Winter Newsletter best ever?

[Dale Fisher]

I pulled out the latest newsletter to read and unwind from another day of running holiday packages for UPS.  The Winter issue is without a doubt the best (or at least a close second) newsletter of my time with the group!  Thank you Al for your hard work!!



Dale Fisher
Penton Owners Group - Memberships
Mudlark Registry
Facebook - Cheney Twinshock Racing Group - Administrator

'70 Six-Day 125 - V2017
'71 Six-Day 125 (Dave Fisher's) - V5553
'72 Mudlark - W257
'73 Jackpiner - 175 21159727
'74 Berkshire 100 - 40171056
'98 HP-14 Hi-Point
And some silly other bikes...

[BrianTaylor]

I really enjoyed my copy ... Great story by Denny & Zink RR......Thks Al for putting it together

Brian Taylor

[JCHubbard]

I agree. Great write ups by Heather M. and Al B.

[Wardie]

I was reading mine last night and thought , man this is as good as any magazine I am receiving!

Let me add my "Job Well Done" to the other congratulatory messages to Al.

Larry Ward

[Bob Gilman]

My issue was sort of a Downer,I found out that Paul will be stepping down as President of P.O.G..I know Judy will be Happy.He really deserves some family time.Paul has made a lot of sacrifices for this organization.This man has been putting P.O.G. first for a long time.He eats,breaths and lives the Penton experience,dedicated 100%.As I have said before it will be very hard to fill his boots.Thanks Paul for everything you have done.And Good Luck to who ever takes his place,It will be a tough job.Who knows maybe Al Buehner will come back!!!!!

[Tom Penton]

Just got the newsletter today, and was totally moved!  The article by Denny Bershaw touched on life parallels in so many ways:

Both of us spent time in the service. (Me USAF)

I also rode a 73cc Sachs/Hercules (Boondocker), in my first 2 years of National Enduros.*

Denny was there at my first Six Days in Italy.

Having spent a couple years at George AFB, in the Mojave desert, California, I did lots of So. Cal. Riding, rode Checker's events, and  rubbed some elbows with their fine members that Denny references.

Denny gets a good portion of the credit/blame for me moving to Oregon. We would make the annual trip to Bad Rock and Trask in the Cycleliner in early May, when things were still not altogether green in Ohio, but it was fully lush in the Oregon Willamette Valley. And we were fortunate to have good weather and clear skys quite a lot of the time. I remember asking Denny If it was often like that (what with the Pacific Northwest's bad reputation for rain). His answer was something like "Well, it often can be, although it does its fair share of raining." That was optimistic enough for me. An answer like "Some sun, but mostly rain" and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be here now!

Tom Penton

* Perhaps it isn't common knowledge that we had a couple year's experience with the Sachs engine prior to the Penton introduction. Dad had gotten a Sachs dealership along with the many other brands he tried and the Boondocker was my bike for the first couple years in the "Big Leagues" National Enduros. (After I got my driver's license at age 16, 1966)

[dennis brown]

boondocker was my first dirt bike from, penton motors.good bike for the time

dennis l.brown

[ALB]

Thanks for the compliments. Putting these newsletters together gets to be a big challenge at times.

Denny called me to place an order a few months ago and started talking about his being at the 68 ISDT. I asked him if he would be willing to write about his story for the newsletter, which he graciously did. It is a wonderful article that he wrote and adds more pieces to the Penton story. I did not have to edit any of what he wrote. Unfortunately I did have to remove some of the photos that he included with it to make it fit.

Heather is like a breath of fresh air. Her joy and enthusiasm for riding off-road shows in her "Member Profile" article. She is a good writer and I did not have to edit any of it. She sent me a load of photos to choose from. Several of the photos were of her and her bike covered in mud. She was hoping that I would use one of those for the cover photo. I told her that our members needed to be able to see what she and her bike look like, although the "mud" photos are impressive. I did include one of them in the article.

One of the challenges that I have is making everything fit. You cannot just add or subtract 1 page. The newsletter, the way it is printed, is composed of 4 pages to 1 sheet (front, back, left and front, back, right). Typically our newsletters are 20 or 24 pages long. This newsletter, because of the long articles, and the long meeting minutes, is 28 pages. As articles are written and received, I make notes of how many pages are needed for each. I miscalculated the length of the October minutes and had to spend a few hours shrinking everything down to eliminate 1 page.

My thanks to everyone who has stepped forward during these past 16 years to talk about their lives and share their stories.
Also, a big "thank you" to Don Roth who volunteered to do the proof reading of these newsletters after Al Born passed away.

Alan Buehner