The Outrageous John Penton

[Rick Bennett]

While combing thru the POG home page looking for some interesting reading I checked out the list of magazines that are Penton related. A quick look on fleabay found a couple from back in the day. One is a copy of Dirt Bike, October 1973. The subject above, an article on page 45 is a good one. If you want to know what John was thinking back then and how he felt about the onslaught of low priced Japanese machines flooding the market, find a copy and read it. Super Hunky interviews John and has a hard time getting his turn to speak. In typical John sentences, sort of incomplete, with pauses, John tells his side of the story. I think his head is racing on to the next thought before he completes the last one. Anyone that has listened to him knows that is just John and he doesn't waste words to get his point across. John wants everyone the dirt bike riding world to know just how good his Sportcycles really are and how hard he has worked to make them that way. At the end he tells Super he will see him at the Little Burr the following weekend. On page 38 is a recount of the 250 mile Enduro with Super riding a 175 Penton John loaned him. He learns just how tough a mud run can be. On page 64 is a review of the Honda XL175. It is interesting to read and compare what Dirt Bike thought about what was supposed to be Honda's 175 Enduro machine after reading John's thoughts.