Boy oh boy, I get to do some cool things. Today’s blog is a quick teaser for an upcoming story on the new Janus Halcyon 450. I won’t spoil the fun other than to say my last stop during a recent trip to Indiana was Janus Motorcycles, where I had an awesome plant tour and a ride on the new Halcyon 450 motorcycle. It was great. The motorcycle was impressive; the company even more so. I’m a big time Janus fan, having ridden their 250 Gryffin model through southern California and northern Baja with a couple of Janus big wheels (you can read that story here). I was pretty sure the 450 would be a wonderful motorcycle, and I was right.
Stay tuned, folks. There’s a lot more to this story.
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We’re announcing a substantially reduced price on Moto Colombia. In fact, it’s as low as we can make it: $2.99. That’s the minimum Kindle will allow. I don’t know how much longer we’ll continue it (ah, there’s the impending doom sales close), but hey, as the man in the White House would say: C’mon, Man, it’s just $2.99.
What’s it all about? Here’s the blurb:
Ride beautiful Colombia with Joe Berk, Juan Carlos Posada Roa, and Carlos Mesa on Zongshen RX3 motorcycles. This is an adventure tour that has it all: Magnificent riding on dirt and asphalt, tight mountain twisties, elevations from sea level to nearly 14,000 feet, delightful Colombian cuisine, stunningly beautiful women, majestic churches, and more. It’s an 8-day circumnavigation of Colombia’s Andes Mountains, with stops in exotic places most people have never imagined. Visit the AKT Motos motorcycle assembly line and meet Enrique Vargas, the AKT General Manager. Cruise the mighty Magdalena River and ride into the clouds. Fight fog, freezing rain, and volcanic dust at the very edge of Volcan Nevado del Ruiz. Punch through a herd of cattle, visit a coffee plantation, chat with heavily armed-Colombian troopers, ride from the tropics to the sky, and learn how you can do the same!
In the 1960s and 70s, you couldn’t turn on a TV and flip through the channels without encountering a cop show. Hawaii Five O, Kojak, and more. TV series had shifted from westerns to police drama, and TV was what many of us did in the evening. Basically, we watched what the entertainment industry brainwashed us into watching. It’s no small wonder a lot of guys my age wanted to be cops when they grew up. Rick Rosner (a TV producer and one of the certifiably-smartest guys on the planet…Google him and you’ll see) was also an LA County Reserve Sheriff’s deputy. One night while on duty during a coffee break (a donut may have been involved), he saw two CHP motor officers roll by. That’s how and where the idea for CHiPs was born: Motorcycles. Southern California. Police. All the right pieces fell into place.
I had just returned from a year overseas (where I enjoyed nonstop good times during a 13-month party, courtesy of Uncle Sam) when CHiPs first aired in 1977. It was hokey…the music, the scenes, the premise of nearly every episode, but it was motorcycles, and I never missed an episode. The series ran for five or six years, and it featured two main characters: Ponch Poncharello (played by Eric Estrada) and Jon (played by Larry Wilcox). Their sergeant, Joe Getraer (played by Robert Pine) was also a regular on the show.
Guys like Gresh and me know that running a Z-1 Kawasaki through soft sand, up and down stairs, and other motoshenanigans doesn’t make a lot of sense (EDIT: Maybe I’m wrong about this…see the video at the end of this blog). But we’re mere mortals. Ponch and Jon made the big Kawis behave in every episode. It was all part of the story, and it was all set in and around Los Angeles. That’s one of the reasons, I think, many of my early experiences in So Cal were like deja vu all over again when I moved here. I’d seen all these places in CHiPs before I left Texas and came to California: Angeles Crest Highway, Malibu, downtown LA, the Pacific Coast Highway…the locations and the motorcycle scenes were burned into my brain.
Susie was putzing around on Facebook the other day when she found a local community bulletin board that said the CHiPs stars would be here for autographs and photos. Did I want to go? Hell, yeah!
Larry Wilcox, aka Jon Baker, signing a photo for me. He seemed like a genuine nice guy. In real life, Wilcox was a Marine in Vietnam who served in an artillery unit. Wilcox is a year or two older than me.
The CHiPs show had a motor sergeant (Sergeant Joe Getraer) who was played by Robert Pine. Pine was there as well, and he was happy to pose for a photograph. Mr. Pine is 80 years old now.
Sergeant Joe Getraer, played by Robert Pine, who had a full time job keeping Ponch and Jon in line. Pine, like Estrada and Wilcox, had a welcoming personality. It was a fun day.
Erik Estrada was a central character in the show, the one who was always in some kind of trouble with Sergeant Getraer. Ponch (his nickname, as in Ponch Poncharello) and Jon no doubt influenced a lot of guys to apply for jobs in the real California Highway Patrol. The real California Highway Patrol had a real motor officer and a real CHP BMW at this event, along with a couple of patrol cars.
Susie and Erik Estrada. All three of the CHiPs stars allowed everyone to take as many photos as they wanted. There’s nothing pretentious about these guys.
There were a lot of things I enjoyed about this event. We had to wait in line to get up to the table for autographs, but the wait wasn’t too bad and the event wasn’t rushed at all. The weather was nice and it was a fun way to spend a Saturday morning. Pine, Wilcox, and Estrada chatted with everybody, and Mr. Estrada walked the length of the line several times apologizing for the wait and telling us they were going as fast as they could. There were a few people in line who were disabled, and Ponch helped them maneuver up to the picture-posing area (he was very friendly). All three of the TV CHiPs seemed to have the same personalities as the characters they played 50 years ago, with Estrada being the most mischievous (and, where the ladies were involved, the most flirtatious).
I asked Estrada if he still rode and what kind of motorcycle he had. It was a topic he wanted to talk about. “Ponch” told me he sold his Harley Softail 20 years ago, and that he now owned one of the six Kawasaki police motors used on the show. “The Teamsters gave it to me,” he said. I thought that was pretty cool.
The other stars in the show were southern California, the California Highway Patrol, and the Kawasaki Police 1000 motorcycle. I imagine CHiPs did a lot for CHP recruitment, and the Kawasaki police motorcycles did a lot for Kawasaki (in both the police and civilian markets). It was a brilliant bit of product placement before product placement became a thing, and it led to a nearly complete bifurcation of the police motorcycle market. Departments east of the Mississippi River stuck with Harley-Davidson, and departments west of the Mississippi went with Kawasaki (although that has changed in recent years). If you are wondering how I know that, I did a fair amount of research for The Complete Book of Police and Military Motorcycles when I wrote it 20 years ago.
Whoa…check this out…it just happened yesterday right here in LA. Who’d a thought? The CHP on full dress Harleys chasing down a guy on a Kawasaki KLR 650, and staying with him on the freeways, splitting lanes, on surface streets, and off road. These are CHiPs legends being created as this blog was being written!
Whatever the two CHP officers’ names are, you can bet they’re being called Ponch and Jon now!
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This is an unusual blog about an unusual museum. On a recent visit to Indianapolis we visited the Indiana Medical History Museum.
So here’s the deal: The Indiana Medical History Museum is what’s left of what was an Indiana insane asylum. A note on the museum’s website states:
Young children and visitors sensitive to topics such as mental illness, death, and autopsy may find the museum disturbing. Human skeletons and preserved organs are on display at the museum.
All that is true. I wouldn’t take kids here. The Indiana insane asylum used to house 2,000 poor souls who had lost their minds. The building we visited was the pathology center, all that’s left of the facility (the rest has been razed and replaced with condominiums). You can’t just walk up and start visiting this museum; you have to book a tour and the tours only take a few people at a time.
In the lecture hall.
The primary focus of this Indiana pathology department was research focused on unearthing the causes of insanity. Our tour guide explained that back when the facility was an active insane asylum, a third of the patients were insane as a result of tertiary syphilis. When it was discovered that this form of insanity was due to a microbe (the syphilis spirochete), further research focused on finding microbes that caused other forms of insanity (they didn’t find any). The museum’s website states that it shows the beginnings of modern psychiatry.
Another view inside the lecture hall.
The autopsy room and its equipment were interesting. I tried to imagine what it must have been like to have been a doctor in the early 1900s working here. Things sure have changed.
The autopsy room.Autopsy tools.An iron lung for infants.
The library was interesting. In its day, it was perhaps one of the most advanced on the planet. It’s what they had to work with.
Inside the library.
The building and our tour guide’s description of the place were somber and respectful. Still, the tour had the feel of a Steven King novel. Scattered equpment from the early days of treating mental illness filled the hallways. Some of it was used for electroshock therapy. Other tools were for lobotomies. It’s what they had to work with back then.
Steeple tops from the insane asylum buildings.Camera equipment for photographing microscope slide results.
Admission was a modest $10 ($9 if you are a senior citizen), and the tour takes about an hour or so. I thought it was interesting. It sure was different.
Ohio this time, folks, and today’s feature is the National Museum of the United States Air Force. We had been exploring Indiana, and Dayton was a just a short hop across the border. This was part of our great visit with good buddy Jeff, and wow, did we ever have a good time.
The official name, as denoted in the title of the blog, is a mouthful. I’ve heard of this place as the Wright-Patterson air force museum, and it’s been around for a long time. Dayton is a hop, skip, and a jump away from Vandalia, and my Dad visited the air museum decades ago when he competed in the Grand American Trapshoot in that city when I was a kid. I always meant to get here, and thanks to Jeff and my navigator’s travel planning (my navigator, of course, is Susie), I finally made it.
Dayton was also home to the world famous Wright brothers. I recently read a great book about The Wright Brothers by David McCullough, which added greatly to my understanding of their accomplishments.
There were many other early aircraft on display. I probably should have noted what they all were. But I was having too much fun taking available light photos with my Nikon. There’s no flash in any of the pictures in this blog.
There are four main halls in the museum, each dedicated to a specific aviation era. The first is focused on the early days (that’s what you see in the photos above), and the last is focused on more modern military aircraft. There are also exhibits of presidential aircraft, missiles, nuclear weapons, and more.
The missile hall was particularly cool. The photo immediately below shows a nuclear weapon.
The missiles made great photo subjects. I had two lenses with me: The Nikon 24-120 and the Nikon 16-35. Most of these shots are with the wide angle 16-35. Both of these lenses do a great job, the 16-35 even more so in these low light, tight locations.
Here’s another photo of a nuclear (in this case, thermonuclear) bomb. It’s hard to believe that much energy can be packed into such a small envelope.
The Wright-Patterson Museum also had several experimental aircraft. These make for cool photos.
That’s Chuck Yeager’s airplane below…it’s the one he used for breaking the sound barrier (or it’s one just like it).
There was an Apollo display, including the actual Apollo 15 capsule.
Our tour guide told us something I didn’t know before. If the lunar landing module was damaged and couldn’t be repaired such that it could dock with the lunar orbiter, the plan was to leave the guys who landed on the moon there.
One of the displays showed an Apollo astronaut suited up for a moon walk. What caught my attention was the Omega Speedmaster in the display. There’s a very interesting story about that watch the Bulova chronograph worn when one of astronauts was replaced just prior to launch. You can read that story here. I wear one of the modern Bulova lunar pilot watches.
Here’s one of my favorite airplanes of all time: The Lockheed C-130 Hercules. It’s an airplane that first flew in 1954. Analysts believe it will still be flying in 2054. Imagine that: A military aircraft with a century of service.
A long time ago, I went through the Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia, and I made a few jumps from a C-130. My last jump was from the C-141 Starlifter jet, an aircraft that was retired from military service several decades ago (even though it was introduced way after the C-130). The C-141 jump was a lot more terrifying to me than was jumping from a C-130.
In a C-130 you have to jump up and out to break through the boundary layer of air that travels with the C-130. Because you jump up and out, it was like jumping off a diving board…you never really get a falling sensation (even though you drop more than a hundred feet before the parachute opens). On a C-141, though, you can’t do that. If you jump up and out, you’ll get into the jet exhaust and turn yourself to toast. The C-141 deploys a shield just forward of the door, so the drill is to face the door at a 45-degree angle and simply step out. When that happens, you fall the same distance as you do when exiting a C-130, but you feel every millimeter. It scared the hell out of me.
The Museum also has a section displaying prior presidential aircraft…different versions of Air Force One. That was also fascinating. One of the Air Force One planes is the 707 that was took President Kennedy to Dallas, and then returned with his body that afternoon.
Jackie Kennedy would not allow JFK’s coffin to be stowed in the freight compartment on the flight back to Washington. She wanted it to fly with her in the passenger compartment. An enterprising flight engineer obtained a hacksaw and cut away part of the bulkhead just ahead of the rear passenger door, which allowed the coffin to make the turn into the aircraft.
There were other presidential aircraft on display as well, including the one used by Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman.
Not everywhere a president flies can handle a large jet, so sometimes Presidents use small executive jets. One of the first of these bizjets used for Air Force One (any airplane carrying the President is designated Air Force One) was a small Lockheed. President Lyndon Johnson called the small Lockheed executive jet below “Air Force One Half.”
It was a good day, and a full day. Even spending a good chunk of our day at the Museum, we were only able to see two of the four halls. That made for a good day, but if you want to see the entire Museum, I think it would be wise to allow for a two-day visit.
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When good buddy Jim and I became interested in Mosin-Nagant rifles about 10 years ago, we bought a few boxes of PRVI-Partizan 7.62x54R ammunition mostly to get the brass so we could reload it. Boy, oh boy, that stuff was stupid hot.
A 91/30 Mosin-Nagant rifle. These are awesome firearms. They used to be plentiful and inexpensive. Now they are neither.
We could feel it in the recoil and the pressure pulse of each shot. After a few rounds we called it quits. I didn’t want to fire any more through my Mosin and neither did Jim. The primers were sharply flattened, the bolts were hard to open, and the brand-new cartridge cases were fracturing.
A fractured case mouth in a factory round that was clearly loaded way too hot.You think this might be a sign of excess pressure?
We only fired two or three rounds from each box, but that was enough. Prior to that point, Jim and I had fired only our reloads, and those were about in the middle of what the Hornady manual recommended. The PRVI-Partizan ammo was way hotter than our reloads.
When we returned home, I grabbed RCBS inertial bullet puller and pulled the bullet out of one of the cartridges.
An RCBS inertial bullet puller.You put the loaded cartridge in the end, tighten the cap, and whack the other end on a hard surface a few times. Inertia drives the bullet out.
I thought maybe the bullets were slightly oversize and that was causing an overpressure condition. But they weren’t. They miked in at 0.312 inches (right where they were supposed to be).
Bullet diameter: Check!
I dumped the powder from the cartridge case and it weighed 52.7 grains. I had no idea what the powder was, but the powders I had loaded 7.62x54R ammo with in the past (primarily IMR 4320) had always been at 43.0 to 43.7 grains. My reloads were hard-hitting and accurate, and they felt about right to me. They recoiled and had a muzzle blast roughly comparable to a .308 Winchester, which is about what the 7.62x54R Russian cartridge is ballistically equivalent to. I didn’t see any powders in my reloading manual that went north of 50.0 grains. Nope, this PRVI ammo was just way too hot. Stupid hot.
The PRVI-Partizan propellant was a stick powder, but I had no idea what it was. I just know they loaded too much of it.My RCBS powder scale. I’m old school.52.7 grains of whatever it was. And it was stupid hot!
I pulled the rest bullets with the RCBS inertial puller, dumped all the PRVI propellant (whatever it was) in my RCBS powder dispenser, and reloaded them with the original PRVI bullets, brass, and primers with a dispensed charge of 44.0 grains.
I reloaded the disassembled ammo with 44.0 grains of the mystery PRVI propellant.
I wasn’t trying to be too cute or too scientific; I just wanted something that filled the case to about the same level as my IMR 4320 load. I didn’t have more of the PRVI propellant, so I wasn’t seeking the most accurate load. Jim and I had only bought the ammo because we wanted the brass. We just wanted to shoot it up without blowing up our rifles.
My reloaded new ammo.
That revised PRVI load worked well. It fired, it expanded the brass to obturate adequately, and I now had once-fired PRVI brass in good shape. The revised PRVI load was reasonably accurate enough, too. I think somebody at the PRVI ammo factory just wasn’t paying attention.
These guys were oblivious to what was going on around them. They could have been workers at the PRVI ammo factory.
The next day when Jim and I were on the range, a funny thing happened: A small group of deer wandered out in front of us, oblivious to our presence and the fact that they made an easy target. But it wasn’t deer season, were didn’t have our licenses with us, they were the wrong sex, and bagging one could result in a $40,000 fine here in California. Jim and I sat quietly, and the deer walked to within 30 feet of us.
On a recent secret mission to southeastern Colorado, the rental car agency at Denver International Airport was down to Nissans. I hate Nissans, and I asked the rental car dude if anything else was available. “Just a couple of Jeep Wranglers,” said dude responded. Hmmm. I always thought it might be cool to have a Jeep. I could pretend I was Joe Gresh.
Yours truly, looking like Rambo (or maybe Joe Gresh) in the Denver International Airport rental car plaza.
“I’m in,” I said, and I was in in my very own Jeep Wrangler of the two-door turbocharged four persuasion. Short. Choppy. Uncomfortable. Gas guzzling. But a lot of fun. Gresh, I get it. I want one. Not enough to buy one, but enough to rent one again.
There’s a turbocharged 4-banger somewhere in there.
You can buy a Jeep with four engines this year:
The standard V-6 3.6 liter
The same V-6 with an electronic motor hybrid deal (it sounds on the Jeep site like it’s not an Al Gore eco thing, but more of an assist for rock crawling).
A turbocharged smaller four-banger (a price delete option, which is a nice way of saying it’s an option that lowers the price of the new Jeep).
A 392-cubic-inch hemi. Just for grins I looked for a dealer online that had one of these $80K hemi Jeeps in stock, and I found one. It’s an $88K Jeep that gets 17 mpg on the highway and 13 in the city. Here in the People’s Republik, gas is well over $6.00 per gallon. Filling up my Subaru cost $95.12 yesterday.
My rental car had the turbo four banger and it still sucked fuel like a politician seeking campaign donations. At first I thought it was not going to be so bad because the instrument info center said I was averaging over 20 miles per gallon, but when I got out on the freeway at 77 mph it said my instant fuel economy was in the “you’ve got to be kidding me” category. That little 4-banger was actually doing worse than what Jeep claimed the 392 Hemi would get.
My istantaneous fuel economy at the time I took this photo was 16 mpg. That was on cruise control at 77 mph. I never could get back to this screen.
I suppose I might as well get the negative stuff out of the way first. For starters, fuel economy was atrocious. But then, folks don’t buy Wranglers for their fuel economy. And on that subject, I found that switching between screens to get the fuel economy info was tricky…tricky enough that I couldn’t find my way back to the instant fuel economy screen. Maybe the Jeep genies thought I didn’t need to know. Some things are better left unsaid, I suppose.
Another negative, which is maybe a positive, is that my Jeep felt gangly to me. Not as in tattoos and gats, but as in unsteady on its feet and ready to tip over (think of me putting my pants on in the morning and you’ll get the picture). Part of that was due to the Jeep’s height and its extremely tight turning radius (small steering wheel inputs made for huge course corrections, and on the freeway steering that barn door at nearly 80 mph it was all a bit unsettling). On a dirt road, though, K turns become a thing of the past. This thing can turn on a dime and give you nine cents change. It can make a U-turn on a two lane road.
Monster fobs. Hard to lose. Easy to inadvertently activate.
The key fobs were huge, and I guess that’s okay, but I found I was unlocking the Wrangler or setting off the panic alarm damn near every time I put the key fobs in my pocket, or if I stuck my hand in my pocket to get my chapstick or anything else.
Cargo space? As the Sopranos might say, fuhgeddaboutit. The rental car dude folded the rear bench seat up, but it wouldn’t stay up, and even when it did, there really wasn’t any room for my gear. You’re not going to be taking a lot of stuff with you in a two-door Wrangler. That pretty much killed it for me as a rifle range car. I wouldn’t be able to get all my shooting gear in there.
Wind noise is another issue. Oddly, it didn’t bother me when I was driving, even at freeway speeds. But no one could hear or understand me on a Bluetooth telephone conversation. Two folks gave up altogether and just hung up. Maybe that’s a good thing.
Seriously? This is the kind of fit and finish we get on an American legend, a descendent of the vehicle that helped us win World War II?
One last point…although the overall build quality seemed to be pretty good, Jeep lost me from a quality perspective with the fuel filler cap fit. It looks like the production tolerances were either not met or they were assigned by an AutoCad jockey who went to the Doris Day school of mechanical design.
The good news? Well, the good news is that there’s lots of good news. I fell in love with my Jeep. It was cool and I felt cool driving it. And even though it was tall enough to make getting in and out difficult, I knew almost immediately I’d be renting one on my next secret mission. I don’t need the Aston Martin and its machine guns, smoke dispensers, and ejection seat. For my secret missions, I want a Jeep.
Man, that Jeep was fun. Once I got over the difference in feel between it and a regular car, I felt invincible. Seriously. I mean, I’m a 71-year-old Jewish kid from New Jersey with a different doctor for damn near every organ in my body, but I still felt invincible in my Wrangler. I was driving directly into a Colorado hailstorm east of the Rocky Mountains at close to 80 mph, but I was in a Jeep. Gresh, I get it. It’s a power thing.
I am Rambo. Bring it on.
After the hail passed and I was back on the road, I found another plus: The headlights actually lit up the road, even on low beam, and that’s something I had not experienced in any rental car in a while.
Imagine that: Headlights that actuallly work!
So I was out there in cow country and the center of an ag world, doing my secret mission thing and having fun like I always do. Way off in the distance from the secret mission du jour there’s a couple of hills called Two Buttes (it’s actually one hill with two peaks). I had always wanted to ride out to Two Buttes and see what it was all about. I knew a Jeep wasn’t really essential, but the combination of longer days (more sunlight), the draw of a place unexplored, the dirt roads to get there, and my Jeep worked its magic.
Headed into the Two Buttes State Wildlife Area.
From the main road, Two Buttes looks like it would be easy to find and easy to find my way around. Like elections, though, what you think you’re going to get and what you actually get aren’t often the same. When I got closer to the Two Beauts, I found the area was a maze of dirt roads laid out in no particular order. The guys I was working with on my secret mission told me about a hidden lake, and my objective was to find it and grab a few photos. Waze was sketchy as hell out there in farmroadland, but I didn’t care. I was in a Jeep.
Ah, success. The lake and the Jeep, as seen through my iPhone’s wide angle lens.Another photo of the lake, or pond, or whatever it actually is called.A beauty shot of the Jeep Wrangler.
I explored, I shot a bunch of iPhone photos, and I had a good time. I want a Jeep. I’m not going to get one. But I want one.
My last photo of the day, leaving the Two Buttes State Wildlife Area.
Maybe it would be even more fun with the 392 Hemi. I did a bit more research, and I learned that Jeep only introduced the 392 Hemi this year, in 2022. It seems that the new Ford Bronco (you can read our mini-review of it here) will be offered with a V8 in their Bronco Raptor package and Chrysler felt compelled to counter. Hey, whatever floats your boat. I found this 392 Hemi Jeep review and I thought you might find it interesting.
One of the main halls in Bill’s Old Bike Barn features Moto Guzzi and military motorcycles along with other militaria, motorcycle engines, and more. We know Moto Guzzi primarily as sporting motorcycles. Back in the day, though (the day being World War II and beyond), Moto Guzzi made motorcycles for the Italian Army. Good buddy Bill has a few and they are on display, along with military motos from Germany and America and sporting Moto Guzzis.
There’s just so much to take in. I imagine Bill enjoys collecting and curating these things. That’s a cargo parachute, and it fits the collection nicely. There are several airplanes throughout Bill’s Old Bike Barn.
The Harley WL comes to mind first when anyone mentions military motorcycles. It’s the iconic World War II American military motorcycle. It’s a 750cc flathead V-twin, OD green, and it has a scabbard for a .45 ACP Thompson (and there’s one in Bill’s WL).
The quintessential American military moto, also used by Canadian forces. When I was a kid, we heard stories that you could buy these brand new, still in the shipping crates, for $25. I never found out if that story was true.
The German counterpart was a 750cc flathead BMW and sidecar. Zündapp also provided sidecar bikes to the Wehrmacht. And BMW also had a 600cc overhead valve model. Bill has a BMW with sidecar on display in this hall, but it’s a later model (note the overhead valve engine configuration).
A World War II BMW with sidecar.
Here’s another interesting military motorcycle: The 1946 500cc single-cylinder Moto Guzzi Alce. You wouldn’t think a motorcycle would be notable for its sidestand, but that’s one of the first things I noticed about it and Bill made the same comment. If you’ve ever tried to park a motorcycle in soft sand, you’ll know what this motorcycle is all about.
A 1946 Moto Guzzi Alce. It’s also the cover photo for this blog. Note the passenger handlebars.A macro shot of the Alce storage compartments.This is a serious kickstand. I could have used this in a few spots in Baja!
Harley-Davidson wandered into the military motorcycle world when they bought the Armstrong-CCM company in 1987. Armstrong had a 500cc single-cylinder Rotax-powered bike and Harley probably thought they would make a killing selling these to the US Army, but they were a day late and more than a dollar short. The Army had zero interest in gasoline-powered vehicles (the US Army has been 100% diesel powered for decades…I knew that when I was in the Army in the 1970s). The effort was quickly abandoned. That’s the bad news. The good news? The Harley MT 500 military bikes became instant collectibles. And Bill’s Old Bike Barn has one.
A Harley-Davidson MT-500. “MT” was an abbreviation for military transport; it more accurately was an acronym for sales results (as in “empty”).Interesting, but for Harley it was no cigar.
The military room also houses the Moto Guzzi Mulo Meccanico, and motorcycle half-track featured in an earlier ExNotes blog.
The Mulo Meccanico, a case study for why complexity for complexity’s sake always comes in second place. Intended to replace live mules in Italian Army service, the real donkeys had the last laugh. Or was it a hee haw?
The Mulo and the Alce military bike share real estate in Bill’s Old Bike Barn, along with commercial and very desirable Moto Guzzi non-military motorcycles. Here’s an early 1970s Moto Guzzi Ambassador.
A Moto Guzzi Ambassador from the early 1970s, when Bill was a Moto Guzzi dealer.
Bill’s Old Bike Barn includes what has to be the definitive Moto Guzzi motorcycle classic, the Falcone 500. In case you’ve ever wondered, it’s pronounced “fowl-cone-ay.” Fire engine red is a color that works well on Moto Guzzis.
A beautiful 1951 Moto Guzzi Falcone, also known as the baloney slicer for its exposed flywheel on the bike’s left side.A 1000cc Moto Guzzi sports bike.
One of the more unique “motorcycles” in Bills Old Bike Barn is a 1961 motorcycle-based dump truck. Bill kept it in its original unrestored condition for a number of years and used it to haul manure around on his farm (I used to write proposals in the defense industry, so Bill and I have that in common). Bill cleaned up the Guzzi dump truck, customized it with a show-worthy paint job, and made it too pretty to use. This is a three wheeler built around the same 500cc Falcone baloney-slicer motor shown above.
A Moto Guzzi trike dump truck. Gresh and I have a thing for three wheelers reaching back to our ride across China. Bill used this one for hauling manure around the farm.The Guzzi dump truck’s motorcycle underpinnings are obvious.Stunning by any standard.
So there you have it, folks. This is the last in our series of blogs about Bill’s Old Bike Barn. I enjoyed my visit to Bill’s more than I have to any other museum, partly because of the content and partly because of Bill. If you’re looking for a worthy destination and an experience like no other, Bill’s Old Bike Barn should be at the top of your list. I’d allow a full day for the visit, maybe with a break for lunch. We asked Bill for the best kept secret regarding Bloomsburg fine dining and his answer was immediate: The Scoreboard. It’s only a mile or two away and you can Waze your way there. Try the chili; it’s excellent.
There are six blogs in our series about Bill’s Old Bike Barn. Here’s a set of links to the first five:
Our first blog on Bill’s Old Bike Barn? Hey, here it is:
How 124-grain roundnose Boudreau powder-coated bullets performed in the SIG P226 and the Springfield Armory 1911, and
The effect of seating depth on accuracy with 124-grain roundnose Ranier plated bullets in the Springfield Armory 1911.
A friend of mine recommended Boudreau powder-coated bullets. They are reasonably-priced and I liked the look. Ralph, the Boudreau master caster, recommended seating the bullets at 1.055 or thereabouts, which is deeper into the case than I usually go but that’s what I did with these. They look pretty cool. One of my shooting buddies observed that the loaded rounds looked like lipstick. That’s good; that’s the look I was going for.
These are the Ranier plated bullets.
I tried Accurate No. 5 propellant for the first time. My local reloading shop had this propellant in stock so I thought I would try it (these days, you take what you can get). Accurate No. 5 is a flake powder like Unique, but it burns much cleaner. It doesn’t leave the sooty residue Unique leaves, and there’s much less smoke (that’s partly due to the powder-coated bullets, too).
I also wanted to evaluate bullet seating depth’s effects on accuracy with the Ranier bullets. There’s nothing too scientific or rigorous in this evaluation; I just wanted to get a feel if the 1911 was more accurate or less accurate with the bullets seated deeper in the case or further out (I didn’t do this evaluation with the SIG).
My load manuals don’t make a distinction between powder-coated bullets versus other bullets. I read some comments online that indicate powder coated bullets get the same velocity with lighter propellant charges. I finally found some data on the Hodgdon powder website for 124-grain powder coated bullets, and it showed the charge range running from 4.6 to 5.4 grains of their Accurate No. 5 powder. This was a quick-look test, so I loaded 10 rounds at 4.6 grains, 10 rounds at 4.8 grains, 10 rounds at 5.0 grains, 10 rounds at 5.2 grains, and finally, 10 rounds at 5.4 grains. As mentioned above and per Ralph’s suggestion I seated all bullets to a cartridge overall length (COAL) of 1.055 inches. I fired one 5-shot group at each charge level with the 1911, and one single 5-shot group at each charge level with the SIG P226, all at 50 feet. Like I said above, it was not a rigorous assessment; I just wanted to get a feel for what worked and what didn’t. Here are the results:
These are the targets (the Springfield 1911 target is on the left and the SIG P226 target is on the right). I worked my way from the top down and left to right with each charge weight, so the top bullseye on each target is with 4.6 grains of Accurate No. 5 and the bottom right one on each target is with 5.4 grains of Accurate No. 5).
All of the powder-coated-bullet loads functioned perfectly in both guns and none of the cartridges exhibited any pressure signs. The heaviest charge on the Accurate site (5.4 grains) gave the best accuracy in both guns. That’s the load I’m going to go with on future loads with this bullet. The load had modest recoil and it was pleasant shooting. These are good bullets and they function well with the Hodgdon-recommended charges. I will also mention that I was a little surprised: This was the first time the Springfield Armory 1911 outshot the SIG. In the past, my SIG P226 had been more accurate than any 9mm handgun I ever tested, including my 1911.
The next test was to assess the effects of seating depth on accuracy. My buddy Paul and I had a discussion on this topic and we both realized that after sending 9mm projectiles downrange for 60 years and evaluating powder, bullets, primers, and more, we had never investigated bullet seating depth as a variable in 9mm reloading. The 9mm cartridge is a short one, and most semi-autos have generous chambers to improve reliability. The combination could naturally lead to the cartridges swimming around in the chamber, perhaps more so than a .45 ACP cartridge. It stands to reason that a longer cartridge (i.e., not seating the bullet as deeply in the case) could minimize movement of the cartridge in the chamber and improve accuracy. But there are other requirements at play, like getting the cartridges in the magazine, not seating the bullet so far out that it hits the rifling before the round is fully chambered, and reliable feeding of the bullets from the magazine into the chamber. So I thought I’d run a quick experiment.
For these tests I used Ranier 124-grain plated roundnose bullets and the Springfield Armory 1911. It was unscientific. I made 25 rounds with 6.4 grains of Accurate No. 5 (a max load) and the Ranier bullets seated to a COAL 1.100 inches (which is about what I would normally do), and another 25 rounds with the same powder charge, but with the bullets seated to a COAL of 1.156 inches (which is a little more than a twentieth of an inch further out). Here are the results:
It was an easy load to shoot and there were no flattened primers or other pressure signs. All loads functioned reliably in the 1911. There was little to no leading with the Ranier plated bullets, even though this was a max load.
Here’s what the targets looked like. The top two little guys are with the bullets seated out for a COAL of 1.156 inches; the bottom two little guys are with the bullets seated deeper and a COAL of 1.100 inches.
What this quick look says to me that the Ranier plated bullets are more accurate if they are seated further out. These worked in my 1911 magazine; I didn’t check them in the SIG P226 magazine (nor did I shoot this load in the SIG). If I was to do this test again, I’d check to make sure the longer cartridges would fit in the SIG’s shorter magazine and I’d also test them for accuracy in the SIG.
I haven’t assessed the Boudreau powder-coated bullets at different seating depths. I will get to that later. I’ve got a bunch of the Ranier bullets, and a bunch of the powder-coated bullets. Primers…that’s another story. Everybody needs primers.
The standard warning: The load data included in this blog are for my guns. Yours may be different.
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September 11, 2001, is a day everyone remembers. I was just getting up when my daughter ran in to tell us about what was on the news: A plane had just hit the World Trade Center. Then, while watching the news, we saw another plane hit the second tower. Then we heard about the Pentagon. And finally, we heard about Flight 93: The plane that went down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
It was story that would develop over the next several days. Unquestionably, beyond the horror, anger, and emotions of that day, the story about the bravery of the Flight 93 passengers emerged. Words that would become known around the world emerged from Todd Beamer, who simply said “Let’s roll.”
We made the trek to the Flight 93 National Memorial recently. It’s something we all should do. The riding in that part of the world is epic, the scenery is stunning, and the Flight 93 National Memorial is an emotional experience. I don’t mind telling you I choked up while up visiting the Flight 93 National Memorial, and I’m choking up writing this blog.
The Tower of Voices, near the park entrance. It’s a gigantic set of wind chimes still under construction. The sign includes another famous quote from George Bush as he was standing on the World Trade Center debris.A closer view of the Tower of Voices. It’s not operational yet. I’m going to make the ride here again when it is.
The Flight 93 National Memorial is somber, dignified, and elegant. It consists of the Tower of Voices near the entrance to the area (see above), the impact area, a building with exhibits (in which no photography is allowed), a dark stone walkway denoting Flight 93’s flight path and point of impact, and a wall of 40 tablets (each carrying the name of Flight 93’s victims).
The large structure on the right is the museum. It is thought provoking, emotional, and somber. The dark walkway traces Flight 93’s direction of flight to the impact point. The grassy area to the right is the edge of the debris field.
The dark stone walkway shown in the photo below points to the impact area. At its end (where you see people) you can gaze out over a large grassy field bordered by a hemlock forest.
The walkway pointing to the impact area.Taking the walkway in the opposite direction takes you on a counterclockwise walk to the tablet area and into the debris field. We visited on a glorious Pennsylvania day, much like the weather on 9/11.The large boulder you see here weighs 14 tons. It was moved from the Tower of Voices site to this location, which is where Flight 93 impacted. Its speed was 563 mph.The 40 tablets, each carrying the name of a Flight 93 victim.Todd Beamer led the passenger assault on the bastards who hijacked Flight 93.This small tile was at the base of the Todd Beamer tablet shown in the photo above.
We believe that Flight 93’s intended target was the United States Capitol. Had the Flight 93 passengers not acted, our national catastrophe would have been much greater. Both houses of Congress were in session that morning.
Another view of the 40 tablets.It was hard to see some of this.
A grate of formed stone pointed from the tablets to the impact zone. Looking between the slats, the boulder denoting the point of impact is visible.
The impact field.The boulder marking the impact point.
As I mentioned above, I had a difficult time maintaining my composure when visiting the Flight 93 National Memorial. There is evil in the world, and it was out on September 11, 2001. Todd Beamer and the other Flight 93 passengers prevented the criminals who hijacked Flight 93 from achieving their objective. The Flight 93 National Memorial is a fitting tribute to their sacrifice.
There is much symbolism in the Flight 93 National Memorial. The dark sidewalks and borders represent the coal mined in the Shanksville area. The lighter stone structures (the walls of the museum and more) are impressed with the grain structure of the hemlock trees bordering the impact area. The angles in the sidewalks and walls are representative of the hemlock branches. There are three rows of benches in the viewing area, representing Flight 93’s three passenger seats in each row.
The areas around Shanksville are all rural and the riding is amazing. Shanksville is in the Allegheny Mountains, and this part of Pennsylvania is stunning. We visited in April and the Spring weather was a brisk 60 degrees in the day. It gets hot and humid in the summer. The Fall weather offers stunning views of the trees changing colors. I’d think twice before attempting this ride in the winter months due to the freezing temperatures and snow.
Nearby Somerset’s Rey Azteca’s chile relleno with chicken. It was exquisite.
We stayed in Somerset, Pennsylvania, when we visited the Flight 93 National Memorial. Somerset is the nearest town of any size. It’s about 10 miles away from the National Memorial. Shanksville is a very small community without hotels, although that will probably change (the Flight 93 National Memorial is the least visited of the 9/11 memorials, no doubt due to its remote location). If you stay in Somerset, the best kept secret is Rey Azteca, a Mexican restaurant with awesome cuisine. Rey Azteca’s chicken chile relleno is prepared in the Guatemalan style and it is awesome.
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