Trail Rider Magazine

22 Trail Rider www.TrailRider.com "Here, look through this and see if you find anything interes ng." With those words about 20 years ago, John Penton handed me a cardboard box with Campbell's' Soup printed on the side of it, the kind in which the grocery stores would get their soup deliveries. The box, measuring about 12 inches by 20 inches and maybe 12 inches deep, if I remember correctly, had apparently spent the last 20 or so years in an a c space above John's garage, which is where we were standing before heading off to a Penton Owners Group (POG) mee ng. The Campbell's' Soup box sat next to me on the seat of the F-150 when I went home a er the POG mee ng, and soon had a new res ng place next to my desk. The next few months were quite busy, and every me I sat at my desk, I gave that box a glance, but there wasn't me, yet! In due me the weather turned bad, and at lunch one wintery day, I told Judy I was going to spend that a ernoon going through John's Campbell's' Soup box. Well, that a ernoon turned in to about four days of very interes ng reading. I mean, here was stuff that John Penton had found either interes ng enough or valuable enough that he saved it! The soup box contained a number of hanging files, plus a lot of ar cles and paperwork just piled up, John Penton style, if you know what I mean. One of the many papers was a copy of a le er that apparently had been sent to the folks who produced the "What's My Line" TV show, sugges ng that John might be an ideal candidate for the show as he had just set the Transcon nental Record on his BMW. I can almost hear the announcer saying, "Would the REAL John Penton please stand up!" As I went through the paperwork, I kept seeing a box of film nega ves and pushed them aside to get to the next ar cle, ll the day came when the nega ves were all that was le in the box. I knew of a local camera store with a good reputa on and took the nega ves, trying to convey the age and poten al historical significance of them to the lady at the counter. I felt safe in le ng these folks work with them a er she showed me some of their other projects. I told Judy when I got home that we might have either diamonds or lumps of coal when we see the results. Well, let me tell you; the diamonds sure do shine as the accompanying photos a est to. The photos are of the prototype Penton Sportcycles that was shipped to Amherst from KTM for John and Ted's evalua on some me just before December, 1967, according to what is wri en on page 78 of the John Penton book. On page 79, it states that the prototype was photographed in December, 1967 by Jerry West. Before he passed away, Jerry West told me that many of his photos and nega ves were either lost or destroyed over the years, but fortunately these nega ves found a safe hiding place in the soup box tucked away in John Penton's a c. The Penton prototype photos were used in much of the very early Penton Sportcycle literature. If you look closely at some of the literature, you will easily pick out some of the major, unique components used on the pro- totype. I have another photo somewhere that was taken of this photo session; it shows Tom and Jeff along with some others holding lights to help properly illuminate the prototype Penton. I like to refer to it as a photo of a bunch of guys taking some photos. When I come across it, I'll surely post it for all to see. I find the items seen outside of the backdrop set up for this photo shoot very interes ng as well. A er some inquiries and inves ga on, it was determined that the photos were taken in what was then the new Penton Honda dealership behind John's home. We actually took a field trip there one me during a POG event to check out that loca on, as well as the old shop. I was think- ing that the prototype had solid non-folding foot pegs, but these photos show otherwise. It is also interes ng to note that the prototype has a flip-open gas cap. I asked the" experts" about that, and they said they felt a screw-on cap would be best for the produc on models; but when the screw-on caps leaked, they went back to the flip-open cap. When the Penton gang and film crew went to Europe to do some filming for the John Penton movie, I figured they might get to see the prototype; and I asked Jack to see if there was anything stamped into the fork head on it where the serial numbers were on the produc on models. Jack did get to see the bike, and it had no stampings. This me of year, I always get to thinking about the introduc on of the Penton Sportcycle to the world on March 10, 1968 at the Stone Mountain Na onal Enduro and how it changed so many of our lives. The prototype story has always fascinated me, and hopefully you have enjoyed seeing the photos. I wonder if John and his family ate all of the soup that came in that box, or did he just grab that box at the local grocery store? Another ques on for the "ask the experts" por on of the next Penton Owners Group mee ng. -Paul No Soup in This Box No Soup in This Box By Paul Danik By Paul Danik

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