Non-Penton post, Huskies in "The Mechanic"

[Mark P]

I watched the Charlies Bronson movie, "The Mechanic"for the first time in decades and forgot there are a number of dirt bike chases in it. All the bikes were red tanked Huskies that had lights and plates. One of the scenes had the bad guys riding the huskies on an LA freeway. I knew Huskie had a dual purpose street legal bike for sale in the mid 70s but not as far back as 1972 when the movie was made. Supposedly Bronson loved dirt bikes and rode often also. Just a comment on a forgotten movie I watched while waiting for this broken toe to healm

[Mike Burgess]

That was Husky's "RT" models. Dad actually took one that we could'nt sell and made one helluva woods bike out of it and then sold it to Glen Romero down in Louisiana and he rode it and won many of mx races on it. It was and still is labeled "The Pumpkin" for those of us back in the good ole days.

[Kevin Grimes]

I too have watched the Mechanic. It's always interesting to see Hollywood stuntmen work their magic. The mentioned chase scene starts with both the good guy and the bad guy on new 360 Sportman motorcycles. The bikes then quickly morph into a couple of motocross Huskies, one with lights, one without. I read an article about this chase scene, I believe one of the stuntmen was J.N. Roberts. The article describes the infamous "off the cliff" sequence as a dummy strapped to a dynamite loaded motorbike with a stuntman riding on the back to guide the bike to the edge of the cliff. At the last second the stuntman is yanked off the back of the bike by a steel cable attached to a harness he is wearing, landing on a mattress. The bike goes over the edge of the cliff and was detonated by remote control just prior to hitting the ground. And yes there are records of Charles Bronson owning at least one Husky Sportsman.
The Sportman 360's were predecessors to the RT models. Sadly neither the Sportman or RT's were considered good off road bikes. Most pros of that day including J.P. road highly modified motocross bikes.
                       
     Kevin

[Paul Danik]

Scroll down after opening this link and the list of stuntmen is given.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068931/fullcredits#cast

Paul

[SouthRider]

Paul - thanx for the link - if you click on JN's name you find that he had stunt credits in 40 movies including scarface in 1994.

[Paul Danik]

I was surprised at how many movies JN had appeared in. Here is another one you folks might find interesting.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0612801/

And if that isn't enough.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0252379/

And if you get this persons autograph at a POG meeting you just might be able to say you knew him "when".

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3258944/

Paul

[desmond197]

I thought John Penton rode a 360 Sportsman with a 360MX head in a number of events. I have a 69 360 Sportsman in my collection.

[conrad2]

I think the Penton movie is long over due. As I said before John Penton had as much influence on motorcycling history as Burt Munro
(World's Fastest Indian) did. With all of the miles he rode he could have gone from New Zealand to USA five times!!

Paul, There is no headshot on my imdb page because my head wouldn't fit on the page!!

I would rather do stunts on motorcycles. I was crazy enough but couldn't even jump my bike over a log.
Conrad

Conrad Pfeifer
1972 Penton Six Days