Messages

Hey Jerry,

 I'll see if I can get my scanner to work and try to e-mail them to you.

'Crockett

Hey big , or since I'm a newbie maybe that should be "Mr.Mac" :c)

 We lived in La Mesa Just up from Spring valley. The spot where I did most of my riding was locally known as "The Jap fields" I guess some Japanese immigrants used to grow stuff in the canyon area there.

Since I was only 13 of 14 at the time and none of us could drive our riding was limited to where we could get to on our bikes with out to much riding on the street. One place we rode was out near the High School (MonteVista H.S.)I remember people referring to it as Lakeside but after looking at it on the map I not sure that's right.

 I can remember Marty Moats just kickin' eveybody's ass at South Bay. Kind of a funky track though, almost TT like, built on the infield of a dirt track stock car track as I remember it. You and I may have stood in line at the Hotdog stand together back then and didn't even know it. Kinda weird huh? I was there in late '73 to early '75. Then we moved to Bakersfield Ca. I wonder if any of the members remember "Sprockets Park" in Bakersfield ?

I never did race, My brother got hurt on a motorcyle when I was in grade school so the only way I got my bike was to make a deal with my Mom that I would never ask about racing.I kept my word but It's one regret I have from those days cuz I think I would have done pretty well. Some of the guys I "raced"  on the practice tracks in the foothills were doing well in the Intermediate class and I could take most of them. Of couse,I may suffer from "The older I get the faster I was" syndrome !  

 Got married and started a family young and decide to be "responsible" and never raced my RM465 Suzuki either. I sure had lots of fun riding all those years though.

Here's a couple of local names I just remembered from San Diego. Kenny Dunn, Bob Wilson, and a crazy dude named Mike Aceoff. Mike would get home from work (he was older than all of us) and jump on his TM400 Suzuki (widely known for hurting people) and come tear-assin' through the canyon wearin nothin but his work boots and cut off jeans straight from work. No helmet or any gear at all ! That 400 would go by us so fast we never knew if he was riding it or it was riding him! I don't know why that bike never killed him !

Sorry for the long rambling posts, I'm a bit of a story teller.
I think I could qualify for the Expert bench racer class !

I got a story about meeting Kenny Zahrt one time too. Maybe I'll post that along with the story about the trip to the USGP some time.

I realize most of this stuff isn't directly Penton related but it is good "Vintage motocross" stuff that happened during the Penton era.

'Crockett

Hey Lew, how ya doin,?

 We lived in Rockville Maryland when I was a kid, then we moved to California in about '73.

 I didn't know about any of the other tracks you mentioned but I wish we would have. It would have been cool to go to some other places now and then. The only reason I got to go to Shilo was because a friend of mine and his dad used to go and they would take some of the kids from the neighborhood too.

 Other than the trips to Shilo and drooling over the bikes at the local shops I really didn't get into dirtbikes untill after I moved to California. We moved to San Diego and dirtbikes were a real big deal back then, I even managed to get my Mom to buy a house close to a place to ride so I could get a bike. She was having a guy do some work to the house and I found out that he raced a Husky and his wife had a 125 Penton, just so happened that she wanted a different bike sooooooo .  .  .  . I ended up with her Penton ! Having that bike sure taught ma alot about wrenchin' and help me make friends at my new school.

 We used to go to races at South bay Speedway down by the Mexican border and I even went to the USGP in 1974 at Carlsbad. That was pure heaven, man those guys were so fast ! About 8 of us rode up in the back of an old pick-up truck in the rain, we were so pumped I don't think we even noticed that we got soaked !

 In the years after I moved from San Diego I learned some interesting things about some of the guys who rode at our local riding spots. One of the guys was Marty Moats who went on to do pretty well as a Factory support rider. There was this other guy too, kind of a scrawny kid, he used to come by and blow us all into the weeds now and then. Maybe you've heard of him, his name was Broc Glover! Went on to be WORLD CHAMPION, or sumpthin like that!

 I was talking about dirtbikes to one of my cousins a couple of years after we moved, who still lived in the San Diego area, and she said "Yeah, there was some guy at our high school who rode motorcycles, I guess he's was supposed to be "pretty good". His name was Marty Smith, did you ever hear of him? After I picked my jaw up off the table I showed her several copies of Dirtbike and MX Action with him on the cover and assured her that "Yeah,he was pretty good" !

 As for Maryland, it is a beautiful part of the country, but I'm afraid my thin California blood wouldn't take the cold in the winters like it did when I was a kid. You mentioned a track at Anteitam, my Brother lives in Boonesboro which is only a couple of miles from the Battlefield.

Do you still live in Maryland ?

'Crockett

Thanks for the responses guys, I really didn't think that the pictured bike of Big Mac's was mine but I was really taken back by how similar it looked with the S&W's on the back !

This and several other sites have been veritable time machines for me here lately, dragging me back into to my Dirtbiking days. I found an old ad on this site for another time machine bike for me.  .  .  . while certainly not the classic my '70 Penton was the ad was for an '82 RM465 Suzuki which was the last dirtbike I ever owned.
An awesome bike, had the same frame as the 250 RM,that unreal open bike power and 12" of travel front and rear ! I can hardly believe that bike is about to turn 23 years old ! I was 22 when I bought it new. I'd love to find one of the RM500's they made in '83/'84.

Anyway, so much for longing for lost loves! I guess I just need to decide if I'm gonna get back in the game or not !

'Crockett

More info after reading model i.d.section on this site:

Might have been a '70 model not a '69 due to pipe mount for "down pipe"

Had black and gold S&W rear shocks like the ones picture on Bob McCulloughs #147 bike in featured bikes section.

"Crockett

* Note
Forum moderator please notify me or repost this if it's not in the correct forum.  Thanks

Hey yall,

 Just been goin' back through some old Motocross action magazines I've been keeping all these years and found a "Race test" article in the April '74 edition on the 1974 Penton 250 Hare Scrambler.

 I also found it listed in the POG site section called  
"Publications" but I don't know if that means you've ever seen the article or are just aware that it was written. It's a long article with quite a few pictures, I would be glad to copy it and send it in if there is a way to post it. It's fun reading .  .  .

 I am also wondering does anyone else have any old copies of Motocross Action ? I'd like to find a copy of the May '74 issue.

'Crockett

I saw my first Penton in about 1971 at a motocross track in Maryland. I think the track was called "Shilo motorcyle park" you could race on the track or just ride anywhere you wanted around the property. The track was a typical early outdoor MX track, Long and fast. It kind of sprawled around the rolling hillsides and even had a couple of creek crossings.
 
 I was just a wide eyed kid taking it all in man, Cz's, Ossa's, Maico's and of course Penton's. Oh yeah, and something my friend swore was called a "Harv-a-squallie" which was later determined to be a Husqvarna of course.I still think of "Harv-a-squallie" when I see one though I have to admit. Hardly any Jap bikes anywhere to be found. Actually the only Jap bike I remember seeing there was the XR somthin-or-other(500 maybe) that the track official buzzed around on. He was kinda like a "roving flagman".

 We went to races there quite a few times over the next couple of years and the Pentons always seemed to do real well. Everybody likes to watch the winners so I guess thats how I came to like the Pentons the best. It was another couple of years before I got my 125.

It was reaaly cool walking around and looking at those bikes and riders in the pits. Especially since at that point the closet thing I'd ridden to a real dirtbike was a Rupp minibike or a Honda 50 and neither one of those were mine.At least the 50 had a gear box!

Somewhere I even have some 8mm home movies of some of those races, I think maybe I'll have to go dig around up at my Mom's house and see if I can find them.

Does anyone remember this Maryland track from the early '70's ? If so, and you raced there, I may have some old film footage of you gassing it passed one of those white Ossa's with the orange stripes and funky lookin' rear fender number plates or splashing through the creek crossing chasing down a yellow tanked CZ !

'Crockett

I've just recently started surfing the vintage dirt bike sites and have been amazed to see how many people are into the old classic MX bikes. Very cool ! I found this site a couple of nights ago and was truly stunned to see pictures of what was  my first dirt bike, a '69 steel tank Penton 125. I never really entertained the idea that someone would collect,restore and even race these bikes.

Then I had a crazy idea . . . .  I wonder if I could locate my old Penton !

Just for the hell of it here are a few identifying clues specific to this bike the last time I saw it.

'69 Penton 125 w/Green & white steel tank

Yellow Preston Petty fenders with rubber mud flap out front
Green plastic front number plate (headlight and mounts in a box)
Cast aluminum dual plug holder w/plug wrench hose clamped to frame
Two pipes - factory "up pipe" and aftermarket "down pipe" w/silencer
Hidden toggle Kill switch up under tank
Side case was broken inside from a thrown chain and repaired with
epoxy and a piece of plexi-glass! (I was 14 at the time!)

That's about all I remember except that it was sold in about 1975 in Bakersfield California.

and one more thing . . . . forgive me I was young . . . it had 1974 Suzuki TM125 front forks on it ! The Penton got the short end of the fork deal, but those big Ceriani(sp?) forks sure worked great on the Suzuki after I converted them to air!

Very cool site guy's you've taken me back a few years for sure !

'Crockett