Fasy Guy - Al Born author ?

[Paul Danik]

Greetings,

   The family of Al Born found a very nice write up on Al that follows his life of motorcycling from its beginning thru just a few years ago, it is titled Fast Guy - Al Born. There is no author listed and everyone is curious to know the origins of the story.

  The format lends one to believe that this could be one of a series of write ups on Fast Guys, or maybe it is the only one done, if anyone can shed some light on this it would be appreciated.

  The story has many details in it that only Al could have provided, so he must have been interviewed for it.

Thanks,
Paul

[paul a. busick]

Paul,
 Where can we read the artical?  It should be shared with all POG members.
 Amherst Paul

[Paul Danik]

AP,

   It will be shared......

Thanks,
MP

[OhioTed]

Guys, I put that story together several years ago, after spending hours being regaled with awesome recollections by our dear friend, Al Born.  

I cannot express the feeling of loss over Al's passing.  I loved the man.  Can't stand the thought that he is no longer with us.  

I hope this does some justice to a wonderful, wonderful guy.  He is sorely missed.


 


 

quote:                                                           Fast Guy – Al Born


   You've watched them, or competed against them, or maybe you are even one of them.  The fast guys.  The guys who win races and take overalls, and win championships.  They've got it – that certain something that makes them able to take the lead at the drop of the green flag and never look back.  Then, after it's all over, they're the ones who step forward and receive the big trophy.

   Al Born is one of those people.  He's one of those fast guys.  The guys who have won on every size and type of motorcycle they have ever ridden.  Al also happens to have been among the original group of riders whom John Penton hand picked to campaign aboard the very first batch of ten Penton motorcycles brought into the United States – the very bikes whose initial performance results set the stage for the entire Penton motorcycle legacy.

   At the beginning of his motorcycling experiences, however, Al's introduction to the sport was so modest as to give no clue of what was to come.  It was in the summer of 1946, in his native West Virginia, that Al and his cousin, aged 12 and 13 years respectively, learned the ropes on board a Whizzer motorbike.  

   The combination of two healthy boys riding double on the little machine, as well as the substantial hills which abound in the region, meant that a good bit of peddling was required in addition to just twisting the throttle.  However, Al was hooked regardless and the boys' adventures with that Whizzer continued on into the next summer, when the old motorbike finally became completely worn out.  

   While the Whizzer was great fun, Al knew that a "real" motorcycle would be just that much better.  However, despite having completed high school by age 16, he was not able to land a good paying job, and a "real" bike remained just a bit out of reach.

   However, in 1952 a friend, who was a few years older than Al, purchased a 1946 Indian.  Al remembers the bike to be a "large one, with two cylinders, which was hard to start and very heavy".  Like the Whizzer, riding the Indian involved much physical exertion – this time in the form of a lot of pushing.  However, as had the Whizzer several years before, the Indian provided considerable entertainment.  Al recalls the big bike doing some damage to a barbed wire fence, as well as tearing up about a half acre of his dad's cornfield after "getting away" from one of the boys.  

   In the fall of '52, Al's friend, the owner of the Indian, joined the military and was sent overseas to the Korean War.  Al also left home just one month later, and traveled to Ohio in search of a better job.  For the next few years he dabbled in cars, owning a series of hot-rod Mercurys.  However, the yearning for a motorcycle never left him.

   Al landed a good paying job in 1955, with Ford.  Now he was finally able to begin considering purchase of his own motorcycle.  Before long, he happened to spot a pretty, blue 1951 Harley-Davidson 125, sitting in a used car lot.  Al stopped to take a look and after a brief bit of consideration, decided to buy the bike with some money he had been saving for yet another Mercury.  

   Unfortunately, the little Harley turned out to be less of a machine than what Al had in mind.  The bike had wiring and ignition problems and Al recalls that its most redeeming feature was that it was considerably smaller and lighter than that old Indian, and thus easier to push.         

   The riding season came to a close that year with the Harley still not running properly, so Al simply parked it for the winter.  A few months later, he happened to be talking with a fellow at work, whom everyone called "Cowboy".  It seemed that Cowboy owned a 1949 Harley 45 which he was hoping to trade for a smaller motorcycle.  Al immediately saw this as a chance to unload the unreliable 125 and acquire that elusive "real" motorcycle in the bargain.

   However, while Al's 125 Harley had some problems, the 45 was not perfect either.  It seems the bike had at one point, backfired through the carb, and the resulting fire had burned up its wiring, as well as the bike's seat, and even blistered most of the paint from the gas tank.  However, Al was undaunted and agreed to the swap.

   While waiting for delivery of a new wiring harness he had ordered from the local Harley shop, Al brush-painted a new paint job onto the Harley's tank, as well as cleaning the bike up from end to end.  When the harness finally arrived, Al installed it and the Harley cranked right up.  Once again though, Al was disappointed because the bike never did run quite right, as well as being hard to start when hot.  After much fiddling with the Harley's carb, Al concluded that it must have been damaged in the fire, affecting its ability to remain properly adjusted.  

   While he considered the worth of additional investment in a new carburetor, Al had the opportunity to experience the performance of another bike - a BSA 650 twin.  A friend named Ralph Haslage, brought over one night, one that he had just purchased, and offered to give Al a ride.

   That bike ended up being the turning point in Al's motorcycling pursuits, because when the owner hit second gear, Al nearly fell off the back from the unanticipated acceleration.  This, he decided, was one of the "real" motorcycles he had been after since he was a kid, and he knew he had to have one.

   That is another reason why this experience altered Al's life, because the BSA dealership where he and Ralph went to check out a bike for Al turned out to be none other than the Penton brother's shop.  There, Al talked with Elmer Reichart about trading his Harley 45 in on a '55 BSA 500 twin.  Elmer however, wasn't much interested in Al's Harley.  

   Just then, John Penton and his brother Ike came into the shop.  When Elmer relayed Al's offer to trade his Harley for the BSA, John just laughed and told Al that if he wanted the BSA he would simply have to buy it outright.  And, that is just what Al did.  That also, began Al's experiences with "real" motorcycles, as well as initiating his association with the Penton family, which continues to this day.

   Throughout the remainder of that summer of 1956, as well as into the following year, Al enjoyed riding the BSA on the street, as well as spending time visiting with Elmer and John, and sometimes Ike and Ted, at the Penton brother's shop.  Back then the shop was open on Friday nights and a lot of riders would spend the evening there, drinking coffee and talking motorcycles.

   Late in the summer of '57, Al & Ralph Haslage attended a Scrambles race at the Meadowlarks track, in Amherst, Ohio.  There, Al was particularly impressed by one of the riders, a fellow named George Singler, riding a BSA, who would broadslide his bike around the course's turns – standing up!  Al was amazed.  He could hardly believe that someone could ride like that.  George Singler became one of Al's riding heroes that night.

   During the following winter, Al and a group of other riders from around Avon, Lorain, and Elyria, Ohio, organized a group they called the Avon Cycle Club, which remained in existence for seven or eight years.  The club rented a farm near the town of Strongsville, built a scrambles track on the property, and prepared to host their own races.

   On a Saturday, after preparing the track for their first event, Al and several members of the club decided to have a little practice race.  Al participated, riding his BSA street bike, and surprised himself by winning the impromptu event!  

From that point, Al was hooked on racing.  However, he knew he would need something other than his street bike to compete on, so he bought a well-used 250 Maico from Sills Motor Sales, in Cleveland.  Al's first official race aboard the Maico was in an event called the Buckeye Sweepstakes, at the Meadowlark's track.  There, he was running second in the feature when his engine seized so tightly that, as he found later, the connecting rod bent.  

Despite that mechanical setback, Al bought another 250 Maico from Sills – this one brand new.  He also traded his BSA street bike in on a different BSA, this one a 500cc B-33 model.  Al enjoyed competing in particular on the B-33, although he found it to be heavy and underpowered compared to other bikes of the day, which included BSA Gold Stars, Matchless, AJS, and Velocettes.  

Despite his bike's weight and power handicaps, Al would usually managed to finish among the top three, as well as winning several events.  In fact, it was while campaigning on this particular bike that Al twice finished ahead of his hero, George Singler, adding considerably to Al's confidence in his own riding ability.

Al's next race bike came once again by way of Sills Motor Sales.  This time it was a 650 Triumph that Bill Horton, an employee of Sills, talked Al into buying.  Although Al was a bit hesitant at first, Bill finally convinced him, and Al traded the Maico in on it.

Al's hesitancy was mainly centered around the Triumph's weight and bulk.  As with his previous "big" bikes, Al did not like the idea of having a disadvantage in these areas, compared to his competition.  And so, as soon as he got the bike home, Al got down to the task of lightening the 650 up.  

First to go were the stock mufflers, which Al replaced with a pair of "shorties".  He also removed the stock fuel tank and in its place installed a tank from a moped, which would hold more than enough fuel for the scrambles races Al intended to use the bike for.  Al also exchanged the Triumph's seat for a BMW unit, which also incorporated a rear fender, the end of which Al chopped off, or "bobbed" as the process was referred to back then.  The bike's front fender got the "bob-job" also.   Al further modified the seat by drilling the base full of holes and removing much of the seat's padding.  Holes were also drilled through the centers of just about every bolt on the bike.

When he was finished, Al had the big bike's weight down to an amazing 261 pounds.  Paring the weight down in this way, combined with Al's own lightweight "frame", meant that the Triumph was devastatingly fast on the scrambles courses.  Al also found that by using second gear at the starts, he was virtually unbeatable into the first turn.  In fact, during that summer of 1960, Al and the Triumph got the holeshot on the rest of the field no less than 31 times in 36 starts.  Also, Al went on to win all but four of those 36 events, including heat races, semis, and features!  

Part of Al's success that season was also due to the bike's total reliability.  Despite running in competition every week, Al experienced only one dnf, when the engine seized at the last race of the year.  During that entire summer, the Triumph required no major service, only basic maintenance, such as oil changes, cleaning the air filter, and periodically changing the spark plugs.  

Following this successful season of scrambles racing, John Penton encouraged Al to try enduro riding for the next year.  John also convinced Al to switch bikes once again, this time to a 1961 NSU 175.  Although Al found that the bike weighed about as much as his Triumph, the little NSU turned out to be very rugged, and carried Al that year through a number of TT's and scrambles events, as well as a few enduros.  

In September of 1961, Al was competing on the NSU at a track called Smith Road Raceway, when he tangled with another rider and suffered considerable injury to his left leg, resulting in a one-week stay in the hospital.

Undaunted, Al was soon back in action and in December of the same year competed in an enduro in Mansfield, Ohio, although it was still difficult for him to even walk.  During the event, the NSU sheared a key in the spark advance mechanism, leaving Al stranded and physically unable to push the bike out.  

Fortunately, Al's friend Bill Horton came along and stopped to help.  Bill was also experiencing problems, as his Matchless was low on fuel, resulting from a leak in the tank.  But, by transferring the NSU's fuel into the Matchless, Bill was able to tow Al & his stricken bike out of the woods.  

Over the next five years, Al rode only intermittently, as he was working a lot of overtime then, as well as participating in a millwright apprenticeship program.  Al had sold his bikes during this period, but thanks to friends Brown Warner and Bill Kennedy, he was able to put a ride in now and then, on their bikes.

Then in 1966, Al was drawn back into active competition, once again due in no small part to John Penton.  It seems that John had another motorcycle, which he was confident Al could do well on.  However, this machine was a total departure from Al's previous bikes – especially the big, heavy, powerful, Triumphs.  In fact, the machine John had in mind was nearly as small in engine displacement as was the Whizzer Al had ridden so many years before.

The bike was a Honda S90 - a 90cc, overhead cam four-stroke, pressed steel frame, streetbike!  Although the S90 was, as delivered from the Honda factory, about the furthest from a race-ready, off-road competition bike as you could get, Al & John set to work to improve it.  

Along with some (legal – Al says) engine modifications, they also lengthened the swingarm, improved the suspension, and installed different fenders and handlebars.  Even so, this was still a mildly tuned streetbike, fully unintended for competition, especially rigorous off-road racing.

However, Al once again displayed his amazing riding ability by competing successfully on the little Honda in hare scrambles, enduros, and TT races.  In addition to winning his class over thirty times, and taking a state championship, Al also pulled out three overall hare scrambles victories on the S90.  

Al continued to compete on and earn regular top finishes with the bike through 1968, when the first Pentons came out.  At that time, when Al took possession of his Penton, # V003, he sold the 90 to a friend, whose kids rode it for years until they broke the frame in half, where Al had cut out a large hole for a "high breather" air intake.  Even then, the bike was still ridden, right up until the rear hub collapsed.  

Still, the saga of the little Honda was not over.  In 1976, Al sold a '76 Honda SL125 to the same man, and in return got his 90 back.  A few years later, Al had completed a restoration of the bike and still has it today.  Al reports that the bike currently looks and runs excellent.  He says that the little bike was always an excellent performer for him, and more than earned the time and effort he put into fixing it up, but adds that when the Pentons came out, the 90 instantly became uncompetetive.                    

Back to 1968, when the first Pentons arrived in the U.S., Al's relationship with John Penton was such that he was selected to receive one of those first ten bikes.  Actually that # V003 which Al took possession of was the first Penton sold, period.  Actually, Al had asked John that his bike be a 100cc model so that he could continue competing in the same class as had he on the S90.  

However, as all the first Pentons were 125's, John convinced Al to accept the Six-Day, with the promise that he would receive the first 100cc engine that became available.  And so, Al competed on the 125 until August of 1968, when the smaller engines were shipped from Austria, and Al's bike was converted to 100cc.  

With his new Penton, Al was also part the very first official Penton race team, and competed in the '68 Berkshire Trial, along with fellow team members Leroy Winters, Tom Penton, and Bud Green.  The team won the manufacturer's award at the event and Al personally took home a bronze medal.  

Al also competed in the Berkshire the following year, once again as part of the Penton team.  That year Al took home a gold medal, and his fellow riders on the team were Leroy Winters, Tom Penton, and Doug Wilford.  

Al went on to compete on "old number 3" in hare scrambles, motocross, and TT's, until May of 1970, when he purchased a new Berkshire 100.  He put in another season of racing on the new bike, then turned it over to his son, who continued to compete on it until 1976.  

That same bike was later restored by Kip Kern, and won Al the award for "Best Berkshire" at Vintage Motorcycle Days 2000, when Penton was the featured marque.  Al's bike was also on display at the AMA museum for several years.

Although Al's competition career tapered off after 1970, he has continued to stay in close contact with the Penton family.  That relationship included several years of "on-site" residency, as Al lived in an apartment over the Penton Brothers Machine Shop, from 1967 to 1971.  Al says that it was a wonderful time, not only because of his close contact with the Penton family, but also because John graciously provided Al full access to the shops tools and equipment, which were a great benefit for maintenance of Al's Penton.  

These days, Al still enjoys riding, albeit mostly easygoing trailriding on his lightweight dualsport machine.  He also serves as the Penton Owners Group secretary, as well as having been part of the committee, which assisted Ed Youngblood in writing the John Penton book.

Al looks back on his experiences with John Penton, and the entire Penton family, with great fondness.  Al says it was his great good fortune to be so closely involved with the family during the introduction and development of the Penton motorcycles, as well as being around while Jack, Jeff, and Tom grew up and themselves developed into world class racing champions.  

From his start all those years ago on the Whizzer, through his own considerable racing successes, Al has remained the same gracious person.  Anyone meeting this modest and soft-spoken man in person, would never suspect him of having such an impressive record of racing success.  However, looks can certainly be deceiving, especially in this case, because there is no doubt that Al Born is, and always has been, a Fast Guy.  

         

[paul a. busick]

Ted, I knew Al for many years and rode with him and againt him.  He was always the gentleman and great competitor. Your story about Al is well done and tribute to a fine person.  We all miss him.
Amherst Paul  

[Rob Thatcher]

I only recently met Al as a new POG member.  Great story and great write up!  Thanks for posting it, a true tribute.

[Lew Mayer]

Great story, Ted.

Lew Mayer

[pketchum]

Wonderfully written Ted.  The photo included in this Post is a great one.  Accompanied by your story it is a great tribute to Al Born.


Thank you,

Phil Ketchum