Long Intro-Penton restoration ref req.

[seasonediron]

I'd like to thank Paul Danik for enabling my registration to the Penton Owners Group site, and at his request here is a start to present bio of sorts.

My name is Michael Grove, 50 years old and reside in Southern California. I'm more of a motocross type than anything else, but did dabble in AMA District 37 desert racing last year attending a total of 43 combined events. Sure was a new experience, and much different than GP or MX racing, even after living the desert for the last 24 years. Started racing motocross in 1969, first racer was a stripped down Ace 100. Dad surprised me one Christmas with a 1972 Penton 125, and rode the heck out of that until 1974. The Penton was replaced with a 1974 250 MAG. The evolution of the machines at that time made it financially difficult to keep up with the latest and greatest and slacked off and on until 1978 when I ran into a deal for two 78 KX 125's at the Oceanside Kawasaki dealer.  By 1980 and 6 years out of high school, racing was just too expensive on a regular basis, and began to replicate parts for racing friends in the machine shop I worked. Married in 1983, son in 1984, divorce in 1988, and became a single parent of my now 24-year-old son. There have always been several motocross bikes of one kind or another in various states lying around the house during my sons early years. In 1989 I saw two almost new 1974 Maicos being trailered into the Palmdale area, and about broke my neck looking back as to whom in their right mind would restore an old motorcycle. It didn't take long to find the vintage hot spot at that period in LACR where CRC and AHRMA put on joint events for a time. I've been an AHRMA member since somewhere around 1988 or 89, my membership number is 78, and racing number 83z. I'm told that membership numbers are up around 5000 now. I've raced with AHRMA off and on since then, the last event (in several years) being Honey Lake MX. My son at the age of 12 bought a 1977 YZ 80 in a box, and with a little help built his own racer after he outgrew his KX 60. We'd always take it too the AHRMA races, but he was never allowed to race up until he turned 16. At 15 he simi restored a 1976 KX 250 and has rode events at Glen Helen, Gorman, Sears Point, Carlsbad and quite a few other AHRMA events in the past. Shame he had to wait so long, but as I wasn't racing new bikes, there wasn't much of a choice back then. In 1998 we discovered "A Day In The Dirt" which was an annual event held at LACR for a few years. We had just purchased a pair of 1999 CR's and set out to do some racing. That was also the time I returned to vintage racing, riding a 1974 KX 450 my first event there. Jumping over the next several years of both vintage and modern motocross racing, we put a lot of miles on the highway together. In 2004 the Viewfinders MC were granted a multi year contract to run a District 37 Grand Prix event in our home town, and have pretty much since been riding with the District since in motocross, desert and grand prix. Knee surgery this past December, and shoulder surgery in January has limited my racing so far this year to only one district enduro on my 2003 KTM SX 200.My racing plans for the future are to attend non-political events where the bench racing is as fierce and fun as the racing itself. I'm currently thinking about returning to vintage next year, at least for as long as my knees hold out. Over the bars at 70mph in the desert is as bad as it looks in the movies, and at my age would rather add a few years to the end of my racing career with a little more cautious racing than building an ego that has long since been driven into a berm.


I am also a proud member of the AMA District 37 desert racing club, 100's MC.

Anyway, that's probably more than most want to know, but it about sums it all up. For the most part I have vintage Kawasaki's from 1974 to Evo 1985's, a coupe of Team Green KX 500's, 05 CRF 450, 03 KX 250, but what brought me to this site (had it booked marked for quite a while) is the 1972 Penton 100 Berkshire I have.

My goal is to do a simi-full restoration and turn the red tank Penton into a flag ship/club bike for the 100s MC. I can manage the mechanical, blasting, plating, wheel lacing and remanufacture of necessary odds and ends, but I don't paint or do seat covers (couldn't even install one) without blowing a gasket.

I'd appreciate the recommendation of a craftsman that can restore the red fiberglass tank (very good condition), including custom 100s MC logo, side panels, leather and rebuild the seat, with foam. I did a quick search through the archives and didn't come up with anything, sorry if I missed a thread somewhere. I will check back here, or can be contacted at seasonediron-AT-mchsi-DOTT-com.

See you at the track,
Mike

[socalmx]

Mike, I also live in Southern California and am an old desert rat from back in the early 70's. I purchased my Six Day 125 about 23 years ago for a whopping 50 dollars and have been racing it a couple of times a year since then. I also started racing D37 again this year after stopping around 20 years ago. Due to my age (50), I am racing in the Magnum class and due to my general desire not to get hurt, I decided to take advantage of the one loop option. I have actually raced a DKW 100 in the 100's race a couple of times which was fun but tough due to the desert getting rougher year by year. Let me know if I can help you with your restoration and when you get the bike running, the Elsinore Grand Prix has a 100 cc class. That would be a great race to bring your Berkshire out to. Greg.

[seasonediron]

Hi Greg,
Bet we've ran into each other at sometime or another. I rode my first Mag event at Lost Coyotes last year.

A Penton is the true desert sled, but like you said, the courses are pretty torn up after years of having to ride the same confined areas over and over. It sure would make the ultimate 100's club bike for pit duties. A couple of the GP's would be fun as well on it. Badgers is just around the corner for me this weekend, going to try and make both days. My hauler is the Talon Zx in the 100's camp.

Forgot to mention in the first post, I have some 8mm film transfered over to tape from 1973. It's about 4 minutes of a CMC event at Carlsbad, with a couple of shots of the infamous FMF Pendas. I'm guessing the riders were the Lunde brothers, but not sure. The quality of the video is very bad, but for sure you can make out the CR 125 engine mounted in the Penton frame. If anyone is interested, and has the room to host the file, I'll compress it down a bit and upload it for all to view.

Mike

[sixdazed]

Mike,I for one would love to see some old Penda pictures.I was a desert/gp/mx/tt 125 guy back in the 70's in so-cal and have ridden a few H+H nationals and BITD from 99-05.Physical woes have lately kept me from anything long and rough so i've been avoiding those.Though the one loop option might be a saving grace.Is that a C rider only option?i guess i'll be a +50 Master now,though i'm not sure they'll let me ride B or if i must ride A class(i know A's goes 2 loops and i always have rode 2 riding B).The last d37 race i entered they raised a stink over signing up senior B even though i had a d36 card proving it.After my results from riding B class at that national it shouldn't b a problem!I was way back and dog tired!The 100's mc always put on a nice tough race,my high school pal John Kearney is one of your devious 100's guys who lays out the national hare + hound (or at least was last time i saw him).Greg has a great idea regarding beefing up the Penton entries for the Elsinore GP.If i can still walk by then i hope to be there.The More Pentons the merrier!!!!!!!
                                                               Ric

ric emmal

[socalmx]

Ric, regardless of status (Expert-Inter.-Novice)in D37 desert racing, you have the option of riding only one loop. The catch is that anyone who is in the same class that rides two loops is automatically slotted in front of you for points, etc. I like the program because it gets me out and riding but not killing myself in the process. The Elsinore Grand Prix is a great opportunity to showcase the Pentons. Victor Monz has been there the last couple of years along with me. A good friend of mine named Charlie Hammil who earned 3 number 1 plates during the 70's is now racing his Berkshire. If we only could convince Bruce McDougell (?) to ride a Penton instead of a Husky, that would be real neat.

[brian kirby]

I have a desert related question. What do/did you guys do to allow your air cooled 125 engines to run wide open for sustained periods without seizing? I raced D37 in the '82-'88 time period and I remember I had a gadget from Malcom Smith on my '82 Husky 125 that put an enrichener lever on the handlebar so you could keep it from seizing. This allowed you to jet normally for regular riding and when you hit a lake bed like at Soggy in Lucerne or a long road you would pull the lever and it would act like it had several sizes larger main jet. What did guys do before that? Did you jet too rich to save it on open sections and just live with it in the tight stuff?

I ask because I am considering racing some vintage aircooled bikes in events that cover just dirt roads. Some of them have long sections of full throttle top gear stuff and the last thing I want to do is seize a hard to replace old part.

Brian

'72 Six Day (on loan from Ernie P.)

[sixdazed]

Brian,I don't know about anyone else but i geared my 125's as tall as possible (almost unrideable road race gearing!)for the longer events like Baja,etc. where you knew there would be long wide open stretches.The only problem was you really had to think ahead and be commited in deep sand and on hills,but if you stayed on your toes it worked and the extra top speed (clocked it at 96 mph tucked in on the Ensenada toll road) would sometimes suprise the bigger bikes.Also handlebar mounted enrichener and on my 125 yamaha d model used a DG head to help keep it cool.That Yamaha was unbelievably reliable as i built it with a cut down 2 ring enduro piston and didn't go crazy on the porting.After freshening it up before the baja 1000 in 77,which it finished,i rode it all of the next season (desert,gp's,mx) and into 79 wihout pulling the head off,before it finally grenaded on the pavement stretch at anza/borrego while leading a pack of open bikes!Not the bikes fault-the piston skirt finally broke from getting too loose-i just wanted to see how long it would go and it passed that test!So gear it tall,and just think-you don't have to worry about breaking a radiator hose.....Ric

ric emmal

[socalmx]

I raced a series of air cooled small bores in the desert from the early 70's into the early 80's. During that whole time, I never had any issues with a bike seizing due to running hard. I ran my oil mix (Bardahl VBA if can believe it) at 28 to 1 and made sure that the jetting was just a little bit on the rich side. I also avoided holding the bike completely wide open. In a long race, the little extra speed really did not make a whole lot of difference. The only exception to all that I have said was that I did seize my brother's Rickman Hodaka. It seems that he had it bored with on .002 clearance which turned out to be a little too tight.....[xx(]

[seasonediron]

Hi Rick,
Yes, John and his sons are still very involved. John was loop 1 captain last year, think he is a loop captain this year as well. He's been back out on the course, and if not winning the MAG class, is finishing near the top consistently.

Goat and his dad hang out with our "vintage" group here on Friday nights. The guy is just a ball of energy, but can't get him back on a bike He's told me that I HAVE to ride Elsinore this year.

The Penda footage was captured off one of those diagonal boxes from 8mm to tape. Let me go back and recapture the tape again, and see how it looks. I bought a new scanner, I might be able to scan some of the better frames. Attached is about as good as they are now.
http://home.mchsi.com/~seasonediron/CMC_73_Carlsbad_001.jpg

[socalmx]

Ric did the right thing by running a two ring piston in his Yamaha. I remember during the '76 and '77 season my friend was 1T (D37 Trailbike-100cc) and racing a YZ100. By the end of each race, the ring was so worn that he sometimes did not have enough compression to start his bike. These days there are more issues associated with engine overheating. I ride a Yamaha WR250F and have never experienced problems but at the Rovers race a few weeks ago, there were a few KTMs spewing their guts out....

[sixdazed]

Don't want to open up a can of worms but-Yamalube R,-32 to 1,never,ever any seizures.ever.
 Mike-Tell Kearney i said Hi! Thanks,Ric

ric emmal

[socalmx]

Today I run the same as Ric does which is Yamalube R at 32 to 1 and never have any issues.

[dkwkid]

If you bring that 100cc berkshire out to the desert I will bring the 100 Deek out as well.We can run them down a fire road just like the old days. In fact, I raced the 100's race in the early 90's on the DKW and finished.

[socalmx]

DKWKid is also known as my younger brother and we took turns racing the DKW at 100's races during the 90's. Regarding the drag race, it reminds me of a incident that happened during a race in 1974. I was racing my DKW 100 that had been ported and piped by FMF. During this one race, I came up on another racer on a 100cc Berkshire right when we both went thru a first gear ditch that then dropped onto a long fireroad. We hit the road almost at a stop and were side by side when we looked at each other and hit the throttle. Full revs thru the gears and holding it pegged resulted in me gaining about a 1/4 mile lead by the end of the road approx. two miles later. FMF porting $150, a fast bike, priceless......

[sixdazed]

Greg,I found amongst the sachs stuff i bought from a closed down shop an NOS alloy 100cc head and cylinder.Looks like i'll be building a Berkshire for Elsinore GP to join this 100cc madness!It sounds too fun to pass up!Later,Ric
P.S.-Also have a pumper carb modded 100cc cylinder i got from POG bro Benolkin if things get really serious!

ric emmal