Jackpiner pic on the Home page

[nsujeff]

Awesome bike Kip! And there's one more Penton on two wheels, not in pieces forgotten in a barn or worse diseminated through ebay. I had remarks also about my Maxpiner project like "How could you do that to a Penton?" My answer was the same. It was assembled out of many parts from my barn and swap meets.Better to have another Penton together than not at all.
 My inspiration came from Mr Penton himself.He related to me he would have liked to put his NSU Maxi engine in one of his Penton Motorcycles as they were super reliable. Four stroke in  a dirt bike ? Penton, ahead of his time once again

Jeffrey P. Borer

[Chakka]

Great looking bike Kip. It's pretty hard just to locate, refinish and bolt together the pieces to make a stock Penton, let alone a one-off special! Now you have me thinking there are new hieghts to be reached here. My first project would be a 50cc KTM like this little guy:

http://www.six-days.org/pages/archivio_it/archit/it_a/ktm_it/ktm_ph/51.html

I've seen quite a few of the engines on Italian Ebay, looks like it has a 72 Six Day frame.
Chakka

[thrownchain]

Has anybody given any thought to featuring a different Penton on the webpage each month?? Interested Poggers could submit photos and get a little recognition for their work. Just an idea.[^]

[TGTech]

That's what our webmaster does. He picks a different machine each month, and normally it becomes an official contest to see who knows anything about the machine and/or the people in the picture.

Dane

[Chakka]

Dane, I really look forward to the old photos that get posted on the homepage. It would be great to have an old photo archive on the POG site
Chakka

[Paul Danik]

Kip,
 
     When your desire for a challenge needs a fix, there is one other item of Penton history that would be neat to see re-produced.  Dane's Uncle Ted built what was refered to as the " smoker". How about it Dane, can you fill Kip and the gang in on the details of the "smoker"?

    Penton trivia question, Dane's uncle Ted had a nickname for his brother John Penton, what was it?

Paul

[wildman]

Page 40 of "John Penton and the Off road Motorcycle Revolution":Ted who called John- SLUG- said "Well Slug,why don't you just go out there and break that record?"
Wildman

1975 250 Cross Country, 1974 175 Jackpiner, 1975 125

[Paul Danik]

Wildman,
  Your pretty quick, not only on those Michigan trails but also at Penton trivia. It is interesting to think of the ripple effect of that challenge.  I also wonder why Ted called JP slug, was he slow at something or could he provide a slug when needed?  We just might have to pose that question at the Penton Day at The AMA meeting in Feb.

Paul

[TGTech]

I don't remember the motive for doing it, but Uncle Ted decided that he didn't want his new Ford pick-up with the utility box on the back, to have just a standard engine. Apparently, Ford's optional V-8 didn't satisfy him, so he stuffed a 3 cylinder, Detroit Diesel bus engine in it. He took delivery of the truck, took it home to the machine shop, (which by the way, is where Penton Racing Products is now located) jerked the 300 cu.in. inline 6 out of it, and put the diesel into it. Of course, he also put a heavy duty transmission in it to handle the torque of the diesel.

One of the funnier things about the truck, was that even though he put the transmission in it with a floor shifter, he left the column shifter in it as well. But whenever you would pull on the shifter to put it in gear, you'd get a very loud blast from the air horn mounted under the hood.

The thing was equipped with dual cab stacks for some bling and the whole thing was painted "chrome yellow", or more recognized perhaps, school bus yellow.

I don't remember exactly what he did to it, but the suspension had to be beefed up because of the weight of the engine.

The engine had so much torque, that you really didn't need the first three gears in the transmission, unless of course, you were towing the "gate trailer". The gate trailer, was a trailer built to haul a portable motocross starting gate that Penton Brothers Inc. designed and built. They were called the Fair Start gate, and were some of the first examples of starting gates in the country. We would rent the gate to tracks around the country to let them see the advantage of having a gate instead of just a flagman or rubber band start. I don't remember how many we built, but there were a bunch. One of the last gates that I know that was still in service, was removed from a track called Ohio International Raceway, just about two years ago.

One last note about the Little Smoker: during the installation of the engine, Uncle Ted lost the index finger on his right hand, when it got pinched between the engine and the frame when the chain holding the engine, slipped. He fought with all the problems with it for many years after, but just like other problems in his life, he never let it get him down.

Dane

[Kip Kern]

Wow,  the "smoker" sounds like a little more work than I could handle;)  Besides, I want to keep all my digits on my hands!  This sounds more like a project for "Monster Garage"

[sixdazed]

Hi Kip and all,Very,Very,Very nice!Believe it or not i bought a 175 Puch about a month ago and when i rolled it up on the lift in my garage it was sitting right next to my complete but ragged 71 steeltanker project i haven't started on yet, and two 71 steeltanker frames.i saw the early picture as well and naturally the gears in my noggin started spinning.this was before i saw the picture of yours.so thanks for saving me a ton of work(it sounds like you really put your heart in to this one)and a bunch of time and money!i hinted to our friend Ron Carbaugh i was thinking of doing something a little "off the wall" on a project that might blow some minds but never told him exactly what i was thinking.You beat me to the punch and the bikes a knockout!great job Kip and good luck on the Hiro (though you certainly won't need any luck,just lots of time,eh!).  Cheers,Ric                               p.s.-did you snap pictures of build in progress?No,not for me to make a copycat bike-not a chance!But it might make a neat article in  Still Keeping Track.  Hint,Hint!

ric emmal

[Kip Kern]

Ric

I sure did, about 30 photos total.  From the time I had the frame complete and so on to the finished project. I figured I had better take photos as down the road, I would have a reminder that I don't want to take on something like this again![:0]

[Paul Danik]

Anyone who has the book "Enduro" by Thomas Firth Jones, can see the original Puch powered Penton being ridden by Leroy Winters at the Jack Pine in 1969 on page 42.  The first time I looked at that picture I thought it was reversed, till I got out the magnifying glass and took a better look.

     We have now seen Pentons powered by NSU, Puch, Sachs, KTM and Hiro engines. I wonder if by chance there is still another "special" out there somewhere? I will never forget when Pat Mickevicius brought his Hiro powered machine to a POG meeting and Dane walked into the machine shop and brought out the remaining stock that the original engine mounts were cut from 30 years prior.

Paul

[jackpinejim]

Paul       I wonder what other treasures Dane uncovered when he moved to his new location?

             Looking forward to next meeting, you might check with Mark for bleachers in the meeting room. Hope the weather holds like its been the last few days.

      Jim

[Admin]

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