John Penton finishes Two Day event

[Paul Danik]

John Penton, at 88 years of age, once again showed just how tough and driven he is by riding, and finishing, both days of the Legends Backroads Tour this past weekend. The dual sport type of ride was part of the ISDTRR event held at the Jim Hollerich farm in Cheshire, Mass.

  The ride covered over 110 miles of everything from two track woods trails, to scenic country roads. John rode a CMF 125 Penton which by far had the least amount of suspension, and the smallest engine of any of the over 50 motorcycles that started the event. I had the distinct pleasure of following John on both days, and can attest to the fact that he had his work cut out for him on some of the steep, uphill climbs on loose stones and soil, as well as on some of the steep decents on the same.

  On one particular steep section of trail, a culvert pipe that crossed the trail on an angle was about 3/4 exposed, being as we were riding in an area of partial shade it was very hard to see this pipe. When John hit the exposed pipe at speed his Penton careened into the air with the handlebars rising higher than the top of his helmet. The bike shot to the left a bit as it was airborne, John was able to correct the flight of the Penton while in the air and never missed a beat when the Penton returned to the trail.........John stated on the trip home that he will never forget that unintended flight.

  I am sure that all who saw John ride will remember this historic event for the rest of their lives, I know that I surely will.

Paul

[hankthecrank]

Thank you Paul for the report. What a blast that must have been to ride with JP and see him in action again. I hope I'm half as tough as John is.Hank

Hank Rinehart

[Paul Danik]

You are right Hank, is sure was a blast. A few others that joined the ride were Carl Cranke, Jack Penton and Marcia McDonald, Marcia is quite a Legend in the enduro and ISDT ranks and it was wonderful to have her along. If you come across an article that she wrote about the ISDT and Enduro scene I will guarantee you it is spot on accurate. Hopefully Jeff DeBell will chime in with more info on Marcia.

  We are deeply indebted to the State Line Riders for organizing this ride   http://www.statelineriders.org/ , and especially to Ivan Beattie whom I believe is the club President, and to Mark the ride leader.  I can't remember Mark's last name , if someone knows it please feel free to post it, Mark sure did one heck of a job leading the ride.

  Paul Clipper was one of the riders and he shot some video of John during a section of twisty road, hopefully we can get a link to some of that video. Lots of photos were taken of John at the beginning of the ride as well as elsewhere, hopefully we will get a few shots to post fairly soon.

Paul

[hankthecrank]

Great! I shared this report with some of my buddies and the first thing they asked was for some pictures. I told them, no problem, I was sure somewhere there was pictures or video. Thanks Paul. Hank

Hank Rinehart

[jeff greenberg]

Thanks Paul ,  that's just amazing to me!

[Gordon Brennan]

You can also go here for some great pictures. Banquet and Saturday. Sunday should be coming soon.
http://www.netraphotos.com/Other/ISDT-Reunion-Ride

[Jeff D]

Marcia MacDonald is probably solely responsible for keeping me and a hundred other New England kids out of juvie back in the early 70's thanks to starting the NETRA Junior Enduro program which has spawned a number of USA Six Days riders including Kevin Lavoie, Max Markowitz, Bill Berroth, Alan Drane, Alan Wickstrand, Billy Burns and others.
Marcia has always had an interest in developing youth and later did similar programs with the US youth skiing and mountain biking teams.  As if that wasn't enough, she now spends a good part of her year on the other side of the world leading hiking expeditions and tours on, get this...MOUNT EVEREST!  In addition she does philanthropic work for a Tibetan nunnery over there.  Check out her Facebook page and I guarantee you will be impressed and amazed.  She was and still is one of my heroes.

Jeff DeBell

[Dale Fisher]

Dale Fisher
Penton Owners Group - Memberships
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
And some silly other bikes...

[pklinck]

Folks,

Does anyone know how to cur and paste the netra ISDTRR photos so we can have access to them?  Nice job taking them.

peter klinck

[Dale Fisher]

Here's JP with Marcia and apologies on not knowing Mr. MacDonald's name.



Dale Fisher
Penton Owners Group - Memberships
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
And some silly other bikes...

[[email protected]]

Dale by the looks of his head that is Joe Bolger in the chair speaking to Marcia. Great weekend and extremely fun event. Seeing Mr. Penton on his bike having fun made my weekend! Spending time with Paul D , Jack, Jeff DeBell etc..... was a dream come true.
Great weather with friends and riding bikes it just does not get any better than that !
Thanks
Paul

[Paul Danik]

At the lunch stop on Saturday the riders were able to sit and eat on gigantic rocks that helped to form a gorge with a waterfall and creek flowing thru it, nature's beauty at it's best.   If that in itself wasn't enough, Jack Lehto who was the Team Manager of the winning US Silver Vase Team, stated that the trail that we rode to this spot, and would continue on after our lunch, was an actual part of the 1973 event. It just doesn't get much better than that:D Jack went on to tell of helping the ISDT event trail master AL Eames on several occasions, as well as riding from location to location during the event keeping close tabs on his Team.

Here is Jack telling of his ISDT experiences at the banquet.

http://www.netraphotos.com/Other/ISDT-Reunion-Ride/Banquet-1/i-5nQhb3c/A



Paul

[tooclose racing]

Great photo gallery.  Looks like a good time was had by all.  Amazing weather to go along with it, too!

[Dale Sonnenschein]

It was an awesome event!! Almost as exciting as being at the 73 ISDT. Fun trails and great people. I made quite a few friends over the weekend. It's great to see how close people can become from some old dirtbikes.  The penton clan parked next to me all weekend. When it came time for John to take a test run on the little penton, I think Jack was more nervous. John rode it just like it was something he did everyday. Paul even did a little tuning for a fellow penton rider friday evening. It was great to see all the past sixday riders at the banquet and on the trail.  And the Hollerich farm was beautiful, along with Jims museum. Thanks for everyone who worked on having this event. It was a weekend I'll never forget.

74 puch 175 SD
73 Husky 360 WR/RT
76 Husky WR360
75 Penton 250
10 ktm 250xc
02 bmw r1150r

[Bill Campbell]

Good to see an Aussie there.