John Penton was fearless.
Painless.
Tough as an anvil.
“If anyone could lift up a motorcycle and drag it through a mud puddle, John could do it.” — Preston Petty
“He could ride with a broken leg.” — Malcolm Smith.
“Obviously, there was a bad connection from pain to his brain.” — Dick Mann
“All my ribs have been broken at least once,” John Penton confessed.
Penton lost his last race to father time on Sept. 7, a mere three weeks after his 100th birthday. During his century of life, few Americans had a greater influence on off-road motorcycling. Penton was a farmer from Ohio who loved competition, a motorcycle racer, entrepreneur, machinist and inventor who rode the wave of popularity in off-road riding and racing in the 1960s and 1970s to unparalleled commercial and competitive success, introducing an eponymous brand built to his personal specifications, focused on light weight, durability, power and style.
One central Virginia man, Rob Brown, has built an extensive collection of Penton motorcycles to keep the legend alive.
My friend Bob Jones was changing a tire for me when Penton’s death came up in conversation. Jones mentioned that Rob Brown, a friend of his and “a true Southern gentleman,” had a motorcycle collection now numbering some 20 bikes, with a dozen Pentons in various states of operation.
Jones, an accomplished off-road racer and former Penton owner, arranged a visit to Brown’s barn in central Virginia and rolled out some of the prized specimens for photos.
Penton served in the Navy and Merchant Marine during World War II. Upon his return home, he bought a Harley-Davidson Knucklehead. As he quickly gravitated to off-road racing, he realized his Harley was no match for the lighter, single-cylinder brands from England. He rode a BSA B33 in the 1949 Jack Pine Enduro where he finished in second place.
The Jack Pine Enduro is a grueling off-road endurance race held in Michigan since 1923, the oldest event of its kind in the country. The winner receives a grand prize of a cowbell.
By the 1950s, Penton opened a dealership in his hometown of Amherst where he sold BMW, BSA and NSU brands. He raced on weekends and became one of the nation’s top off-road riders. Unknown to many, he also set a record in 1958 for crossing the country from New York to Los Angeles in 52.20 hours on a BMW R69S. If it ran on two wheels, Penton raced it, and with his innate laser focus, raced it well.
Penton won the 1966 Jack Pine Enduro on a Swedish-made Husqvarna, and soon the manufacturer named him its eastern U.S. distributor. But Penton, always the innovator, was always drawn to small displacement, lighter bikes. After unsuccessfully imploring Husky to produce lighter models, he decided to design his own, finding a willing partner in Austria’s KTM, then a producer of quotidian bicycles and mopeds.
His partnership with KTM, originally sourcing lightweight, sunburst-finned, single-cylinder 2-stroke Sachs engines, produced the first Penton Motorcycles in 1968. He brought six bikes home to America and promptly entered them in races, powering many of the best riders in his acquaintance. Results at finish lines and dealer showrooms were immediate. In the first year, eager consumers bought over 400 Pentons.
Pentons were revolutionary at the time, being purposefully built with lightweight frames, two-stroke, air-cooled engines, performance gearing, and specifically designed for winning off-road races. And they were modern and beautiful to look at.
Before KTM heavy-handedly brushed Penton aside and assumed U.S. distribution and total branding of all its bikes 10 years later, more than 25,000 Penton motorcycles were sold in the states, making it one of the more sought-after, beloved brands. Pentons maintain a tight cult following even today, and immaculate specimens command high prices at auctions.
Penton’s sons Jeff, Jack and Tom, also followed their father’s passion in off-road motorcycling and became accomplished racers. The family name became associated with toughness, skill and innovation; they were the First Family of American enduro racing. I’ve never seen a photo of John published anywhere that he didn’t have a broad smile on his face.
“My first race was on a Penton 250cc Hare Scrambler in ‘78, I think, at the Brown Mountain Lights, North Carolina. I just got hooked on it,” Brown said. “I have always bought and sold stuff. I had some Honda 350s and a Yamaha CT1. A neighbor got into bikes. We got into trail riding. Bikes were lots of fun.”
Penton’s most popular displacement size was the 125cc bike, which its founder dubbed the “Six Day” after the ISDT, the International Six Day Trial (now International Six Day Enduro). Pentons were also made in 100cc, the “Berkshire,” and later in 175cc, the “Jackpiner,” 250cc “Hare Scrambler,” and 400cc “Mint,” displacements.
In the 1970s, Pentons were commonly seen on the starting lines both backyard and professional motocross tracks around the country — including my own green-tanked 125cc Six Day that I raced (poorly) during my college days — along with other famed brands like CZ from Czechoslovakia, Bultaco, Ossa, and Montessa from Spain, Maico from Germany, and Husqvarna, and mostly in the smaller displacements, Hodaka, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki and Honda from Japan.
An early ad said about the Penton 125cc Six-Day Enduro, “The winningest 125cc Enduro ever made. The ultimate in Cross-Country, Enduro, ISDT Trials and Hare Scrambles, etc. 6-Speed Penton/KTM tuned engine… Hi-Breather Chrome Moly Frame… Enduro Lighting… Trip V.D.O. (odometer)… Large capacity tank… Motoplat Ignition.. Upswept Exhaust… and many many unique features that make this the finest Light-Weight Enduro in the woods.”
Always the innovator, Penton founded Hi-Point, a boot, accessory and apparel company where he collaborated with Alpinestars of Italy to produce legendary Hi-Point boots and with Golden Spectro for Hi-Point oils.
“He was a smart, savvy businessman,” Brown said.
To honor Penton’s contributions, KTM produced 133 limited-edition “Jackpiners,” the 200 LE, in 1997 with Penton’s signature on a sticker on the front fender and the same blue plastic as the 1974 original. Brown has original and limited edition specimens in his collection.
The AMA also recognized Penton with induction into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998.
“John Penton is the father of KTM in America,” Brown said. “He really got them going and helped them become the company they are today. For me, for off-road, Penton was really the best. There was Husqvarna in larger bikes, but for smaller bikes, it was Penton.
Brown said you could buy a Japanese bike for $400 to $500, and a Penton might have been $700 to $800, but it was a better product. Pentons had an aura around them.
“I met John Penton when I was a dealer. The (Penton) brand was long out of production, but I sold KTMs. He was a nice dad, a granddad. He’d tell stories. He wasn’t boastful, only matter-of-fact. Pleasant. Being around him, I felt like I was part of the best. It felt like family. Really good,” Brown said.
Today, the Penton brand no longer appears on motorcycles, and KTM has fallen on difficult times, undergoing layoffs and restructuring, but for people like Brown, the marquee lives on.
“I’m an orphanage for Pentons in the area,” Brown admitted. “If I hear about one for sale, I’ll go and get it. I’ll find a home for it. They were only made for 10 years. It’s definable. Something to be part of. They’re cool bikes. They are my rolling artwork, my Picassos. Every day I’m around them, I feel good about it, but my best days were being around Mr. Penton. He was our godfather.”
Michael Abraham is a Blacksburg, Virginia, based writer and businessman. He has eight books in print, including “Harmonic Highways, Exploring Virginia’s Crooked Road.”
