Author: Joe Berk

44 Special Loads

The .44 Special: It’s a classic cartridge, one that suggests sixguns, the Old West, and Dirty Harry. Elmer Keith, Remington, and Smith and Wesson created the .44 Magnum, but Clint Eastwood is the guy who put it on the map. Before Dirty Harry, gun dealers had to discount Model 29 Smith and Wessons to get them to move; after the movie, Model 29s were selling for three times MSRP. It was as good an example of product placement as ever existed, and it occurred before the concept of product placement was even created.

A Ruger Super Blackhawk up top, and a vintage, hard-to-find Smith and Wesson Model 24.

But this really isn’t a story on the .44 Magnum. Nope, this is about the cartridge that preceded the .44 Magnum, and that’s the .44 Special. If you were paying attention during the Dirty Harry series, that’s the cartridge ol’ Harry Callahan said he used in his .44 Magnum Model 29 Smith and Wesson. He explained to his sidekick (a wayward, perpetually-confused female detective) that the .44 Special had  less recoil than the .44 Magnum (duh). To me, that was the best line in Dead Pool, arguably the worst of the Dirty Harry franchise.  I think the producers tried to squeeze too much milk out of the Dirty Harry cow; they should have stopped at Magnum Force and called it a win.

The .44 story is a complicated one. There’s the .44 Russian (predecessor to and shorter yet than the .44 Special), the .44 Special (the topic here today), the .44 Magnum, and the old .44-40. To make matters even more confusing, the bullet is not really a .44 in any of these cartridges; it’s actually 0.429 inches in diameter.   But cowboy songs about a .429 wouldn’t have the same ring as the ol’ .44 (think Marty Robbins and his Arizona Ranger ballad), so .44 it is.

The .44 Special and its big brother, the .44 Magnum, have a relationship similar to the .38 Special and the .357 Magnum. The .44 Mag is a longer version of the .44 Special (it has a longer brass cartridge case), just as the .357 Mag is a longer version of the .38 Special (it’s the same deal; the .357 has a longer case). The idea is the longer case holds more propellant, more propellant equals more pressure, and more pressure means more projectile velocity. Like Harry pointed out, you get a lot more recoil with a magnum cartridge (f still equals ma, as we are fond of saying in the engineering world), but real men ought to be able to handle it. Or so the thinking goes. Truth be told, the .44 Magnum is a bit much for me.  I greatly prefer shooting the .44 Special (as did the fictional Harry Callahan). But I digress…let’s get back to the topic of this blog.

So Saturday was to be another day and another quest for a “secret sauce” recipe (this time for the .44 Special cartridge). The drill was to get out to the range before it started raining so I could test four different .44 Special loads in two different handguns: A 200th Year Super Blackhawk in .44 Magnum, and a Model 24 Smith and Wesson in .44 Special. I loaded 50 .44 Special rounds for this test; I just wanted to get a quick look near the top and bottom of the load range for two propellants (and those were Bullseye and Unique). The bullet du jour was a 240-grain cast Keith-type semi-wadcutter. I’ve been playing with .44s of one flavor or another since Dirty Harry first graced the silver screen, and the 240-grain cast Keith is as good as it gets.  I have a bunch of them on my reloading bench.

I expected the Smith and Wesson Model 24 to do better than the Ruger, and it did. The Ruger can handle both .44 Special and .44 Magnum cartridges, as it is chambered for .44 Magnum. When you shoot .44 Specials (which are shorter than .44 Magnum cartridges) in a gun chambered for the .44 Magnum, the bullet has to jump another tenth of an inch or so to get to the rifling. The Smith Model 24 is chambered in .44 Special, so the barrel’s rifling starts closer to the cartridge than it would in a gun chambered for the longer .44 Magnum cartridge.  But the Ruger is a .44 Magnum, and the .44 Special in the Ruger has to make that jump.  It’s already smoking right along when it hits the rifling and it’s unsupported during that first bit of its flight. That induces some smearing and distortion when the bullet smacks into the rifling, and that hurts accuracy. The same thing occurs when shooting .38 Specials in a .357 Magnum revolver. It’s why I’ve never been a fan of .45 Colt handguns with the extra .45 ACP cylinder, or .357 Magnum handguns with the extra 9mm cylinder. Those auto cartridge bullets have an even bigger jump to the rifling, and I’ve never seen good accuracy in the shorter auto cartridges in these revolvers.

Anyway, to get back to the main attraction, as explained above I only loaded 50 cartridges for this test, so I couldn’t shoot three groups with each load. This was to be just a quick look, because I had another 250 .44 Special cases primed, flared, and ready to reload back at the ranch. I just needed to know how to load them.

Based on my testing, the near-max load of Bullseye is the cat’s meow. 4.7 grains of Bullseye with the 240-grain bullet was consistent and accurate in both handguns, and it was awesomely accurate in the Smith and Wesson. Here are my results. So you know, all groups were shot at 50 feet, and all were 3-shot groups.

Accuracy testing of the .44 Special in the Ruger and the Smith and Wesson. 4.7 grains of Bullseye is the secret sauce!

Like I said above, the Bullseye load (again, that’s 4.7 grains with the 240-grain SWC bullet) is great in the Model 24 Smith, and it’s good enough in the Ruger. I mostly shoot .44 Magnum in the Ruger, and I will get better accuracy in that gun firing magnum cartridges than I would with the .44 Special rounds for the reasons explained above. I’ve already got a few great .44 Magnum loads; at some point I’ll develop lighter magnum loads for the Ruger. But that’s a project for another day.

Both the Ruger and the Smith are fine firearms, built in an era when attention to detail mattered to the manufacturers. The Model 24 Smith and Wesson is a real honey of a handgun. I’ve owned it since Mr. Reagan was in the White House, but until this weekend I had not shot it in years.  It’s nice to know I can still make it sing. And I love my Ruger, too. It’s a 200th year Ruger made in 1976, the 200th year of American liberty (and all Rugers manufactured in 1976 carry that inscription). I bought the Super Blackhawk Ruger when I was in the Army. Understandably but regrettably, my battery commander wouldn’t let me carry the Ruger in Korea (I had to carry a .45 ACP 1911, but that was a good deal, too).

I’ll have the Ruger out next weekend for our Motorcycles and Milsurps match (watch for the story here on the ExNotes blog).  I have a good load for it now, and I should do well.  We’ll see.

Want to see more Tales of the Gun stories?  You can do so here!

Don’t pay exorbitant range fees for your targets…get them delivered to your door here!

I use RCBS reloading gear.  This link will get you in the game!

Whale Watching!

The very title conjures excitement. Whales! Big, giant monsters…the creatures of legend. Visions of Moby Dick. Herman Melville. Call me Ishmael, and all that…

Yep, this is a topic I’ve covered before, back in September, but I like whale watching in Baja so much I thought we’d cover it again.  And yeah, Danny boy, you’re right…we’re inviting you to ride with us in March if you want to go.  You have to pass the personality test (which basically means if you’re a jerk we’ll take a pass) and you’ll have to convince us you have a significant social media presence (we want you to help us spread the ExNotes word).   Oh, yeah…one more thing…you’ll have to show up with a copy of Moto Baja!  We’ll sign it for you, and we want you to read the book so you know a bit more about riding in Baja before we head out.  We’ll be putting out more details on our March Baja ride in the near future, so keep an eye on the blog.

The best book on the best riding on the planet!

I’m convinced that the only reason the towns of Guerrero Negro and San Ignacio are not absolutely overrun with visitors during the months of January through March is that most folks just don’t know about the whale watching in Baja. To get to the point: It is the best in the world. That’s no idle overreach or hyperbole on my part. It is the best. It is the only place on the planet where you can get up close to the California grays and, in many cases, actually touch them. Go whale watching here in California and there will be maybe a hundred or more people on a large boat, and the closest you’ll get to a whale is maybe a hundred yards out in the open ocean. You might see one or more spout in the distance and it’s “mission accomplished.”

Not in Baja. It’s way better in Baja.  You’ll get on a little boat carrying maybe 8 or 10 people, you’ll go out in Scammon’s Lagoon or San Ignacio Lagoon, and you’ll be in the middle of a pod of whales.  Up close and personal. One will spout, then another, and then, suddenly, it’s like being caught in a lawn when the sprinklers go off. You’re surrounded, and they’re all close.

Mama and baby and me makes three. Baja whale watching. It’s the best in the world.

That’s when the fun starts. A whale or two, maybe twice the length of the little boat you’re bobbing around in, come right up to your boat. As in touching your boat. Then they exhale, or spout, and you’re covered in what you hope is sea water and not whale snot. Everybody laughs, including the whales.  You realize there are literally thousands of whales in your lagoon. And then you see two whales, and you realize the larger one is the mom. She’s literally pushing the little one closer to your boat, training her calf not to be afraid of people.

Ewwwww!

You’re excited about seeing the whales. They’re excited about seeing the people.  That’s when you feel it. There’s some kind of extra-sensory-perception thing happening between you and the whales. No one who ever does this goes away feeling the same. I’ve done it maybe 20 times now, and I can’t wait to get down there to do it again.

The story goes like this: More than a century ago, whalers wondered where the whales were going. You see, the California grays spend their lives on the longest migration of any mammal. They winter in Baja and summer in Alaska (which probably makes them smarter than us). But when the whalers were hunting them, the bad guys didn’t know this. They harvested (read: slaughtered) the whales they could catch out in the open ocean heading south in the months before that January-March window, or headed north after those three months, always wondering where they were headed. Then, in the 1800s, a whaling captain named Scammon discovered the lagoon that carries his name today and the word got out: These whales are all holed up in Scammon’s Lagoon. It was a blood bath and the herd of approximately 20,000 California gray whales nearly went extinct.

That’s when the Mexican government stepped in and protected the herd. It’s taken a while, but they’re back up to a population of 20,000 whales, which is what the ocean will support.

A few years ago when I was on one of my whale-watching Baja trips, there were half a dozen Mexican Navy gun boats out in the lagoon, something I had never seen before. I asked our boat captain about it, and he told me that none other than Vincente Fox, President of Mexico, was going whale watching that day. He had plans to develop the Guerrero Negro area into an industrial center, a home for manufacturers, a move opposed by Mexican environmentalists because they feared it might affect the whales, the ospreys, the sea lions, and the other protected critters in this corridor. They implored Mr. Fox to see the whales, knowing that ESP thing would kick in. The day I was there he was doing that. After his excursion, folks asked the President if he would pursue his vision of an industrial zone. “Leave it as is,” Mr. Fox answered. He knew.

Getting there takes a day or two, and taking two days is the better approach. Simply head south from California. Cross in Tijuana, stop to pick up a free Tourist Visa, and head south. I’ve made Guerrero Negro in a single day, but that required getting up at 4:00 a.m. here in Los Angeles and riding hard for the next 700 miles, much of it in the Valle de los Cirios twisties. No, it’s better to take an easy lope down, spend the evening in San Quintin, El Rosario, or Catavina, and then continue the trek south the next morning. Hotels abound in all locations, and the ride south is best savored like a fine wine. Make sure you have Mexican insurance (go with BajaBound; we always do), and bring your passport. You won’t need it to get into Mexico, but you will need it to get back into the US.

The options are to stay in Guerrero Negro and grab a whale watching tour there, or continue south for another 70 miles to San Ignacio. In my opinion, Guerrero Negro is the better option because the ride to the Scammon’s Lagoon takes only a few minutes. If you stay in San Ignacio (a beautiful little town in the center of the peninsula) getting to San Ignacio Lagoon is an hour ride on a rough dirt (read: soft sand) road.

Malarrimo’s in Guerrero Negro is a wonderful place to stay, but the other hotels in Guerrero Negro are also great.

There are hotel choices in both places. I like Malarrimo’s in Guerrero Negro, but they’re all good. Malarimmo’s is the original place for Baja whale watching, but there are others and they are all good. You may be able to call ahead and get reservations, but it helps if you speak Spanish. If it just me and one or two of my friends, we just go. If I’m bringing a group down, I call ahead for reservations.

The whale watching tours are $50 (that’s US dollars), but trust me on this: It’s the best $50 you’ll ever spend.

You can go out in the morning or the afternoon (I usually pick the morning tour), and like I said above, the whales are in town from January through March. I like March, because the weather is milder, and I think the whales are friendlier (they’ve had three months to get used to interacting with people).   You’ll see whales, you’ll see baby whales, and you might even get to see whales mating.   Actually, if that’s going on, all you’ll see is a lot of turbulence on the surface, but they tell me there’s a whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on down there.

Whale watching in Baja: It’s a hoot…and it’s still one of the best-kept secrets on the planet. You need to get down there and see it before the rest of the world finds out.  You can thank me later.

A nice note from Sergeant Zuo…

I had a nice surprise this morning…a nice note (complete with great photos) from Sergeant Zuo, our ride leader on the 2016 RX3 adventure ride across China.  Zuo and I became friends immediately on that trip.  He’s a retired Chinese Army senior NCO, and I was a lieutenant many years ago in the US Army.    Here’s the note from Zuo…

大舅：
请原谅我给您迟到的问候：新年快乐！
去年12月31日我们甘肃赛科龙俱乐部搞年会比较忙，没有及时想您新年的祝福，实在抱歉。
看您和二舅搞的论坛是我最大的一个乐趣，能从您的文章里看到你是我最高兴的事情。我可以借助翻译软件读懂您的文章。
您在中国的那段时间我们建立起来的感情不会因为山高路远而削弱，那些点点滴滴是我一辈子值得珍惜的。好几次在梦里都回到了我们在一起骑行的日子，这也许就是人们常说的“神交”吧。
2018年5月份我和俱乐部的几个车友参加了宗申在新疆搞的“龙行环塔活动”——宗申车队参加中国环塔拉力赛邀请我们RX3车主去做亲友团，之后就一直上班，在没有大的骑行活动。
最后祝您和爱人身体健康。
送您几张今年骑行的照片。
—— 左振义 2019年1月3日于中国兰州

In first photo above, Zuo is the guy on the left.   What’s that?  You don’t speak Chinese?   Okay, here you go…

Dajiu:
Please forgive me for your late greetings: Happy New Year!
On December 31 last year, our Gansu Secco Club was busy with the annual meeting. I didn’t send your New Year’s greetings in time. I am really sorry.
It is my greatest pleasure to see the forums you and that the two of you are engaged in it. It is my happiest thing to see you from your article. I can read your article with translation software.
The feelings we built up during the time in China will not be weakened by the high mountains and high roads. Those bits and pieces are worth cherishing for my whole life. On several occasions, I returned to the days when we were riding together in our dreams. This may be what people often say about “God Exchange.”
In May 2018, I and several club riders of the club participated in the “Dragon Line Ring Tower” held by Zongshen in Xinjiang. Zongshen Racing Team participated in the China Ring Rally and invited our RX3 owners and their  friends and relatives. It is a big cycling activity.
Finally, I wish you and your friend good health.
Send you a few photos of this year’s ride.
—— Zuo Zhenyi January 3, 2019 in Lanzhou, China

For those of you who don’t know, Dajiu is my Chinese name, bestowed upon me by the Chinese riders during our 5,000-mile Western America Adventure Ride.  It means Big Uncle.  Gresh and I were both on that ride; his similarly-bestowed Chinese name is Arjiu, or Little Uncle.  You can read all about that, and more, in Riding China.  (You should buy several copies.  They make great gifts.)

Zuo, my friend, it’s always great to hear from you.  Ride safe.   When you’re ready to visit the US, we’ll have a cold beer and a warm welcome waiting for you!

Three Flags Classic: Day 2

The second day of the 2005 Three Flags Classic motorcycle rally would take us from Gallup, New Mexico (where we stayed the first night of the tour) to Grand Junction, Colorado.  You can catch up on the ride by reading our prior blog posts here:

The 2005 Three Flags Classic Rally:  the Intro!

The Three Flags Classic:  Day 1

And with that, let’s get to Day 2!

Day 2 of the 2005 Three Flags Rally. Good times. Great roads. Gorgeous scenery. A grand ride in every respect!

To continue the adventure, we were up early and we rolled out of Gallup, New Mexico on a beautiful day.  The bikes were running great and Marty and I were in high spirits.  It’s hard to put into words what it feels like to be on these kinds of rides.  You’re out in the world, on a powerful motorcycle, seeing things worth seeing.   It’s a great experience and a great feeling.  Everything just seems better to me when I’m on a motorcycle ride.  I sleep better, the food has better flavors, the people are friendlier, the bikes feel stronger, and on and on it goes.  You need to experience it to really understand it.  You folks who ride the big rides know what I’m talking about.

We spent very little time on the freeways on the Three Flags Rally. Most of our riding was on magnificent roads like the ones you see in the photos below.  The folks at the Southern California Motorcycle Association who planned the ride did a fantastic job.

Another cool shot on the road in New Mexico. That’s Marty and his K1200RS BMW, with my Daytona in the background. Marty still owns the K1200RS. It has 144,000 miles on the clock.
Another Daytona shot in New Mexico. That’s Shiprock in the background.

If it seems like there are a lot of pictures of my Daytona here, well, I guess there are. I loved owning the Daytona, and the more I rode it, the more I liked it. For a cool story on how I came to own this bike, check out this blog entry I wrote a few months ago.

A few miles up the road from this location, we crossed into Colorado. This was my first time in Colorado, other than passing through the airport in Denver a few time on business trips.  But those stops don’t really count…a layover in any airport could be a layover in, well, any other airport.

Mesa Verde, Colorado. Wow…this was a great ride!

Marty wanted to stop in Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado.  I had never heard of the place (I don’t get out enough, I guess), but I was up for it.  Marty was a very easy guy to travel with and he didn’t have many preferences.  He was a judge (that is to say, he’s the real deal…a Superior Court judge), and he told me that he didn’t want to make any decisions on this ride.  Where we stayed, where we stopped to eat, and all the rest were up to me.  I think that’s because Marty was paid to make decisions all day long.   Making decisions was his job, and he wanted a break.    So when he asked to hit Mesa Verde, it was about the only time he expressed a preference on where to go, and I was all for that.  It was a good move.   Mesa Verde National Park is an impressive place.

The ride up to the top of Mesa Verde (it literally means “green table” in Spanish) was awesome.  It’s a multi-mile climb to about 8500 feet, and the vistas are incredible.  You can see clear into New Mexico from the top.

All of the above, as you can see from the photos, was grand.  But the main attractions at Mesa Verde National Park are the ancestral Pueblo Native American ruins.   That part of the Park is almost beyond belief.  It’s real Indiana Jones stuff.

Ancient Indian cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde. If you’ve never been to Mesa Verde National Park, trust me on this: You need to make the trip. Watch for the next issue of Motorcycle Classics magazine…it’s got all the good info on where to stay, where to eat, and more.

Mesa Verde is a very interesting National Park.   I liked it so much that Sue and I took a road trip there last summer to explore the area in more detail.  I’d been thinking about it in the 14 years that have elapsed since the 2005 Three Flags Classic.  I wanted to see it again and bring my wife so she could see it.   The Native American cliff dwellings are amazing and the scenery is magnificent.  I have a story coming out on Mesa Verde in the next issue of Motorcycle Classics magazine.  It really is a special place.  Marty made the right call on this one.   Hey, he’s a judge.  The guy makes good decisions!

After Mesa Verde, we rode through heavy rains along the Dolores River and stopped in Telluride, Colorado.  The sun came out just as we entered town.   The ride along the Dolores River in Colorado was beautiful even in the rain.   We were having a grand time.

Downtown Telluride, washed clean by a torrential Colorado rain.

We had a checkpoint in Rangely, Colorado. It was a great experience.  I had a conversation with a guy named Pat (a BMW GS rider), and it turned out he lives one street over from where I live in California.   I mean, think about that: Here we were, probably 1300 miles from So Cal, two guys strike up a conversation, and it turns out we’re practically neighbors (but we had never met before this ride).   What are the odds?

Good buddy and GS rider Pat, a fellow Californio, at a checkpoint in Colorado.

We made Grand Junction, Colorado, where we would be spending the night, and we reconnected with our friends at the hotel.  Dinner was great, and then the rain started again.   I felt like taking more photos after dinner and I wanted to play with a couple of new toys.  I had just purchased an ultra-wide Sigma 17-35 lens and I wanted use it.  I had also purchased a Sunpak MiniPro Plus tripod for the trip.  It looked like it was going to be a good idea, but it was a bust. One of the legs broke off halfway through the ride, and I threw the thing away.  I almost never travel with a tripod any more.   They’re just too bulky, and I can usually find something to steady the camera for evening shots.

Our bikes, parked in the rain at the hotel in Grand Junction, Colorado. I used the 17-35 Sigma for this shot, and my uber-cheap tripod (before it broke).

That wrapped up Day 2 of our Three Flags Classic ride in 2005.   It was a great ride.   We were two days into it and we had already ridden halfway across the United States.   Out tally so far was two countries and four states.  We still had several more states and another whole country to go.  It was magnificent.

There’s more to come on this grand adventure, folks.  Stay tuned for Day 3!

And the winner is…

Our moto adventure book giveaway winner is none other than good buddy Trevor Summons, and that’s a hell of a coincidence. I actually know Trevor. We have quite a few folks following the ExNotes blog, and Trevor is one of those who signed up for automatic email notifications when we post a new blog.  I first met Trevor when he did a story on CSC Motorcycles several years ago for the Daily Bulletin newspaper, and we’ve stayed in touch since.

Trevor and his Harley Heritage. Harleys have been featured a lot lately here on the ExNotes blog!

Trevor’s the real deal…he’s a columnist who writes the “Trevor’s Travels” feature, and he’s a Harley-Davidson rider.  Trevor and his son (who lives in Japan) do a 3,000-mile moto camping trip every year. They’ve been to the Canadian border, Sturgis, Yellowstone twice, and southern Colorado. This past September Trevor and his son went up to northern Ontario (the one in Canada, not here in So Cal).

Trevor opted for a signed copy of Moto Colombia, and we’re getting together for lunch sometime in the next couple of weeks so I can give it to him. You can bet I’ll grab a photo or two when we do that.

You can order your own copy of Moto Colombia right here!

For those of you who didn’t win this time, don’t have a cow.  We’re going to have a regular quarterly book give away, and the next contest starts today. We’ll announce the winner on April 1st, except it will be for real (that is to say, it won’t be an April Fools sort of thing). All you need to do to enter is be on our email list, and you can do that by adding your email address to the widget on this page!

Happy New Year!

A 2019 Heritage Softail.  It’s magnificent, and magnificently expensive.

I’m celebrating the start of 2019 the right way, with a trip to the rifle range to test a few new loads for accuracy, but during a break in my reloading session yesterday (at the tail end of 2018), I let chaos theory take over.  That’s the theory that says you often get unpredictable outcomes from random, seemingly unconnected events.

The unconnected event was the light bulb over our bathroom shower blowing out a couple of days ago.   The Boss (SWMBO, or she who must be obeyed) gave me directions to get it taken care of, and that meant a short ride to the lighting store.  You’re probably wondering about now if I somehow got electrocuted or if I slipped on the ladder taking the bulb out.  Nope, neither one of those things happened.  But….

You see, the lighting store is just across the street from our local Harley dealer.  You know, the T-shirt guys who also sell motorcycles.  I had to stop in to see the new Harleys.  I mean, I was right there.  No, I didn’t need a new T-shirt.  But I was curious.  It would be 2019 in a few hours, and I needed to see the latest and the greatest from Milwaukee and Mumbai.

I’ve owned a couple of Harleys in my life.  The first was a 1979 Electra-Glide Classic, a two-tone-tan-and-cream-colored full dresser that was beautiful.  I called it my optical illusion.  It looked like a real motorcycle.  The thing was gorgeous, but it couldn’t go a hundred miles without something breaking, and when I finally sold it (also in 1979, after its third top end overhaul), I swore I would never buy another Harley.

Promises are made to be broken, and that led to a 1992 Heritage Softail, which was a great motorcycle.  I did some real traveling on that one, as you’ll need from reading Moto Baja.  The Softail made it to 53,000 miles before the engine froze up, and that was after I owned it for just over 10 years.  I’m real certain about that “just over 10 years” time frame, because when the engine locked up, the Harley dealer wouldn’t touch it.  That was because it was “over 10 years” old, and that’s the cutoff for Harley working on a motorcycle.  But that was okay…because I put a 96-inch S&S motor in the thing, and that really woke the bike up.  Top end went from just under 100 mph to well over 120 mph (the speedo only went to 120, and burying the needle was no problemo with the new motor).   The fuel economy went from the low 40-mpg range to about 30 mpg with that new motor, but hey, who’s counting?

But then chaos theory took over again.   I was supposed to bring home a carton of milk one day when I was out on my Harley, I forgot, and SWMBO sent me back out to fetch said carton.  For whatever reason, I took my KLR 650 on that run, so I had a chance to ride the 96-inch Harley back-to-back with the KLR.   You can guess where this story is going.  The KLR was faster, it handled better, and best of all, the entire KLR motorcycle had cost less (brand new) out the door than just the S&S had cost for the Harley.   Cycle Trader came to the rescue, and two days later, I was happily Harleyless.   Chaos Theory.  Powerful stuff.

So, back to the main attraction here:  My visit to the Harley dealer yesterday, and the 2019 version of the Heritage Softail.  Here’s the ticket, folks, not including sales tax…

Wowee! Note that this model has the optional 114-cubic-inch motor, for those times when 107 cubic inches just won’t do.

$22,787!  Yikes!  I asked the sales guy, after telling him I was only interested in looking and I was not a buyer, about the engine size.   It seems the standard motor is a 107 cubic inch V-twin, and this one had Harley’s optional 114-cubic inch motor.  I guess there’s no substitute for cubic inches.  My two earlier Harleys had 80 cubic inches.  My current motorcycle has 250 cubic centimeters, which is hair over 15 cubic inches, and that has taken me all over the US, up and down Baja a half-dozen times, across China, around the Andes in Colombia, and well, you get the idea.  But you never know.  There might be a time when another 100 cubic inches would come in handy.

Anyway, take a look at the dealer setup fee on that sticker above.  Yikes again!  And how about that CARB fee?   Folks, I’ve been in the business, and I’ve spent a lot of time seeing bikes through the CARB process at their test facilities in El Monte, California.  I know the folks who run the place.  There is no such thing as a CARB fee.   At least that the CARB people know about.

Moving on, I noticed the Harley Street model.  Gresh told me he’d never seen one, and I thought I’d snap a photo of it for him.  It’s not a bad looking bike.  Nah, scratch that:  It’s a great looking bike…

The Harley Street. 500cc. It looked and felt good to me. Maybe I can talk these guys into a test ride.

I like the look and feel of the Street.  I don’t know how it rides.  The price of the bike is reasonable, too, other than the aforementioned CARB and dealer setup fees…

This is more like it for a guy like me. But there’s no way I’m paying a fictitious CARB fee or a thousand bucks for setup.  The freight cost is close to reality, I think, and I’m okay with that.

My guess is Harley is eager to deal on these little bikes.  They should just give me one.  I’d like to ride the Mumbai Monster.   I’d ride it all over and publicize the hell out of it.  It would give me license to start wearing Harley T-shirts again, too.

I joked with the sales guy about the prices, and he told me to take a look at the CVO (as in “Custom Vehicle Operations”) number on the bike behind me.  Wowzers!

Yowzers,wowzers, and more!  $45K!  Hey, maybe they’d throw in a free T-shirt.

$45,522!  Good Lord!

But, the bike was beautiful…

A CVO Harley. It was magnificent, and magnificently priced.
The CVO Harley has a 117 cubic inch engine. You know, for those times when 114 cubic inches just won’t do.

So there you have it.   A burnt-out light bulb led to a Harley dealer visit and the photos you see above.  No, I didn’t buy anything.  Not even a T-shirt.  But I had fun looking.  It was a good way to wrap up 2018.

Happy New Year, folks!

Buffalo’s Vietnam videos…

I first met Buffalo Bonker on one of the CSC Baja rides and I liked the guy immediately.  I think it may have taken him a bit longer to warm up to me, but I’m told I’m an acquired taste, so that’s okay.  Anyway, Buffalo bought his first motorcycle ever and learned to ride just for the Baja trip, and he caught the spirit.  The guy is a true adventure rider, so much so that he and his cousin (and his cousin’s daughter) flew to Vietnam, rented motorcycles, and toured the country.  That’s very, very cool.  I’m in awe.

Buffalo created a series of videos about his Vietnam adventure ride.  I’m including the first one here, and a link to the entire series.  Enjoy, my friends.  I sure did!

Marlin’s 336 Texan Deluxe

The latest rendition of a classic rifle: Marlin’s new 336 Texan Deluxe in .30-30.

Over the years, Marlin has offered more than a few variations of their venerable 336 lever action rifle in a variety of chamberings, with the most prolific cartridge being the tried and true .30-30.  I’m a true believer in Marlin lever guns, as you know from reading the blog about the Marlin 336 Octagon earlier (it’s one of the super rare variants of this fine rifle). The Marlin boys (formerly of New Haven, now out of Ilion, NY) had versions of the 336 with long barrels, short barrels, in-between barrels, commemoratives of various flavors, straight grip stocks, pistol grip stocks, walnut stocks, birch stocks, laminated stocks, blued carbon steel, stainless steel, standard levers, big loop levers, and more.   People have focused entire collecti0ns on (and written books about) Marlins.

One of the more graceful versions of the 336 Marlin rifle was the Texan, an earlier straight-grip, walnut-stocked number that to my eye just looked right.  I like a straight-gripped stock, and to me blue steel and walnut is the Holy Grail.  The older Marlin Texans are not super rare, but they’re not common, either, and when a used Texan comes up for sale it commands a premium price. As is the case with most guns, a used Texan today would sell for many multiples of its original price.  That’s kind of the justification I’ve used whenever I’ve purchased any gun, but in the Marlin Texan’s case, it’s actually true.  As an aside, guns of any flavor generally go up in value (they are one of the few things in life that do).   And as an aside to that, most of us who play with these things generally tell our significant others that we paid less than we actually did, secure in the knowledge that the value is going to go up anyway.  (We don’t spend too much; we just buy too soon sometimes.) It brings to mind the Gun Collector’s Prayer:

Lord, when I go, please don’t let my wife sell my guns for what I told her I paid for them…

So, to get back on topic:  Several months ago, Marlin reintroduced the Texan.  To back up a bit, I mentioned in an earlier blog that Marlin was acquired by Remington, and Remington moved the Marlin production equipment from New Haven (the old Marlin plant) to their plant in Ilion, New York.  And as I explained in that earlier blog, there was a feeling that quality dipped during the transition.   Well, you can rest easy, folks:  Marlin quality is most definitely back now.  In fact, I think the new Marlins are of even better quality than the rifles produced in New Haven.  I know a little bit about quality and I know a little bit about guns, and unlike most of the people expressing opinions on the Internet, I actually own rifles made in both places.

Marlin is calling their new model the Texan Deluxe. The concept had my interest immediately.   A new Texan, I knew, would be something special, and this one sure is.  It has light engraving, a gold inlay of the Marlin ranger, and what Marlin is calling B-grade walnut. B-grade should indicate walnut with a bit of figure, but in following the auctions and sales on Gunbroker.com, everything I saw had plain, straight-grained wood. They were good-looking rifles, but I wanted something with fancier wood and I just had not seen anything online that met my expectations.  In fact, I had not seen any of the new Texans in any of the gun stores I visited (I only saw these rifles on the Internet).  But that all changed recently.

Fast forward to one month ago.  I had taken my Subie in for an oil change. There’s a gun store not too far from the Subaru dealer (Ammo Brothers, a California chain).   When I left, it was raining cats and dogs, traffic was terrible, and I thought I would kill some time by seeing what the Bros (as in the aforementioned Ammo Brothers) had in stock.

You can guess where this story is going.

I checked the handguns, the reloading components, and more. Reasonable prices, reasonable inventory, and then before I left, I did a quick scan of the rifles they had on display. To my great surprise, Ammo Brothers had a new Texan Deluxe in the rack.  And, it had stunning wood.  I asked to see it.  The young dude behind the counter handed the rifle to me.  It was flawless.  No nicks, no dings, perfect wood-to-metal fit, and wow, the walnut was exquisite.

“Do you have any more in stock?” I asked. I always ask.  They might have one in back with even nicer wood, although I knew the one I was holding would be impossible to beat.  The guy checked; the one in my hands was the only one they had. “Can you knock anything off the price?” Nope, it was what it was.  He told me they were hard to get.  Tell me about it, I thought.

“I’ll take it,” I said.  And as Forrest Gump would say, just like that I had me a new Marlin 336 Texan Deluxe.  One with walnut I thought was way better than B-grade wood.

Well, not quite just like that. I had to wait my 10-day Peoples Republik of Kalifornia kooling-off period. You know, so I wouldn’t run out and rob a liquor store or stick up a gas station. You never know.

My new Marlin at Ammo Brothers. Check out the highly-figured walnut. As walnut ratings go, I’d call this AA wood, not B-grade. Sometimes you just get lucky.
My Texan, port side. Nice. Very nice.
A closer shot of that fabulous wood.
Light engraving, and the Marlin Ranger…it all works very well together.
A simulated ivory front sight. A white bead front sight is a great concept and it works. Good visibility and it doesn’t track the sun like a brass bead.
Even the fore end is highly figured. This is a beautiful lever gun.

Two weeks later, I had the new Texan on the range, and I have to tell you, it is a honey. The trigger is only slightly on the heavy side, and it is crisp. It has a white bead front sight, and I really like that (I don’t like a brass bead front sight, as that tends to shoot to a variable point of impact depending on where the sun is). The new Marlin shot to the right, but that’s something easily corrected with a brass drift, and it’s a normal part of zeroing in a rifle.  Good buddy Paul made a brass drift for me and the sight has already been put where it needs to be.

What’s really nice about the new Marlin is that it groups well.  You can see that in the photo at the top of this blog.   I tried four different loads and all grouped well, including a reduced load with cast bullets and Trail Boss powder (that combo recoils and sounds about like a .22, and that’s really cool).  Here are the results…

A few of the loads, which are very promising. WW 748 is another propellant that works well in the .30-30; that’s a load for another range session. These are the first four loads through this rifle. All groups were fired at 50 yards.

I didn’t measure the cast loads because I shot a bunch of them (not my usual three-shot groups) and I used a non-distinct aim point. The cast bullets shot about 6 inches low at 50 yards compared to a full-power jacketed bullet load. But the cast bullet group (using a flaky aim point) was relatively tight. Good stuff, and I’ll shoot more of those on my next visit to the range.  I’m going to load some up today.

The other surprise was how easy the Marlin was to clean. Marlins break down for cleaning far easier than the Winchester 94 (I knew that going in). On a Marlin, you remove the lever pivot screw, and that allows withdrawing the lever, the bolt, and the ejector, and that in turn allows clearing the rifle’s barrel from the breech (rather than the muzzle). On a Winchester 94, it’s quite a bit more complicated (so much so that I’ve never kept a Winchester 94 for very long).  Marlin builds a better mousetrap.

What I didn’t realize is how well Marlin is making these barrels. Marlin uses their micro-groove approach on the .30-30 336, which means there are a dozen relatively shallow lands and grooves in the bore.  That makes for less bullet deformation, and the theory is the things are more accurate than a conventional rifle with Ballard lands and grooves (which are deeper than micro-grooves). Accuracy aside, micro-grooving also makes the bore much easier to clean. The bore in my new Texan is super polished, and it’s actually blued in there, too. Some folks think that micro-groove rifling doesn’t allow a rifle to shoot cast bullets, but I didn’t find that to be the case at all. My rifle handled cast 190-grain bullets with no problems, great accuracy, and no leading.

The bottom line:  This new Texan is stunning.  Marlin is back, folks.

Want to read more Tales of the Gun?   Click here and we’ll take you there!

Lunch at Jardines

You guys and gals will remember my good buddy Baja John, a guy with whom I’ve been exploring Baja for close to three decades now…

Baja John back in the mid-’90s. Big V-twins and black leather were all the rage. I shot this photo at La Bufadora during a break in the El Nino rains.

John sent an invitation to me to ride with him in Baja this month, but I couldn’t make it (I’ve been in northern California this week).   I suggested to John that our ExNotes readers sure would appreciate it, though, if he could send photos from his trip, though, and here’s an email I just received from him…

Joe,

I was originally going to send you just the pictures when you mentioned putting pictures in the blog, so I thought that you might want a story to go with them. I’ve attached a Word document with a story just in case. For some reason, I cannot transfer the pictures to my laptop, so I left places within the document to place the pictures. I will try again to upload the pictures from my phone to my email. Hopefully it works this time. It should be easy to figure out which picture goes where. If you don’t want the story, just enjoy the pictures. BTW, I just finished two fish tacos and two shrimp tacos at Antonio’s. I may go back and eat another one for you before I leave town.

John

That sounds awesome, John.  Tell Tony hi for me when you see him again, and tell him I’ll be down there soon enough!  We sure appreciate the story and the photos.  And folks, without further ado, here’s Baja John’s most recent Baja adventure…

In early 2002, I bought a house in Bahia de Los Angeles on the Baja Peninsula with thoughts of retiring there someday. Over the ensuing years, I continued to ride motorcycles to and from Mexico, anxious for the day when I could leave from my house in Mexico instead of riding 600 miles just to get there, and then begin my ride. Well, that day finally arrived, and I decided to take a ride to Jardines in San Quintin for lunch. I’d heard a number of positive remarks from fellow Americans who had stayed there and who had eaten there. It was time to give the place a personal assessment.

I packed some snacks and water in my tank bag in preparation for my trip. The morning was cool and crisp when I left. It was within a couple of days of the winter solstice and the days were short, so my plan was to leave at sunup, hoping to complete the 450-mile roundtrip before dark. This picture was taken about 20 miles out of town.

The fog nestled so close to the ground made it appear as though I was looking at a forest of cacti poking their heads through the clouds. For some unknown reason, I took that as an omen of good things to come. I passed one truck on that 40 mile stretch to the main highway.

When I reached the junction at Highway 1, my fuel gauge read 3/4 full. I turned to the north, and immediately saw this sign.

I wasn’t yet familiar with my CSC TT250, but I had read reviews of 65 mpg, and since I didn’t yet know what 3/4 full meant on my bike, I decided to press on, optimistic that I would find gas somewhere on the way.

Traffic increased on Highway 1. I guess that’s to be expected since it’s the only paved highway that travels the entire length of the peninsula. After passing 6 vehicles within the first 30 minutes, I decided that traffic probably wasn’t going to be bad enough to have a negative impact on my ride, so I continued north, enjoying the solitude and watching the highway twist its way through the desert as I came down yet another mountain.

As I continued north, I noticed my gas gauge reaching 1/2 full at Chapala. I still had 63 miles to go to Catavina, which was the only place that I thought may have gas. Hoping that the gauge accuracy was a bit on the conservative side, I continued on. Running the numbers in my head, I concluded that I should make it to Catavina, even if my actual fuel level was a little less than indicated. However, if Catavina didn’t have gas, then I was going to either have to stay there until I could find someone passing through with extra gas, or try to locate a rancho that might have a couple of gallons to spare. Fortunately, in Catavina I came across a small sign stuck in the dirt on the left side of the highway that said Pemex. The arrow pointed to the right side of the road, and as my eyes scanned the opposite side of the highway, I saw a pickup truck with a couple of 55 gal drums and a few one gallon plastic containers. By this time I had travelled about half the distance to San Quintin, and although my low fuel light was already flashing, I still had not gone on reserve

I figured the price would be astronomical, but that was ok since I would only need a couple of gallons. Surprisingly, it was only $1 per gallon higher than the Pemex station where I had filled up in my town the day before. Confident that I could now make it the rest of the way to San Quintin, I pressed on north, maintaining between 60 and 65 mph indicated.

The desert continued to get greener as I closed in on the town of El Rosario where Mama Espinoza’s famous restaurant is located. I passed by knowing that I had a meal waiting for me in less than an hour at Jardine’s. Traffic remained consistent through the remainder of my trip, and I reached my destination at 11 a.m.

Jardines was like an oasis in the middle of the desert. There were no signs indicating its presence, and as I turned off the main highway just south of town, I thought the place must really be nice since it appeared that they relied on word of mouth for advertisement. Making the turn onto the final dirt road, I still didn’t see it, and there was no indication that a hotel existed anywhere ahead.

After a 1/2 mile, a beautiful hotel, restaurant, and gardens appeared on the right through the trees.

I pulled into the empty parking lot of the restaurant, dismounted, and approached the door. It was locked. Fortunately the hours were posted. Another hour before they opened. That wasn’t good. If I waited around until they opened, got seated and served, I wouldn’t get back on the road until after 1 p.m. That would make it difficult to make it home before dark. Hmmm! Better check the hotel. I had heard the rates were good, but I was pleasantly surprised that a single room was only $31. A two bedroom-suite was a bit steeper at $45. It didn’t take me long to decide to take advantage of one of the perks of retirement – unscheduled time. I quickly pulled out my wallet, checked in, walked around the grounds for a few minutes, and then waited outside the restaurant until they opened.

I opted for the Mediterranean Shrimp at $8.40.

It was fantastic. I was seriously glad that I decided to stay. I kept occupied throughout the day by reading my kindle and talking to Anna, the hotel manager that day. She had spent several years in Wichita, KS, so she spoke English quite well. That night I paid a whopping $4.00 for some Fish and Chips. Another great meal.

The next morning I took my time riding around the area before heading home. I finally left town at 11 a.m. Traffic was the same as the previous day, and I made it home at 3:30 p.m. I stopped for a moment, looking at the moon over the bay before winding my way down the mountain toward home.

Hard to believe; for less than $100 I had a wonderful two days of riding, great food, a good night’s sleep and not one stop light. I feel truly blessed.

Just awesome, John!   I had never heard of Jardines, but you can bet it’s on the list for my next visit.  Thanks again.

Folks, if you’d like to know more about Baja and our moto adventures down there (and our recommended insurance company, BajaBound), just click here!   And if you’d like a more in-depth discussion of what is arguably the greatest adventure riding spot on the planet, why not pick up a copy of Moto Baja!


Harley Tanking

This article in Barron’s on Harley’s sales popped up recently.  The bottom line is that Harley’s sales are dropping more than predicted, and things are not looking good in Milwaukee.  It’s simultaneously interesting and disappointing.  I don’t like it when any motorcycle company has bad news, and I’m hoping that Harley gets it turned around.  Harley is introducing new, smaller motorcycles, and I think that’s the ticket back.  The question is:  Can they do it quickly enough?

Harley has a tough row to hoe, having built their business selling overweight, underperforming, uber-expensive bikes to a clientele that is aging out.  The smart move would be to acquire a small motorcycle manufacturer or importer with a proven track record and to then build on that success, but hey, what do I know?   I know there aren’t too many people left willing to shell out $20K to $40K for chrome, conchos, and leather fringe.  I also know that you can’t get inventory fast enough when you’re selling new motorcycles for $2K, or maybe $4K.

We’ll see.

Your thoughts on all of this?   Leave us a comment and let us know where you think the market is going, why a great old company like Harley is having such a tough time in a booming ec0nomy, or any other topic.

Hey, one more thing:  There are less than 4 more days left to get in on our moto-adventure book drawing!  Just leave your email address for automatic email notifications, and you’re entered!