable.
That rocky uphill section with all the spectators was a definite hoot. I picked a good line for a change and rode straight up easy to what I swear were cheers from the crowd. That's my story and I'm sticking to it:).
Quotequote:Originally posted by skiracer
The field where the grass track was in 2013 was the same in 1973. Also, the test that went up the rocky mountain trail was part of the 1973 event. I think there was another trial that was used in both events. And, several of the road sections were the same..... The 2013 event was fun, yes?
Quotequote:Originally posted by derek martin
I was lucky enough to be able to ride the 2013 AHRMA ISDTRR and never really knew what parts of the 2013 course matched the original. Was the Hollerich museum area where the original parc ferme, etc. located at? Wonder if there'll be a 50th anniversary event? Those in the know please advise.
1976 MC 5 Original Owner
1976 Penton 175 XC
Thank you for this, Paul. Always great to hear the stories but the video impresses upon me what a frickin' MACHINE the Eastern European effort was (legal or not legal as the back woods stories may go..). Gotta believe that their 250 Jawas were quicker than quick. Maybe they knew "the system" better than anyone else, but to show up in the good ole US of A and walk away with the WT cup is pretty impressive given the foreign land, foreign language, etc. Great "factory" footage at the end btw...let's face it - they were "HRC" in many ways when it came to this racing.