• Husqvarna Motorcycles Made In Sweden - About 1988 and older

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Consider the YZ490 Connecting Rod

I dont think John ever won the National Enduro Championship, but he did win a lot of National Enduros including the Jackpine and Alligator. Jack rode Husky in the late '80s too after Cagiva bought them, which I did not know until Jack mentioned it.
 
I'll watch the John Penton story again I think they say Edison Dye gave the first husqvarnas to John Penton and Malcom Smith to race. That would be in the 70's I think. Steve McQueen and his stunt rider went to six days and meet John Penton too. I'm not sure but they were maybe riding husqvarnas too. There's gaps in the Penton story about the husqvarnas.
 
Bigbill said:
Jack helped Kawasaki design the awesome KDX which they said was in 175cc, 200cc, & 220cc it is in a small kx125 frame and the wr tranny. Just like his dad did in the early days without the technology. John Penton would be even greater winning wise if he raced the KDX. At one of the competitions the Penton boys and there riders rode all husqvarnas. I think husqvarna was put in the back seat in the Penton story. One of my co-workers who raced during the husqvarna era told me if you wanted to race and be up front those guys all had husqvarnas. My sons buddy is old enough to remember the Pentons breaking. I think it was problems with the Sachs tranny. He said they were always breaking down.

My point is no bike is perfect unless it's a Swedish husqvarna, sorry there tranny never gave me problems but mine never leaked.
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The only people who had problems with the Sachs transmission were people who didnt know how to shift and maintain them. I have several Sachs engine bikes, every one of them has the original transmission in them and I dont use the clutch to shift. You want to talk about a delicate transmission, that would be Hodaka, not Sachs. The KTM engines were stone cold reliable, and they were faster than the same size Husky in a pure drag race, but they were VERY abrupt, the smoother power of the Husky made it superior in the woods.
 
Bigbill said:
I'll watch the John Penton story again I think they say Edison Dye gave the first husqvarnas to John Penton and Malcom Smith to race. That would be in the 70's I think. Steve McQueen and his stunt rider went to six days and meet John Penton too. I'm not sure but they were maybe riding husqvarnas too. There's gaps in the Penton story about the husqvarnas.
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Edison Dye didnt give John anything, JP won the Jackpine in 1966 on a Husky 250 before he ever got involved with Dye and in '67 Husqvarna asked him to take the east coast distributorship. Dye was importing Huskys before JP but JP was racing them before he got the distributorship. Also, when Dye brought over Husky stars like Hallman, it was John Penton and Doug Wilford (Penton racer and employee) who drove them around the country to races in the Penton "Cycleliner" converted mail bus.
 
Edison Dye gave Malcolm and John bikes in 1968 so that Malcolm could establish Husqvarna in American desert racing and John to do the same for enduros
 
i wonder where those buses are today man wood that be kool to show up at the vinduro with those, was there 3 of them? anybody got any pixs transporters can be as kool as the bikes IMHO right they have wheels and a motor:banana:
 
there in the Penton story dvd. I watched it about five times now. I thought that the On Any Sunady videos were as good as it can get about us common folk with riding motorcycles. The penton story has shown more dirtbike history about the development of dirt bikes through the early years. It goes from riding the heavy iron to the smaller lighter bikes with the little cc engines.

Those converted mail trucks look awesome. They would look great all lettered up at the vintage races. Maybe selling parts or burgers and dogs?
 
jimspac said:
Edison Dye gave Malcolm and John bikes in 1968 so that Malcolm could establish Husqvarna in American desert racing and John to do the same for enduros
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John was already the Eastern US distributor for Husqvarna by 1967 and won the Jackpine enduro on a Husky 250 in 1966 which is why Husqvarna gave him the distributorship, Dye didnt give him anything. Malcolm yes, Penton no.

The Cycleliners were converted US Mail cargo buses, and there were two of them. One was Team Penton and one was used for the early Team Husqvarna riders, when Hallman came over here Penton being the Eastern distributor supported them in the second Cycleliner.

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After John sold the Penton rights back to KTM he used one of the Cycleliners for HiPoint Products until the early 80s when he sold it (Hi Point) to Malcolm Smith. Both of the Cycleliners basically rusted to pieces, one is gone and the Pentons still have what is left of the other. The one he still has was cut down to a flatbed with just a sleeper size cab on it to deliver HiPoint trailers, they would put one on the flatbed of the Cycleliner and tow one behind it.
 
How one man influenced ktm. Husqvarna was already in the fore front.
Plus penton influenced the evolution of the boots and riding gear. All the older big names who raced have something to do with riding gear or parts and accessories. The whole dirt bike industry evolved from these guys. Look at Malcom Smith. The movie n any Sunday made him famous and a millionaire. MSR? Then high point boots?
 
www.budanddaveekins.com/ more to motorcycle history besides Penton. Some of this goes back to the late 40's early 50's. They won the ISDT on a husky taking gold. Interesting.

I think there was and probably more motorcycle racing and action on the west coast.

Steve McQueen's stuntman? Read the stories look at the year when they raced the MSU before penton.
 
Ok, gonna give my age away! First time I saw one of the Penton van's. It was at a motocross track, that is long gone.

Of course! They were taboo, cause we were all Husky blood!

Was called Mathias Raceway, New Philadelphia, Ohio. If you look real close around Mile Marker 77, on Interstate I-77 in New Philadelphia, Oh.

You can still see remnants of the old track on the steep hillside.
 

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My favorite old shop was Mathias Cycle just outside Dover,Ohio. Owned by Don Mathias,Hugo`s son,it was the the place to go for BSA,Bultaco,Penton,Husky&Triumph. Don sold the dealership to Gene Robinson in the mid 70`s who took on BMW and still runs the shop today on the Southside of New Philly. If I recall they carried Maico,s because I remember the names on the old jersey's.
 
My point is there are far more motorcycle and dirt bike racing stories beyond Penton, Malcom Smith and the Ekins brothers yet still to come I hope. Maybe there's a better husqvarna dirt bike story out there. But we haven't covered the Rickman, the jawa, cz, bsa, triumph, matchless, MSU which it seems more raced the smaller MSU before Penton. So it leaves me thinking the more riders had the pentons vision before but had no power to change anything.

So much history on motorcycles too bad we can't harvest it and put it all in one place.
 
Ekins raced the NSU before Penton. It's on the Ekins website the years he raced it.
Husqvarna during the Penton era was already established in the off road racing. As Malcom Smith quotes during an interview on the Penton story. I think it wasn't all Penton by himself pushing for a smaller cc easy to throw around dirt bike.
Funny there's nothing about the 70's Suzuki TM bikes. They mention Joel Robert on the RM.

Back then everything was over built. We had no CAD (computer aided design) with the stress analysis. That we use to see where the most stresses are and the areas were no stresses are where we can reduce weight yet still be strong. These new wizz bang exhaust valves take away some of the top end and put it at the bottom. I believe.
I liked the older piston ported engines they were solid as a rock hardley ever blew up yet took a beating. I even heard some say they didn't have the power to blow themselves up.
 
The $$ is in the dirt bike accessories. One idea could make you millions.
I had two awesome I fabricated two decades before it was manufactured.
I never patented it.
 
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