An accurate Compact 1911 load…

10 shots at 50 feet with the Rock Island Armory Compact 1911. The secret sauce is a 185-grain cast SWC bullet, 5.0 grains of Bullseye propellant, a CCI 300 primer, and a 1.174-inch overall cartridge length.

I’ve been working lately on developing an accurate load for my Rock Island Compact 1911 with light target bullets, and I found one that works.  One of my good buddies gave me a little over a thousand 185-grain semi-wadcutter bullets, and I found a great load for my Rock Island pistol.  It’s the one I shot the targets with you see above.

The 185-grain cast lead SWC bullets used for the target above. The caramel-colored band around the bullet’s periphery is bullet lube, which prevents barrel leading and further enhances accuracy.

A bit of background info first:  “SWC” (or semi-wadcutter) refers to the bullet configuration.  A wadcutter bullet is one that is flat across the face of the bullet, and it is a typical target configuration for revolvers.  What this means is that the bullet cuts a clean, circular hole through the target (much like a hole punch), making it easier to score.  A semi-wadcutter bullet has a shoulder at the face of the bullet, but it also has a truncated cone of lesser diameter on the bullet face (it’s a “semi” wadcutter).  It cuts a relatively clean hole, and it’s a bit more aerodynamic.

Loading .45 ACP ammo. It’s what I did this weekend, and I have 600 rounds ready to go.
Finished ammo, ready to go. This ammo is custom tailored to my Rock Island Compact. It’s the most accurate load I’ve found in the Compact 1911.  Every gun is different, and every gun needs a load tailored to it for best accuracy.  This load is not particularly accurate in my full-sized Colt 1911, but it sure shoots well in the Compact Rock.

A semi-wadcutter bullet feeds easier in a semi-automatic handgun than would a wadcutter bullet, but you can still have problems with a semi-wadcutter in an automatic when the round enters the chamber.  That’s not a concern in a revolver because you load the cartridges by hand (you do the chambering of each round manually when you load a revolver).  It’s a potential issue in a semi-automatic handgun, though, because the cartridge has to ride up the ramp in the frame and feed into the chamber each time you fire the weapon, and a semi-wadcutter’s shoulder can cause the gun to jam.  Generally speaking, for semi-autos roundnose bullet configurations feed the most reliably because the bullet tip guides the round into the chamber.   Sometimes semi-autos work well right out of the box with semi-wadcutter bullets, and sometimes they don’t.  If you want to make sure a semi-auto will feed reliably with a semi-wadcutter or a hollow point bullet, you have an expert gunsmith who knows what he’s doing polish the gun’s feed ramp, and throat and polish the entrance to the chamber.  That’s what I had done on my Rock Island Compact by good buddy TJ, and my gun will feed anything.

Throated and polished, my Rock Island Compact is extremely reliable with any kind of bullet.  You can read more about the way TJ customized my 1911 here.

During my load development effort, I tried these 185-grain cast SWC bullets with 4.5, 4.7, 5.0, and 5.3 grains of Bullseye, and 5.0 grains of Bullseye is the sweet spot. The other loads were also accurate, but the 5.0-grain load is the most accurate.  The 5.3-grain load is accurate, too, but the recoil at that charge was a bit much for me.  As mentioned in the first photo’s caption, cartridge overall length was 1.174 inches, and I used CCI 300 primers.  A word to the wise on this:  The load you see here is one I developed and it shoots well in my handgun.  You should develop your own load.  Always consult a reloading manual when you do so, and always start at the lower end of the propellant spectrum and carefully work up a load tailored to your firearm.

Folks tell me I need to buy a chronograph to measure bullet velocity, but hell, I don’t care how fast the thing is going, and I seriously doubt it would make a difference to any target.   What I’m looking for is reliable function and accuracy, and with this load, I have it.   A chronograph is one more thing I’d have to cart out to the range and screw around with once I got there, and I don’t want the hassle.   But if you need to know, my Lyman Cast Bullet Reloading Guide tells me the velocity with this powder charge should be a little over 900 feet per second.  That’s close enough for government work, I think.

The next step for the Rock, for me, is to add a set of Pachmayr checkered rubber grips.  I have those on my full size 1911 and I like them a lot.  That’s coming up, and I think the Pachmayr grip will further improve the Compact.  I ordered a set today and when they arrive, you’ll read all about it right here.

You know, I like my Rock Island Compact.  I’m on the range with it every week and I put a lot of lead through that short 3.5-inch barrel.  It’s fun to shoot, it’s accurate, and it carries well.  It’s become one of my all time favorite guns.

Want to read more on the Rock Island Compact 1911?  Check out our other reports here:

The 1911
A Tale of Two .45s
TJ’s Custom Gunworks
RIA Compact 1911 Update

Want to learn how to reload .45 ammo?  We’ve got you covered!

Reloading the .45 ACP:  Part I
Reloading the .45 ACP:  Part II
Reloading the .45 ACP:  Part III
Reloading the .45 ACP:  Part IV

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Help Wanted

So here’s the deal: In 2008, with the advent of the Great Recession, motorcycle sales in the US fell to half of what they had been (and up to that time, they had been steadily climbing).

Okay, that’s rough…a drop to 50% of prior sales is a major hit, but hey, these things happen and it’s logical to assume that sales would gradually rebound and the uptick would continue.

Except they didn’t.  Post recession sales tanked to 50% of their prior levels and they never recovered. Oh, they came back a little bit, but not anywhere near where they had been. Based on this, it’s been sort of a national pastime in the two-wheeled world to put forth reasons why this happened (presumably, so the reasons could be addressed and we could get back to the good old days of taking second mortgages to buy overweight, oversized, and overpriced driveway jewelry).  Here’s the problem with all of the explanations:  With essentially no exceptions, they all came from motorcycle industry insiders. Motorcycle importers, motorcycle journalists, motorcycle dealers, and such. Wouldn’t these be the people to provide the big reveal?

In a word: No.  Especially with motojournalists, who seem to pontificate a lot on this issue.  Hell, these folks couldn’t even keep their magazines afloat.  But it’s also the case for the manufacturers, the importers, and the dealers.  They’re the ones who got us here.  If they had the answers, they would have fixed things already.

I’ve been a consultant for more than 30 years helping companies with delinquent deliveries, poor quality, and behind-schedule performance, and when I was hired by any of my clients, it would always be by the chief executive (I quickly learned not to waste my time marketing to underlings).  I’d always tell the chief execs during my first meeting that improving performance would involve replacing at least some of their key staff members.  “They’re the folks who got you here,” I’d say, “and expecting them to be the ones to fix the problems is not the answer.”  I think it’s the same situation when addressing the US motorcycle sales slump. The folks who called the shots (cabals of industry execs and motojournalists) prior to, during, and after the recession don’t have the answers.  Repeatedly having meetings to discuss the issue with these same folks fits the classic definition of insanity: Doing the same thing again and expecting a different result.

So who has the answer?

You do.  You are the folks who actually buy motorcycles. You’re the ones who created that heady rampup prior to the recession, and you’re the ones keeping your wallets closed now.  We need your help.  Tell us.  Why? What’s holding you back?  Please, leave your comments.  We want to hear from you.

Dan does Tunisia…

Good buddy Dan in Baja.

Good buddy Dan is a young fellow I met when I was leading the CSC rides through Baja.  He’s the real deal…a serious motorcyclist who enjoys getting out and seeing the world on two wheels.  When I led the CSC rides, Dan was on every one of them, and we became good friends.  Dan also rides Moto Guzzi motorcycles, and most recently, he rode with a Moto Guzzi tour in Tunisia.  I was happy to receive this email from Dan yesterday about his north African excursion:

Joe:

Happy New Year – for me, the new year starts at the winter solstice. I hope you had a good year and will have a great holiday season.

I got my Christmas present early this year; a motorcycle trip in Tunisia. I flew to Milan and took trains to Mandello del Lario where the Moto Guzzi motorcycle factory is. I visited the Moto Guzzi Museum twice – it is only open one hour a day. A fantastic collection of motorcycles from their beginning in 1921. Then I took trains to Genoa where I met up with the tour group. The next day we took the overnight ferry to Tunis, and then the riding began. Seven days of riding, with lunch at the best restaurants and nights at the best hotel in town. Along the way we stopped and saw the sights – Roman ruins, an Ottoman fort, several oases, a famous mosque, salt flats, and a set from the first Star Wars movie, where I rode a camel. The trip was sponsored by Moto Guzzi; we were all riding Moto Guzzi motorcycles, and we had 26 motorcycles, several couples riding two up, two photographers, two mechanics, three guides, two support vans, and two spare Moto Guzzis. I may put together a trip report, meanwhile, this is a link to the Moto Guzzi report on the trip:

https://www.motoguzzi.com/us_EN/news/MG-Experience-Tunisia/

I did about ten thousand miles of motorcycle riding this year; my big trip in the US was home to Flagstaff to El Paso and home, with several stops along the way.

Dan

Dan, that’s an absolutely awesome report and a world class trip.  Thanks so much for sending the note and for giving us permission to post it on the ExNotes blog.   I’m reading the Moto Guzzi trip report now, savoring each photo and all of the descriptions.  Wow, it sounds like a wonderful adventure!

Death Valley III: A Photo Safari

Whoa, it’s another photo safari in Death Valley!  It was to be a Subie CrossTrek adventure this time, and we did it in single day…up early in the morning, a 200-mile run to Death Valley, and then a long ride home.  I told good buddy Greg about our plans, Greg mentioned that even though he is a California native he never been to Death Valley, and we were off at 4:00 a.m. on a dark and cold morning a couple of days after Christmas in 2013.  I had just bought the CrossTrek, and it was a good way to put on a few breakin miles.  I could give you a detailed itinerary for our ride, but I’ll let the photos and a few short captions speak for themselves.

The Gleesome Threesome…yours truly, Susie, and good buddy Greg rolling into Death Valley on a cold and bright December morning.
A scenic and iconic Death Valley photograph: Badwater Basin. Look up 300 feet, and you’ll see the photo below.
282 feet above my vantage point. I must have used a telephoto lens.
The lowdown at Badwater Basin.
Exercising Photoshop. I stitched together a few photos from Badwater Basin to create this shot.
Another stitched-together photo from Badwater. That’s Greg off on the right. I should have left the polarizer off.
Somewhere in the Valley.
Greg pondering stacked rocks out on the desert floor. You see this (stacked rocks) frequently. I need to Google what it represents.
A road shot with the camera just a few inches off the highway. These sell. Go figure.
The CrossTrek at Artist’s Palette. The CrossTrek was a great car. I put about 120,000 miles on it and then traded it in on another Subaru.
We had lunch at the Furnace Creek Inn, and shortly before turning off the road, we saw this guy. He is obviously well fed.
As soon as we sat down for lunch at the Furnace Creek Inn, this guy landed a couple feet away. We had just seen the coyote. I asked the roadrunner if he owned anything made by Acme, or if he was being chased by old Wiley. He responded with but two words: Beep Beep.
Another panoramic shot I stitched together of the Death Valley desert floor.
Panamint Springs petroleum larceny.
A final splash of color as we left the Death Valley area headed for Highway 395 and the long run home.

I’m a fan of Death Valley National Park, and if you’re into this sort of thing and you enjoy photography, Death Valley is a magnificent destination.  That December day back in 2013 was long but colorful, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

Check out our other Death Valley stories here:

Death Valley:  The Prelude
Death Valley:  The Chili Cookoff
Death Valley:  The Day Hell Froze Over

A .257 Weatherby No. 1 Update: A story with a happy ending

I posted a series of blogs on my Ruger No. 1 in .257 Weatherby and the loads I was developing for it a few months ago, and I told you about the stock cracking on my rifle.  That held things up for a while.

The original stock on my .257 Weatherby Ruger No. 1 cracked on the top and the bottom, just aft of the tang. I can repair this stock and use it, but Ruger provided a new stock on the warranty. Ruger customer service is top notch.

Ruger Customer Service

I was disappointed about the stock fracture, but the wizards at Ruger did a good job in selecting a piece of wood of comparable quality, figure, and tone.   I also asked Ruger to return the defective stock to me after they installed the new one, and they did.  And they didn’t charge me anything to put a new stock on the rifle (it was a warranty repair).  Ruger sent photos of three stocks they had selected that were a good match for the forearm, and they allowed me to pick the one I wanted.   More good news is that I believe the stocked crack can be repaired.  I’m going to do that and maybe put it back on this rifle.  Or maybe I’ll just have it as a spare.

Tang Relief

I believe the reason the original stock cracked is that the wood around the receiver tang had not been properly fitted (there should be a little clearance to prevent the tang from acting like a wedge to split the wood).    I asked Ruger to make sure the new stock had some clearance behind the tang, and they did.  They actually went a little overboard in my opinion, but that’s preferable to having no relief.

At my request, Ruger relieved the new stock to provide clearance between the receiver’s tang and the wood.

More good news is that I now have a load that reaches into the upper stratosphere of what the .257 Weatherby cartridge can do, and it does so with high velocity and great accuracy.

The New Ruger No. 1 Stock

First, allow me to show you the new lumber on the Ruger No. 1:

The new stock on my Ruger No. 1. Notice how well the stock matches the forearm.
The left side of my new stock. It’s Circassian walnut.
And the right side. The original stock had horizontal stripes, which I wanted Ruger to duplicate. They did a good job. They showed photographs of three stocks to me; this is the one I selected.

Here are a couple more shots to show the new stock, one in the gun rack and another on my workbench when I was cleaning the rifle:

Another view of the new stock.  I love pretty wood.  I selected this No. 1 because of the wood, and when the stock cracked, I was afraid that the replacement would not be as nice.  But it was.
And one more view. The rifle on the left is an unissued, unfired 1956 M44 Polish Mosin-Nagant. The one on the right is another Ruger No. 1, this one chambered in .300 Weatherby. Ruger has in the past offered the Ruger No. 1 in .257 Weatherby, .270 Weatherby, and .300 Weatherby, along with many other non-Weatherby chamberings.  There are still a few new .257 Weatherby Rugers out there.  They are destined to be collectibles.

A Mississippi Dave .257 Weatherby Load

I’d like to take credit for discovering the load on my own, but I can’t do that.  My good buddy Mississippi Dave, who knows more about the .257 Weatherby cartridge than anybody I know, turned me on to Barnes solid bullets and H1000 propellant powder as the keys to success with this cartridge, and he was spot on in his guidance.  Here are my results, all at 100 yards:

Those are great results, and 70.5 grains of H1000 is the load I am going to use with the Barnes bullets.  I think I could have done even better, but conditions were less than ideal when I was shooting that day.  There were a lot of guys on the range the day I was out there, including a couple of Rambo wannabees on either side of me with assault rifles and muzzle brakes shooting rapid fire.  I know that’s what caused that third group with 70.5 grains of H1000 to open up to over an inch.   I think the No. 1 could be a half-minute-of-angle rifle with this load.  And this load in my rifle (the Ruger has a 28-inch barrel, 2 inches longer than normal) is probably attaining velocities well over 3700 feet per second.  That’s smoking.

One quick additional comment on the above loads:  These are loads that work in my rifle.  Your mileage may vary.  Always consult a reloading manual when you develop a load, and always start at the bottom of the propellant range and slowly work up.  Barnes publishes their recommended reloading data, and you can go to their website to download that information.

Barnes Bullets

The high velocities mentioned above are only possible with Barnes’ solid copper bullets.  Jacketed bullets (lead core bullets shrouded in a copper jacket, which is normally how bullets are constructed) would break up in flight at these higher velocities, and for me, they did (see the earlier .257 Weatherby blogs).

The bullets Mississippi Dave recommended. And wow, they worked superbly well.
The Barnes bullets are solid copper. That’s all you can use if you hunt in California. The concern is that if you wound an animal and it later dies, it might be subsequently consumed by a California Condor, and if it had a lead bullet in it, the Condor might die of lead poisoning. I can’t make this stuff up, folks.  Our politicians really believe this could happen.

.257 Weatherby Lessons Learned

I’ve learned a lot, with help from Mississippi Dave, about reloading the .257 Weatherby cartridge.  You have to use solids (the monolithic Barnes bullets) to realize the full velocity potential of the .257 Weatherby.  The .257 Roy can be extremely accurate, and at its upper-range velocities, higher velocities means more accuracy.  Cup and core (conventional jacketed) bullets will work in the .257 Weatherby, but only at lower velocities, and if you’re going to do that, you’re not really using the .257 Roy the way it is intended to be used.  Bore cleanliness is critical on these rifles, and because of the huge powder charges and high projectile velocities, the bore fouls quickly.  When you reload for this cartridge, you not only need to full-length resize the cartridge case, you need to go in another 90 degrees on the resizing die after it contacts the shell holder in order to get the round to chamber. The best powders for this cartridge are the slow burning ones.  H1000, in particular, works well in my rifle.

Earlier .257 Weatherby Blog Posts

The .257 Weatherby sage has been a long one but it is a story with a happy ending.  If you’d like to read our earlier blogs on this magnificent cartridge, here they are:

A Real Hot Tamale
Reloading the .257 Weatherby
Taking Stock of Things
The .257 Weatherby Saga Continues

 More Cool Reloading and Gun Stuff

If you enjoyed this blog and you want to see more, you can read our other Tales of the Gun stories here.  And if you don’t want to miss anything from us, sign up for our automatic email blog notifications here:

What Really Killed The Motorcycle Industry

I don’t know if it’s true (and in today’s environment I don’t even care if it’s true) but I read somewhere that ATVs are outselling motorcycles. This makes sense as ATVs or Quads or whatever you want to call the things are low-skill devices that anyone can ride off road.

Back in the early 1970’s the big boom in motorcycling was started in the dirt. Kids like you and me bought mini bikes and enduros by the zillions. An entire industry sprang to life and that industry supported all levels of riding. Collectively, we learned the difficult art of steering a wiggling motorcycle across sand and mud and rocks. It wasn’t easy. It took a lot of talent to keep from crashing and we lost a lot of good people to concentration lapses or simple bad luck.

The first ATVs were 3-wheeled contraptions that took even more skill than motorcycles to ride in the dirt. It didn’t take long for manufacturers to figure out 4 wheels were a lot more stable than 3 and that was the beginning of the end for motorcycles in America.

Since children cannot operate motorcycles on the street, dirt bikes were like a Pop Warner league feeding well-trained riders into the Bigs: The Pavement. Harried on all sides by nearly unconscious automobile drivers our generation’s ability to ride a motorcycle in that buoyant area beyond the limits of traction became a right handy survival skill. And so a huge bubble of capable motorcycle riders surged through the land buying motorcycles at a clip never before seen.

Meanwhile, the Quads kept getting bigger and safer while dirt bikes were safety-limited by their very design: They fell over. Anyone can steer a quad. It takes no skill whatsoever to trundle along following the huge ruts made by thousands of other quads. Trails were ruined by the excessive width and sheer quantity of idiots driving their miniature cars. Dirt bikes were hard to ride and safety concerns overtook the nation’s parents. As ATV’s filled the forests the available pool of motorcycle riders dwindled. The farm system began to dry up.

Now, Quads cost $25,000 and are the size of Jeeps. Four people fit comfortably strapped into a steel cage, safe from the environment they go about destroying. ATVs can go almost anywhere their bubblegum tires will support the vehicle’s weight and the weight of their passengers. Automatic transmissions erased the last vestige of talent needed to explore off road. On the trails I ride kids on motorcycles are the exception not the rule. Sometimes I can go all day and see nothing but quads. How many kids raised in a cocoon of steel bars would be crazy enough to start riding a motorcycle on the street? We know the answer: Very few.

It’s not the cost of new motorcycles; there are plenty of cheap bikes available. It’s not Gen X, Y, or Z being too chicken or into their cell phones. It’s not branding. It’s not lack of riding areas. None of these things killed motorcycles.

A safer, easier to operate dirt machine was built and human nature did the rest. ATV’s are capturing the kids at their most impressionable age. Motorcycles are not. Nothing we can do will reverse that trend.

Want more Gresh?  It’s right here!

Never miss an ExNotes blog!

Dream Bike: Honda CBX

I’d always wanted a CBX, ever since they were introduced by Honda in 1979.  I bought a new Honda 750 Four when that bike first came out, and the CBX seemed a logical extension of the kind of engineering pioneered by the Honda 750.  It was engineering excess raised to an exponent, the CBX was, I was a guy in my 20s, and in those days, dealers would let you take a bike out for a test ride.  I’m the kind of guy that caused them to stop doing that.  I lived in Fort Worth, the Honda dealer there gave me the keys to a new silver CBX with less than 20 miles on the odometer, and I tried to bury the needle on Loop 820 back in ’79.  As I recall, I touched something north of 140 miles per hour, and when I returned to the dealer and put the bike on its sidestand, the cam covers were ejaculating oil.   The bike’s honey-colored lifeblood was squirting out in an almost arterial fashion.

“What do you think?” the sales guy asked, hoping for a quick sale.

“It’s not for me,” I answered.  “I mean, look at the thing…it leaks oil worse than my Harley.”

Still, I wanted a CBX.  Always did, and in ’92, I finally scratched that itch.

The mighty Six.  My old 1982 Honda CBX.  Those film cameras that I had 30 years ago did a nice job, and this photo brings back memories of one my more memorable motorcycles.

I bought the CBX you see above in 1992 (when it was already 10 years old), but the bike only had 4500 miles on it and it was in pristine condition. The price was $4500, perfectly matching the odometer mileage. Everything was stock, and everything was in perfect shape (other than the tires, which were cracking with age).

I must have gone back to Bert’s dealership in Azusa four times drooling over that bike, and when I finally made up my mind to buy it and went back for a fifth time, it was gone.  I’d lost my opportunity.  Ah, well, I could bounce around for a while longer on my Harley.  It was a different Harley than the one I mentioned above.   That earlier one was a ’79 Electra-Glide and I called it my optical illusion because it looked like a motorcycle.  The Harley I owned when I bought the ’82 CBX was a ’92 Softail, but that one was a real motorcycle.  You could ride it without things breaking.

Bert’s was a magnet to me, and lots of times after work I’d stop there just to look at the motorcycles. The place was like an art gallery.  I just enjoyed being there and taking it all in.  Motorcycles can be art, you know.   That bit of art that I had fallen in love with, the pearlescent white ’82 CBX, was gone.  I had let it escape.

So, you can imagine my surprise a month or two later when I stopped in again and the CBX was back on the floor. The bike had been sold to a Japanese collector, I was told, and the deal fell through.  Opportunity didn’t need to knock twice. I bought the CBX on the spot.

The CBX was an amazing motorcycle. 1050cc. Six cylinders. Six carbs. 24 valves. Double overhead cams. Actually, it was quadruple overhead cams. The cylinder head was so long each cam was split in two, and the two halves were joined in the middle of their vast reach across those six cylinders by what engineers call Oldham couplers.  I didn’t know exactly what an Oldham coupler was or how it worked, but it sounded cool.  I owned a motorcycle with Oldham couplers.  How many people can say that?

The CBX didn’t have much bottom end, but once the engine got going, the thing was amazing.  And the sound!  Wow!  It sounded like a Formula 1 race car.  I read somewhere that the Japanese engineers actually spent time on a US aircraft carrier listening to fighter jets take off, and their objective was to make the CBX sound like that. When conditions were right, I convinced myself I could hear the F-14 in my CBX.  Top Gun.  Maverick.   That was me.

The CBX was fun, and it drew looks wherever I rode it. Honda only made the CBX for 4 years (1979 through 1982). They were expensive to manufacture (it seemed like every fastener on the thing was a custom design) and they didn’t sell all that well. But it was an awesome display of technology. I’m a mechanical engineer, and the design spoke to me.

I never had any regrets with that old CBX. I rode it hard for the next 10 years, and other than dropping it a couple of times in 0-mph mishaps, it served me well. I rode it all over the Southwest and it never missed a beat. When I first bought it, I could walk into any Honda dealer and buy new parts (even though it was 10 years old).  Ten years later (when the bike was 20 years old) that was no longer the case, and that scared me. The CBX was years ahead of its time and it was complicated. If something broke and I couldn’t find parts, I’d have a $4500 paperweight.

In those days, I was on a CBX Internet mailing list. I put a note on the list advising folks that I wanted to sell the bike and it sold that day. I got a fair price for it, and the mighty Six was gone.  I have no regrets, folks…I had lots of fun and it was time to move on.    But I miss that bike.  It was fun, it was fast, it was different, and it was everything a motorcycle should be.

Fred Checking In…

Never miss an ExNotes blog!

The call we put out earlier about sending a photo and describing your first bike was answered almost immediately by our good buddy and YooHoo aficionado Fred.  Check this out, boys and girls:

JOE!

There was a Tecumseh-powered Mini-Bike before this one, but I consider my Yamaha Mini-Enduro to be my first REAL motorcycle (picture attached). I put 100’s a miles a day on it in the woods around Woodstock Connecticut and Sturbridge Massachusetts….especially in the woods around Bigelow Hollow State Park – got lost in there more times than I care to remember!

Note how skinny I used to be…..Mom wasn’t stocking up on the Yoo-Hoo for me…..

Fred

We wrote to Fred and asked what he’s riding today, and here’s his answer:

Only the finest motorcycle known to man (or woman) – my trusty 2007 Caspian Blue Triumph Tiger 1050 – pic attached.

Over 76,000 trouble-free miles and smiles from North (Nova Scotia) to South (Florida) and West (Arkansas) and back East (Connecticut).

And it’s got PLENTY of storage for the Yoo-Hoo.

Fred

Fred, we admire your choice in your first motorcycle, your current motorcycle, and of course, beverages.  I used to ride a Caspian Blue Tiger as well; mine was a 2006 and I loved it.  Thanks for writing and ride safe.

So how about the rest of our riders and readers?  Does anyone else care to share their first ride with us?  Write to us at info@exhaustnotes.us!

 

MC’s Latest Destination: Princeton Battlefield State Park

A road that dates back to before the Revolutionary Way, and one used by our Continental Army to defeat the Brits.

Last August I was back in New Jersey for my 50th high school reunion.  I visited and wrote a short blog about the Princeton Battlefield State Park, and that turned into a Destinations piece for Motorcycle Classics magazine.  It’s in print and online, and you can read it here.  Better yet, buy a copy of the January/February 2020 issue.  You’ll like it.

You know, New Jersey is not a state that springs to mind when considering great motorcycle rides, but they are there.  I grew up in that part of the world, and it has resulted in three pieces in Motorcycle Classics about rides in and through different parts of New Jersey.   Even in the highly-developed central Jersey region, there are more than a few rural roads and great riding if you know where to look for it. I used to love riding those roads when I lived back there.  The New Jersey seafood and the pizza are beyond comparison, too.   It’s the best in the world.

I guess that brings me to my first motorcycle, which was a modified Honda Super 90.  I wasn’t old enough to drive yet, but that didn’t slow me down.  I rode that thing all over no matter what the weather.

A 1965 Honda Super 90, and yours truly at age 14. Nothing slowed us down in those days.

How about you?  What was your first bike, and where did you ride it?  Got a photo?  Send it in and tell us about it, and we’ll publish it here on ExNotes.  Email it to us at info@ExhaustNotes.us!

Good buddy Chris checking in…

You guys will remember good buddy Chris C., an RX3 and RX4 rider and a loyal blog reader.   I was shocked when I received this email from him a day or two ago:

Hi Joe.

Just wanted to drop you a quick note about my recent time in the hospital.

Doctors found a benign tumor in my head and I underwent successful surgery to have it removed.

Exactly 1 week after surgery I was riding a bicycle, and 2 weeks after surgery I was riding my RX4.  Don’t tell my doctor. The first thing I did after surgery was catch up on reading ExhaustNotes blog.

You know, after brain surgery I seem to have found deeper meaning in Gresh’s blog posts.

Feel free to use any of this and the attached photo in the ExhaustNotes blog.

Chris

Wow, Chris, I am so glad you got through this okay. You have our best wishes for a continuing successful and speedy recovery, and thanks so much for writing to us.