POG meeting

[Paul Danik]

Greetings,

   The May POG meeting will be held on Thursday May 6 starting at 7 pm.  The meeting will take place at the KTM campus in Amherst, Ohio.

   Greg Troyan has graciously offered to bring in the contents of his garage for the "what's in your garage" segment of the meeting.  Word has it that Bev plans on filling up all the "extra space" that will be available with some of her stuff while Greg is at the meeting

   Hope to see you there, as always you do not have to be a POG member to attend.

Paul

[joe novak]

Hello POG members,  I am looking forward to meeting all of you regular attendees at this month's meeting.   It is always special when someone new attends a POG meeting.  Looking forward to meeting any new faces at the meeting, too.  Whether you are a POG member or not, come out and attend.   Joe

[Paul Danik]

Several tidbits of information about the meeting.

A gentleman called the other evening who lives rather close to Amherst and asked if he could attend and join at the meeting, obviously the answer was yes. It will be nice to meet him and hear a little about his motorcycling history.

 I bought a pretty much sight unseen 1969 100cc Steel Tanker about a month ago, the owner lives near Sandusky,but it turns out the bike is in Vermilion,  Conrad and I will be picking it up tomorrow night before the meeting. I mentioned to Jack the street name and he said it is about 3 miles from the KTM building.  Will the gang have a laugh at my expense when they see the bike, if so it won't be the first time.  Either way it will be fun.

Also, we are supposed to have a special guest tomorrow night

Hope to see ya there.
Paul

[joe novak]

Paul, The previous owner of the 69 Penton Berkshire loaded it into the wrong pick-up truck.  He should have loaded it into my truck!   Nice find.  Love that small sunburst head.  I am glad that it went to someone who will truly appreciate it.   Joe

[Paul Danik]

Joe,

   Maybe you had left before we looked at the serial number, V-256. The bike had been retro fitted into a frame breather, I think that is why the owner thought it was a 69.  

   Speaking of frame numbers, I am still trying to locate the first Penton that I ever saw, V-200.  If anyone ever comes up with even a rusted hulk of that bike I am really interested. I have the statement of origin, and the handlebar tag that was on it when it was built, shipped and delivered to the dealer. I just want to tie that handlebar tag back on the bike, even if I don't ever own it, just gotta do it. The statement of origin is dated June 25, 1968.

Paul

[Admin]

Here's an easy quiz from last Thursday's POG meeting.

First Question:  Can you name the 3 individuals in the first picture?  Second Question: Can you name the individuals that won this team trophy?

[Paul Danik]

OK, times up on part of this quiz.

We had a very special guest at the most recent POG meeting.  The gentleman in the center is Stan Simpson who is the Chairman of the AMA Board of Directors.  Stan was kind enough to deliver to us the  fantastic enlargement of the recent cover of the AMA magazine that featured John on the cover. It will be on display in the POG tent at VMD, be sure to stop by and check it out.

The gentleman on the left with the KTM shirt on is John Penton [}:)]

The trophy has some very interesting history to it, some if it is still a bit of a mystery to us, but I am sure it is interesting. Dane Leimbach brought it to the meeting, Dane explained how it was discovered at the Amherst Meadowlarks Club House while they were doing some house cleaning. We hope to find out who was on that team, we do think we know what they were riding.   If you have some old magazines and can provide us with the names of the riders it would be greatly appreciated.  If possible it would be neat to get a group shot of the team together again with the trophy.

As a side note, if you ever get to Amherst and get a chance to visit the Amherst Meadowlarks club grounds, race track and club house I encourage you to do so.  If you stand in the clubhouse you can almost feel the history.  I used to travel to their events whenever I could and savored every minute of my time there, which reminds me of a little story.

Dan Bogdanich was one of my teachers when I was in high school.  Dan raced a CZ and had a trailer, I started bugging him a couple of weeks before the event telling him we ought to travel to Amherst and race the MX.  Dan eventually agreed to go, probably just to shut me up. I had a general idea as to where John lived but I wasn't sure, we made several laps of the roads near the Penton Farm Market till I spotted John's house.  I can just imagine Mrs. Penton telling JP at breakfast about the Mustang with a CZ and a Penton on the trailer that kept going by the house  Those were the days..........

Paul

[Paul Danik]

The Amherst Meadowlarks Club Team at the 1969 two day Berkshire Trials was made up of the following four riders,

Tom Janosik, Ron Bohn, John Penton and Jeff Penton.

I was incorrect in my assumption that they were Penton mounted, they were all on Huskies.......

In the 125cc class there were 4 gold medals awarded.

Gordon Razee       Penton
Bud Green          Penton
Herman Stoekcie    Sachs
Al Born            Penton

I found the information in the December of 1969 issue of Motor Cycle World, I will bring it to the next POG meeting for others to enjoy.

Paul

[dennis brown]

if if remember right the last berkshire event before the six days was a very muddy tough event, chuck bolher from jamestown ny  won over john penton just by going farther than mr penton any one recall that event i thin chuck was on a greeves. he was our greeves husky penton dealer

dennis l.brown

[Paul Danik]

Dennis,

  I never rode anything at the Berkshire till is the ISDT, I will try to find a write up on the event you mentioned.  I think they ran a 3 day event one time but I don't know the year.

Paul