THE KENNY ROBERTS 250 PENTON FLAT TRACKER

There was an offshoot from the normal Penton focus in 1977, and that was a venture into building short track 250 machines for flat track. Said Jack: “Larry Maiers was our president. He was buddies with Kenny and was a big flat track guy, being from where the Michigan Mafia guys like Bart Markel were from. We took our 250 motor and put some bikes together.”

Kenny Roberts: “That was Larry Maiers’ project. I built about 25 of them. It was a damn good motor, I really liked it and I don’t know why Mike Kidd didn’t win on it, as I would have won every race on it. I guess they sold them all, for sure. I only had a deal to build the chassis. I tested it to make sure it was okay, and I never raced it. Their number one rider was Mike Kidd, and he came out to my track and tested it.”

How did Kenny Roberts end up in the custom frame business? “I had a frame company at one time, Kenny Roberts Racing Frames. We also built the 250s that I went to Europe with.”

So this was the beginning of KR? “Yep, I’ve always been interested in what makes a motorcycle work… chassis, suspension, all that kind of crap, and then it just led me into building my own. The Pentons that I built were mild steel. From there, I went back to Europe and never looked back.” Three 500cc world championships in the following three seasons were the result.