Messages

Is there a sign up web page yet for the 2013 ISDT reunion ride in Massachusetts?

James Hollander

Here's the link to Bill Petro's ten pages of photos he took at the ISDT 1972 in Czechoslovakia: http://www.billpetro.tv/Motorcycle%20racing/motorcycle_racing/1972/1972_ISDT_page01.htm        Or if you get to Bill Petro's website, click on Racing,Motorcycles, scroll down to 1972.  He also has a section on the 1973 ISDT in the USA.

I believe I incorrectly stated Dave Mungenast rode as a "Canadian" in 1972.  I read today it was in 1974 in Italy as Rokon 340 rider on the Canadian Trophy Team.  

James Hollander

To Brian Taylor.  I read your nice 6 page story online today about the Canadian view of the ISDt effort at the 1973 Six-Days in the USA.  It was very well written.  I know that you rode a Rokon in the 1975 ISDT -Isle of Man and read that you retired on Day 3.  Did your bike suffer the same power loss as the other Rokons with carbon clogging the spark screens in the muffler?  i never read why you retired/

On Bren Moran, the American riding under a Canadian license in 1975.  He also rode as a Canadian in the 1972 ISDT in Czechoslovakia.  Bill Petro has ten wonderful pages of photos online from the 1972 Czechoslovakia Six-Days and there are 3 photos of Bren (Rider #61).  I can find my way there by searching on Google for Bill Petro Toronto Motorcycle Race Photographer.  When you click on his site I believe you go to Gallery or Portfolio, and click on Motorcycle.  Then scroll down to the events Bill was at in 1972.   Most of the photos are of Canada's riders but I believe I saw Jack Penton in there riding w/o helmet.  Thought I noticed New England rider Ron Webster (Ossa 240) with a green and white helmet too.  I rode as a "Canadian" along with at least these 3 US riders:  George Peck (MA), Ed Ortone (NY), Dave Mungenast (MO).

James Hollander

Here's the link to Bill Petro's ten pages of photos he took at the ISDT 1972 in Czechoslovakia: http://www.billpetro.tv/Motorcycle%20racing/motorcycle_racing/1972/1972_ISDT_page01.htm        Or if you get to Bill Petro's website, click on Racing,Motorcycles, scroll down to 1972.  He also has a section on the 1973 ISDT in the USA.

I believe I incorrectly stated Dave Mungenast rode as a "Canadian" in 1972.  I read today it was in 1974 in Italy as Rokon 340 rider on the Canadian Trophy Team.  

James Hollander

To Brian Taylor.  I read your nice 6 page story online today about the Canadian view of the ISDt effort at the 1973 Six-Days in the USA.  It was very well written.  I know that you rode a Rokon in the 1975 ISDT -Isle of Man and read that you retired on Day 3.  Did your bike suffer the same power loss as the other Rokons with carbon clogging the spark screens in the muffler?  i never read why you retired/

On Bren Moran, the American riding under a Canadian license in 1975.  He also rode as a Canadian in the 1972 ISDT in Czechoslovakia.  Bill Petro has ten wonderful pages of photos online from the 1972 Czechoslovakia Six-Days and there are 3 photos of Bren (Rider #61).  I can find my way there by searching on Google for Bill Petro Toronto Motorcycle Race Photographer.  When you click on his site I believe you go to Gallery or Portfolio, and click on Motorcycle.  Then scroll down to the events Bill was at in 1972.   Most of the photos are of Canada's riders but I believe I saw Jack Penton in there riding w/o helmet.  Thought I noticed New England rider Ron Webster (Ossa 240) with a green and white helmet too.  I rode as a "Canadian" along with at least these 3 US riders:  George Peck (MA), Ed Ortone (NY), Dave Mungenast (MO).

James Hollander

PostScript to bilateral total knee replacements again:  Here I am 8 years after the bilateral knee replacements.  I happen to have 135 degrees of flex on the two joints now.  But I wouldn't recommend the technique, as it was very painful.  I was on some medication that lowered my blood pressure, and arose too quickly from a nap.  I tried all I cold do to keep from collapsing but it was not to be, folding backwards and down onto the floor in a pile.  Both knees were forced to the mechanical 135 degree limits of the joints, and I was told later I was lucky I didn't tear the ligament anchoring out of the bone.  But now after 7 weeks of rehab, they flex almost as good as a normal knee.  The surgeon who did the original prosthetic implants remarked that my knees are looking fantastic.  Maybe'll I'll restore my ROKON from the 1976 Austrian ISDT and ride it in local motocross next spring.  Just turned 61 this week.

James Hollander

PostScript to bilateral total knee replacements:

   About 18 months after both knees were replaced with the titanium joints, and the subsequent scar tissue was removed in another surgery at 16 months, going back to racing was not as difficult as I had imagined.  Wearing 2 knee braces and riding a little at home gave me the confidence to try a motocross which my son was into, and to my surprise, it all came back to me. My goal was to do all the laps, but the competitive juices came out of retirement and I even finished in 5th place and brought home a trophy.  

Now I'm looking at restoring an old red Penton motorcycle I have had in my garage for many years.  The next week at work I noticed my old spirit was coming back, my depression was a memory, and I was getting all kinds of stuff done.  I even caught up reconciling my 19 months of old bank statements.  Noticing my 15 year old son on a 144 KTM riding motocross better than I did at my prime in the 1970's didn't depress me at all... I was very proud of him and took plenty of video to watch at home.  I wish I had not listened to the knee surgeon all those months when he explained the scar tissue was something I had to live with.  He was so wrong, and I simply won't bring up the word "motorcycle" if I should ever see him again.


James Hollander

Yes, shared the duplex with Billy Uhl (Idaho rider with long ratty beard).  I had a "room in the back" the size of a large closet, part hallway, 5 ft x 8 ft.  I was living out of a suitcase set on boxes. One Saturday morning John Penton came in and woke us up, "what are you guys sleeping this late for".  It was probably 7 am.

I skipped college graduation to ride the '72 Berkshire 3-day event, sleeping in a tent at the fairgrounds, riding a steel-tanked 125 Six-Day Penton. Engine seized on road section, & John Penton stopped in a Ford Maverick to help.  The pipe & head was off. He looked in his car trunk but didn't have a spare piston.

Later Jack Penton came over to my tent, his Dad wanted to see me. JP and I talked, he invited me to Ohio, he'd fix the engine. I took off the front wheel & chain, tied the forks into the 2-stroke Saab Wagon and with rear hatch up, drove 600 miles to Ohio. It was a neat job, sanding old race bike frames. Good pay $2.50/hr so I could start paying off my $10,000. college loan. Heroes all around me: Jack, Jeff, Tom, Dane, Billy Uhl, Doug Wilford. Several months later JP arranged for me to be a Canadian rider at the ISDT in Czecho.  I'll never forget the duplex where John gave me a free place to stay while working for Penton Imports.

[Update on knee replacements:]

Update on knee replacements:  I do have 120+ degrees of flexing in each knee, full out flat and straight is fine.  But I do have two remaining problems, a very crunchy noisy experience when I stand up, or straighten my knee with a load.  The more the load, the worse it is.  I am told it is under the knee cap.

And when I walk, both knees click loudly as if the polyethylene pad between the titanium components is too thin. I understand they come in different thickness, and it is a judgement call when the surgeon decides which to install.  Has anyone experienced and solved these problems with specific exercises?  Is it a big rehab to change the polyethylene pad thickness?

James Hollander

quote:Originally posted by dandk

The event was held in Camerino, and in that little town, there was a university that had not convened for the school year. The American contingent, stayed in the dormitories at the university. About the only thing I really remember about staying there, was that in the cafeteria, they used a band saw to cut the bread. It don't remember the bread as being that tough, but it must have been. But of course, I love most kinds of Italian breads, so maybe I was over looking that fact.

One rather funny occurance I can remember, was when we were getting out bikes ready for the event, Jim Hollander had his bike sitting on a low wall, sort of like on a milk crate. And for some reason, he started the bike up and the throttle stuck. When he pushed down on the back end to try and make the back wheel contact with the ground, to stall the bike, it jumped over the little wall, and headed right toward a glass enclosed vestibule. The only thing that saved the windows, was that somebody bulldogged the bike to the ground before the point of contact. Maybe Doug will remember a little more about the incident.

I have a "memento" of this event, hanging in our shop, and I'll try to take a picture of it tomorrow and get the picture put on this thread.

Dane

This is what REALLY happened. It was at the end of the Six-Days in Italy. We had to clean our bikes for crating and then disassemble them for the trip back to the USA.  I had taken the whole front (forks, wheel, etc.) of the bike apart, and the bike was sitting on a milk crate with the rear wheel on the ground. The handlebars were off, the gas tank was emptied, and the throttle and cable were curled up in a compact circle and taped to the triple clamps.  I just realized that there was still gas in the carb float bowl and if the bike were on it's side on the trip home, it would end up leaking out.  So I got the BRIGHT IDEA to just start the bike, let it idle until the gas was burned up.  I pulled the starter-handle, and the bike instantly did a wheelie, knocked aside the milk crate and headed down the sidewalk directly down a concrete stairwell, down the steps until it lay on the bottom of the steps on a landing, burning up the rest of the fuel.  What an idiot, the compact throttle cable in a circle with throttle attached had pulled up the throttle slide, raising the engine to higher than torque convertor engagement speed, and off she went.  No, it didn't hurt the Rokon.  If only we had  someone there with a quick camera.
 
Jim Hollander


James Hollander

In final note the knees have healed up fine in 6 weeks, though not enough to kick start my 520 EXC (yes, I know it has a battery for that). Actually I was driving into town 3 weeks after the surgery. I am able to go up ladders to do work outside and can walk and semi-run (very fast walk).  It sounds like I was in home-rehab-hell while John Penton was getting one of his knees replaced in early December 2005 after 13 years. I say it that way because the visiting nurse physical therapist seemed to have a semi-sadistic streak.  I had to bite on a kitchen towel rolled into a cylinder to keep quiet while the range of motion in the knee was slowly forced.  I don't recommend it, but I guess you have no choice.

As for JP having one knee replacement go bad, I hear they last 20 years now. They have better knee replacements available these days, and of course they can do two at once now with excellent results.  Maybe John snuck off on a motorcycle to break his kneecap in the last 13 years??  John must not have had a hospital near enough that did a lot of bilateral replacements 13 years back. Dartmouth Hitchcock Memorial Hospital does them several times a week, using two complete teams, one working on each knee.  

I thought I would be Enduro tough and take out my 45 stainless steel staples a day before the visiting PT person was scheduled to do it.  With a pair of miniature side-cut pliers and far too much time on my hands.  If you have staples and are tempted to take them out yourself, don't.  The trick tool they have now would have saved me two hours.  And I wouldn't have had to soak the pliers in antiseptic and roast them in fire either, as the new tool comes in a sterilized pack and it is a throw-away.  It would have taken all of ten minutes.

James Hollander

quote:Originally posted by bobjones

Jim I had my l. knee replaced in 5/99. It works great. I wear donjoy kneebraces on both knees.I've ridden the Col. 500 4 times since it was replaced with no problems....  Bob Jones
Show-Me state

Thanks Bob.  I found the don joy  store site and they have an amazing assortment of braces for all kinds of injuries prior to and after the operation.  I have already gotten a recommendation from them.

http://www.donjoystore.com


James Hollander

[where both knees are replaced at the same time]

I rode in 5 of the ISDT events 1972-1976.  I still ride a KTM 125 SX in the senior class in a Vermont motocross series, along with  my wife and son who also both ride a KTM 125 SX. Back in the early 1970s when I had the pleasure of racing a Penton 125cc Six Days model, I recall being warned by the ISDT team doctor (did we call him 'crazy Richard'??) that the injuries we were getting and covering up with pain killers to complete the 6-days was going to catch up with us when we were older.  Well Richard was right.  I recently was diagnosed with osteo-arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis and am on prednisone and methotrexate medication.  But on top of that I was told I have no cartledge left in my knees and am "on stage" for bilateral total knee replacements.  I knew my knees were unstable and painful, but now I am told they are worn out?  Are there any of you out there that has gone thru this (both knees)surgery, where both knees are replaced at the same time?  

I have my surgery scheduled for the end of November and wondered if anyone could give me any tips on what to expect.  Will I be able to ride again?  Of course the surgeon says to stay off motorcycles, but I want to hear what dedicated riders have to say.  Did you buy a post-operative brace to protect it? Since the range of motion on the prosthetic knees is limited, and very unstable at maximum flex, have any of your had a crash where the knee fails on you and really messes up the bones it is attached to?  The type I am getting has then newer rotation capability as well as the normal knee bending feature, is that the best one to allow riding again?  Thanks   Jim Hollander in NH.


Back when I raced a Penton in 1970-1973

James Hollander