(http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g8/BobWardlow/005_5.jpg)
I took this picture in Feb. 1972. The event was a snowmobile race at a track called Whiskey Creek, near Hart, MI. It was rare to have a motorcycle class at the snowmobile races, but this time they did, and a guy showed up riding this Penton. It was the first time I ever saw a Penton motorcycle. I remember getting happy about seeing one in person, because I really liked the looks of them in the magazines - around six months later, in Sept. of '72, I got my first Penton. Check out this guy's set up, he's taken the springs out of the forks, and bolted on solid struts in the rear, to make it lower. ? ?
Thanks POG
Bob Wardlow
Bawb,
How cool is that! Have you had any luck finding KRP parts for your project? I hope to get to mine later this summer. Mike
Michael R. Winter
I enjoy rebuilding and appreciating Pentons!
1974 250 HS Pentons-1980 KTM 175-400'S
Bob ,
What a classic picture , I hope you have if framed. Looks like a cool race, wounder who has that bike now ?
Matty
Matthew Quinlan
Bob
Great picture, a real classic, if you ever send out copies, I'd like to get one. Skip
Skip Page
Tucson, AZ
Second me on a copy , please.
Q
Matthew Quinlan
Mike, Skip, Matty. I'm no Jerry West, but thank you for the compliments. I appreciate that. I'll have some prints made, maybe try some different sizes. We'll see how they look, and I'd be happy to send one to you guys.
Mike, It's not hard finding the parts, that's easy - it's hard to find the money, to pay for the parts
I've got another Whiskey Creek story. It involves me with a brand new Six-Day, a CCC trail ride, a police chase, five tickets, jail, and a mad father.
The worst part of the whole deal though - was sitting in the back of the Sheriff car (hand cuffed), and watching a tow truck guy wrap a big steel chain around the center of my new Penton, (without any protection :D ), pick it up in the air, and drive away with it swinging around, banging into the back of his truck.
But then tomorrow came, and it was another day.
Thanks POG
Bob W
More, more!!!! Skip:)[8D]
Skip Page
Tucson, AZ
Reminds me of the time we borrowed the after hours bull dozier to make some new trails in an industrial park. Holy blue lights batman !
Matthew Quinlan
Bob,
Thanks for the neat rememberance and the cool picture.
It looks like the guy put a heat shield of some sort on the front down tubes to keep the engine heat for himself, or to maybe redirect the cold air.
Lowering the front end must have been the thing to do as the guy behind him seems to have done the same thing. If they had studs in their tires the low fender might be to keep them from becoming projectiles if any came loose, maybe that is also the purpose of what I thought was a heat shield.
Paul
Bob, enough about the bike lets get back to your dark criminal past. Let it out the truth will set you free.
Rod Whitman
Omaha, Nebraska
1972 Six Day (Rider)
1972 Six Day (Project)
Thank you Paul, it's my pleasure. I have other pictures of this same day for reference. The heat shield devise in front of the engine appears to be made from sheet metal, painted black. Why...? my only guess is to hold heat in around the engine - maybe he thought it would'nt run as good in the frigid cold. Hard to guess.
I can't make out for certain if they even had screws in their tires, I'm thinking they did'nt. In that era of snowmobile racing, races were held on snow, not usually ice. It was a large track, I'd say apx. 3/4 of a mile. From the pics, looks like the biggest class was sidehackers.
Baja Rod, I ran past my statute of limitations long ago, but still......I don't cop to nothin !
Bob Wardlow
G.R. MI.
P.O.G. Member #533
The first Penton I ever saw was at the ISDT in the Berkshires back in 1973? I think it was John, but we went there to see Malcom Smith and his Husqvarna.
Either way my current riding buds and I bought Pentons in 74.
To this day very few people up here in the far northeast have ever heard of them. I still have my first penton and a few others.
Raymond
Down East Pentons
The first penton I ever saw was on a trail ride in 1971 I was a senior in high school and was riding with a couple of the teachers. One was on a 69 six days with all of goodies, lights, speedo, tool bag.. Guess what?? I saw him a couple of years ago and he still has the bike!!! I am going to look him up this summer jst to see if he wants to part with it.
Tom C
I own the first Penton I saw. Back in 1974, a friend of my brother knew I was looking for a dirt bike and he brought a 1972 125 Six Day by the house in his old pickup truck. It had a flat tire so I couldn't test ride it. But, it appeared to be in great shape and I liked the rugged looking design, so I bought it for $300. I rode it for years, then I discovered girls. It sat in an old shed for years and then I gave the bike, lots of spare parts and all the original factory documentation to a friend of the next door neighbor. My father recently sold his property and as I was clearing out the old shed, I discovered he never came and took the bike as I though he had for over 15 years. He took the parts and documentation but I still have the bike.
I'm currently restoring it.
What a great pic.
1970, watching Carlton Curtis smoke everyone in NE Oklahoma in moto after moto on his 1970 Penton 125cc Steeltanker. He sold it to me in 1971, where it was introduced to life in a much slower (and dustier) lane. The most beautiful motorcycle I ever saw, and the most elegant rider I ever saw in action, until seeing Tom B. last year in east Texas.
lks
Quotequote:Originally posted by rob w
(http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g8/BobWardlow/005_5.jpg)
I took this picture in Feb. 1972. The event was a snowmobile race at a track called Whiskey Creek, near Hart, MI. It was rare to have a motorcycle class at the snowmobile races, but this time they did, and a guy showed up riding this Penton. It was the first time I ever saw a Penton motorcycle. I remember getting happy about seeing one in person, because I really liked the looks of them in the magazines - around six months later, in Sept. of '72, I got my first Penton. Check out this guy's set up, he's taken the springs out of the forks, and bolted on solid struts in the rear, to make it lower. ? ?
Thanks POG
Bob Wardlow
Larry Seale
I choose to ride
Rob, small world...I bet I am the only person to ice ride across and around Silver Lake Michigan (near where your photo was taken) and up the sand dunes in January of 74 on a(excuse me) Suzuki TM 125. That is the best time to ride the sand as its hard and offers SUPER jump opportunities as the wind blows up some natural jumps. My family is from the area and I spent many many hours riding around there. Best times Ever First Penton was as Steel tanker in my neighbors garage in Lansing MI which he never rode. He said he and his uncle had ridden the Jack Pine Enduro. Greg Holcomb was his name and he was a couple years older than I in school. Damn, this site jogs my memory.TTP
The first Penton I ever saw was in 1964 and I ate the whole thing ! It was an apple pie from Penton Farm Market.
If you get the "Still Keeping Track" you may read of my first Penton siting.
My friend to this day, Rick Belsole, came screaming up on a 100 cc Berkshire at our local practice spot in Lorain, Ohio.
Victor
My first good look at a Penton was at a series of races in West Georgia in 75, 76, 77 known as The Franklin Hare Scrambles. There was usually someone from the Penton team there. I particuarly remember Jack Penton being there at least once. There were a couple of very talented brothers who raced Pentons in the southeast in the seventy,s that owned a VW repair shop. There names were Buddy and Art Lanier from the Atlanta area. The last rider I remember was a pharmacy student at University of Georgia. I think his name was Jeff Hill. Very smooth and fast.
Thanks for reading. GB
74 Berkshire 100
73 Jackpiner 175
97 KTM 200
74 OSSA 250 SDR
Growing up in the bay area of california, and my earliest rememberances of dirt bikes came fairly late, I never actually saw a Penton until the era was almost over. The first race bikes I had ever been around were Triumphs set up for dirt track, and then there were the guys that took Moto cross bikes and trail rode them. It seemed like the thing to do......It was not until the move by KTM to put their name on all the bikes coming from the factory did I ever see one. IN the spring of 76 I was down visiting my friends at Proto Pipe when two guys came in with brand new bikes in their truck, They were looking for custom pipes.... I think.... the bikes were early versions of the MC5. (AS I remember)... the tank was a little different... It looked liked the 75 MX model but the frame was definitly the the MC5 I thought they were the coolest bike that Penton/KTM had yet produced. Several months later I just had to have one..... I still have that bike.... What impressed me was it was not a old frame fixed up to handle new travel but a whole new bike... there was never a doubt how reliable Pentons were but at the time when it came to the evolution of Motocross bikes Penton was behind the times.... that all changed with the MC5 bikes....It had everything.....What can I say I am a motocrosser, I love riding lots of kind of events but it seems that my default setting is motocross..
Thom Green,Still crazy after all these years!
76' 250 MC5 (orginal owner)74'
250 hare scrambler (project bike)
72'sixday (project bike)