Author: Joe Berk

Lee Classic Turret Press Kit Part 2: The Lee Safety Powder Scale

By Joe Berk

This is the next installment of our Lee Classic Turret Press Kit series, and this article focuses on Lee’s Safety Powder Scale.  It’s the scale you see in the above photo and in the photos that follow.  I haven’t assembled the turret press yet (that’s coming).  Before I get to that, I’m doing this blog on the Lee scale, and then others on the Lee reloading manual and the Lee bench plate.  These will be followed by blogs on the Lee turret press, the powder dispenser, the priming tool, and the 9mm dies I’ll use with this equipment.

My new Lee Safety Powder Scale. I used a .223 caliber 62-grain Hornady full metal jacket bullet to check my zero and the scale’s accuracy.  Yep.  It’s good.
Packaging

The box you see below was inside the Classic Turret Press Kit, and the Turret Press Kit’s box was inside a bigger box.   It’s a box in a box (you know, Russian doll packaging, like I mentioned in the first blog on the Turret Press Kit). The Lee packaging is good.  Everything arrived undamaged.

The Lee Safety Powder Scale box. It’s well packaged.
What’s inside the Lee Safety Powder Scale box. You get the scale base, the balance beam, and the pan.
Lee Safety Scale Components

As mentioned in the photo above, there are three components in the Lee Safety Scale.  These are the scale base (that’s the cast red frame in the photo below), the beam (I call it a balance beam; it’s the black subassembly in the photo below), and the pan (that’s where the material to be weighed is placed).  The pan has an attached hook on it (it’s the bar extending up in the photo below) that hooks onto the right end of the beam.

The Lee base, balance beam, and pan.

The red base has a machined groove on the piece that extends up on the right side.  The beam is placed over this, and it balances on a knife edge in this groove. There are magnets in the base to dampen the beam’s movement as it balances.   The photo below shows the scale with everything in place.

The assembled Lee Safety Powder scale.  The left arrow points to the index mark (the beam should point to it when weighing), the bottom arrow points to the 10-grain poise (more on it below), the center top arrow points to the 10-grain increments and markings on the balance beam, and the right arrow points to the 1-grain/.01-grain poise.

The magnetic beam dampers in the scale base work.  When weighing powder charges with the Lee scale, the beam balanced in just a couple of oscillations.

The Lee balance beam is a molded phenolic subassembly with two poises.  “Poise” an engineering term for the movable weights that balance the beam.  It’s a term Lee uses in their documentation.

When I was Director of Engineering at Aerojet (we designed and manufactured munitions…big stuff, 2000-pound bombs, anti-armor munitions, and other things I can’t tell you about), we used plastic on as many parts as possible (rather than metal) because plastic was less expensive, it does not not corrode, it can be molded to exact dimensions, and moving parts are less likely to jam.  Lee makes some of these same points in their literature.  My point here is this: Don’t dismiss the Lee balance beam because it is a phenolic part.  From an engineering perspective, it is the right choice.  As Richard Lee (Lee Precision Products founder) stated in his excellent reloading manual, Modern Reloading:

Lee Safety Scale has a phenolic beam.  Like a glass thermometer, if it is not broken it is still accurate.

Incidentally, the next blog in this series will be on Lee’s Modern Reloading book.  I’m reading it now and it’s good.

The Lee pan is a one-piece subassembly that consists of an arm (the pan hangs from it on the right side of the beam) and the pan.  The pan can be a bit difficult to get under a powder dispenser because the arm gets in the way.   That’s not a big deal, and when I was weighing .357 Magnum charges with the Lee scale (so I could adjust my powder dispenser to drop the correct charge), it didn’t affect my ability to catch and weigh the powder.

The arm on the Lee pan interfered with getting the pan directly underneath the powder dispenser, but it was a minor inconvenience.  That’s 8.0 grains of Unique you see above.
Measurement Range

The Lee scale can measure up to 110 grains.  That’s good news and bad news.  Most of us use powder scales for measuring powder, and if that’s your purpose, the Lee scale is the right tool.  The 110-grain measurement range gives superior sensitivity for detecting slight weight differences.  Other balance beam reloading scales can weigh up to 510 grains, but they do so with the same range of motion as the Lee scale, and that means they don’t provide the same sensitivity.

Sometimes we wish to weigh bullets (competitive bench rest shooters and cast bullet shooters might want to sort bullets by weight).  On the Lee scale, you can only weigh bullets that are 110 grains or less.  I’m what I would call a serious reloader, and in the last 50 years, I might have weighed bullets maybe a half dozen times.  I’m happy to lose the ability to weigh bullets in exhange for the increased sensitivity I’ll get when weighing powder charges with the Lee scale.  Your mileage may vary.

The bottom line is this:  For weighing powder, the Lee scale does a superior job within its measurement range, and that range is adequate for any thing I shoot (that includes .22 Hornet, .416 Rigby, .458 Win Mag, and many handgun and rifle cartridges in between).  For weighing bullets over 110 grains, you would be better served with scales offering a greater range than the Lee scale, but you give up accuracy with those scales.  Do you really need the increased weight range?  Most of us do not.

Zeroing the Scale

Like all scales, the Lee Safety Scale requires zeroing before use.  Lee incorporates a threaded brass  weight (in the form of a wheel) in the balance beam to move the beam up or down on its pivot in the base.

The Lee balance beam.  The black arrow on the right is used for zeroing the scale, which is explained below.  The red arrow points to the 10-grain poise.

The idea is you set the both poises to zero (see below).  To set the 10-grain poise to zero, you roll it all the way to the right, and it comes to rest on the zero marker.  The balance beam has ridges that will position the 10-grain poise ball bearing in 10-grain increments, starting at 0 and going up to 100 grains.  To set the 1-grain poise to zero, you slide it all the way to the right, and lock the poise in the zero position with a little locking button on the bottom of the poise.

The 1-grain poise in the 0 position. The lower left red arrow points to the poise locking button (you push it in to lock the poise in place). The lower right arrow points to the 0 grains reading. The upper red arrow points to a protuberance that can be used as a little handle to move the poise. The “.1 grain” marking denotes the Vernier lines and windows used for reading tenths of a grain.

When the two poises are set to zero (as explained above), the brass wheel in the balance beam can be rotated to zero the scale.  As the brass wheel is rotated, it moves to either the left or right along its threaded shaft depending on which way the wheel is turned.  The idea is to turn the wheel until the balance beam is aligned with the index mark on the scale base as shown below.

The balance beam’s brass wheel. It’s used for zeroing the scale.
The lower black arrow points to the 10-grain poise. It’s a captured ball bearing that can be moved in 10-grain increments. In this photo, it’s in the 0 grains position. The right arrow points to the 1-grain poise.   The left black arrow points to the balance beam aligned with the base index mark.
Using the Lee Safety Scale

Using the scale after it has been zeroed when setting up a powder dispenser involves setting the desired powder charge with the 10-grain and 1-grain poises, and then adjusting the dispenser to provide an amount of powder that matches the scale adjustment.  It’s fairly straightforward, although using the 1-grain poise with its Vernier tenth-grain readings may be new to some people.

Or, you may have an item you wish to weigh.   Reading the scale is the same in either case.  It involves setting the 10-grain poise in the appropriate notch, and then moving the 1-grain poise to the appropriate place.

After I had zeroed the scale, I wanted to check its accuracy.  I weighed a .224-inch diameter, 62-grain Hornady jacketed boattail bullet to do this.  I put the bullet in the pan, moved the 10-grain poise to the 60-grain position, and then moved the 1-grain poise laterally along the balance beam until the beam was aligned with the base index mark.

A 62-grain Hornady bullet in the Lee scale pan.
The balance beam is balanced, with the pointed aligned to the base index marrk. The 10-grain poise is in the 60-grain notch.

Using the 1-grain poise is a bit tricky.  In the photo below you can see that the poise shows 2 grains in the lower window.  The Vernier windows on top of the 1-grain poise show that the 0 and .9 grain windows are aligned with visible lines, and a window is just a bit aligned with the .1 grain windows above and below the 0 and 9 windows.   Like I said, interpreting the Vernier approach is a bit complicated, but the Lee instructions contain several photos explaining how to do it.  What you see below for this measurement is interpreted to mean that the weight in tenths of a grain around the 2 grains in the lower window is somewhere between 1.9, 2.0, and 2.1 grains, and I interpolated that as 0.0 grains away from 2.0 grains.   Stated differently, the measured bullet weight is 62.0 grains, which is exactly what it is supposed to be.

The Lee 1-grain poise.  This sliding weight (or poise) is used for reading grains and tenths of a grain. Grains are read in the window denoted by the right arrow. Tenths of a grain are interpolated with a Vernier-based set of lines and windows denoted by the left arrow.

As a check, I also measured the bullet’s weight with the RCBS scale I’ve been using for the last 50 years, and it returned the same weight:  62.0 grains.

Cost

Lee did their usual outstanding job here:  The Lee Safety Scale price is significantly lower than the competition.  The Lee scale lists for $46.98 on the Lee website (interestingly, they also list factory second scales for $31.32).   You can also purchase the Lee scale from Amazon and other retail outlets, and Lee tells you on their website that their retailers typically have lower prices than Lee advertises.

The nearest competitor to the Lee scale is the RCBS M500 mechanical scale, and that lists for $125.99 on the RCBS website.  From a cost perspective, Lee is the clear winner here.

Documentation

The Lee scale includes a single-sheet, two-page instruction sheet.  It’s good, and it provides all the information you need to set up and use the Lee scale.  As mentioned above, the Lee instructions include information on using the Vernier feature on the 1-grain poise.

The Bottom Line

The Lee Safety Scale is accurate, inexpensive (less than half the cost of competitor products), and well built.  Reading the Vernier scale to get tenths of a grain takes a little bit of study and practice, but once you get it, you’ll find it quick and easy to use.  This is a good scale, it will serve any reloader well, and it should last a lifetime (and then some).

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Read our blogs on unveiling the Lee Classic Turret Kit and the Lee Deluxe 4-die sets:

Seiko and Honda: A Match Made In Takamanohara

By Joe Berk

The Honda Cub is the most-produced motor vehicle of any kind in the history of the world.  Not just motorcycles, but motor vehicles.  Honda passed the 100 million Cub mark years ago; today they still offer a Cub in the form of the 125cc Super Cub.  That 100 million figure doesn’t count all the knockoffs by Yamaha and the Chinese marques.  It’s a staggering number for a staggering vehicular concept.  So, if you’re a watch company and you want to produce a watch honoring a motorcycle…well, you know where this is going.

Seiko is the company, and this year they introduced a limited edition of the Honda Super Cub watch.  These watches have been nearly impossible to get, so I was astounded when on Christmas photog duty at the mall I wandered into a watch store and what do you know, there it was.  It was the only Seiko Super Cub watch I’ve seen and I knew I had to have it.   It’s self-winding and to watch weirdos like me it doesn’t get any better than a mechanical self-winding watch.  The ticket in was $400, I asked if there was any room in the price, the store manager said no, and I pulled the trigger anyway.  I bought it for list price and that was still a good deal.

Seiko is offering a limited run of the Super Cub watch in two colors.  I’ve not seen the black one in person, but that’s okay.  I like the green and white one better.

The Seiko Honda Super Cub watch has several cool details, including a NATO band, a rear cover intended to evoke a tail light, and a stem that looks like a Cub fuel gage.

Two of your blog boys (that would be Gresh and yours truly) both owned Honda Cubs back in the day (Huber didn’t, but he has an excuse…he wasn’t born yet).  I guess that made Gresh and I two of the nicest people you’d ever meet.

To my great surprise, I found a couple of photos of my Honda Cub buried in an old photo album.  The image quality is not up to my current standards, but hey, I took these photos with a Minolta C110 camera in the 1960s.  With those little 110 film cassettes, these 60-year-old pics ain’t half bad.

I bought the Cub for $50 (a dollar per cubic centimeter) from Zeb Moser (a buddy in New Jersey; RIP, Zeb), rode around on it a little bit, and then sold it for $70 thinking I’d done well.  There’s no need to say it, but I will anyway: I wish I still had my Cub.

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The Wayback Machine: Mike Huber, the real deal…

By Joe Berk

On my last trip through Baja while riding with a dozen guys on RX3s, we stopped for fuel in Catavina while headed south. That’s on the long stretch between El Rosario and Guerrero Negro, where the distance between Pemex stations is over 200 miles. Catavina is a tiny town in a beautiful boulder field (in fact, it’s the area depicted in the lead photo on the ExhaustNotes Baja page). The locals sell fuel out of gas cans in Catavina, and on a motorcycle, you have to stop here to top off.  The boulder fields through this region are dramatic, almost other-worldly.  You can get a bit of a feel for the area from this photo…

Baja’s Catavina boulder fields.  This is some of the most dramatic scenery on the planet!

Anyway, we had stopped for fuel in Catavina when I noticed a guy on an adventure bike amongst our guys.  What grabbed my attention is that I didn’t recognize him.  It felt weird, because this was our second day on the road, and I thought I was losing it. Usually by the middle of the first day on these group rides I know everybody who’s riding with us.  Incidentally, if you want to know what it’s like organizing one of those tours, there’s a story on that topic appearing in ADVMoto this week (you can read it here).

Mike’s BMW topcase. All the way!

Anyway, I looked at this new guy and then I realized his bike wasn’t an RX3; it was a BMW GS1200. I was just about to razz him a bit about that, and then I saw the jump wings on his bike’s top case.   You don’t get US Army jump wings out of a Cracker Jack box, so I knew right away this guy was not going to be your typical adventure rider.   No one who rides a motorcycle in Baja is a “typical” anything, but I knew this gentleman was going to be something special.

I asked the guy if he was a paratrooper, the answer was yes, and over the next roughly thousand Baja miles I got to knew Mike Huber well. He rode with us for several days and all of us thoroughly enjoyed his company. As it turns out, Mike is not your everyday former US Army paratrooper (as if there ever could be such a thing); he’s a serious rider with a very cool lifestyle (more on that in a second).

Mike and I became good friends, and when he was in town a couple of weeks ago, Sue and I met him for lunch at La Casita Mexicana in Bell (just south of LA).  If you’ve never dined there, trust me on this, you need to make the trip.  It’s an award-winning restaurant with a unique cuisine that I learned about from Steve and Maureen at CSC, and to be blunt, it’s the finest Mexican food I’ve ever had.  But I digress…back to Mike…

Lunch with Mike at La Casita Mexicana.  Those enchiladas sure look good!

Mike is anything but a stereotypical guy.   Nope, he’s the real deal.  Mike’s has been living on his motorcycle and traveling North America (and a bit of Central America) for the last year, and he just published a story about his lifestyle in Intravel Magazine.  It’s a great read, and you can see it here.

Well done, Mike!  Ride safe and keep us posted on your travels!

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Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

By Joe Berk

The turnaround point for our New Mexico trip was the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.  We had talked about it for years, and it combined nicely with our stops in Tucson and Alamogordo (and the visit to Tinfiny Ranch).  I shot all the photos in this blog with my iPhone.  I had the big Nikon D810 and its boat anchor 24-120 lens with me, but my leg was acting up (an old motorcycle accident injury) and I couldn’t lug that thing around any longer on this trip.  I might have shot better photos with the Nikon, or I might not have shot any at all if I didn’t have my cell phone.  Adapt, improvise, overcome.

The deal on our visit to the Balloon Fiesta was a tour group.  It’s really the only practical way to get in to see the balloons.  Here’s the deal:  Albuquerque’s population is 550,000 people (it’s the biggest city in New Mexico).  The Balloon Fiesta, however, draws a cool one million visitors.  Just getting to the field where the balloons lift off would take an hour or more due to the crush, and if you did that, you’d have to park far away to find a parking spot.  If you’re part of a tour group, however, you ride on the tour group’s buses from your hotel to the balloon field, and they take you right up to the gate.  The City of Albuquerque has done this event for years and they have it dialed.  They designate special bus lanes during Balloon Fiesta week.   Logistically, it’s a much better approach.

What the City can’t control is the weather, and hot air balloons are sensitive to the weather.  If there are electrical storms, low visibility, rain, or high winds, the balloon’s won’t lift off.  And there were plenty of all these conditions that week.  Our tour grip told us we’d be making three trips to the balloon field, but there were no guarantees we’d get to see the balloons lift off during any of our visits.  Two of our visits were early morning affairs (we arrived at the field before sunup), and another one was in the late afternoon.

The Balloon Fiesta field periphery is lined with vendors.

During our first early morning arrival, it was cold and too windy for the balloons to lift off.   The balloon fiesta had a backup plan, though, and in the distant skie we observed a light display.  At first I thought there was a large board with lights, but then the display lifted into the pre-dawn sky.  I learned it was all down with multiple computer-controlled drones.  That was impressive.

Cell phone photography is like halitosis…it’s better than no breath at all. Each of these lights is carried by a single drone. They were probably a mile away when I took this photo.

The images changed.  We couldn’t see or hear the drones, and there was nothing from our location that would indicate they were drones.  It was impressive.

A Puebloe Native American symbol, commandeered as the image on the New Mexico flag. This is the area where we had breakfast. Breakfast was a part of the tour package.

During our second visit, which occurred in the afternoon, the wind conditions weren’t acceptable and there was a thunderstorm moving in, which prevented the balloons from ascending.  But it allowed a parachute display, and I grabbed a few photos of it.

Selection.com is a personnel agency.

Evidently the smoke generators the parachutists used create debris.  One particle hit me in the face.  Fortunately, it caught me in the cheek and not in my eye.  That would have made for an interesting lawsuit.

Another photo of the parachutists.

Even though it was too risky for the balloons to inflate and ascend, there was a lot going on.  It was fun walking around and taking iPhone pictures.

A fire truck at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.

Our third and last visit to the balloon fiesta field was on a brisk Sunday morning and it was the charm.  After being skunked on two prior visits, the word was out:  The balloons had the okay to inflate and liftoff.  The winds were suitably low, visibility was good, and there were no looming electrical storms.  It was a go for a mass ascension, which kind of sounds like a religious experience.  In a way, it almost was.

Balloons inflating after recieving the go ahead. You walk in amongst the balloons. It’s all very exciting.

In a strange kind of way, being in the middle of the mass ascension kind of reminded me of seeing the whales in Baja. You go out in a small boat and for a while, nothing happens. Then you see a lone whale spout in the distance (like that one balloon you see going up in the photo above). Then, suddenly, there are whales spouting all around you, and then they are right up close to the boat. The balloon fiesta is a lot like that. Nothing happens at first, then you get very excited when you see that single first balloon ascend. Then, suddenly, balloons are going up all around you.

Our first balloon going up.
Then, suddenly, there are balloons everywhere.
The cell phone was doing a decent job for me. I would have liked having the D810 with me, but it was not meant to be. Maybe next time.
The colors, and the vibrance, was off the charts. The balloon fiesta is a photographer’s paradise.
Approximately 650 balloons ascended within about 30 minutes. It was impressive.
Several of the balloons were more complex shapes, like this Felix the Cat version. There were turkeys and other shapes as well.
This last photo is a panoramic shot, in which you manually sweep the camera through an arc (in this case, about 180 degrees). The iPhone does a suprisingly good job. The actual image is a little over 16,000 pixels wide.

A question several of my friends asked is:  Did we go up in a balloon?  The answer to that is no.  You have to make a reservation far in advance to get a seat in one of the balloons (we had not), it costs several hundred dollars, and truth be told, I wasn’t too sure about doing it.  Joe Gresh, whom we visited on our trek to Albuquerque, had done it in the past and he told us he and Colleen enjoyed it.  Maybe next time.

If you have any thoughts about visiting the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, my advice is to go for it, and to do it through a tour agency for the reasons listed above.  It’s a bucket list sort of thing to do.   We went with the Road Scholars tour group, they did a great job for us, and they kept us busy for the three days we were in Albuquerque.

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The Wayback Machine: Eleanor II

By Joe Berk

You’ll recall a recent blog where I waxed eloquent about Eleanor, my Ruger RSM .416 Rigby rifle.   In that blog, I talked about reduced loads using 350-grain cast Montana bullets and 5744 and Trail Boss propellant.  It was fun…the Trail Boss loads had milder recoil and “good enough” (but not stellar) accuracy.  Take a look at these 50-yard targets:

The above target on the left was with 30.0 grains of Trail Boss; the one on the right was with 34.0 grains of Trail Boss.  I could feel a tiny bit more recoil with the 34.0-grain load, but both were light loads with modest recoil.   Weirdly, the point of impact shifted sharply to the right with the lighter load, but it moved back to the center with the 34.0-grain load (and it was slightly higher).  The Trail Boss loads shot okay, but they weren’t running in the same league as the load I had shot the prior week with 5744 propellant and the same Montana Bullet Works 350-grain bullet, as you can see from the 50-yard targets below.

I could see what I was getting with the Trail Boss and I could see that it wasn’t grouping nearly as well as the 5744 loads at 50 yards, so that stopped my testing with Trail Boss (that, and the fact that I had used up all my Trail Boss cartridges).

I was curious:  How would Eleanor do at 100 yards?  I still had some of the 5744 loads left, so I posted a couple of 100-yard targets and let Eleanor have her way.  I first fired a 3-shot group and after looking through my spotting scope, I was surprised to see how well they grouped.

I thought maybe that target was a random success, and I didn’t want to ruin it by throwing more shots at it.  So I fired another 3-shot group at the second target, and then another three at that same target.  That’s the one you see below.

Before all you keyboard commandos start telling me that these results are nothing special, allow me to point out that these are 100-yard groups using  open sights on an elephant rifle.   I’m calling it good to go.  Like I said earlier, when the elephants become an invasive species here in So Cal, I’m ready.   The load is 45.0 grains of 5744 (it’s the load the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook specified as the accuracy load, and they were right), the 350-grain Montana Bullet Works .416 bullet sized to .417 and crimped in the cannelure, Hornady brass, and a CCI-200 primer.  I didn’t weigh each charge; I just adjusted my RCBS powder dispenser and cranked them out.  If you were wondering, I use Lyman dies for this cartridge.

A bit more about Eleanor:  The rifle is a Ruger 77 that the good folks from New Hampshire call an Express or RSM model (I think RSM stood for Ruger Safari Magnum).  They made them in 375 H&H, 416 Rigby, and 458 Lott (kind of a magnum .458 Magnum).  Ruger also made a similar one in a few of the standard calibers (7mm Mag, 30 06, and 300 Win Mag, and maybe one or two others).  These rifles were a bit pricey when Ruger sold them in the late 1990s/early 2000s, but evidently not pricey enough.  They were too expensive to manufacture, so Ruger stopped making them.  When you see these rifles come up for sale today (which doesn’t happen very often), they command a premium.  I wish I had bought one in 30 06 when they were first offered; to me, that would be the perfect rifle.

The rear sight on a Ruger RSM rifle is of the African “Express” style.  The elevation adjustment consists of a fixed and two flip-up blades, and they all have a very shallow V.  I guess the idea of that shallow V is that it lets you see more in case an elephant is charging.  The sight has two flip up blades behind the fixed blade; as range increases, you flip up the second blade, and if it is an even longer shot, you go for the third blade.  I got lucky, for me, the fixed rear sight blade is perfect with this load.  I made a minor adjustment for windage, and the elevation is spot on with a 6:00 hold at both 50 yards and 100 yards.

Incidentally, that rib the rear sight sits on?  It’s not a separate piece.  It and the barrel were turned and milled from one solid piece of steel.  It’s one of the reasons these rifles were too expensive to manufacture.

The front sight is the typical brass bead (you can sort of see it in the featured photo at the top of this blog), which I usually don’t like, but with these results I can’t complain.  I’ve shot better groups with two or three other open sight rifles using jacketed bullets at 100 yards; this is the best any cast bullet has ever done for me.

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Tough to get to a gunstore to buy targets?  Range fees for targets too high? Do what I do and order them online.  They’re delivered right to your door and they’re less expensive, too.

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Want to check out Montana Bullets?   Here’s a link to their website.  Tell them Joe sent you.  Trust me on this:  These are best cast bullets I’ve ever used.

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The Wayback Machine: 7 Favorite Baja Destinations

By Joe Berk

We’re introducing something new here on ExNotes.  We publish new content every other day (sometimes more often, sometimes less often, but we’ve been pretty good about bringing you new stuff).  But what about the days we don’t publish?   We’ve published about 1200 blogs in the last four years, and a lot of them received super responses.  So, on the in between days when when we don’t publish new material, we’re going to select some of our favorites from the past.   This is the first.  Every one of these reruns we’ll be preceded by The Wayback Machine in the title.

Enjoy, my friends.   And don’t forget:

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Baja is a motorcycling paradise and I have a bunch of favorite destinations there.  Seven of them, to be precise, although truth be told, I like everything in Baja except for Tijuana and maybe La Paz and Loreto.  That said, my favorites are:

      • Tecate
      • San Quintin
      • Cataviña
      • Guerrero Negro
      • San Ignacio
      • Santa Rosalia
      • Concepcion Bay

Here’s where they are on a map:

So what’s so great about these places?  Read on, my friends.

Tecate

Tecate is the gateway to the middle of northern Baja, and it’s the easiest point of entry. Both Tijuana and Mexicali are too big and too complicated, and the Mexican Customs guys are too official in those bigger cities.  Tecate is a friendly place.  The last time I picked up a tourist visa in Tecate, the Customs officer tried to sell me salsa he and his family made as a side gig.  That’s what the place is like.  I love it.

If you’re into fine dining (not as in expensive dining, but just great food), it’s hard to go wrong anywhere in Baja.  Tecate has some of the best, from street taco vendors to Malinalli’s to Amore’s.  I could spend a week just in Tecate.  It’s that good.

Uncle Joe Gresh with street tacos in Tecate. Wow, were they ever good.
The buffet at Malinalli’s is regional, awesome, and inexpensive. It’s a hidden treasure.
Dos Joes’ motos on an Enfield expedition that took us through Tecate.
The Tecate brewery dominate the Tecate skyline and is visible from just about anywhere in town. A can of ice cold Tecate with sea salt around the rim and a bit of lime juice…life doesn’t get any better.

San Quintin

San Quintin is 186.4 miles south of the border on Baja’s Pacific coast.  It’s usually a quiet ag town that has a lot of things going for it, including interesting hotels, good food, and Bahia San Quintin.  The Old Mill hotel and its associated restaurant, Eucalipto, is my personal favorite.  The hotel is about 4 miles west of the Transpeninsular Highway, and what used to be a harrowing soft sand ride to it is now easy peasy…the road is paved and riding there is no longer a test of your soft sand riding skills.  The Eucalipto restaurant is second to none.

What could be better than an ice cold Tecate overlooking Bahia San Quintin after a day’s riding in Baja? We once saw a California gray whale from this very spot.

A man, a motorcycle, and Mexico….the sign on the Transpenisular Highway pointing toward Bahia San Quintin and the Old Mill Hotel. The bike? That’s the 650cc Royal Enfield, perfect for riding Baja. But then just about any motorcycle is perfect for riding Baja.
Bahia San Quintin at dawn. It’s an awesome spot.
Uncle Joe enjoying breakfast in the Old Mill’s Eucalipto. It is an exquisite restaurant.

You’ll notice at the top of my scribblings about San Quintin I said it is usually a quiet town.  The one exception for us was when there was a labor riot and we were caught in it.  The Mexican infantryman about 80 miles north of San Quintin told me the road was closed, but his English matched my Spanish (neither are worth a caca), and without me understanding what I was riding into, he let me proceed.  It’s not an experience I would care to repeat.  But it’s the only event of its type I ever experienced in Old Mexico, and I’d go back in a heartbeat.

The Cataviña Boulder Fields

Ah, Cataviña.  Rolling down the Transpeninsular Highway, about 15 miles before you hit the wide spot in the road that is Cataviña you enter the boulder fields.  Other-worldly is not too strong a description, and if the place wasn’t so far south of the border it would probably be used more often by Hollywood in visits to other planets.  The boulders are nearly white, they are huge, and the juxtaposition of their bulk with the bright blue sky punctuated by Cardon cactus.

Pastel geology. The area really is as beautiful as the photos depict it to be.

I get a funny feeling every time I enter this part of Baja. Not funny as in bad, but funny as in I feel like I’m where I belong.  I once rolled through this region in the early morning hours with my daughter and she told me “you know, it’s weird, Dad.  I feel like I’m home.”  She understood (as in completely understood) the magic that is Baja.

I like the area and its stark scenery so much that one of my photos became the cover of Moto Baja!  I grabbed that shot from the saddle at about 30 mph on a CSC 150 Mustang replica, which I subsequently rode all the way down to Cabo San Lucas (that story is here).

You should buy a copy or three. They make great gifts.

Every time I roll through Cataviña with other riders, the dinner conversation invariably turns to how the boulders formed.   When I was teaching at Cal Poly Pomona, I asked one of my colleagues in the Geology Department.  He know the area as soon as I mentioned it.  The answer?  Wind erosion.

Guerrero Negro

The Black Warrior.  The town is named after a ship that went down just off its coast.    It’s a salt mining town exactly halfway down the peninsula, and it’s your ticket in for whale watching and the best fish tacos in Baja (and that’s saying something).  I’ve had a lot of great times in Guerrero Negro.  It’s about 500 miles south of the border.  You can see the giant steel eagle marking the 28th Parallel (the line separating Baja from Baja Sur) a good 20 miles out, and from there, it’s a right turn for the three mile ride west into town.  Malarrimo’s is the best known hotel and whale watching tour, but there are several are they are all equally good.  It you can’t get a room at Malarrimo’s, try the Hotel Don Gus.

CSC RX3 motorcycles at the Hotel Don Gus. We used to do annual Baja tours with CSC…those were fun times and great trips, and introduced a lot of folks to the beauty of Baja.
What it’s all about…getting up close and personal with the California gray whales. They are in town from January through March.
Tony, taco chef extraordinaire. You might think I’m exaggerating. I’m not.
It’s worth the 500-miles trek to Guerrero Negro just to savor Tony’s fish tacos. You might think I’m exaggerating. But like I said above…I’m not.
Man does not live by fish tacos alone, so for breakfast or dinner, it’s either the restaurant at Malaririmo’s or the San Remedio, a block north of the main drag into town. You won’t be disappointed at either.
Sue’s photo of a Guerrero Negro osprey enjoying some sushi.

After you leave Guerrero Negro and continue south, the Transpeninsular Highway turns southeast to take you diagonally across the Baja peninsula. About 70 miles down the road (which is about half the distance to the eastern shores of Baja and the Sea of Cortez along Mexico Highway 1) you’ll see the turn for San Ignacio.  It’s another one of Baja’s gems.

San Ignacio

San Ignacio is an oasis in the middle of the desert that forms much of Baja.  The Jesuits introduced date farming to the region hundreds of years ago, and it’s still here in a big way.  Leave Guerrero Negro, head southeast on Mexico Highway 1, and 70 miles later you run into a Mexican Army checkpoint, a series of switchbacks through a lava field, and when you see the date palms, turn right.

An oasis is usually formed by a volcano, and when a volcano is done discussing politics, it forms a lake. That’s the San Ignacio volcano and its lake, visible on the left as you ride into town.
The San Ignacio church, built as a mission in the 1700s, dominates the center of San Ignacio. It’s a beautiful spot, one of the most photogenic in all of Baja.
Another photo of the San Ignacio Mission. You’ll want to grab some photos in San Ignacio.
Dates? Nope, not on that trip, but dates are one of the things San Ignacio is known for. I’ll bet they are delicious.

San Ignacio has a town square that’s right out of central casting, there’s a little restaurant that serves the best chile rellenos in all of Mexico (I’m not exaggerating), and the place just has a laid back, relaxing feel about it.

Santa Rosalia

You know, this town is another one of Baja’s best kept secrets.  As you travel south on Highway 1, San Ignacio is the first town you encounter after traveling diagonally across the peninsula.  Folks dismiss it because it’s an industrial town, but they do so in ignorance.  There’s a lot of cool stuff in this place.

The ride into Santa Rosalia a few years ago with novelist Simon Gandolfi, Arlene Battishill, J Brandon, John Welker, and yours truly. That’s a dead fish I’m holding.  We did a round trip to Cabo San Lucas on 150cc Mustang replicas, just to say that we could.

One of the things that’s unique about Santa Rosalia is the all-wooden architecture.  The town was originally built by a French mining company (Boleo) and they built it they way they did in France.  Like the Hotel Frances, which sits high on a mesa overlooking the town and the Sea of Cortez.  I love staying there.

The Hotel Frances. It used to be a brothel.

There’s a cool mining musuem a block or two away from the Frances, and it’s worth a visit, too.

The mining museum in Santa Rosalia.

There are many cool things in Santa Rosalia, and one of the best is the Georg Eiffel church.  It was designed by the same guy guy who did the Eiffel town.

Santa Rosalia’s church. It’s an unexpected delight.  And I’m not even Catholic.
Inside Santa Rosalia’s Georg Eiffel church.
Stained glass. Photos ops abound in Santa Rosalia.

I’ve heard people dismiss Santa Rosalia as a gritty, industrial place not worth a stop.   Trust me on this:  They’re wrong.  It’s one of my favorite Baja spots.

Bahía Concepción

Concepción Bay is easily the most scenic spot in Baja.  It’s just south of Mulege (another delightful little town, and the subject of an upcoming ExNotes blog).  Bahía Concepción runs for maybe 20 miles along the eastern edge of the Baja peninsula.  I’ve seen whales from the highway while riding along its edge, the beaches are magnificent, and the photo ops just don’t stop.  The contrast between the mountains and Cardon cactus on one side and the pelicans diving into bright green water is view from the saddle you won’t soon forget.

On one of many rides along Bahía Concepción, good buddy Joe Lee and yours truly rode our Triumph Triples. This is a favorite shot of mine.
Besides “wow,” what can I say?
World-famous novelist and motorcycle adventurer Simon Gandolfi andn yours truly on 150cc scooters. We were on our way back from Cabo San Lucas when we stopped for this Bahía Concepción photo.  Hardtail 150cc scooters.  Up and down the length of Baja.  I think about that ride every time I see a GS parked at a Starbuck’s.

So there you have it:  My take on seven favorite spots in Baja?  How about you?  Do you have any favorite Baja destinations?  Let us know here in the comments sction!

More on Baja?  You bet!

Headed into Baja?  Make sure you insure with the best – BajaBound!

Lee Classic Turret Press Kit 1: Unpacking

By Joe Berk

We’re writing a series of blogs on the Lee Precision Classic Turret Press Kit, and this first one focuses on unpacking and taking an initial look at the kit. I think the YouTube kids call this a “reveal.”  I’ll just call it unboxing and seeing what’s in the box.  I thought I could do a single blog on the Classic Turret Press Kit, but there’s too much included in the kit and too much that’s new to me to handle in one blog.  We’re going to instead do a series of blogs:  One on each item that’s included with the kit, a blog on setting the press and dies up, a blog on reloading with the Lee equipment, and a blog on how the ammo reloaded with the Classic Turret Press Kit performs.   There’s a lot here.  You’ll get a feel for just how much in this initial blog on the Classic Turret Press Kit.

Here’s the picture on Lee’s website for the kit, which Lee advertises for $380.

The photo above shows everything set up, but the photo doesn’t do justice to the excitement associated with getting this kit, taking everything out of the box, and opening it.  Nor does it convey what I expect to be the satisfaction I’ll experience with using the Lee equipment.  That will be the subject of future blogs.  Think of this first blog as Christmas morning. That’s what opening and unpacking the Lee kit felt like to me.

ExNotes blog readers will recall that good buddy Jose left a comment on one of our Lee Deluxe 4-die set blogs.   Jose told us about his Lee turret press.  He wrote a guest blog or two for us here on ExNotes and he is a Ruger No. 1 aficionado, which means he stands tall with me.  After reading Jose’s comments, I had to check out the Lee Classic Turret Press Kit myself, and after poking around on Lee’s site a bit and seeing what the Lee kit included, I knew I wanted one.  I specifically wanted to set it up for 9mm using Lee’s Deluxe 4-die set.  I’ve been using older 9mm dies from various die makers, and my reloads would sometimes jam.  With my old dies, the crimps were inconsistent, and I knew from my experience with Lee’s .357 and .44 Magnum Deluxe dies I wouldn’t have that problem with Lee equipment.  I have the Lee Deluxe handgun die sets in 38 Special/357 Magnum, 44 Special/44 Magnum, .45 Colt, and .30 Carbine, and the ammo I reload with those dies is exceptional (better than anything I loaded with other manufacturers’ dies).  I use Lee dies for several rifle cartridges, and I have more than a few other bits of Lee equipment.  I’ve been pleased with all of it.

Lee advertises that their Classic Turret Press Kit includes everything needed to start making ammo, except for the dies and, of course, the components (brass, powder, primers, and bullets).   I have plenty of components, and the thought of wringing out the Lee gear, writing about it, and testing the ammo in a couple of my favorite 9mm handguns checked all the boxes for me.  This will be a fun project and I want to share the excitement with you.

I placed my order with Lee for the Classic Turret Press Kit, the Bench Plate Kit (something I saw on their website that appealed to me), and the 9mm dies.  It all arrived a few days later, well packed in a single box.  I was impressed with how fast it arrived (it shipped during the holiday season) and the packaging.  The Lee folks have done this before; it’s first class customer service.

This is the right time of year to open a box full of goodies and examine the contents.  I was a kid on Christmas morning.  This was fun!

When I opened the outer container, I saw my 9mm Deluxe 4-die set and the Lee bench plate.

As I mentioned above, I’m a firm believer in Lee’s Deluxe dies.  I can’t wait to put these to work making 9mm ammunition for my SIG P226 Scorpion and Springfield Armory 1911.

The idea behind the Lee Bench Plate is that it’s a quick detach/attach mount for a Lee press. It’s not included with the Classic Turret Press Kit (it’s priced at $39 on Lee’s website), but I like the idea of being able to quickly remove the press from my reloading bench.  You’ll get a complete report on setting up and using the Bench Plate in a future ExNotes blog.

After unpacking the 9mm dies and the bench plate, I pulled out the Lee Classic Turret Press Kit.  This was like one of those Russian dolls.  I was peeling the onion and enjoying it.

When I opened the Lee Classic Turret Press Kit, I found the Lee Safety Primer Feed, a tube of Lee Resizing Lube, and the Lee Case Conditioning Kit.

The Lee Safety Primer Feed (shown in the two photos below) is a device I have not used before.  I’ll explain how it works in a future blog.  I have three other Lee priming devices and I’ve been using them for decades with no problems.  The Lee Safety Primer Feed sells for $30.

Lee includes their Case Conditioning Kit (see the photo below) with the Classic Turret Press Kit.  The Case Conditioning Kit consists of a primer pocket cleaner, a case cutter and locking stud, and a chamfer to bevel the case mouth after it has been trimmed.  I have not used these tools from Lee before; it will be interesting to see how they perform.  I have other equipment that performs these tasks, but I had to buy those items separately.  With the Lee Classic Turret Press Kit, it’s all included. The Case Conditioning Kit lists for $12.98 on the Lee site.

I won’t need the Lee Resizing Lube shown below because my new Lee 9mm dies include a carbide resizer (which negates the need for case lubrication).  Not having to lube the cases is a good thing.  On rifle cases, though, lube is necessary, so I’ll put the lube to good use on those.   The price for Lee’s Resizing Lube is $5.98.

The Lee Classic Turret Press Kit includes Lee’s Modern Reloading manual (a sizeable book, comparable to the manuals from Hornady, Speer, Sierra, and other reloading component companies), and a Hodgdon reloading pamphlet.  I’m looking forward to reviewing the Lee manual.  I’ve been reloading a long time, but I still learn something new every time I pick up a reloading manual.  If you were to buy the Lee Modern Reloading manual separately, it sells for $40.98.  Lee also includes the Hodgdon Data Manual with the Classic Turret Press Kit.  I’ve seen the pamphlets from Hodgdon before; I’ll take a look at this one and share my impressions in a subsequent blog.

Next out of the box was Lee’s Auto-Drum Powder Measure.  I’ve used an older Lee version of this device.  I’m not familiar with how the new one works, but I’m looking forward to finding out.  The Auto-Drum Powder Measure is infinitely adjustable.  That’s a good thing.  The older version used a charging plate with discrete increments; infinite adjustment is a much better way to go.  The Auto-Drum Powder Measure automatically charges the case with with each stroke of the press.  If purchased separately, the Auto-Drum Powder Measure sells for $55.00.

Lee includes a Powder Measure Riser in the Classic Turret Press Kit (see the photo below).  This is used with the Auto-Drum Powder Measure to position the powder dispenser above the priming mechanism (it allows adequate clearance).   The Powder Measure Riser sells for $9.98 on the Lee site.

There’s a balance beam scale (the Lee Safety Powder Scale) in the Classic Turret Kit.   This is a standard reloading scale.  The Safety Powder Scale is $46.98 on the Lee site.  You might wonder:  Why use a simple mechanical scale when there are digital scales and digital powder dispensers?  The reasons are simplicity, reliability, and cost.  I have friends that use digital scales, and they report inaccuracies induced by nearby metal objects (have any of those on your reloading bench?), slow operation, and of course, much greater expense.  For me a simple balance beam scale works best; it’s what I’ve been using for 50 years.   The Lee Safety Powder Scale is new to me, and I’ll report how it works.

At this point, I had one more box to open, and it contained the Classic Turret Press.  Lee lists the Classic Turret Press at $220.  Like everything else in the Lee Classic Turret Press Kit, the Classic Turret Press was well packaged.

The Classic Turret Press is massive.   It’s beefy, it’s heavy, and it looks to be well built. What you see below is the press, along with the operating handle, a spent primer catch tube (a nice touch), the four position turret head, and the hardware required to assemble it.

So there you have it:  The Lee Classic Turret Press Kit.  You might have noticed that I listed the cost for each item above separately, along with a link to the appropriate Lee page.  I thought it would be interesting to sum the prices and compare the total to Lee’s Classic Turret Press Kit price:

At Lee’s price of $380 for the Classic Turret Press Kit, it’s a good deal compared to buying the items separately.  But Lee goes a step further.  They recognize that retailers often sell the individual items and the Classic Turret Press Kit at lower prices, and Lee states on their site that you can find lower prices by visiting a Lee retailer.  One of the best places to find lower prices is Amazon.  I encourage you to explore Lee’s website, and to take a look at Lee gear on Amazon.

This project is going to be fun, folks.  Keep an eye on the ExhaustNotes blog as we put the Lee Classic Turret Press Kit through its paces.

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There are many more shooting and reloading stories on Tales of the Gun.  Hope on over and take a look.

In the spirit of complete disclosure:  Lee liked our blogs on the .357 Magnum and .44 Magnum Deluxe 4-die sets and they asked us to similarly review the Classic Turret Press Kit.  Lee provided the kit to us at no charge.  But rest assured: That won’t color our judgment or what we report.  You will get the complete story, warts and all.

Old Town Albuquerque

Our destination on this trip was the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta (the 50th Anniversary Balloon Fiesta, at that!), and we stayed in Albuquerque for the event.  One of the stops on this adventure was old town Albuquerque.  Touristy?  You bet.  But it was still fun.  I had my Nikon and a 24-120 lens (a real boat anchor camera and lens, to be sure), but I enjoyed myself wandering around and taking pictures.

A plaque below the statue shown in this blog’s featured photo.

That fellow in the statue up above?  That’s Don Francisco Cuervo y Valdés, Spanish governor of New Mexico, who founded La Villa Real de San Francisco de Alburquerque (what we know as Albuquerque) in April 23, 1706.

Albuquerque is one of the oldest towns in New Mexico.

Albuquerque, population 550,000, is New Mexico’s biggest city.  We were there for four days.  We hit old town Albuquerque on Day 1.  Kitschy, corny, but cool.  We enjoyed it, and there were plenty of photo ops.  There’s a lot to see and do in Gresh’s home state.

A ristra is a cluster of dried red chiles you see hanging in many places in New Mexico. They can be decorative, ot they can be used for cooking. This one was hanging in a doorway in old town Albuquerque.
Another ristra hanging in old town Albuquerque.
A salsa store. There’s lots of it in old town Albuquerque.

On this topic of chiles and authentic New Mexico salsas: In New Mexico Mexican restaurants the question that every waiter asks is:  Green or red?  That’s for the kind of salsa you want with your meal.  Red salsa is made of crushed red chiles that are reconstituted into a red liquid salsa.   Green is a bit chunkier with larger pepper pieces included in the mix.  They told us that green is the spicier of the two, but I think it depends on the restaurant.  The New Mexicans advised us that a good answer for the red or green question is “Christmas, on the side.”  You know, red and green.  That will get you a dish of each salsa.

A doorway to one of the many shops in old town Albuquerque.
A shop window in old town Albuquerque.
A cool bench in Old Town.

Our tour guide advised us to avoid the restaurants in old town Albuquerque, so we ate at a Mexican place just outside of Old Town.  I love New Mexico, but I’m convinced any restaurant in or close to a tourist destination is going to be mediocre.  Our lunch didn’t change my mind.

One of the restaurants in Old Town.

The San Felipe de Neri Church is one of the oldest buildings in Albuquerque.  It dominates old town Albuquerque.  This church was originally used by Franciscan missionaries.  It’s still in use.  All of the tourists (and there were a lot of them) congregated outside the church.  I checked the door and it was unlocked.  I ducked inside and grabbed a quick available light photo.

Inside the San Felipe de Neri Church. I have more than a few photos that look like this from visits to churches elsewhere, including some dynamite photos from the missions in Baja. I use the last pew as a camera rest.

So there you have it…one guy’s photo interpretation of an afternoon walk through old town Albuquerque.  The Balloon Fiesta is coming up in a near term future blog.   Stay tuned.

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Check out a few of our epic rides here!

The 2022 ExNotes Gift Guide

Most gift guides are hokey.  Not this one.  In keeping with our theme of shooting, motorcycles, and other interesting things, here are our recommended gifts and associated links.  It’s good stuff.  Purchase the things we recommend through the links we include here and you’ll ride faster, you’ll shoot straighter, you’ll weigh less, you’ll be better looking, and you’ll be one of the cool kids. (I took an advertising class and that’s the essence of what good advertising is supposed to do.)  Without further ado (I have no idea what “ado” means, but if you say it during a wedding ceremony, you’re married), here you go.

Motorcycle Bungee Pack

Few things in our lives are as useful as a bungee cord, and it you want a nice gift for a motorcyclist, this Motorcycle Bungee Pack answers the mail.  It includes an assortment of bungees and a cargo net, and it’s a sure thing whoever receives a gift like this will put it to good use.

A New BMW R 1250 GS

Well, sort of, although if any of our readers want to buy us a new BMW GS, that would be nice, too.  Nope, what we’re referring to here are Maisto motorcycle models.  They’re pretty cool, they’re high quality, and at approximately $20, they won’t break the bank.   Maisto offers several other models, too, like the S1000RR you see at the top of this blog.

A Case of Mobil 1 Moto Oil

It doesn’t get any better than Mobil 1 4T synthetic oil for motorcycles.  If you want to really impress someone, give them a case of Mobil 1 4T for their motorcycle.  It’s only $79.00 and trust me on this, they will remember you every time they shift or blip the throttle.

Portable Jump Starter

We carried and used a portable jump starter on the Enfield Baja ride, and trust me, it was worth its weight in gold.  There are several models available, and they start around $52.  This Litake portable jump starter is small enough to carry on a motorcycle and it makes a great gift.

Lee Precision Reloading Gear

If you’re not reloading, your missing out on half the fun in the shooting sports.  Making the decision to become a reloader can be a bit initimidating, but the major equipment manufacturers make it easy for anyone to start.   If you want to start with a simple single-stage press, our advice is to go with Lee’s Challenger Kit for $229.

A single stage reloader is a good way to start, and the Lee Anniversary kit shown above is a good one.   You can buy it directly from Lee or from Amazon.

If the person you are giving the reloading kit to (which can be you, by the way) wants to reload at higher rates,  you might consider the Lee Classic Turret kit for $380:

You can buy the Lee Classic Turret kit directly from Lee or from Amazon.

With either kit, the person receiving the gift will need a set of dies specific to the cartridge to be reloaded.  We think Lee Precision makes the the best dies at any price (these are $78.00).

You can buy the above dies directly from Lee, or you can purchase them from Amazon.

Cool Watches

There are three or four you might consider.  We’ve recently written about Casio’s G-Shock GD400 series.  These are reasonably priced, they are incredibly accurate, they offer a world-time quick change capability, and a bunch of other features (illuminated dial, stopwatch, countdown timer, and more).   Casio offers these for both men (at $89.95) and women ($53.95).  I wear a G-Shock and so does Susie.

If you want something more formal, our recommendation is to get an automatic watch.  There’s something elegant about a selfwinding mechanical watch, and Orient is one of most exclusive brands out there at a very reasonable price.  Two personal favorites are the Moonphase (from $274.95 to $374.95, depending on color) and the Mako dive watches (at $147.95).  I wear an Orient rose gold Moonphase when I’m trying to impress Gresh, and it’s a classy timepiece.

Toolkits

We very recently posted about a Wohngeist toolkit retailing for $2,895 (we’re not advising buying it, unless you feel a need to flush money down the toilet).  A far better choice is any of several toolkits available at much more reasonable prices, like this one for $49.95.  These make great gifts, and they won’t break the bank.

Buck Knives

Give someone a Buck knife, and you’ll have a friend for life.  That’s how long the Buck will last, too.  Buck makes a bunch of different knives, you can have them customized, you can have them engraved, or you can buy one off the shelf, so to speak.  My personal favorite is the Buck 110 folder (shown in the photo below), but any Buck knife makes a wonderful gift.  Buck 110 folders start at around $60.

Trickle Me Elmo Battery Tenders

There are few things as useful to a motorcyclist than a Battery Tender.  I’ve been using these for decades.  A motorcycle with a topped-off battery runs better, and I’m coinvinced routinely plugging your bike into a Battery Tender extends the battery’s life.  I regularly get between 4 and 6 years out of a motorcycle battery, and the Battery Tender is the reason why.  These things are inexpensive ($39.95), and if they wear out, that would be news to me.  I’ve been using mine for about 15 years and it’s still going strong.

Stop and Go Mini Compressors

Get a flat on your motorcycle out in the middle of nowhere and you’ll wish you had one of these, and so will all of your motorcycle friends.  It happened to me more than a few times (on the Three Flags Rally, in China, and out in the boonies exploring the Mojave Desert).  The Stop and Go Mini Compressor will pay for itself the next time you need to inflate a tire out there, and if you’re one of those folks who drops the air pressure when you see a dirt road, this will get you back up to street pressures quickly.

Our Motorcycle Books

Hey, what can I say.   If you’re going to buy a motorcycle book, why not buy one I wrote?  They’re inexpensive and folks say they’re pretty good.  If you’re one of those folks tempted to wait for the movie instead of reading the book, don’t hold your breath.  There were some preliminary discussions for a movie series, but when I suggested Leonardo di Caprio play me, the studio responded with Danny De Vito and talks broke down (so don’t wait for the movies).

Take a look at this selection of outstanding moto stories, pick the ones you’d like, and Mr. Bezos will have them in the mail to you muey pronto!

Haix Boots

The problem with motorcycle boots is they’re uncomfortable when you get off the motorcycle, especially if you have to walk anywhere.  About 20 years ago I picked up a pair of Haix boots (a favorite of police, firemen, and other first responders) and I never look back.  They are the only boots I wear when I ride a motorcycle.  A pair of Haix boots lasts about 10 years, and they are extremely comfortable.  They’re a bit more than most combat boots at $259.99, but they last a long time and the increase in comfort makes them well worth the price of admission.

Bianchi Belts

I bought my Bianchi belt years ago and I think it is one of the best purchases I ever made.  I wear it any time I need to wear a belt unless I have to dress up for a deposition or a formal event.  The Bianchi is just plain comfortable, it doesn’t wear out, and for its intended purpose (supporting a holster) it is superb.  You’d be surprised how much of a difference a good belt makes if you’re carrying a firearm (unless you already have a Bianchi belt, in which case you wouldn’t be surprised at all).  But you don’t need to carry a gun to appreciate this belt.  Like I said, I wear mine all the time.  The Bianchi belt retails on Amazon for $66.02 (why they add the $0.02 is beyond me), and it’s worth every penny (even those extra two pennies Bezos tacks on).

Batdorf and Bronson Coffee

Batdorf and Bronson coffee is the best coffee in the world.  Yeah, that’s my opinion, but try it and you’ll agree.  Buy a selection of Batdorf and Bronson coffee for a holiday gift and you’ll make a friend for life.

So there you have it:  Our 2022 gift recommendations.  And don’t forget:

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Tools Do Not A Carpenter Make

I spotted the tool kit you see above in a Wall Street Journal list of suggested gifts.  It’s made by an outfit in Switzerland and the price (as quoted by the Wall Street Journal) is an astonishing $2,850.  Yes, you read that right:  $2,850.  Thinking it had to be a mistake (even Snap-On tools are not that expensive), I got on the Internet.  Yep.  $2,850.  I’m thinking that kit above is maybe $50 worth of tools.   So I looked around a little and saw the same Wohngeist tool kit from another retailer for $3,000.  And then another for $2,800.  I imagine the people who picked it up for $2,800 felt they scored quite the bargain.

Want another shocker?  All three of the online retailers, quoting the prices you see above, are sold out.  Gresh and Huber, we are in the wrong business.

Here’s another Wohngeist tool kit for those of you who don’t want to spend $2,895.  This one is only $1,895.  Like my people say:  Such a deal!

If you’re thinking of something more down to earth, you can always pick up a basic tool kit from Amazon.  This one was $49.  It looks pretty good to me and it’s more in line with what I’m used to spending.  I’m an Amazon kind of guy.

I think the Amazon version has more screwdrivers and it has a ratchet and sockets.  The Wohngeist kit does not.  What were you expecting for $2,895?  I know, I know, the Amazon kit doesn’t have that nifty fold-out ruler.  But I already own a tape measure.  So I’m covered.

Not content with that find, I checked to see if Amazon had a motorcycle tool kit.  Here’s one that looks like it came right out of my 1965 Honda Super 90, and it’s only $12.95.

I don’t still have the Super 90, but I do still have the tools.  Somewhere.

We’ve written other blogs about motorcycle tool kits.  This one explains my approach for identifying and carrying the tools I may need.  It contains links to Gresh’s and Huber’s blogs on the same topic, too.

Watch for our 2022 Christmas, Hanukkah, and Festivus gift guide.  It’s coming up soon.

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