75 Hiro Engine Six Day Mecum Auction

[rob w]

https://www.mecum.com/lots/LV0118-315015/1975-penton-hiro/

[Larry Perkins]

Not a 1975 model but a 1974 model.

Larry P

[Paul Danik]

Greetings,

   On the evening of September 8th 1974 the opening ceremony for the ISDT in Camerino,Italy was held. Just after the festivities ended and as  a good many of the USA ISDT Team members were walking back to where we were staying, a gentleman approached the group and asked where he might find John Penton. Jack instantly approached the gentleman and after a brief discussion directed him to John.

   Long story short, the gentleman was the owner of the Hiro engine company and he wanted to pitch his engine to John. I think the gentleman's last name was something like Masconi, but I am not positive. John did order some engines from him as he was trying to nudge KTM to get moving on their own engine and John knew how to "nudge"..

   I don't know exactly when the shipment of engines reached the states and Penton Imports, but it had to be very late in 1974 or possibly early 1975, my guess is it would have been before the end of 1974. I still have part of one of the boxes that the engines arrived in and I will dig it out and see if it is stamped with any dates from possibly the customs folks.

   Obviously none of the Hiro powered machines were built in Austria, they were built in the USA and with donor chassis. So the chassis number is possibly not a good indication of the model year of the Hiro machines. And given that they were surely built at the very earliest in October or November of 1974, and most likely in very early 1975, it might depend on ones point of view as to what "model year" they truely are.

Paul  

[Larry Perkins]

Very good Paul.  Thanks!

Larry P

[rob w]

Thanks for that information Paul. I bought a new Hiro Penton in '75. I was informed pretty early of their existence, and immediately drove to another state to get the only one available I knew of. Point being, they were not on the showroom floor long . I got it home, and rode it the very next day. I have pictures of riding it that first time. There was absolutely no snow on the ground, and the motocross season had already began. So I'll have to take a guess and say May of 1975.

[Paul Danik]

OK, here is the story of the Hiro as only he could tell it, Dane Leimbach. Any differences between Dane's account and mine please most certainly bow to what Dane wrote. This is copied from a Moto-History article.    

    The Little-known Penton Hiro

    (7/20/2004)

     

    This year at AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days, Pat Mickevicius had his beautiful Hiro-powered Penton on display. The Penton Hiro is an obscure chapter in the story of this legendary marque. One of the people deeply involved was Dane Leimbach, John Penton's nephew, a member of the 1974 Six Days team in Camerino, Italy, where Penton Hirothe Hiro connection was made; and the current manager of Penton Imports. Motohistory has asked Dane to tell the story.

     

    Our first contact with Andy Mosconi, the man who owned the Hiro Motor Company, came after the opening ceremonies for the ISDT in Camerino in 1974. A group of us – Jack Penton, myself, and a couple of other guys - were walking back to the dorms and as we walked along, we heard a voice with an English accent, asking us if we were Americans. We replied that we were, and the fellow, who looked every bit the part of an English gentleman, asked us if we knew John Penton. Jack replied that indeed he did, since John was his father. The fellow then introduced himself as Andy Mosconi, the owner of an engine manufacturing company by the name of Hiro Motor.

     

    We took him to meet JP, and the adventure of working with the Hiro engines began. JP and I made a visit to Mosconi's factory and saw some of the various projects that Mosconi was involved in. At the time. Aprilia did not have their own engine, so they were using Hiros. There were two other brands of motorcycles that had the engines in them, but I can't remember them. I believe that one may have been the SWM, but I can't be sure. And I don't have an idea of who the third one was.

     

    I looked all of them over, and then did a cursory evaluation of the machines, based on the Sachs-powered Pentons. While I did find some flaws, the bikes were pretty tidy, and I thought with some refinement, they could be winners. I seem to remember that we bought some of these bikes so we could test the capability of the Hiro engines, but for the life of me, I can't remember what ever became of them.

     

    JP was sufficiently impressed with the engines, and decided to purchase a quantity (25 I think) of them, and had them shipped to us in Amherst. We then proceeded to take the engines out of probably fifteen 125s, and went about doing the necessary modifications to install the Hiro engines in the chassis.

     

    This whole project was spawned by the introduction of the Honda Elsinores, because they were so light and fast. We had been trying to get KTM to build a new 125 engine, and because they were dragging their feet, JP decided to take matter into his own hands, and went with the Hiro engines in the hopes that if KTM wouldn't get off their butts, that perhaps the Hiro engines would fill the bill.

     

    The engines were much more modern than the Sachs engines, but they did have some drawbacks. The most problematic for the Penton machines was the narrow power band. For motocross, it wouldn't have been too bad, but woods riding was a challenge.

     

    Besides having a much better shifting mechanism than the Sachs, the cylinder had a hard coat bore instead of a cast iron liner. This was way ahead of it's time, and I can't tell you how long it was before the Japanese companies started to use this design. This, of course, made the engine lighter than anybody else's engines. There was another radical departure on these engines that you just didn't see in off road technologies, and that was a dry clutch. In fact, I'd never even seen a dry clutch at that point, so it was quite a revolution.

     

    The time frame for all of this would have to be some time in 1975, but I can't tell you exactly when it was. The major modifications to the chassis were the reversal of the drive system (because the engine drove on the left side like the Japanese engines instead of the right side like most of the European engines), and, of course, the modifying process to the engine mounting system. We had to cut the chain guard/guide pieces off the swing arm and re-manufacture them so that these parts were on the left side. Of course, the front engine mounts had to be removed and a new mount fabricated.

     

    There were less than 20 Penton Hiros built, and I have no idea where all of the machines went. I do know that Jeff Piasecki had one, and I think that he did some winning on it.

     

    Dane Leimbach

    Penton Imports Co., Inc.

[Paul Danik]

Greetings,

   In looking at the photos of the Hiro powered Penton something caught my eye that I just can't shake. In the one photo there is a tag that reads Without Oil. That tag seems very familiar to me as I have carried, hauled, stored and shipped a number of NOS Hiro engines over the years and that tag sure reminds me of the ones that were one each of those NOS engines when they arrived from the factory, and were still on each of the NOS engines.

  If it is a NOS engine why is it in this machine? Did they purchase it and use it to replace a worn out and damaged original engine, or ?

  I also would be curious to know if there is a paper trail that provides proof of the pedigree of this machine as actually being built by Uncle Ted and the gang in Lorain as stated in the auction ad. Possibly a MSO or sales receipt from Penton Imports or a dealer that would state Hiro powered Penton on it in some manner.

Would it make a difference to a buyer if this was a "replica" of what was built "back in the day" ?

I do not have the answers to any of the above questions and possibly it is exactly as advertised, but ever since I first looked at it I wondered about it.

If any of you folks buy the Hiro and want a PENTON decal to cover the Hiro on the left side of the engine I am sure that I have a few.

Meanwhile I need to dig around as I think I may still have one of those NOS engines and if so I want to check out the Without Oil tag

Paul

[rob w]

Looking over this Hiro/Penton auction bike, many things about it, tells me it is a full restoration, and likely a made-up / replica / not original. First of all - that no oil tag would not be there unless the entire bike was NOS. Is it possibly the one Kip built for Bob Andersohn ?
My Hiro engine still has the "without oil" tag.

[jeff greenberg]

My friend Kevin Piasecki had one of these. I remember it well.

[Kip Kern]

Good guess Rob, I built a few Hiro's with Dane's help back many years ago.  Used all original mounts provided by Dane and uncle Ted,  was fun and interesting.  About the time I built the Puch Penton for Bob, now that particular bike was a project.  Correct on the engine, I had a few NOS Hiro engines to spare so I figured I may as well put them to good use! Merry Christmas to all and God Bless America!

[Okie]

I really enjoyed this thread.
Thanks Okie

Have fun and the day will take care of it's self.