Trail Rider Magazine

in the fall of 1970 Teddy plunked down $825 on the counter at Nicholson Motorcycle Supply in Ann Arbor and walked out the proud owner of a 1971 Penton Six Day. This was a princely sum in 1970 and the "Jap bikes" could be had for $300 less, but the Penton was "ready to race" right out of the crate and offered better performance and handling than anything else available at the time. Teddy also had a "steady" named Rosemary. The two had been introduced on a blind date on September 12, 1969 and Rosemary thought Teddy's interest in sports cars and motorcycles was "pretty cool", and she became part of his pit crew at the races. Teddy rode the Fallen Timbers and Jack Pine enduros in 1971 and decided to head east to tackle the infamous Berkshire Trial. With Rosemary, her sister Linda, and an engineer pal Jimmy Bowers, Teddy loaded his Six Day onto the bumper racks of his 1961 Econoline for the trip to Massachusetts. Having successfully completed the Jack Pine enduro, Teddy thought the Berkshire Two-Day couldn't be all that much more difficult. Although it was May in New England, there were still spots of snow alongside the trail and the ground hadn't completely thawed. The spring thaw was still underway which meant the trails were very muddy with slick frozen ground underneath much of it. Al Eames had laid out a 195-mile route for the first day and it would turn out to be a very challenging route…in typical Berkshire fashion. Teddy remembers miles and miles of mud and rocks and the ride that "couldn't be much worse than Teddy and Rosemary 44 years later. the Jack Pine" was wearing him out. He crashed in the last special test on Saturday and said he lay on the ground with the Penton on top of him thinking, "What am I doing here? This is nuts!" In true enduro spirit, he got the bike up and going and wound his way through a field of boulders to the end of the special test, one of only 29 125cc class riders to finish the day out of 129 who started! He was listed as 13th among the finishers but was worn out. Teddy slept in his van and arose Sunday morning to attack the second day of the Berkshire. The first gas stop was 35 miles out and when he got there he told Rosemary that his arms had turned to marshmallows and that it was too dangerous for him to continue. Sadly, they loaded the Penton onto the back of the Econoline, piled in and drove back to Ann Arbor. Teddy remembers that his arms were so shot that he couldn't even turn the key in the ignition for two days! Teddy and Rosemary continued their courtship and were married on September 12, 1973, four years to the day after their first blind date. They had tired of the cold Michigan winters and moved south to a 240-acre homestead near West Plains, MO. The trusty Penton and the old DT-1 were pushed into the barn where they remained undisturbed for a couple of decades while Teddy and Rosemary raised their family. In 2000, son Alex called and asked if Teddy could get "that old bike in the barn" running so he could have something to ride when he got home from college that summer. While getting the Six Day running again, Teddy stumbled across the Penton Owners Group and Al Buehner who told him that he should come to Mid Ohio that 24 Trail Rider www.TrailRider.com

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