That’s my good buddy Bill in the photo above, at speed, riding the Lake Erie Loop, a 600-mile scooter endurance rally. I first met Bill shortly after starting the CSC blog. Bill is a retired firefighter who is a serious Iron Butt rider, and he wanted a CSC scooter to ride in the Lake Erie endurance event back in those days. We were only too happy to oblige.
Yesterday, I received a nice note from Bill, and I want to share it with you…
Joe:
I’ve just registered for the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride, a fundraising motorcycle ride to help beat prostate cancer. You’re receiving this because you happen to be in my phone directory and because you know what a fanatic I am about riding. This year’s ride is on September 30th and, ironically, my birthday is on September 29th. Now, I know you were going to send me some kind of gift (nudge nudge, hint hint), but in lieu of that, I’d prefer that you make a nominal donation in my name for this great cause. Or, better yet, join me on the ride. To do either (or both) go to www.gentlemansride.com/fundraiser/WilliamMurar227980
Thanks, Ride Aware, Bill
Bill, that’s awesome! Thanks for writing and we’re only too happy to post your request here on the ExNotes blog. How about it, folks…let’s help Bill in this most noble cause!
Good buddy Greg admiring my M1922 Springfield on the range this past weekend. This rifle is about as old as Greg is, but it looks like it left the factory last week. It’s super collectible.
So, what’s this all about? A tale of two Springfields? Well, the topic is Springfield rifles, and specifically, the 1903 Springfield and its variants. I own two, and I think they are two of the finest firearms ever made. One is a 1903A1 with a scant stock (more on that in a bit). It’s a recent acquisition of a century-old rifle, and mine is essentially in as-new condition. It was gunsmithed from selected components so it’s not an original rifle, but I don’t care. I bought it to shoot it, and that’s what I’m doing. My other Springfield is an M1922, a special number chambered in .22 Long Rifle. It’s a magnificent rifle, it’s one I inherited from my father, and it is an amazing firearm. It’s in pristine condition, and boy oh boy, can it shoot!
The challenge here is to keep this blog short. There’s just so much to tell when the topic is the 1903 Springfield rifle and its variants. I’ll do my best to keep it manageable.
The M1903A1 Springfield, chambered in the mighty .30 06 cartridge.The M1922 Springfield, which shoots the much smaller .22 Long Rifle cartridge.
The Reader’s Digest version of the story goes like this…although we won the Spanish American War (and its Battle of San Juan Hill probably put Teddy Roosevelt in the White House), we very nearly got our butts kicked by the Spaniards. We were armed with antiquated, big-bore, rainbow-trajectory, single-shot rifles. The Spaniards had modern 7mm Mauser bolt action rifles, which were flatter shooting, faster (both in terms of reloading time and bullet velocity), and far more accurate. It was a dicey victory for us, and shortly after, the US Army incorporated the 1898 Krag rifle. We had to keep up with the Spanish Joneses.
While the Krag was a bolt-action rifle, it was not without problems, and we quickly developed a new rifle based on a modernized Mauser action initially chambered in a round called the .30 03. It fired a .308-inch diameter bullet (which is where the .30 part of the .30 03 name came from) and it was adopted in 1903 (which is where the 03 came from). We then improved the cartridge a bit in 1906 and it became the .30 06, or simply, the ’06. The ’06 is one of the world’s premier hunting cartridges, and many folks think is the best all-around cartridge on the planet. I’m one of them, but I digress. One more photo, and then back to the story.
A modern Winchester Model 70, chambered in the 102-year-old .30 06 cartridge. That wild boar, late of Arizona, fed us for a year!
Like I said, the original Springfield rifle was cambered for the .30 03 and the rifle was designed as the Model 1903. The .30 03 only lasted a short time and all of the 1903 rifles chambered for it were recut for the improved .30 06, but the rifle’s name remained the Model 1903. These early ones were cool, with straight grip stocks and elegant (but complex) rear sights. Then the rifle got a pistol grip stock, which I think looked cooler, and they became the 1903A1 rifles. Then they were made with stocks that were supposed to be straight grip stocks, but the Army wanted the pistol grip and the arsenal’s walnut blanks did not have enough meat to allow for a full pistol grip. The solution was to get as close as possible to a pistol grip from a straight grip walnut blank, which resulted in a shallow pistol grip; these became the “scant” stocks (presumably so named because the wood was too scant to allow a full pistol grip).
The 1903A1 “scant” stock. Note the relaxed pistol grip aft of the trigger, and on this particular rifle, the crisp Springfield Armory cartouche stamped into the walnut.Check out the 1903’s early, complex, adjustable rear sight. There’s was a lot of machine time and money there. The Army needed something less expensive.Load development for the 1903A1. These were cast bullets loaded with IMR 3031 powder. This particular rifle prefers jacked bullets with IMR4320 powder.
Later, the Army realized that the 1903’s fancy rear sight and other features were overly-expensive for a standard-issue battle rifle, so the ’03 was “value engineered” to make it less costly to manufacture. These became the Model 1903A3 rifles, often referred to simply as the ‘03A3.
Somewhere while all this was going on, the Army introduced versions of this rifle chambered in .22 Long Rifle. They were intended to be trainers, but they proved to be exceptionally accurate and the Army’s shooting teams (and others) competed with them.
The .22 Long Rifle cartridge (fired in the M1922 rifle), and the .30 06 Springfield cartridge (fired in the Model 1903).
The M1922s are phenomenal rifles, they are rare, and they are expensive in those rare instances they come on the market. My Dad bought one released through the Civilian Marksmanship Program 60 years ago for $25. Today, when one changes hands, you can bet the price is somewhere around $3,000. They’re that rare, and they’re that good.
The starboard side of the M1922. It is an elegant rifle.Lyman competition aperture sights on the M1922.The M1922’s Lyman aperture front sight. This rifle has “peep-to-peep” sights; both the rear and the front sights have holes to allow “peeping” at the target. They work very, very well.
You might be wondering: How do these rifles shoot?
Very well, thank you.
The M1922’s results at 50 yards. On the first bullseye on the left, the lone shot out of the black (at the 12:30 position) was the first shot of the day, fired from a cold and wet barrel.Targets shot with the Model 1903A1. The one on the left was terrible; I shot it with cast bullets at velocities too high for the bullet (the lead smeared in the barrel and the bullets wouldn’t group). The remaining four were shot with one of my favorite .30 06 loads (a 130 grain Hornady jacketed soft point bullet and 52.0 grains of IMR 4320 powder).
So, what happened to the 1903 as a military rifle? It served in World War I (although we couldn’t make them fast enough, so another rifle, the Model 1917, accounted for more than half the US battle rifles during the Great War). By the 1930s, we were already hard at work developing the Garand (that rifle fired the same .30 06 cartridge, and it was a semi-auto). The Garand became the US Army’s standard rifle in World War II. Interestingly, the US Marines stuck with the 1903 going into World War II, but they, too, soon switched to the Garand. The 1903 evolved into a specialty item. It was still recognized as phenomenally accurate and it became our sniper rifle in World War II (with a telescopic sight, it became the 1903A4).
Like I said, all of the above is the Reader’s Digest version of the story behind the Model 1903 rifle. The definitive reference on the 1903-series Springfield rifles is Joe Poyer’s The Model 1903 Springfield Rifle and Its Variations, and if you have a deeper interest in these historic and fine rifles, it is a book you should own. You can find it on Amazon.
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Baja John, somewhere in Baja’s Valle de los Cirios, making my old KLR look good.
I just got a call from good buddy Baja John, a guy with whom I’ve been exploring Baja for the last 30 years. Part of the call was about what we’d be riding and where we’ll be going on our next Baja foray in December (more on that in a future blog), and part of was about keeping a bike in Mexico. John has a home in Mexico right on the water in Bahia de Los Angeles. The Bay of Los Angeles is about 400 miles south of the border on the Sea of Cortez. It’s a cool place.
Bahia de Los Angeles, denoted by the red arrow.
My good buddy John wants to buy a bike and keep it at his Baja beach house. I think that’s a cool idea. The question is: Which bike? John saw a CSC RX3 for sale near his home here in the US. He already owns an RX3 and he loves it, but the idea of picking up a second one and keeping it in Mexico is appealing.
A second RX3 isn’t the only bike John is considering. He also has an older KLR 650, and he might just move it to Mexico. And, old John is intrigued by the CSC TT250 (he’s heard me talk about its light weight, super handling, and simple maintainability enough and he’s interested). And then there’s the Royal Enfield Himalayan (that bike is getting great reviews, too).
I told John I had my ideas on the perfect beach front bike, and then I thought hey, I’m not the brightest bulb in the room (the room being the ExhaustNotes blog). I asked John if it was okay to post the question here and solicit your inputs, and he thought that would be a grand idea. So, the question is: Which bike would you keep in a Bahia de Los Angeles beach house, and why?
Let’s hear your thoughts in the Comments area of this blog, folks!
Wow, the comments to our blog are pouring in. We’ve only been doing this for a little over two months, and we have something close to 300 comments on the roughly 90 blog posts we’ve done so far. We love getting your comments, so please keep them coming.
Hey, see that space to the right where it asks for your email address? If you add your email to the blog, you’ll get a notification every time we post. You won’t get unwanted emails as a result of signing up here, as we won’t sell or give your email address to anyone else. All you need to do is add your email address, and as soon as a new blog goes up, you’ll get notified. It’s FREE!
Sue and I took a ride to the LA County Fire Museum in Bellflower yesterday. They have a cool collection of vintage and historic fire-fighting equipment, including the actual truck used by the Granite Mountain Hotshots team (you might have seen the movie, Only the Brave), and the fire engine from the old Emergency TV series. It was a cool place to visit. I had the 8mm lens along with my favorite 35mm prime, and it was awesome…take a look!
That’s it for now, with just one teaser photo from an upcoming blog.
Whenever we post anything gun-related, the hits on our blog go through the roof. Good buddy Gobi told me to get another gun blog up on the wire, so my friend Greg and I sent some lead downrange through the Springfield rifles earlier today. Here’s a teaser photo from an upcoming blog showing Greg admiring a real beauty…anybody know what it is? One hint…my Dad paid a whopping $25 for it back in the day.
Somewhere in New Mexico on the 2005 Three Flags Rally with my ’95 Daytona 1200, a bike I still dream about.
I guess a bike can still be a dream bike if you owned one and then sold it. Hell, I still dream about my Triumph 1200 Daytona, so I guess it qualifies. It was a fantastic bike. A real locomotive. Crude, strong, powerful, and fun. And fast. Wow, was it ever fast!
I first saw a 1200 Daytona at a CBX Honda meet (yeah, I had one of those, too). It was at a guy’s house somewhere in Hollywood, and this dude also had a black 1200 Daytona. Well, maybe that’s not quite right…I saw one at the Long Beach Show even before then, but I didn’t really appreciate what it was all about. This CBX guy was laughing and telling me about the Daytona’s design.
“What they did, har har har, was basically just hang an extra cylinder off the right side of the motor, har har har,” he said. “Here, har har har, take a look at this, har har har,” and with that, he walked behind the Daytona and pointed to the engine. Holy mackerel, I thought. It had been a 900cc triple. Now it was a 1200 four, and the added girth of that extra cylinder stuck out of the frame on the right. They didn’t even re-center the engine in the frame. Anything this crude, I thought, I had to have. Har har har, the CBX guy was right. This was a machine worth owning. I had to get me one.
I guess the feeling passed (they usually do), but that bike stuck in my mind. I had pretty much forgotten all about that Daytona until one day when I received an email, way back in ’02, from my riding buddy Marty. It seemed there was a brand-new 1995 Triumph Daytona on Ebay. 7 years old, never sold, and the dealer in Wisconsin was auctioning it off on Ebay. In 2002.
Jesus, I was still on dial up Internet in those days. I can still hear the squelching when I logged onto AOL to get to the Internet. This can’t be right, I thought, as I studied the Ebay listing. I called the dealer. He was a Ducati and Kawasaki guy now, somewhere in Wisconsin. Used to be a Triumph dealer. He got the Daytona when he was still selling Triumphs, he had put it on display (it was stunning), nobody bit, he was anxious to sell, he lost the Triumph franchise years ago, and he was finally getting around to unloading the Daytona. Yep, it’s brand new, he told me. Never registered. 0.6 miles on the clock. $12,995 back in ’95. I already knew that. It was beyond my reach back then.
I did the only thing I could think of. I put in a bid. Using dial up. On Ebay. My friend Marty was shocked. So was I.
Over the next several days, the price climbed. Then it was D-day. Then H-hour. Then M-minute. The bid was $7,195. For a 7-year old, brand new, originally $12,995 motorcycle. I waited until there were just a few seconds left and I put in a bid for $7,202. On dial up Internet. Nothing happened. That was dial up for you.
The auction ended, my dial up Ebay was flashing at me. I swore up a blue streak, cursing the genes that had made me a cheap SOB who wouldn’t pay extra for broadband. I used dial up to save a few bucks, and now it had cost me big time. I thought I had let that dream bike get away. Then Ebay announced the winner, and it was me.
Yahoo! (No, Ebay and AOL!) I won! Whoopee!
My dream come true, after arriving from Wisconsin by air. I had visions of flying to Wisconsin and riding back, but when I called, the dealer’s wife told me he was out front shoveling snow…I know. Stunning. Mine. A dream come true.Beauty like this can drive ya buggy. The aftermath of a CLASSIFIED high speed run across central California on Highway 58.
A few days later, I had the bike, and my dream came true. I put 20,000 miles on it, I rode the thing from Canada to Mexico on the 30th Anniversary Three Flags Rally with Marty (I was the only Triumph among the 400 bikes that rode the event that year), and then I sold it. A dream come true, and I sold it. I know, I know. What was I thinking?
I can still dream, I guess, and I often do, of that big yellow locomotive with one cylinder hanging off the right side…
Mt. Rushmore, South Dakota…the turnaround point on our 5000-mile Western America Adventure Ride, a wildly-publicized event to show the world that the Chinese RX3 is a reliable motorcycle (and it is; we rode the entire ride with a bunch of bikes without a single breakdown, I wrote a book about it, and the rest, as they say, is history). We cut a meandering beeline (I know…we’re running a special on oxymorons this week) on some of the best roads in the US, from So Cal to South Dakota, turned west and hit more great roads until we ran out of continent, and then turned left again to follow the Pacific Coast back to So Cal. It was an amazing ride (you can read about it in 5000 Miles at 8000 RPM) and it was incredible fun.
My favorite moment? Hands down, it was a photo at Mt. Rushmore. Kyle, one of the Chinese riders, was grabbing a pic of King Kong, Leonard, Hugo, and Tso in front of the world-famous monument. Dumb-ass me…I thought Kyle just wanted a photo of the four with Mt. Rushmore in the background and I wondered why he was making it so complicated. Holding the camera with his right hand and barking orders in Chinese while motioning with his left, old Kyle seemed to be injecting complexity into a situation that required none. At each new Kyle edict, the four guys in the above photo moved this way or that, changed their gaze slightly, and generally responded instantly to their Chongqing taskmaster. It suddenly dawned on me (and the rest of the folks watching this show, who started laughing and cheering at about the same instant): Kyle and his men were creating a “Made in China” Mt. Rushmore!
Highly desirable, as would I be if I owned one (or so I thought): The 1969 SL350 Honda.
The year was 1969 and things were happening. On the world stage, Vietnam was going full tilt with no end in sight; on the home stage, I had finished high school and was enjoying my summer working at the California Speed and Sport Shop (I’ve got to do a blog about that place someday). I was 18 years old, I had a Honda 90, Triumph 650s ruled the streets, and the pizza in New Jersey was the best in the world. Stated differently, life was good.
My cousin Marsha was seeing a cool guy named Don. Don was a little older and infinitely cooler than me and my friends, a perception he solidified one summer night when he arrived on a brand-new Honda SL350. Wow. Candy blue with white accents, downswept pipes and upswept mufflers, a high front fender, knobby tires, and a look that was just right. Honda offered the SL350, if I recall correctly, in candy apple red, candy blue, and candy gold, and the bike in any of those colors had a silver frame. It was perfect. Say what you want about Asian aesthetics; in my opinion, Honda nailed it. Make mine any color, but I would prefer blue (like Don’s) or the candy red. Nah, scratch that…as long as I’m dreaming, make mine candy red. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
The SL350 looked (and sounded) the way a motorcycle ought to look and sound. In my testosteroned and teenaged mind, I would have instantly become infinitely cooler and better looking on an SL350. Every young lady in New Jersey would want to go out with me if I had an SL350, or so I imagined.
Up to that point, my dream bike was a Triumph TT Special (it had similar tucked-in headers and lots more power), but damn, that SL350 looked right. I would have bought one, but by the time I had enough coin to get a bigger street bike Honda had introduced their CB750, and that got the nod. But I’ve always wanted an SL350.
The SL350 was Honda’s answer to Yamaha’s DT series of dual-purpose bikes, but that wasn’t why I thought it was cool. Yeah, you can play spec-sheet expert and point out that the SL350 weighed more than the Triumph TT Special and had way less power, or that the DT Yamahoppers did better both on and off road, but I don’t care. And I know that the SL350 “only” had 325cc and it “only” had a top end just north of 80 mph. My answer to that? Please see Response No. 1: I don’t care.
The SL350 is one of the ones that got away. It hit all the right notes for me (your mileage may vary), and I still want one.
The 45 70 is a cartridge that’s been around since 1873, and it’s a whopper. Its designation was originally the 45 70 500 (a .45 caliber, 500 grain bullet, packed with 70 grains of powder). It was an Army cartridge used in the 1873 Springfield rifle, and the recoil was fierce enough that Uncle Sam soon cut the bullet weight to 405 grains. The cartridge was also used in Sharps and other rifles, and the early Gatling guns.
Reloaded 45 70 cartridges, with the 300-grain Hornady bullet. This is a big cartridge. It’s what buffalo hunters and Gatling guns used.
After the Army went to the 30 06 cartridge (in, of course, 1906), the 45 70 just about went belly up. But then Ruger re-introduced the 45 70 in their No. 1 single shot rifle in the early 1970s, and Marlin reintroduced their 1895 rifle shortly after that. The fun started all over again. That’s when I got in the game (back in the 1970s), and I’ve been happily sending those big .45 slugs downrange ever since.
I’m a big fan of the 45 70 and I’ve been told I’m a bad influence, as I’ve had several friends buy 45 70 rifles after hanging around me. It’s been fun, especially reloading the 45 70 and comparing recipes (more on that in a second).
As mentioned above, the Ruger No. 1 was the first of the modern rifles chambered in 45 70, and it’s a beautiful firearm. The Ruger No. 3 was an economy version of the No. 1 that Ruger only made for a few years. The No. 3 rifles were substantially less than a No. 1 when new, but because they’ve been discontinued, No. 3 rifles often sell for as much as a No. 1 (and sometimes more). The Marlin is less than either Ruger, but don’t confuse price with quality (or fun). The Marlin is a hoot to shoot, too.
A 45 70 Ruger No. 1, with Circassian walnut furniture and a 26-inch barrel.The Ruger No. 3, also in 45 70. These rifles sold for about $139 when new. Today they can sell for as much as $1000 in pristine condition.A Marlin 1895 45 70 Guide Gun. I bought this rifle because of its wood. It’s a good shooter, too.
I mentioned that my several of my friends now have 45 70 rifles, and we all reload 45 70 ammo. The idea is that we want to find the most accurate load for our rifles, and every rifle (even the same model) has its preferences. No two guns shoot the same.
Here’s where all this going. One of my buddies tested a load that looked promising in his 45 70 (a load using Trail Boss gunpowder with a 300 grain jacketed hollow point bullet), so I tried his load along with one other, all in the above three rifles, to see how they would do.
I shot at two targets for this test (a standard silhouette target and a 5-bullseye target). I shot each rifle at the silhouette’s orange center first (my aim point) because I didn’t know where the rounds would hit and I wanted to make sure I was on paper. Then I shot a second group from each rifle at the bullseye targets. I shot 3-shot groups except for one, as noted in my results in the table below. Note that all targets were fired at a distance of 50 yards.
First, the targets…
There are five different groups on this target. My point of aim was the bottom of the orange rectangle.The bullseye targets. I wasn’t worried about each group’s location; at this point, only group size was of interest. After picking the best load, I’ll adjust the rifle’s sights.
And finally, my tabulated results….
The first load tested would not chamber in the Ruger No. 1 because the bullets were seated too far forward in the brass cartridge case; better to find this out at the range than on a hunting trip!
The Ruger No. 1 really liked that 16.2 grain Trail Boss load (it was my buddie’s favored load). It delivered a 1-inch group. This load was also good in the Marlin, but not nearly as good as others I have shot in that rifle (the Marlin shoots into 0.6-inch with the right load). The No. 3 Ruger seemed to like the 3031 powder load with the 300 grain jacketed hollow point bullets.
As I mentioned above, every rifle responds differently to a given load, and that’s what we try to find…the best load for the best rifle.
I posted this photo a year or so ago when I was writing the CSC blog, and it’s worth posting again.
Photo by good buddy Burt!
The Reader’s Digest version of the story goes like this: When we did the Western America Adventure Ride (you can read all about that in 5000 Miles at 8000 RPM), one of the places my good buddy Baja John found to spend the night was Panguitch, Utah, just outside of Bryce Canyon National Park. The area and the little town of Panguitch were a lot of fun, we were having a grand time, and then I got to feeling guilty. That happens a lot on the group tours, and it’s because I’m not sharing the adventure with my girlfriend, Sue. But I have an app for that…I do the trip again and bring Sue along.
Fast forward a couple of years, and Sue and I found ourselves waiting to be seated at the Cowboy BBQ, the best restaurant in Panguitch (there’s always a line to get in). When we were seated, another couple came in behind us. Burt saw my Nikon and asked if I was a photographer. One thing led to another, and Sue and I and Burt and Roz had a great dinner that night. We became good friends.
Fast forward a little more and Burt sent the above photo to me, but it was not just any photo. Burt had just won a DPReview.com contest with it (the subject was newlyweds).
Nice work, Burt, and thanks for sharing your fabulous photo with us!
I did something today I haven’t done in a long time…I went for a motorcycle ride. By myself. Just for the enjoyment of it. It was awesome.
Nearly every motorcycle ride I’ve taken in the last 10 years has been leading a tour, or gathering info and photos for a magazine article, or testing a motorcycle for CSC or Zongshen. I had not hopped on a motorcycle just to rack up miles by myself in, well, I don’t know how long.
Today didn’t start out as a solo ride. I led a group of 15 riders from CSC to the Mt. Wilson Observatory this morning. I had done the Mt. Wilson tour about a month ago and I didn’t want to do it again so soon, so I thought I would just ride home by myself.
But I didn’t. I rode down Mt. Wilson Road alone, not worrying about who was behind me and who was and who wasn’t keeping up. I looked out to my left and I saw the whole of the LA basin, with Los Angeles itself protruding proudly from perhaps a thousand square miles of suburban sprawl. I’d never seen it like that before. I was tempted to stop for a photo, and then I realized: I wanted to capture the image with neurons instead of electrons (and I did). When I got to the bottom of Mt. Wilson Road where it intersects Angeles Crest Highway, I turned right instead of left. I wanted to go for a ride, and the 55-mile jaunt across the Angeles National Forest was just what the doctor ordered.
I brought my Nikon with me, but in a departure (for me, anyway) I didn’t take any photographs with it. I just wanted to ride. The Nikon stayed in its case, tucked away in my left saddlebag.
I rode through Charleton Flats and then Chilao Flats. I remembered from an article I wrote that Chilao Flats was named for a horse thief who kept his ill-gotten gains hidden in this area. Cool stuff.
I loved it. It was just me, my motorcycle, and the mountains. It was warm today, but it was comfortable. Warm enough to suppress the pine scent that usually permeates this area (I missed that), but not so warm that it was bothersome.
Newcomb’s appeared and I pulled in for breakfast. I grabbed a seat at the bar and I could see my motorcycle while I ate. All right, one photo, if you insist…my healthy breakfast courtesy of my iPhone (I told you, the Nikon stayed in its case today).
The best thing on the Newcomb’s breakfast menu.
Like always, my RX3 drew a crowd. You have to appreciate the scene…uber-expensive BMW GS motorcycles just back from the Starbucks wars, $40K Harley CVO monstrosities (loud pipes save lives, you know), Ducatis out the gazoo (loud clutches save lives, they say), and here was my little 250cc Chinese motorcycle attracting all the parking lot attention. Seeing it from the perspective of a Newcomb’s barstool halfway through one of the most glorious rides in the world was a treat (almost as good as the berries in that fabulous breakfast). The folks around my RX3 were clearly intrigued. Maybe it was the motorcycle. Maybe it was the tank decals showing where I had been on that little 250. And my bike doesn’t have any stickers from the Colombia or China rides. If they only knew.
Lots of Baja.And lots of decals.
The barmaid was loud, telling another customer about a recent head-on collision between a Guzzi and a Harley that killed the guy on the Guzzi. I’m guessing she doesn’t ride. We don’t like to talk about such things. Guys go too fast up here sometimes. I’m not one of them. I learned the hard way…physics always wins.
After eating, it was back on the road, letting the miles roll by to Wrightwood. I passed through two tunnels, with signs advising the next mile was a Bighorn sheep area. I didn’t see any, but it was cool knowing they were out there. Then another sign advising of eagles. More cool and comforting facts. I continued northeast, and I realized the road was now descending. The mighty Mojave desert was in front of me, and I caught glimpses of its expanse through the pine trees.
I put a cool 150 miles on my motorcycle this morning, and I loved every one of them. I need to do this more often.
That’s it for now, with just one teaser photo from an upcoming blog.
