Home page photo

[Paul Danik]

Greetings,

    This picture has a number of interesting details and hopefully we can have some fun with it and possibly learn some Penton history at the same time. If you click on the homepage photo is will enlarge for easier viewing.

http://www.pentonusa.org/

1.  What building is the picture taken in?

2.  Who is sitting on the bike?

3.  This particular Penton is very special, for what reason?

4.  What year and month was the picture taken?

5.  Who is the person in the cowboy hat?

6.  What is so special about what the cowboy is sitting on?


Paul

[Gary Roach]

OK Paul,

I'll be the first to make a fool out of myself.

1. The Penton R&D building.

2. Joe Barker

6. A bike work stand

[Paul Danik]

Gary,

   Your 3 for 3 , nice going.  Can you tell us anything more about Joe?  

Thanks
Paul

[Gary Roach]

Joe graduated high school with one of my sisters, and he was one of my heros.

We used to have a small riding area on our neighbors property, and I'll never forget the day that Joe rode with us. It was in '74, and he was getting ready to leave for the ISDT in Italy. Man, was he ever fast on that 125! All of us stopped riding so that we could watch him (actually, I think we were all afraid that we would get in his way). There was a steep hillclimb that had about a foot deep rain rut in it, but you could go up either side of the rut and still climb the hill. Joe went flying up the hill, crisscrossing the rut as he went up. Up until then, I had never seen anyone do that before. When he came back down, Joe rode down the rut, stopping about halfway. While still in the rut, he shut off his bike and stood there balancing the bike with both feet on the pegs for what seemed like a minute. (Heck, I can't even do that on level ground!) Without putting his feet down, he reached down and pulled out the kickstarter, started the bike, and then rode the rest of the way down. I was only 11 years old then, and I can remember thinking, WOW!

[Jdbglover]

Here are some links to Joe Barker.  Google is wonderful



//www.harden-offroad.com/joebarker.htm

//www.harden-offroad.com/joebarkertips.htm

[Gary Roach]

Paul,

I'm going to try my luck again.

3. It's the bike he rode in the 49th ISDT in Italy.

4. August, 1974

P.S.
I got the answer to question number 1 by watching the newest "Home with John Penton" DVD. On the DVD, when they travel to the first Penton R&D building, I don't remember who said it, but someone stated that it used to be a car dealership, and that the front of it was all glass. So, when I saw all of the glass windows in the background of the home page photo, I took a guess that it was the R&D building. See, membership does have it's advantages.

[thrownchain]

My homepage still shows the CC from Mid Ohio.

[brian kirby]

Hit the "F5" key to refresh the page.

Brian

'73 Berkshire
Team d-Con
//www.d-conproducts.com America's #1 Rodent Control Brand

[thrownchain]

Already tried that, but went back and did it again, still CC.

[Gary Roach]

Thrownchain,
Try clicking this link:
http://www.pentonusa.org/images/homepage/2008/homepage_090308_large.jpg

[thrownchain]

Ok, that worked, sometimes it takes a few days before the "new" pictures show up for me.  Thx

[sixdazed]

I loved the way Joe,writing in the link about the differences between the Ducati elephant and BMW dual sports,says the Ducati is like a mistress...sexy,and requiring lots of maintinence while the BMW is more wife-like...solid,dependable, but with little off road capability.Wonder if his wife read that?  






ric emmal