After a lifetime dedicated in body and soul to the world of two wheels, John Pentonthe American legend of offroad motorcycling has left us. Just a few weeks after having turned 100, an unusual event in general and even less in people who lived life to the limit, in many occasions, at the controls of a motorcycle, as was the case of Penton himself.
John Penton spent a lifetime linked to the world of motorcycle
As reported in an official statement from the AMA (American Motorcyclist Association), Penton was born on August 19, 1925 and in its early years he learned to drive a motorcycle after recovering an old Harley-Davidson of 1914 that they found in their barn. Subsequently, he was recruited as a Navy to battle in World War II.
After the war, he bought a Harley-Davidson Knucklehead used and with his brother Bill to Lansing, Michigan, he participated in the Jack Pine 500-Mile Enduro in 1948. The next season he ran again, although this time piloting a B-33 BSA, a much lighter and more manageable motorcycle than the Yankees frames, with which he managed to reach the second position of the general.
Shortly after his sports beginnings, Penton opened a motorcycle dealership with his brothers, although in parallel he continued competing, “Winning the State Enduro de Ohio championship and many other Enduro races in the west. as detailed in the official statement of the association.
Years later he became a distributor of Husqvarna after winning the Jack Pine aboard a Husky in 1966. Convinced to build a lighter motorcycle for the offroad competitions of the moment, he proposed to Husqvarna to build some prototype of tests, to which the brand refused. So Penton, convinced of his project, visited the KTM factory in Austria, where his idea was received with some more enthusiasm. He offered $ 6,000 of his own pocket if KTM built several prototypes according to his specifications, and the brand accepted.
At the beginning of 1968, Penton received six prototypes of 100 cc, registering them quickly in races and placing other elite pilots on motorcycles. From the beginning, there was a great demand for the Penton, light and economical, and in the first year more than 400 were sold. More than a decade later, more than 25,000 high competition Penton motorcycles had been sold in the United States.
Penton’s innovations also included improve the boots for off-road motorcyclists by working with Alpinestars in Italy to produce the legendary Hi-Point boots. Due to its innovation and its contributions to the industry with Husqvarna, the Penton, Hi-Point brand and many other ways, John Penton was included in the Ama motorcycle hall in 1998.
