You were true innovator and pioneer. Enjoy riding with your many friends up there with you, sir. Younger whipper-snappers on here might not know who he was, though.
I had a set of Preston Petty "Hex Grips" on my TY80 back in the day. RIP to a real contributor to the industry.
He was the guy that said metal and fiberglass fenders on dirt bikes suck. So he invented plastic unbreakable fenders, maybe both the first though
Rick Sieman editor of Dirt Bike magazine wrote a column about Preston that I will never forget, and it goes kinda like this. One year there was a IDSE Six Days Qualifier in Oregon for picking the US team to go to Europe, and the event was held near to Preston's place. It's a mud fest and the conditions are crazy so riders are way behind hitting the checkpoints. As the first day comes to a close Preston rides into the final checkpoint exactly on time and then parks his bike in the impound area. A big crowd heads over to his bike and the officials gather around too. The officials look at his perfectly clean bike and ask him what the hell is this? Preston simply says well " I was a bit ahead for time so stopped at Smitty's quarter cash wash over on Main St. on the way to the impound".
