At age 100! Certainly a life well lived. :cheers:
Besides creating his own motorcycle brand and selling more than 25,000 bikes, he was one of the most influential people in the US motorcycle industry. Without him there would be no KTM motorcycles, and we wouldn't have Alpinestars in the US. In addition, he competed in 7 ISDTs in the 1960s, and in 1959 set a trans-continental motorcycle record, crossing the US from NY to LA in 52 hours on a BMW. Penton was inducted into the AMA Hall of Fame in 1998.
A few years back I borrowed this DVD from so-cal-sdr200. It's really interesting and a great watch. Well worth checking out.
penton_dvd.jpg
I grew up riding dirt bikes in San Diego area starting around 1971. Most of what we had was stripped down Yamaha Enduros, some Trailmasters, a few Hodakas, Lots of Honda Trail 90s and the minitrail 50 70. We started seeing some imports like Bultacos (I had a 1970 Sherpa S) Huskys, Ossas, CZs, few Montessas, etc. Then a couple guys in my group showed with the Green Penton "6 Day" signature models, but they were always stripped of lights, Speedo, etc. when they made it to our area. Not Sure what years they were (never asked or cared- just ride em!) but I'm thinking between 1968-70/71. All were 125cc and all had Sachs branded motors in them. As years went by there might have been a 175 as well? Then a strange thing happened- NO branding on engine cases for at least 1 year, but then they showed up with KTM on there even though it was the same exact motor as before. We heard through the grapevine John penton had some deal with KTM to keep supplying the motors but never got any indication he had more than some interest in the company. We thought KTM bought out Sachs and rebranded the motors because of that but no history of the KTM brand or company was clear. We didn't see any actual KTM bikes around. Not that we cared much about all that :twocents:
Added: Just saw this on another site I frequent. Fills in a lot of the stuff we never knew about and adds context to some of what transpired.
https://www.vitalmx.com/news/news/motocross-mourns-passing-john-penton
RIP John Penton. I'm 51 years old so Penton motorcycles were really before my time but just as my interest in dirt bikes was budding at the age of 16. So was that mutual interest was among other kids in the neighborhood where I lived.
One of my childhood friends had a family business that his grand father,father and a couple of uncles were involved with...excavating for water,foundations,sewer,septic work.They had this great sprawling 15 maybe 20 acre property that was a combination of wooded land and open land. The open land was dedicated to dump trucks, trailers, excavators and backhoes. Heavy equipment to name a few plus space for sand and gravel piles etc,etc. There was also about three or four storage containers and one of him store the past of friends father and his uncles...motorcycles. One such bike was the Penton Six Days Enduro 125. Of course there were many tales to be told about that bike and just the bike being there leaning against another one told a story of itself. It looked rugged manly and badass.
At the time we were riding some pretty rinky dink bikes in comparison. My friend and his brother had a Honda XR 100 and XR 80. I had a Honda CR60 that I traded a remote control car for :eek: I think I may of had a few other bikes before that little 60 that I just a bit too old and big for but we all out grown those bikes at about the time we got em and yet they were real dirt bikes and they all ran good and it was a golden age of time for us to make memories. Anyways eventually the situation being as such we managed to dust off the Penton and get out of a long deep slumber of a rest. Unfortunately it didn't last long. My buddy let me take it for a rip, I can remember him being so proud of it and me just amazed. I got that bike booting down the road where we lived and I think as soon as I found fifth gear the rear wheel locked up and that was the end of it. The bike came to a screeching halt and I just remember that was the first time I seized an engine. Not sure why it happened to this day as we didn't know much about bikes back then but later on I found out that it had happened years before.
I dunno maybe not much of a story but it was an awesome time in my life to be alive and inspired by motorcycles. Found out that the Penton was one of two my friend's family had bought and it was purchased by a fellow that had a interest in them himself. He may have been first if not only Penton dealer in the area where I live back in say 1970. Just selling and servicing them out of his residence. Back then the neighborhood, talking a five mile radius, as a kid for me seemed huge with lots of connecting trails thru hilly rocky dense woods to folks backyards and some of them were basically sprawling multi acre properties that were bone yards for old heavy equipment, trucks and cars and bikes. It was a fun time to be alive, we got into a lot of mischief.
Present day today I still live in the neighborhood in the same house I grew up. That Penton is long gone as well as all the other abandoned machines. The trails are mostly grown in. My friends business while still active moved and is much smaller in scale, a majority of the property was divided into house lots and developed. Likewise for the couple of other properties that were graveyards for machines too. I wouldn't call it dirt bike heaven like say So Cal is but I imagine being so rural back in the day before my time my parents generation were swept up in the magic of a dirtbiking adventure that maybe trending across the country. Yeah I could see Penton was a part of that for sure.