John Penton sightings ..."back in the day"

[Paul Danik]

Greetings,

    As I am sure many of you can relate to, "back in the day" if you were lucky enough to be at the same place at the same time as John Penton, it was a memorable occasion. One of the "mental pictures" that is engrained in my mind is of John operating a fork lift that was operated from a standing position in the Penton R & D building, the evening before the "official opening" of Penton Dealer School.

   John was quite busy shuffling the inventory of new in the crate Steel Tankers. Back then I wasn't exactly sure what his objective was, but as I reflect back on the occasion I can't help but think that he knew what crates held the Steel Tankers with the newest updates and wanted to make sure that the dealers in attendance got the latest machines with the newest updates to take home with them from dealer school.

   One other image from that same evening is of Jack and Jeff Penton pulling up the grates that covered the floor drain that ran much of the length of the parking bay inside the R&D building and cleaning out the slop and such that was in them. It was at that moment that I realized that much like myself, who worked side by side with my own Dad in our family business, for the Penton boys there were always jobs that Dad wanted done...and NOW !

   How about you, have a memorable John Penton experience or sighting to share ?

Paul

[ALB]

My experience with John Penton was my ride to California and back with him in 1999. I was warned before the trip to not talk about politics. Well, it was a long trip with John doing most of the driving and it wasn't long before John started talking politics. The more he talked the faster that van started going down the Interstate until I cautioned him that he was exceeding the speed limit or managed to change the subject.

I remember us engaged in a conversation where we missed the turn off to remain on I-80 and found ourselves on the way to Denver. We had to turn around to get back on our route, loosing a half hour of drive time only to find out that the interstate was closed off at Cheyanne, Wyoming because the pass was closed. We wound up going down to Denver anyway to take the interstate over to Utah.

I remember us getting passed by a small red car on the right when John was driving. In John's mind it became a race to catch that car and pass it. We were going through some gorges with yellow caution signs posted with turn arrows and 50 mpg speed warnings. John had his race face on and I couldn't help to notice that we were going through those turns at 70 to 80. I made it a point to concentrate on looking at the scenery and not on the road until John passed that car. [:0]

Alan Buehner

[Pat Oshaughnessy]

Al that had to be Vintage M. C. Days west at Sears Point Raceway. It was in 2000. It was the only time I got to meet John Penton & shake his hand. He signed my Old Penton race jersey & painter hat. I have them in a glass case in my man cave. He rode a steel tank a lap around the road course. It was a great day. I got to meet my Idol. John & I are almost exactly the same size. Maybe thats why I never won an event until I got a Penton. They fit me! They handeled better than any bike i ever rode & ive had a lot!

[johnborn]

I went to the Gainesville mx national with my dad in 1985. We got pit passes and walked through the pit area before the motos started. Most of the famous riders were in their box vans , out of sight. We ended up running into Mr. Penton near the scoring tower. Dad and Me Penton talked for about an hour and a half , the whole time , the stars of the day were stopping by and saying hi to John. I got to see them being themselves , not in autograph mode. It was incredible. Even more incredible was some of the conversations between Mr. Penton and my dad. A memory I will never forget.

[ALB]

Hi Pat,

It was the AMA Vintage Days at Sears Point that John and I went to. It was in 1999 that we went in order to scope things out for the year 2000 event where we were trying to get the AMA to approve the Penton brand to be feature marque. We looked at what size tent was being provided for the feature marque so we could plan out our display for the event the following year.The swap meet and entire event was tiny compared to Mid-Ohio's event. We set up an e-z up and hauled Penton V001 to display.

John was 74 when we made the trip. It took us 2 days to get there and 2 days to get back. John wound up doing most of the driving.

Alan Buehner

[Paul Danik]

Greetings,

    The first ISDT Qualifier that I rode was the Fort Hood event in 1973. We had the Cycleliner loaded with all the cycles and gear plus we drove a Ford Maverick to the event for transportation once we got to Texas. Penton seemed to have a small fleet of those cars if I remember correctly.

    Once we had the Cycleliner parked and secured Jack said his Dad was at the motel and wanted to get together. Jack, Dane and I went to JP's room at the motel and he soon started to excitedly tell of what was happening at "the factory", apparently having just returned from Austria. What happened next I will never forget, at about mid sentence John stopped talking and instantly his head hit the pillow, sound asleep. I looked at Jack and he motioned for me to just wait and soon enough John awoke and finished his conversation, having apparently used up every once of energy he had and needing a quick recharge, like an Indy car getting a "splash of gas"'

   In 2000 when John, Al Born and I were heading to California on our way to VMD west to set up the POG display, I noticed that in the east bound direction there was a rest area high up on a ridge, which seemed unusual. I pointed it out and John started to laugh. He said one time when he was heading home in the eastern direction he had pulled into that rest area for a quick nap.....only to wake up and see that he had slept for about 8 hours....

   When that trip came up John said he would pull the trailer and haul the POG stuff to the event. I mentioned to John that I would go along if there was room and instantly he said there was. I started to work on Al Born to join us but Al was very committed to his job at Ford and said there was a big project on the line coming up and he better not go.  I remember saying to Al the he would at some time be dead and gone and Ford would still be spitting out cars and that this was a once in a lifetime chance. About a day later Al called and said that he and Margie had talked it over and he was going to join us for the trip.

    The trip to California and back with John and Al was a trip of a lifetime, those are two of the finest Gentlemen one could ever have wanted to travel with.


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Pat, as you have said that was an incredible time at Sears Point. Al Born was about the same size as JP as well and several times at that event, as well as elsewhere, folks would come up to Al and think he was John and thank him and want to shake his hand...we had a few laughs over this at times. Also at that event Al was mistaken for Dick Mann at an AHRMA flat track event that Al, Tom Penton and I attended. As we were leaving the stands this very pretty young lady tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to Al and asked if he was Dick Mann....  Oh how we laughed during the entire trip about so many things.

Paul

[ALB]

I remember driving to John's house for our drive to California. I left work early so I would be on time for our departure. The plan was for us to travel in John's van. I arrived there at around 6 pm expecting John to be in the house getting ready to leave. His wife said that he was outside working behind the house. I found him in the back with his backhoe digging ditches for drainage tile he was installing for the orchard.[:0]

 I thought that this was a little odd, but did not question it, figuring that he knew what he was doing (for this trip). I also figured that we were not going to leave util he finished this project, so I jumped down in the ditch to give him a hand. This surprised him that I was not afraid to get my hands dirty.

After finishing up what he wanted to accomplish, he told me that he was going into the house and start packing for the trip. I tried not to be concerned, trusting that he knew how long it would take to get to California and we had plenty of time. He gave me the keys to the van and I drove it to a service station to gas up and check all the fluids. When I got back to his house he was just about finished with his packing and a few minutes later we were on our way. []

Alan Buehner

[Tom Penton]

Fond memories of coming south from Oregon to Sears Point that year to see all you guys and hear the travel adventures. Can't say I envied you too much your JP ordeal. Had plenty of my own!

Tom Penton

[Mike Rosso]

I started racing mostly motocross on a '70 Penton 125 Six Days out of Bohn's Cycle in Pittsburgh in 1970 and had traveled with Ron Bohn many times to Amherst to pickup bikes and parts from Hi-Point and to visit with John and the HP crew. One time, I think in '72 we walked in to HP and John was there in the lunch room and he runs out and comes back with a couple of foam (Filtron) air filters and a can of this Twin Air filter fluid. He says Mike come here you have to see this it's amazing. He takes me over to the sink and turns the faucet on and takes one of the filters and says "this is the oil that everyone is currently using and it's no good for what we do." He puts the foam filter under the slowing running water and it goes right through. Then he takes the other filter with this new Twin Air fluid and holds it under the running water and almost all of it repels off and none goes through the filter. AMAZING to say the least at the time. John then tell me how he was in Holland at this new air filter place and he explained why he liked using a paper filter in really wet conditions because it would at least stop water from getting in and destroying the engine. So then it hit John, what if we could use something like the Hi-Point "waterproof" grease and make it thin enough to be used as an air filter fluid"? John then says "we mixed the waterproof grease with "white gas" and Twin Air filter fluid was born. John then says "And I brought it back with me on the airplane but don't tell anybody about that." LOL.

Forward to a few years ago and the KTM Off-Road team had a miserable weekend at the super wet Snowshoe GNCC. They trashed two bikes and DNF'd two top racers. They asked me to take a look at how they prepped and tried to waterproof the bikes to the point of almost not having enough air to have any top end power. The very first thing I asked was what air filter fluid were they using to which the mechanics said "Twin Air filter fluid of course". I asked which the standard or the Biodegradable? The biodegradable and I said "you know that stuff is water-soluble and won't stop or repel water....and Don't Ask Me How I Know (DAMHIK). Another one of those John Penton lessons in life and racing I learned from him and never forgot. I don't want to sound anti-environmentally conscious but unless you are sure you will never ride in or around water or wet conditions then I recommend never using a biodegradable air filter fluid. If you want proof that it lets water through meet with John in the KTM lunch room for a demonstration.

Mike