Gear – The ExhaustNotes Blog

Buell Fever Part 8: Slippery Business

By Joe Gresh

The stereotypical image of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle leaking oil has become a cultural icon. Dirty, unshaven and drunk riders astride seeping, smoking, rattling, home-built murdercycles were made popular in biker movies from the 1970’s and the image persists today.

How real is that image? I can’t say because my Buell was manufactured in 1995 but I hear new Harleys mostly don’t leak…much, if at all. My 30 year-old Buell leaked oil. Before we dive into the engine oil leak we have to get a few other leaks out of the way. .

You’ll remember all the trouble I had with the original Mikuni carburetor, the float needle leaked through various repair attempts and I thought I had the problem licked. The Buell ran good and got 50 miles to a gallon of gas. I took it out for a few rides and no carburetor leaks. Then I walked into the shed one day, straddled the Buell, hoisted it up straight and gas poured out the air cleaner. Like a lot of gas.

That was the final straw for the original Mikuni carburetor. I replaced the entire unit with a Chinese clone carb from Amazon and the bike has never run better and it doesn’t leak out of the carburetor or the air cleaner. Thanks, Global Trade!

But here’s my question: why did the old carburetor overflow at all? I had the fuel petcock off, where did the gas running out of the carb come from, you may well ask? Turns out the petcock was not completely shutting off as a steady drip of gasoline wormed its way past the 4-hole rubber seal in the petcock. Thus, the fuel shut-off was never really shut-off.

This isn’t the actual petcock gasket but you get the idea.

I took the petcock apart and flipped the 4-hole rubber seal around. That cured the fuel leaking to the carburetor in the off position but it created a bigger problem in that gas leaked out of the body of the petcock in all positions.

Finding a replacement rubber, 4-hole o-ring was uneventful as none were to be found. Instead, I bought a new petcock on Amazon and the new valve fixed the bypassing problem. But there was another gas leak.

The Buell has a roto-cast plastic gas tank under that pretty, race-bike inspired, but heavy, fiberglass bodywork. An aluminum gas cap flange screws onto the tank with a rubber gasket. This joint weeped gas when riding the bike. Not a lot, but annoying and enough to leave streaks of fuel mungus down the side of the gas tank.

Not so many parts to the Buell tank but the few that are there may leak.

Dismantling the flange, I discovered a check valve under the tank vent that needed to be removed before the flange would come off.

I got rid of this check valve. I expect the bike to burst into flames any minute.

The valve must have something to do with emissions control as it only let air into the tank. I’m sure this added to the float needle issue as the tank was under slight pressure just sitting in the warm New Mexico sun.

Fixing the flange leak was as easy as cleaning off the gasket. Blasting it with a little Permatex high-tack and reassembling the mess. I omitted the check valve to equalize the pressure between the tank and the Earth’s atmosphere. Of course now when the bike falls over it will leak gas like every other old motorcycle I own.

You can’t see it well in this photo but the rear cylinder is an oily mess.

With the gas leaks sorted I turned my attention to the oil leaks. The rear rocker cover was dribbling oil down the cylinder where turbulent air whisked it onto the battery and all points south. It wasn’t a huge leak but let’s just say the back of the Buell is not likely to rust anytime soon.

Luckily Erik built the S2 so that the rocker covers are removable without dropping the engine. I did have to cut an Allen wrench short to clear the frame tube, but it was an easy job all things considered.

It’s a snug fit but as long as you’re willing to chop your tools it’s do-able.

With the new rocker cover gaskets, I took the bike out for a spin and the rear cylinder puked oil as badly as ever. I figured the oil must be leaking from under the rocker box. I’m nothing if not persistent so I took the rocker covers back off and then the rocker boxes. (This year Sportster engine has 3-piece rocker assemblies)

The gaskets crumbled upon removal of the rocker boxes.

The paper gasket is under the rear rocker box was brittle and broken. I replaced both front and rear gaskets with a metal version of the paper gasket. I knew for sure I had the leak fixed.

On the test run the reassembled rear rocker leaked as bad as ever. Back to the shed and everything came apart again for the third time. I was pretty much out of ideas.

Studying the situation over the course of several days I observed the rear umbrella valve (a nickel-sized, round flapper-type deal in the rocker cover) was much harder than the front umbrella valve. Like hard plastic instead of soft rubber. I swapped both umbrella valves with new ones. Then assembled the mess thinking no way it could be those little valves.

This little valve caused the rear cylinder rocker cover leak.

I test rode the Buell 200 miles and no oil leaked out the rear cylinder. The battery area and aft sections were dry. Look, I’m not complaining. I can’t pin this on Harley’s image. 30-year old motorcycles are going to leak oil. Seals harden, gaskets dry up and split, 0-rings lose their O-ness and umbrella valves aren’t going to bounce. Besides, I enjoy working on the Buell. It’s a weird, wonderful machine that fits no known stereotype.

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A Tale of Two Bowsers

By Joe Gresh

I’m stealing the two-fer idea from Berk mostly because I haven’t had an original thought in 10 years. This Bowsers thing happened last week when I was changing the tire on the ZRX1100 for an upcoming trip to Utah.

The tire, a Bridgestone, was a bear to get on the rim, very stiff and it took lots of lube and struggle to get the thing fitted. One casualty of the battle was the little dot that is supposed to be near the valve stem ended up 180 degrees opposite. I don’t know how that happened, I started with it in the correct position.

The tire was so difficult I left the dot position where is was, figuring to cancel out any imbalance with wheel weights later.

Normally I don’t have much trouble airing up a tubeless motorcycle tire and use a little 12-volt pump for the task. The Bridgestone had other ideas. The damn beads would not seat. I needed more air pressure and more air volume.

Tools of the trade for a cosplay mechanic.

Back in my youth I wanted to be an auto mechanic and I worked at a few shops mopping floors. In the 1970’s there were no cordless tools. Since all shops had a big compressor I needed an air impact, hammer, ratchet, drill to complete my cosplay mechanic’s kit.

The old Craftsman, sporting an air/water separator filter. Lots of air has gone through this rig.

Once you have a bunch of air tools you’ll need a compressor to operate the tools at home so I bought a Sears compressor, I was around 15 years old at the time and since I fancied my self a custom painter in addition to being a mechanic the compressor was used most every day.

Fast forward 50 years and the Bridgestone tire: I flipped the switch on the Craftsman compressor and a loud buzzing sound was all I got. My first guess was a bad capacitor. I ordered one from Amazon as there was nowhere close to buy electrical bit. Still, I had no air. I needed a compressor right now.

As luck would have it Harbor Freight (I get no commission, although I should) had a 20-gallon unit on sale for $200. I drove down the hill and picked up a copy.

The new compressor looks well made. It’s a vertical unit so the thing takes up slightly less floor space. A big difference between the direct-drive, single cylinder Harbor Freight and the belt-driven, two cylinder Craftsman is the noise: the HF is loud as hell.

With the new compressor’s 125 psi blast it was easy as pie to get the beads seated on the Bridgestone. The tire was well made and it only took 1/2 ounce to balance. Closing that chapter of my life I moved on to the old compressor.

The new Amazon capacitor arrived and I swapped it into the Sears compressor. The result was the same: a loud buzzing sound. Having eliminated one variable I decided the motor start/run switch wasn’t working and the compressor was trying to start on the run circuit.

After 50 years and 3 states the contacts finally lost continuity.

Taking the motor apart was easy and the contacts for start/run were arced and corroded. I felt this was the problem and cleaned the contacts as best I could.

While I had the motor apart I greased the unsealed ball bearings for the first time in 50 years. I’ll be long dead before they need grease again. The pulley was well rusted onto the shaft, it took some heat, penetrating oil and lots of back and forthing to get it pulled off so that I could grease the output side bearing.

After 50 years the bearings were dry. Amazingly they still spun relatively smooth.

I reassembled the mess, crossed my fingers and plugged in the compressor. The smooth whir coming from the compressor belied its age. The Craftsman was back in business at 50 years old.

So now I have two compressors. The 220-volt Craftsman and the 110-volt Harbor Freight. Even though it’s lower voltage the HF starts with less amp surge which helps out the 6000-watt inverter but it’s loud. The HF also makes 45 pounds more pressure.

The 1-horse motor on the Craftsman packs a wallop on startup, even at the higher voltage, but you can carry on a conversation standing next to the thing. It struggles to get to 80 psi and that is probably due to needing new rings or reed valves.

I guess the big difference is I’m pretty sure the Harbor Freight won’t be working in 2075 but you never know. I wouldn’t bet against that old Craftsman still pumping air for another 50 years.

You know you want it. Go ahead.

Aldo: An ExNotes Renaissance Man

By Joe Berk

Last year I started a Facebook group focused on Uberti firearms (and that’s the name I gave it). I saw a note on Facebook that if you didn’t see a group you wanted, you could create your own group, and I did. I created the group because I’ll sometimes post firearms-related blogs there. It was trivially easy to do, and within weeks, membership had grown to 13,500 members. I like Uberti guns, I’ve written about them before here on ExNotes, and it just sort of seemed like a good thing to do.

Last week, a fellow named Aldo Venturini posted some intriguing pictures of cap and ball revolvers he had engraved, along with a few knives he had made. One thing led to another, and with the help from Translate.Google.com we had an interesting conversation. Here’s what Aldo told me:

I’m a passionate engraver. I’ve been engraving for 15 years. I’m experienced in various engraving techniques. I also work with leather, which allows me to make sheaths for both the guns I engrave and the knives. With engraving, I do what inspires me…I don’t have any established subjects.

I’m a lover of weapons as objects and believe that weapons are the best canvas for engraving.

For variety, I make knives, mainly Bowie knives. I own a fair number of my own.

All work is done in-house by hand. The knives are made entirely, complete with sheaths. The Colt sheaths are also handmade. For my personal satisfaction…I do engravings upon request, after agreeing on the work and cost. I don’t do it for the money.

I’m self-taught, and I learned because I wanted to engrave my motorcycle the way I liked it. Then, once I finished, I continued with other engravings. I have 10 motorcycles….😄I’ll give you one that’s a bison…1700 cc twin-cylinder.

I’ll be 80 this year. I have no problems and can still afford to ride my 10 motorcycles (all large-displacement bikes). I’m also an inventor…with several patents filed, including one in the United States in the medical field. Check my name. Others are filed in the European Patent Office in Munich.

I asked Aldo if I could post some of his photos here on the ExNotes blog and he said okay. This is beautiful work and I’m happy to share it with you. First, a few of the guns and their holsters…

Next are a few of Aldo’s knives…

And here are photos of some of Aldo’s motorcycles…

Aldo is an interesting man. I wish he lived closer than Torino (in Italy). He’d fit right in with the ExhaustNotes crowd.

Aldo, grazie mille per aver condiviso la tua arte con noi. Guida con prudenza e restiamo in contatto, amico mio!

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The Wayback Machine: Toxic Masculinity

By Joe Berk

I’ve always been afraid of (and morbidly curious about) spiders, so when Bobbie Surber posted the photo you see above of a spider in her Ecuadorean hotel room’s bathroom, it had my attention. I don’t think I could stay in a hotel room where a spider like that put in an appearance. I know I’m a big tough guy who rides motorcycles and made it through jump school in a prior life, but spiders creep me out. I’m deathly afraid of the things.

Which doesn’t mean I’m going to pass up an opportunity to get a photo of one. Baja John and I were rolling through Baja a decade and a half ago on our KLRs (I loved that motorcycle; it was one of the best I ever owned). We were doing maybe doing 60 mph when I somehow spotted a tarantula creeping along the pavement’s edge. I had to turn around and get a photo (it’s the one that sometimes graces the scrolling photo collection you see at the top of every ExNotes blog). Baja John, being a curious sort, did a U-turn and parked his KLR by the side of the road, too. I had my old D200 Nikon with its first-gen 24-120 Nikon lens (not a good choice for a spider macro shot, but it did the job).

The KLRs of Baja John and yours truly stopped along the Transpeninsular Highway for an impromptu tarantula photo shoot. Those KLRs were great bikes.

A Baja tarantula minding his (or her) own business.

Before you knew it, I was snapping away while Baja John and I were crouched down in front of the hairy thing. The tarantula’s ostrich-like behavior was kind of funny. It hunkered down with a weed over its six or eight (or whatever the number is) eyes, thinking because the weed covered its eyes it was concealed. At least for a while. Then it realized we were still there and it charged. I’m not kidding. The thing charged at us with startling speed. Both of us did our best impersonation of Looney Tunes cartoon characters, our feet moving faster than we were, trying to run backwards from the crouched position, screaming like little girls. We made it, and the spider scurried off to wherever it thought was a better spot. Baja John and I, thoroughly adrenalized, laughed so hard I thought I was going to pee my pants.

I’m an old fart who really doesn’t give a rat’s ass about what anybody thinks of me anymore, so I’ll tell you that I am scared of spiders on some basic, fundamental, hardwired-into-my-psyche level. That said, I know that some of you younger guys who read ExNotes probably still worry about being perceived as tough macho men (you guys who haven’t achieved my level of self-awareness and acceptance yet). Because of that, I’ll share with you a technique I’ve used for decades. You know the deal…your significant other spots a spider, usually in the bathtub, and the job of sending it to the promised land naturally falls to you, the man. You’re as scared as she is, but your ego won’t let you admit it. There’s a spider there, and militant feminism be damned, it’s your job (as the man) to “get it.”

Here’s where the story turns to my other favorite topic: Guns. I’m helping you out here, guys. Here’s an excuse to pick up another firearm. You can thank me later.

What you need is a pellet pistol. Preferably a manually-cocked model that doesn’t require a CO2 cartridge. My weapon of choice is the Daisy 777 air pistol. It’s a fantastic gun and it is quite accurate (I used to compete with one in bullseye air pistol competition, but I digress…back to the story at hand).

When your lovely significant other comes to you announcing a spider in the bathtub, choke down those feelings of fear, revulsion, and inadequacy. Here’s what you do: Grab your air pistol. Cock it, but (and this part is very important) do not put a pellet in the chamber. While maintaining a firm grip on the weapon, point it at the offending arachnid with the muzzle approximately one inch away from your target. Do not stand directly under the spider (for reasons that will become clear momentarily, this is also very important). Take a deep breath, let it halfway out, and while maintaining focus on the front sight and proper sight alignment, gently squeeze (do not jerk) the trigger. A high-speed jet of compressed air will exit the muzzle, strike the spider, and break it up into legs, thorax, abdomen, and other body parts. They will float to the ground and in most cases, the separate parts will continue twitching (adding to the excitement, the thrill of the hunt, and proof of your masculinity). Mission accomplished, as old George W liked to say. Your job (which was to “get it”) is done. You can now turn to your sweetheart, smile, and ask her to clean it up.

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Marbles Randall Wannabees…

By Joe Berk

My buddy Paul is a serious Randall knife aficionado. Randalls are way out of my pay grade, but I admire them greatly. About a year ago, Paul sent a link to me for a YouTube video about a Marbles knife that approaches the look and quality of a Randall. The YouTube video may be lacking in quality, but it more than makes up for it in content. It sure grabbed my attention.

The price for (and the wait to get) a Randall knife make them a nonstarter for me, but the thought of a high-quality Bowie knife had my attention (as you probably already know from following the ExNotes blog). The Marbles MR 723 sure seemed appealing, and for a measly $55, I thought I would take a chance. It was money well spent. The knife is beautiful, it is substantial, and it has the look and feel of a high-quality item.

A week or two after I received the Marbles Bowie, I learned that they are also available with a green Micarta (instead of black Micarta) handle. At first, I was disappointed. I would have preferred the green Micarta version. Then I thought about it a minute. For another few dollars, I could have both, and that’s what I did.

The specifications for these Marbles knives are impressive. The knife has a blade length of 7 1/2 inches. The blade is D2 tool steel, which I’ve read is a good knife steel (it’s kind of a moot point for me, as I don’t intend to do anything with the Marbles Bowies other than look at them). The blade is substantive (it’s almost a quarter of an inch thick where it emerges from the guard), and it has a satin finish. It’s very sharp. I can’t tell you how long the edge will last, nor can I tell you how difficult it will be to sharpen it. The guard and pommel are polished brass. The handle material is, as mentioned above, Micarta, and it is available in either green or black (and both look good). The sheath is first class, being nicely finished leather with a sharpening stone included. Overall, these are very nice knives. I know some folks who read this will dismiss me as a knife neophyte who won’t really use these knives the way other folks might use a Randall, and hey, they’d be right. I’m not Davy Crockett, and I’m not going to try to kill a bear with either of these.

These Marbles are great looking knives, and they look good sitting amongst the other knives I’ve accumulated over the last year or two. I’m pleased with the purchase.

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Seiko 5 Field Series GMT

By Joe Berk

Greenwich Mean Time. In case you were wondering, that’s what GMT means, and I thought I would introduce this blog with a simple definition of what Greenwich Mean Time actually means, only it’s not that simple. Here’s the first part of a long explanation from Wikipedia:

Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the local mean time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being calculated from noon; as a consequence, it cannot be used to specify a particular time unless a context is given. The term “GMT” is also used as one of the names for the time zone UTC+00:00 and, in UK law, is the basis for civil time in the United Kingdom.

It gets more complicated from there, with considerations given for the historical differences between the day starting at noon (versus midnight), variations in the time at which the sun crosses directly over London’s Greenwich Observatory (it can vary by 16 minutes either way), and other factors I’m not going to go into here. After reading through the Wikipedia definition, I’m going to settle on GMT standing for Greenwich Mean Time and leave it at that.

In my watch-centric context, GMT means a watch that can be used for showing the time in two time zones simultaneously. There’s a lot of ways to do this and the watchmaking world has numerous different approaches. It’s perhaps easiest with a digital watch that can switch between cities (Casio has a number of watches that can do this and we’ve blogged about them before). Within the analog world, there are also different approaches, and we’ve also written about those before (see our blogs on the Citizen Blue Angels and the Citizen Night Hawk).

The more conventional GMT approach in the analog watch world is to add a fourth hand and a separate 24-hour set of markings, with the fourth GMT hand or the hour hand used to designate the second time zone. Last year, I bought a two-tone Seiko GMT watch because I thought it was cool and it compared favorably to my Rolex GMT Master II (and that blog is here).

So where’s this story going?

Several watches needed new batteries. The one at the top is a Seiko military-styled chrono in blue. The one at lower left is Sue’s Citizen. The one in the middle is a Timex flyback day-date I bought several years ago. I hardly ever wear that one, but I like it. The one in the lower right is a Fossil I admired when moto-buddy Joseph Lee wore it one day. To my surprise, he took it off and gave it to me.

A few days ago, I noticed several of my quartz watches had stopped running. One of Sue’s quartz watches had, too. Dead batteries. It happens on an irregular basis. But that’s okay, because it gives me an excuse to swing by my favorite watch shop, Golden Times Jewelry, in nearby Pomona. They’re nice people and they only charge $3.25 to install a new battery. And while I’m waiting, I can peruse their selection of new Citizen and Seiko watches.

My new Seiko Field Series 5 GMT. This is a good-looking and accurate watch.

I was doing that when I noticed a Seiko I had not seen previously. It was the Seiko 5 Field Series GMT. It had all the features that appealed to me, including big numbers (my eyes aren’t what they used to be), a black face, strong contrast between the hands and the face, a stainless steel case and bracelet, it was not hideously huge (why do watchmakers make watches so unnecessarily big these days?), and an overall appearance that, to me, looked good. I asked to see it, and Stephanie (the nice lady who manages the shop) lopped 35% off Seiko’s suggested list price. That was a superb deal.

The Seiko 5 Field Series GMT and the Rolex Explorer II. The Rolex’s street price is around $11,000. The Seiko’s MSRP is about $450, but you can get it for less. I think the Seiko is better looking than the Rolex.

The new Seiko reminds me of Rolex’s Explorer II GMT. I tried it on and asked Stephanie if it made me look fat. She smiled. I pulled the trigger and I’m glad I did.

When I got home, I navigated to the official US time site (www.time.gov) and set the new Seiko to the exact time on it. I’ve been wearing the new Seiko for several days now and the watch is tracking to the official government time exactly. That’s awesome from a mechanical automatic (i.e., self-winding) watch. A new Rolex (or one that’s been appropriately serviced) is accurate to about 5 seconds per day. The Seiko is keeping better time.

The new Seiko sits lower on the wrist than my other Seiko Series 5 watches.

The Seiko 5 Field Series GMT window. I like it.

There are several things I like about this new Seiko. It sits lower on my wrist than most of my watches. That’s good. Like the other Seiko 5 watches, the watch has a window that allows you to see the movement and the self-winder. That’s a feature I like. The Seiko has a 41-hour reserve (if you take it off when it is fully wound, it will keep running for another 41 hours). That’s less than a Rolex’s 70-hour reserve, but in the real world, it’s kind of a pointless advantage (in my opinion). If I take the watch off, it’s only going to be for an hour or so. If I’m going to wear a different watch, it will usually be for a week or more (so neither a 41-hour reserve or a 70-hour reserve will keep it going).

The Seiko 5 Field Series GMT is an awesome watch. I like it a lot.

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Bond. James Bond.

By Joe Berk

You know, you’d think the folks who produce James Bond movies would have their act (pardon the pun) together, but evidently that’s not so. I’ve already written about the iconic early James Bond movie flyer that shows Sean Connery standing provocatively with what appears to be a very menacing handgun. It wasn’t. It turns out that what old Bond, James Bond posed with was a .177-caliber pellet pistol (a BB gun, to use a looser term), and that was because they forgot to bring the real gun for the photo shoot. The photographer, a target shooter, just happened to have his BB gun in the trunk of his car. I wrote about my identical pellet pistol a few years ago.

But all’s fair in love, war, and spy movies, and when I get a chance to watch a Bond movie (no matter how many times I’ve seen it), I’m in. That’s what happened the other day when I was channel surfing and Goldfinger popped up. I started the movie and in the opening scenes I noticed something I had previously missed. When Bond is doing his Navy Seal routine, getting ready to blow up a waterfront drug lab disguised as an oil tank, I caught a glimpse of his watch.

A poor image, taken from my TV screen with my iPhone.

I stopped the movie and went back a bit to get a better look at the watch. Wow, it was a Rolex dive watch (another topic we’ve covered here on ExNotes), and wow again, it had a military style band. The image quality you see above is awful, partly due to it being an evening scene and partly due to the above image being a cell phone capture of my television screen. It’s too bluish, I know. But that watch strap…wow! Was it a coincidence? I had just received an email from a company called BluShark offering an identical watch strap!

I went to Google and searched for a better image of the Goldfinger scene. Sure enough, I found it:

Note the watch strap’s colors (or should I say colours?) and poor fit on the Rolex Submariner.

Several thoughts emerged:

- - I’m not and never have been a military watch strap fan.
  - The above notwithstanding, I liked the colors in the Bond strap.
  - I have a Casio Marlin, which is kind of a poor man’s Rolex, and those Bond watch strap colors looked good against a black dive watch.
  - The watch strap in the Goldfinger scene didn’t fit the watch at all. It was a couple of sizes too narrow compared the Rolex’s lug width.

My Casio Marlin and its original watch strap. I’ve owned this watch for close to 20 years. It’s the best watch buy on the planet.

So I went back to the BluShark email. Buy two and get one free. They sent me a code for another 10% off my first order. Free shipping. How could I say no? I knew what I would order, too. I wanted two of the Bond watch straps in the appropriate size, one for my Casio and another identical one for good buddy Paul’s new Casio (he bought a Marlin, too; he’s always giving me free stuff, and it was time for me to reciprocate). And I wanted another military style strap in OD green for my Citizen Eco-Drive chronograph, a watch I’ve owned and enjoyed wearing for 30 years. The Citizen originally came with an OD green cloth strap, and a similar military strap for it would be perfect.

A few days later the BluShark bands arrived. Wow. It took only minutes to fit my two to their respective watches, and as you can see from the photo atop this blog, the Casio looks great.

That had me wondering: What is the significance of the colors on the Bond watch strap, and in Goldfinger, why did the strap fit his Rolex so poorly?

As to the fit (and as much as you can trust anything you read on the Internet), Sean Connery didn’t own a Rolex. Albert Broccoli, the producer, did, and he leant his watch to Connery. But it didn’t fit Connery’s wrist. A crew member had the watch strap you see in Goldfinger, so it was quickly swapped onto Bond’s watch, and voilà, the Bond watch strap was born. Like I said near the beginning of this blog, you’d think a Bond movie prop department would be better organized, but there you have it.

As to the colors, well, that story is all over the map, too. The one I like is that the colors in the Bond strap are the British military intelligence regimental colors (red, green, and black). That leads to the next logical question: Do spies wear colors to advertise their spy backgrounds? I think the answer is probably no, but it makes for an interesting explanation and an intriguing story. I found more on this poking around a bit, including a blazer patch for members of the British Intelligence Corps (you know, just in case Boris and Natasha needed to confirm their suspicions).

This is all interesting stuff and it makes for interesting conversation. If you’d like to see more about BluShark and their straps, you can do so here.

That Citizen Eco-Drive I mentioned above? I’m wearing it now and I love it. Here’s what it looks like:

The Citizen Eco-Drive watch mentioned above. It’s another favorite.

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¿Quantos Pistones? (The Tens)

By Joe Berk

Imagine my surprise: I thought there would be but one 10-cylinder motorcycle. I thought this would be a quick blog. There’s the Dodge Viper-powered Tomahawk that was newsworthy maybe 10 years ago. But wait, there’s more (as my hero Billy Mays used to say). I found two more poking around on the Internet.

Two Dodge V10 Motorcycles

You may remember a Dodge Viper powered V-10 motorcycle a couple of decades ago. It was a weird one with two wheels upfront and two wheels in back. Between that feature and the weight, the handling must have been atrocious.

I thought Dodge had just built one as a showpiece, but according to online references they actually built and sold nine of the things (at a price of $550,000). The Dodge boys called it the Tomahawk. It has a theoretical top speed of 450 mph. Take a look:

Allen Millyard, a builder who created a number of mega-cylinder motorcycles and who has been featured in a few of our previous ¿Quantos Pistones? blogs, also built a Dodge V-10 motorcycle. It is more conventional (if a 10-cylinder can be called conventional) wheel layout, with one at the front and one at the rear.

Here’s a YouTube about the Millyard V-10. It’s cool, as it shows a 172-mph, two-up run.

The Bistella

The Bistella is an unusual 10-cylinder, 500cc, supercharged two-stroke , Jawa-based motorcycle designed by Czech engineer Marek Foltis. It’s a weird one, and I guess Foltis is living proof that if you have the talent, nothing is impossible. The bike used the cylinders and pistons from ten 50cc Jawas. Wow. Just wow. Take a listen:

You might be wondering: Is there more to come in our ¿Quantos Pistones? series? Yep, there is. Stay tuned.

Missed any of the earlier ¿Quantos Pistones? blogs?

¿Quantos Pistones? (The Eights)
¿Quantos Pistones? (The Sevens)
¿Quantos Pistones? (The Sixes)
¿Quantos Pistones? (The Fives)
¿Quantos Pistones? (The Fours)
¿Quantos Pistones? (The Triples)
¿Quantos Pistones? (The Twins)
¿Quantos Pistones? (The Singles)

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Coming up…more on Cycle Garden and their impressive work on Moto Guzzi and other Italian motorcycles!

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Rough Ryder 854 and a Custom PWB Holster

By Joe Berk

The knife du jour is the Rough Ryder 854, which is a gigondo folder that looked like something I couldn’t live without when I saw it on the Chicago Knife Works site. I’m hooked on the large folders, and at a price of $14, this thing seemed too good to ignore.

The Rough Ryder 854. No one has these in stock anymore. It’s a lot of knife at any price.

The problem, however, was that the design was defective, or the quality was terrible, or maybe it was both. It was a subtle defect, one that most folks wouldn’t notice until they stabbed themselves with the tip.

I first saw the knife online somewhere, and then I looked for it on Amazon. I hit paydirt and I used my Prime membership to skirt the shipping costs. Two days later it was at my front door. It looked beautiful, but the blade stopped a little bit short of the knife being fully closed. That’s not good, I realized. I tried squirting WD 40 and then adding oil to the knife’s pivot point, but the blade still stopped a bit short of being fully closed. Back it went to Amazon.

But I like the knife. It looked good and it felt good. So I called Chicago Knife Works and ordered the same knife from them. I called first, and asked if they would examine the knife before it shipped for the problem the first one had. Sure, they said. No problem. Chicago Knife Works is always slow in shipping, though, so I waited the obligatory four or five weeks before it arrived. But finally it did, and I was like a kid at Christmas time when it landed in my mailbox.

You can guess where this story is going. The new Rough Ryder had the same disease. It wasn’t as bad as the first knife, but the blade didn’t fully close. If I ran my finger along the knife handle’s edge, the blade tip still ran proud, and I still saw it could stab me if I wasn’t careful.

The red arrow on the left shows the area I relieved, thinking it would allow the blade to go further into the knife when folded. I was wrong. The red arrow on the right shows the knife’s liner lock, which prevents the blade from inadvertently closing after it has been opened.

The engineer in me took over. I examined the open blade profile and saw a bump stop. If I ground that down, I thought, the blade would more fully close. So I started grinding with my Dremel. That didn’t work. I ground some more of the blade stop off, and things didn’t improve. I examined the blade’s profile and the knife again, and I realized there was another stop of the blade (on the other side of its pivot point) that also controlled where the blade came to rest when the knife closed. But I couldn’t get to that one. Hmmm. Time for Plan B.

What’s weird (and what’s an ingrained character flaw) is that I was really stressing out over this $14 knife. I’ll do that sometimes, and this was one of those times. I’ve been a lot less annoyed at things that are a lot more expensive and aren’t perfect. I should have just returned the Rough Ryder. But I was fixated on fixing the thing. In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders reference manual, it’s identified as Gresh’s Disease.

When thinking about potential fixes, I realized if I couldn’t get the blade to close any further, I could reprofile the blade to get rid of the tip, or, to be more accurate, to lower the blade’s profile so that the new tip would be below the knife’s scales when closed. So that’s what I did. The stone came out, I went to work, stroking the blade tip and checking how the blade closed every few strokes. Voilà, problem solved.

The blade tip lay above the scales when the knife was closed. I ground it down in the area indicated by the red arrow. Problem solved.

A band aid fix, to be sure, but sometimes band aids work.

In the meantime, good buddy and craftsman extraordinaire Pauly bought the same knife. The guy is lucky; his Rough Ryder 854 closed the way God intended it to, and it did not have the same problem mine had. But he didn’t stop there. What the knives needed (both his and mine) was a holster.

The Rough Ryder and the holster Paul made for me.

I’ve known Paul longer than I’ve known any living person on the planet. Literally. We were next door neighbors back in New Jersey when I was born. Paul has always been good at creating things, and it turns out that leatherworking is among his many talents. Paul created custom holsters for these knives, and they look and work as good as anything I’ve ever seen. What’s really cool is the holster takes advantage of the knife’s curves. The holster is formed to the knife’s coke bottle profile, which secures the large folder when it is in the holster. It’s a hell of a nice gift.

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Citizen Base 30 Chronometer

By Joe Berk

It was an impulse buy, the kind of purchase that folks who send out marketing emails hope to induce, and it my case, it worked spectacularly well. My new Citizen chronograph is rose gold (something I’m a sucker for), with a leather band (something else I’m a sucker for), and both the leather band and the watch face are Navy blue (something I’m…well, you know where this is going). As it was over $100, there was free shipping (something that always gets my attention). And finally, there was the sale price: $144, down from $395. I am a soft touch for great deals on wristwear, weapons, and other assorted toys that find their way into the ExNotes blog.

All that was cool, but after I clicked buy now and typed in my credit card info, I studied the chronograph bezel markings. I was intrigued by the notation “Base 30 Pulsations.” You can see it on the outer bezel between the 12:00 and 2:00 positions. As much as I like watches in general and chronometers in particular, I had never heard of such a thing before I bought the watch you see above.

It was off to Googleville, and like always, Google came through.

The Base 30 Pulsation system came about in the early days of watchdom as a tool for doctors to quickly measure a person’s pulse rate. The way it works is that you start the stopwatch (the chronometer) and count 30 heartbeats for whoever’s pulse you’re taking. When you hit 30 beats, you stop the chronometer. The chronometer’s second hand will point to the patient’s pulse rate. If the pulse rate is the normal 60 beats per minute, the second hand will point to 60 on the outer bezel, which makes sense because if you had 30 beats in 30 seconds, well, your pulse rate would be 6o beats per minute. This is cool stuff.

That got me to thinking: Are there other chronometers out there with bezels marked in the 30 Base system? Yep, and some are even by Citizen. They have an identical model to the one you see above in stainless steel with a brown leather band and an ivory face:

I’d seen the above watch (the ivory-faced one) in the display case at my local Costco, but I can’t remember what they were asking for it and I couldn’t find it on the Costco website. I’m pretty sure it’s still in the store. If you can’t find one at your local Costco, there are a bunch of retailers selling them on Ebay.

I also found a couple more stainless steel Base 30 versions of the Citizen in different colors on Amazon:

Amazon’s prices were in the $250 to $275 range for the above watches. Those might be decent prices, but Jomas (www.Jomashop.com) has them all beat at $144 (which is what I paid for mine).

A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure.

– Anonymous

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