Mini Moto Madness: 5

Not only do I rarely finish projects, it takes forever for me not to finish them. I’m a slow worker. I get bogged down in details and miss the big picture. Details like the front engine mount on Mini Moto Madness. The front down tube on the Huffy is a large diameter pipe and the smaller, cast in semi-circle on the engine crankcase will not fit. The engine kit comes with a steel adapter plate and a U-bolt that fits the fat tube but the thing looks like hell.

I got to thinking and planning, figuring on a chunk of aluminum to fit the two different pipe diameters, holes drilled, cuts made, longer bolts, it was getting out of hand, man. This time I was able to catch myself. What the hell am I doing? Every other mini motor I looked at used the stock mounting plates so I said, “Screw it.” and went with the popular choice. Right there is a two-day labor saving decision.

With the motor firmly in place I spent some time on the chain drive. The rear fender came in contact with the chain so I had to trim it and roll the sharp edge. It’ll need a paint job and stronger brackets but I’m going to wait until the mechanical is done before tackling cosmetics.

It’s almost impossible to get two chains to agree on length so the mini motor kit comes with an idle roller for tension adjustment. The idler also turns the chain angle upwards before the lower frame tubes get narrow, keeping the chain from rubbing. I don’t like the thing but I’m not sure what to do about it. My rear sprocket is slightly misaligned; the chain doesn’t jump off the sprocket but it sure favors the hub side. To center the chain the rear sprocket needs to go outboard 1/16” so that means making a spacer and reassembling the sprocket onto the wheel. I’m also considering adjusting the countershaft sprocket instead. I’ve decided to deal with this situation later.

The pretty chrome exhaust pipe didn’t quite clear the Huffy’s crank arms. I didn’t want to mess up the chrome by cutting and welding the pipe so instead clamped the exhaust flange in the vise and twisted the pipe a few degrees. The pipe twisted beautifully with no wrinkles or kinks. The crank arms clear with room to spare. Sadly, the chrome plating did not go along with the program and delaminated. Pro Tip: Buy the kit with the black painted exhaust. It’s easier to modify for your particular bike.

The ignition coil was a straightforward install. I’ve upped the difficulty rating by routing the wiring through the frame. Most of these bike builds look cluttered with wires and cables. I’ll run the controls inside the frame as much as possible.

The rotor output wiring will also run internally. I’m sure this will end in tears but I saved a lot of time not fabricating a front engine mount so I’m using that time credit to tidy up the job.

The other sloppy area on these builds is the handlebar. Unlike a motorcycle, there is no speedometers or bodywork to hide the throttle/clutch/kill wiring. I’ve drilled holes and snaked the stuff through the bars. It looks cleaner to me. Yes, I’ve weakened the handlebars. I’m willing to risk a crash from structural failure in support of aesthetics. We are all artists and it’s about time we started living like it.

Mini Moto Madness: 4

Assembling the Wal-Mart Huffy bicycle was fairly straightforward. When I was a kid, USA-built Huffy bikes were pretty crappy. They were ok if you rode them like a normal bicycle but jumping or rough scrambling would break the frames. Huffys are made in China now and the frame welds look attractive and strong. From the wheels to the handlebars the whole bike looks better than the Huffys of yesteryear. Which is a good thing because I’m strapping a 2 horsepower motor into the frame of the Huffy to see what she’ll do.

As per the Bicycle Motor Builders Facebook page I packed heavy-duty wheel bearing grease into both wheels. This is a pretty simple job as you only need to loosen the bearing cones a bit to push grease into the gap.

Once the bearings were greased I fitted the rear sprocket onto the wheel. This is the cheesiest part of the install as the sprocket sandwiches the spokes between 2 rubber spacers. Keeping the sprocket centered on the wheel is critical so I used a hole saw blade wrapped in duct tape as a mandrel.

The job went well but when I went to spin the wheel to check the sprocket for square the wheel wouldn’t rotate on the axle. As it turns out a small metal dust cap got squeezed between the sprocket center and the hub, locking the wheel.

I dismantled the mess and removed the dust cap. After reinstalling and truing the sprocket I trimmed the dust cap to fit inside the center hole of the sprocket. The bolts for the sprocket are long but you’ll need that length to get the nuts started. One of the 9 bolts in my kit was a bit too short, or I lost the right one so I used a bolt from the junk drawer after cutting it to length. The sprocket to hub deal looks like poo-poo but the sprocket seems like it is attached well and no one complains about it online. We will see.

The sprocket holes are elongated to allow for different wheel hubs but I didn’t like the bit of hole showing so I put ¼” washers on the bolts to conceal the gap. This looks great except that the rear brake stay arm now came in contact with the bolt heads. It’s that tight! A quick realignment in the vise and the arm cleared the bolt heads.

Of course when you alter one item it causes a chain reaction down stream. The re-bent brake stay arm no longer fit between the axle side-plates so I had to make a new clamp to stop the brake stay from rotating under braking. The stock clamp was super thin steel. I figured with 2hp pushing the Huffy to high speeds the clamp needed to be a bit heavier.

The bolt on the stock arm was a tiny #10. That didn’t look so hot to me so I bumped it up to a ¼” size. And since I couldn’t wait for the paint to dry the clamp got a little scratched up.

With the rear wheel fitted back into the frame I started test fitting parts. The rear motor mount clamps securely to the seat post but this frame has a large diameter front tube that is too wide for the bolt centers of the front mount. The motor kit comes with a U-bolt and clamp setup for wide front tubes. I could make it work but it looks horrible and most likely will rattle apart. I’ll have to rethink the front mount. The carb is a little close to the top tube. I will probably run the throttle cable inside the top tube to give it a larger radius bend. The chain run will determine final motor placement.

That’s the progress I’ve made to date. The white frame with black trim looks sharp. The bike feels balanced and not heavy in the least.

Rabbits to Rhinos…

It was a day on the range with three classic and regal rifles:  A .22 Hornet Winchester Model 43, a Winchester Model 70 chambered in .300 Weatherby Magnum, and a .416 Rigby Ruger Model 77 RSM Express.  These are rifles that can handle everything from rabbits to rhinos, although my only intent was to punch holes in paper, preferably with the holes as close to each other as possible.   It’s always fun doing so, and it’s even more fun when the rifles have  an elegance rooted in fine walnut, hand-cut checkering, and deeply polished blue steel.  To me, these things are art. Art you can take to the range and enjoy.  I’m going to tell you more about the load data for each of these rifles in subsequent blogs; today, it’s a bit of history about the guns and their cartridges, and how I came to own each of these fine rifles.

A study in extremes: From top to bottom, it’s the .416 Rigby, the .300 Weatherby Magnum, and the diminutive .22 Hornet.  All three are reloaded cartridges.

The rifles?  I’ve mentioned at least two of these in ExNotes blogs before, but for those of you who haven’t read those posts, let me bring you up to speed.  The first is a Winchester Model 43 Deluxe manufactured in 1949.

The Winchester Model 43 Deluxe, a .22 Hornet rifle that looks like it shipped from the factory last week.

The next is an early 1980s Winchester Model 70 XTR.  It’s one of a very small number of rifles Winchester chambered in .300 Weatherby that year.

Another magnificent Winchester, this time a Model 70 chambered in .300 Weatherby Magnum. Check out the walnut!

And the last is a Ruger Model 77 RSM Express.  It’s a monstrous rifle, chambered for a cartridge designed to slay monsters.   Rhinos, elephants, and more.  It’s a beautiful firearm.

The .416 Rigby Ruger RSM Express, a rifle so costly to produce Ruger had to stop making it.

As I wrote this blog, I realized that I purchased all three rifles from the same store:  Turner’s in West Covina, California.  Turner’s is the major hunting and fishing sporting goods chain here in California.  I’m usually not a fan of big chain stores, but I’ve found some good deals at Turner’s and I’ll give credit where credit is due:  Turner’s did good by me.  All three of these rifles were fantastic deals.

People ask how I find guns with great wood.  Part of it is I’m picky and I’m patient.  Another factor is that today’s firearms market is dominated by folks who want black plastic rifles and pistols.  That’s the market Turner’s serves and that’s good for me, because when collectible firearms with blue steel and walnut come into Turner’s they tend to sit for awhile.  Most guys who focus on ARs tend to ignore what, to me, is the good stuff.

The Winchester Model 43 was on the consignment rack at Turner’s several years ago.  It was the first Model 43 I had ever seen and I liked the look and feel.  I like the cartridge, too.  Turner’s had the rifle priced at $1000 and after doing my research, I thought that was fair.  But I’m not interested in a fair deal.  I want an exceptional deal.   I visited that store every week or so for a good month and a half, and that little Model 43 had not moved.   You see, in that neighborhood, there isn’t much of a market for a collectible Winchester.   Like I said above, it’s just not what sells around here.

Winchester only made the Model 43 from May 1948 through 1953, and as mentioned above, mine was manufactured in 1949.   When I bring my Model 43 to the range, folks who know what they’re seeing are all “ooohs” and “ahhhs,” as the crowd I run with consists mostly of guys who started driving when Eisenhower was in the White House.  These guys get it.

Name one modern rifle that includes a checkered steel butt plate. You can’t. They don’t exist. You have to turn back the clock 50 years or more to fnd this.
Hand checkering, too! Not laser cut, not pressed in, not machine cut, and not a rubber insert…but real hand-cut checkering. Somebody at the Winchester factory probably took the better part of a day 70 years ago to do this, and it was all done with hand tools. Checkering is one of the things that makes this Model 43 a Deluxe model.
Nobody has better rollmarks than Winchester, and these say it all: America, Model 43, Winchester, and .22 Hornet!
I pointed this out in an earlier blog, but it’s so cool I’ll mention it again. That front sight is not a separate part grafted on to the Model 43’s barrel; it and the barrel are machined from one piece of steel. Think lots of machine time and big production expense. Check out the stippling on the sight ramp (it cuts the sun’s glare). That would have all been done by hand.

So, back to my pining over the Model 43.  I stopped in at Turner’s for maybe the sixth time to look at the Hornet again.  I mean, the thing was on my mind.  I was thinking about it at night when I went to sleep, it kept me up, and then when I finally dozed off, I was still thinking about it the next morning.   To be a complete human being, I realized, I needed that Model 43.  I suspect that if you’re reading this blog, you understand.

If the Hornet was still on the rack at Turner’s, I reasoned, the guy who had it on consignment might be willing to negotiate.  I was going to offer $950.  The rifle was easily worth the $1000 they were asking for it; $950 would be a killer deal.   So I stopped in on the way home one day and asked to look at the Hornet again.  I sensed that the guy behind the counter (the Turner’s gun department manager) was a little hesitant to show it to me, but he handed it over after opening the bolt.

I looked at the attached tag. The price had been reduced to $850.

I’ll take it, I said.   The gunstore guy sighed.  He told me he had wanted to buy the rifle (he was an older guy, like me), but that wasn’t my problem.  I filled out all the paperwork, and 10 days later, I took my 1949 Hornet home.  I was a complete human being. I could sleep now.  All was well with the world.

I have no idea why Winchester stopped making these rifles, but I suspect it was because they were expensive to manufacture and the Winchester Model 70 was selling better.  Whatever.  And the cartridge itself?  The .22 Hornet was first fielded in the early 1930s and when it hit the market, it was a sensation.  It was a wildcat cartridge designed at the Springfield Arsenal and its focus was high speed (in those days, the 2400 fps Hornet was fast).   The Hornet’s low recoil, relatively flat (for the day) trajectory, and accuracy made it the hot ticket for sending critters to the Great Beyond. I’ve been with Hornet-armed guys chasing jackrabbits and coyotes in west Texas; there is no better  cartridge for this kind of hunting in the desert surrounding El Paso.  There are more powerful .22 centerfires available today, but the Hornet is the one that started it all.  It’s one of the world’s all-time great designs.

Winchester offered the Model 43 in two flavors – the Standard and the Deluxe.  My 1951 Stoeger catalog shows that a new Deluxe sold for $66.95 that year; the Standard was $12 less expensive.  Mine is a Deluxe, with checkering and a deep blue highly polished finish.  And wow, it does its job well.  It has iron sights, and I shot some amazing groups with it at 50 yards.  I’ll share the load data with you in a subsequent blog.

50 yards, the right load, open sights, and a well-mannered Model 43 all came together on this fine day. Any time I can get under an inch at 50 yards with open sights, I’m calling it a good day.
But wait, there’s more! This old Model 43 gets the job done!

I bought the Model 70 .300 Weatherby rifle in the 1980s.  I was an aerospace engineer working at Honeywell in Covina (we did naval gunfire control systems for one of the first cannon-launched laser-guided munitions), I met my wife Sue when I worked at Honewell, and I hung out with my good buddy Ralph.  Ralph, as it turns out, had the same affliction as me:  He was a gun nut.   Ralph told me about Turner’s.  I was new to California, and I had never heard of Turner’s.

You can guess where this story is going.  I went to Turner’s on my lunch break and I saw the Model 70.  I knew enough back then to know that a factory Model 70 chambered for a Weatherby round was an unusual rifle, and I also had a taste for fancy walnut (my Dad made custom gunstocks, so I guess the walnut thing is genetic).  The rifle was marked for something like $429 or $439 if I recall correctly (I might be off a little, but it was somewhere in the just-north-of-$400 range).  I knew that it was tough to lose money on a gun (not that I had any plans to sell it), but it was the wood on that Model 70 that cinched the deal for me.   I paid what they were asking because I wasn’t much of a negotiator back then.  Today, I know that gun shops always put the rifles with the most beautiful wood on display.   By definition, that’s the one I want and I’ll work hard to get it.   But now I always ask for a discount no matter how stunning the stock is, because, you know, it’s the display model.  Don’t laugh.  It almost always works.

Sweet. The Model 70 in .300 Weatherby Magnum. The time to buy a gun like this is when you see it. They don’t come along too often, and I’ve never seen another one like it.

Winchester introduced the Model 70 in 1936.  They value engineered the Model 70 in 1964 (that’s a nice way of saying they cheapened its looks and feel), and the pre-64s used to be far more desirable.  But that’s all changed.  I’ve owned pre-64s and modern Model 70 Winchesters, and I can tell you from personal experience the current production Model 70s are better guns.  You can argue the point, but like I’ve said, I’ve owned both, and you won’t convince me.  I’ve got the targets to prove it.

The funny thing about this particular Model 70 is that after I bought it, I didn’t shoot it but once or twice over the next 35 years.   I was happy just knowing I owned it, and truth be told, I was a little intimidated by the .300 Weatherby cartridge.   Yeah, I know, real men don’t flinch, but let me tell you, those .300 Weatherby rifles kick.   I started getting serious about mastering this cartridge recently, though, and that’s what led to my Three 300s blog a couple of weeks ago.  I guess I’m getting used to the recoil (a .300 Weatherby will rattle your fillings), because on this most recent range visit, the Model 70 graced me with a couple of 100-yard groups I found astonishing.  I can’t do this with a .300 Weatherby all the time, but when I do, I’ll brag a bit.   And I did.  And I’m bragging a bit.

100 yards, a Weaver T-10 scope, and flinch-free trigger time all came together for a half-minute-of-angle 100-yard group.  I shoot 3-shot groups when developing a hunting load. I’ve never been a fan of 5-shot groups, as I’ve found it’s very hard to get an animal to stand still for five shots.
Maybe that 0.519-inch group isn’t good enough? Hey, the very next one measured 0.371. This is from a .300 Weatherby, mind you, at 100 yards. I’m good to go!

The Model 70 Winchester has been called the Rifleman’s Rifle, and for good reason.  Model 70s have the right look and they are just flat accurate.  I guess you could go wrong with a Model 70, but I never have, and I’ve owned a few over the years.   And the .300 Weatherby cartridge?  There’s no question:  It’s a bruiser.   Developed by Roy Weatherby in 1944, it’s still one of the fastest 30-caliber rounds ever and as you can see above, it can be very accurate.

All right, on to the last one, and that’s the .416 Rigby.  Wow, what a cartridge that monster is.   It was the third rifle I brought to the range with me.   I was about five bays away from the rangemaster when I fired the first round.   He immediately came over to ask what I was shooting.   I thought he was intrigued by the thump (something that might have registered on a Richter scale somewhere), and I guess in a way he was.  I proudly answered that it was a .416 Rigby.  Then he asked me to move further away from his observation post.   The further the better, he said.

The rhino thumper. Big bullets, big bore, big rifle, big muzzle blast, and big recoil!  One box of unprimed brass (that’s just 20 pieces) costs $43!
It just looks cool, doesn’t it?

The .416 Rigby is a cartridge with an interesting pedigree.  It was first developed in 1911 by John Rigby and Company, the folks in England who made safari rifles for folks who liked to throw money around.  The cartridge was designed for dangerous game…big things that can bite you, stomp you, gore you, and maybe even eat you.  Over the years, Rigby built approximately 500 rifles chambered for its mighty .416 cartridge, and then it fell out of favor after the .458 Winchester Magnum entered the market.  The .416 Rigby probably would have died a graceful death had Ruger not stepped in with their .416 Rigby Model 77 RSM (the rifle you see here) nearly 30 years ago.   All told, Ruger built about a thousand of these rifles from 1991 to 2001.   Then, presumably because of the manufacturing expense and fewer guys going to Africa to chase the things that bite back, Ruger discontinued the rifle.

I bought the Ruger at Turner’s, and it was a repeat of the Hornet story.  The Rigby was on consignment (at the very same Turner’s in West Covina), and it was marked $1400.  That was not a bad price, and these Ruger Express Magnums are an investment (you see them now for numbers approaching $2000, sometimes even more).  I keep telling my wife that (you know, the line about collectible guns being investments and all).  She keeps asking me when I’m going to sell.

Like the Model 43, the barrel and sight are machined from one blank (it’s the rear sight on the Ruger rifle).  That means Ruger had to hog the whole mess out of a single piece of steel.  Think excessive machine time, and think high manufacturing cost.

The rear sight ramp is the same piece of steel as the barrel, similar to the approach Winchester used for the Model 43’s front sight ramp.  The three leaves are for close, mid-range, and long-range game.  This is an expensive way to go, but it makes for fast adjustments for someone pursuing dangerous game.   It was a common approach on high-dollar safari rifles back in the day. It’s elegant.

This .416 Rigby Ruger had an exceptionally well-figured Circassian walnut stock.  All of the Ruger RSM Express rifles had Circassian walnut, but I’ve only seen a few as fancy as this one, and when I saw this one, I knew I had to own it (it’s a disease, I know).   And this is another rifle in as-new condition. I can guess what happened…somebody bought it dreaming of Africa, the trip never materialized, the prior owner found out what .416 Rigby ammo costs (north of $200 for 20 rounds of factory ammo), the guy fired one or two rounds and felt the wrath of Rigby recoil, and shortly thereafter the rifle found its way to the consignment rack.  It happens more often than you might imagine.

Stunning Circassian Walnut. As supplied by Ruger, Circassian has an almost orange hue to it. This one is beautiful.

I offered the Turner’s dude $1200, and he said he couldn’t do that without talking to the person who had the rifle on consignment.   I looked at him and he looked back at me for several seconds.  I guess it was a standoff. Finally, I spoke:  Give the guy a call, I said.

He did, and yep, 10 days later the big Ruger came home with me.  It’s a monster.  It weighs more than any rifle I own, and a big part of what drives the weight is that monstrous hogged out .416 barrel.  But when you light one off, that weight is your friend.  It soaks up the recoil, of which there is plenty.

The Ruger was not nearly as accurate as the other two rifles I had on the range that day, but it still wasn’t too bad.  I was shooting at 50 yards initially, and this is the best group I could get…

.416-inch holes at 50 yards. This rifle will do better. I just didn’t have it in me that day.

After shooting five 3-shot groups at 50 yards, I had five rounds left in the box of 20.  I wanted to see where the bullets would hit at 100 yards, and I used a pistol silhouette target to make that assessment.

Meh, I could do better. With other rifles, I have on occasion shot groups under an inch at 100 yards with open sights, but it wasn’t going to happen that day (for me or the .416 Rigby).

I held at 6:00 on the target’s orange center, and I used that larger target because I didn’t know where the rounds would land at that distance (I wanted lots of paper around the point of aim so I could see what was going on).   I put all five shots on paper, but the group size was a disappointing 6.6 inches.   Oddly enough, the rifle was printing very slightly to the left at 50 yards, but it clearly grouped to the right at 100 yards.   I need to think about that a little bit.  Maybe it was the way the sun was hitting the front sight (that can make a significant difference), as I shot the 100-yard group later in the day.  I found the v-notch on the Rigby’s rear sight to be a bit difficult to use (I could not form a consistent sight picture).  I guess it’s okay for a charging rhino, but it’s not conducive to the accuracy I sought.  I’m not done with the Ruger Express rifle yet, and truth be told, I ‘m kind of glad the results weren’t stellar.   Half the fun with these things is searching for the perfect load.  Once you find it, for me at least, a lot of the excitement goes away.   I figure there’s still plenty of excitement left in the Rigby.

Do you enjoy our gun stories and photos?   Check out our other Tales of the Gun.  And don’t be bashful about adding your name to our blog update list.  You can do so here:

Bonneville Speed Week

Berk and I have a busy ExhaustNotes.us August planned. You’ve already read about his Three Flags tour on the new, untested RX4 Zongshen and I’m finalizing plans for an assault on the Bonneville speed trials. No, I won’t be racing Mini Moto Madness but seeing as how I’ve never been to the salt for Speed Week and I’m not getting any younger I figured this is the year.

It wasn’t really my idea. It was Mike’s. Mike lives on a ranch in Carrizozo, New Mexico. I met Mike a hundred miles north at a little restaurant in Willard. I wanted shredded beef tacos but the restaurant was out of beef. I didn’t want to use up my private stash so I went back to the menu. That’s when Mike piped up and told me to try the pork tacos. I had three pork tacos with beans and rice. I recommend them highly.

Willard is kind of a slow place. The intersection of Highways 60 and 42 is the main topic of conversation in town. Mike and I got to shooting the breeze like all motorcyclists do and it turns out Mike likes to ride dirt trails on his BMW thumper 650. I mean you had me at dirt, you know? We started doing a few rides and then the Bonneville thing came up. We’re going to try and hit a few dirt roads on our way north.

We need to make pretty good time on this trip so Godzilla, while reliable, is too stressed out at 70 mph leaving The Wedge, my Husqvarna 510. The Husky’s fork seals are leaking badly. I’ve bought new seals to install. That should be interesting as I’ve never worked on upside down forks. The clutch lever is broken from a spill I took in Big Bend Park. I’m going to cut the end off a donor lever and weld it to the stub remaining from the original lever. It should make a nice, Frankenstein looking part when I’m through. I know I can buy a new lever. I just feel more at home doing things the hard way. The drive chain is still in fair shape but with 11,000 miles on the thing I’m going to change it as a prophylactic measure.

The tires are new-ish on the Husky but slanted towards street riding and not so good for dirt. Mike’s heavy BMW 650 has decent dirt tires. I’m hoping my bike being 200 pounds lighter will even us up on the trails. I’ll also bring along a leaking plastic jug of fuel so that all my camping gear and clothing will be soaked with gas after 15 miles.

Motorcycle camping is not my idea of fun. Either you carry no gear and enjoy the motorcycle ride only to suffer as you roll around in the dirt trying to sleep at night or you bring enough equipment to camp comfortably and have a miserable ride on your overloaded bike stopping every few miles to repack.

Mike and I will be at the KOA in West Wendover from August 12th to the 14th. If you’re around town stop by and visit us. Bring beer if you want us to be happy to see you. Our campsite is good for up to six people. I’ll have coffee. There will be fire.  It’ll be fun. You’ll see.

5K@8K

As Gomer Pyle would say:   Golllleeeee!

That was my reaction when the photos you see below popped up on my Facebook feed, telling me it had been four years since I posted them.  Yep, it was in July of 2015 that yours truly, Joe Gresh, and riders from China and Colombia descended on CSC Motorcycles to christen the RX3 with a ride through the great American West.  So Cal to Sturgis, due west to Washington and Oregon, and then a run down the coast home, hitting every National Park and site worth seeing along the way. It was an amazing adventure, and truth be told, I was shocked that it has been four years already.  That meant it was about four years ago that CSC brought the RX3 to America, it was four years ago that I first met Joe Gresh in person (a living legend, in my mind), and it was four years ago that we took a ride that made the entire motorcycle world sit up and take notice.   A dozen guys, a dozen 250cc motorcycles fresh off the boat from China, 5000 miles, and not a single breakdown.  Tell me again about Chinese motorcycles are no good?  Nah, don’t waste your breath.  I know better.

It was a hell of a ride, and good buddy John Welker did a hell of a job as our very own Ferdinand Magellan, defining the route, making all of the hotel reservations, keeping us entertained with great stories, and more.  These are the same photos (I took them all) that popped up on Facebook.  They represent only a small portion of the ride, but they give you an idea of what it was like.  It was grand.

Somewhere along Highway 89 in Arizona. The guy in the foreground is our very own Baja John Welker.   That’s Joe Gresh way at the other end of this row of motorcycles.
Same location, with Hugo out front. Hugo is the Zongshen factory rep. He’s a great guy who kept us constantly entertained.
Mr. Tso, posing for me in Zion National Park. This guy makes for a great photograph. He rode with us in China, too!
We stayed in Panguitch, Utah, the night before we visited Bryce Canyon National Park. Dinner that evening was at the Cowboy’s Smoke House. I liked it so much I later returned with my wife just to have dinner there.
Tony and his mascot inside Cowboy’s. Great times.
Bryce Canyon National Park. Everyone was captivated by this place. It was awesome.
Kyle, one of the Chinese riders, and Big John, our chase vehicle driver. Good guys both.
Tony and Kyle, posing at Bryce.
The crew when we returned to So Cal. From left to right, it’s Juan from Colombia, Joe Gresh, Tony from China, Mr. Tso from China, John Welker, Lester from China, Kong from China, Big John Gallardo, Hugo Liu, Gabriel from Colombia, and Kyle from China.
The obligatory photo at Roy’s in Amboy, somewhere in the Mojave Desert. God Almighty it was hot that day.
The guys at the Grand Canyon…Lester, Kong, Tso, and Hugo.
In Capitol Reef National Park in Utah, at an impromptu photo stop.
I grabbed this photo of Joe Gresh along the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. It looks like he’s Photoshopped into the picture, but he’s not.
Same spot, different guys: Gabriel and Juan from Colombia. Juan later invited me to ride with him in Colombia, and I went. That, too, was an incredible ride.

So there you have it, or at least snippets of what was one of the greatest rides I’ve ever done.  I’m hoping Facebook has more of these anniversary photos pop up for me, as the ride lasted 19 days and I know I posted more on that ride.   Good times.  Great riders.  Superior camaraderie.

As always, there’s more good stuff coming your way.   Stay tuned!

Hey, the whole story of that ride is here.   You can get the whole nine yards by buying your own copy of 5000 Miles At 8000 RPM.   There’s a lot more good information in there, too, like CSC’s no-dealer approach to market, how we dealt with the Internet trolls who tried to hurt the company, the first CSC Baja trip, the RX3’s strengths and weaknesses, and much, much more!

Mini Motor Madness: 3

It’s sort of futile hopping up a 2-horsepower bicycle engine because the rear sprocket-to-spoke connection is so weak. Spindly running gear has never stopped a hot-rodder before and bicycle motor aficionados are hot-rodders to the bone. While Mini Motor Madness is on hold awaiting parts I wandered into the wonderfully inexpensive world of high performance engine goodies.

The bog standard bicycle motor is not heavily finned. Overheating doesn’t seem to be a problem but with an aluminum bore and a recommended 16:1 oil/gas ratio it is clearly something to watch out for. Like all parts for these little motors there are a zillion sellers insuring fierce competition and low prices for the thrifty Rodder. The increase in the quantity of cylinder head metal alone would be helpful in keeping things square and dampening noise. The large, deep fins must do a great job of lowering cylinder temperatures. A cooler cylinder means you’ll be able to run a leaner mixture without melting internal parts. Less oil means more room for fuel going through those tiny orifices in your carb. It’s like changing jet size by playing with the fuel ratio. Any compression increases would probably be nullified by the low-grade gasoline cheap mini motor fans cannot help but use.

There is even more selection when it comes to exhaust systems. Two-piece, welded seam expansion chambers are the most numerous and various finishes are on offer to suit anyone’s budget. Expansion chambers are like free horsepower in that most times you won’t need to do much carburetor work to get the things in tune. Using a combination of black magic and sonic waves, expansion chambers most often move the powerband higher into the rev range and will allow the motor to spin up another few thousand RPM. Those extra RPM’s are a good thing for drafting Indian FTR750s on the long straightaways at The Sacramento Mile but a chambered motor may not get you over that last vertical shelf of a long, rocky hill climb.  It’s the one where you don’t dare downshift for fear of losing momentum.

No matter how well designed, reed valves are an obstruction in the intake tract of a mini motor. They make up for this by stopping the constant re-carburation of the fuel mixture due to the reverse air pulses created by a sloppy piston port intake. Reeds also allow huge holes in the piston skirt to extend the degrees of rotation a crankcase can draw in the fuel/air mixture. Since nothing can blow back out the carburetor, an extra transfer port can be carved into the intake side of the cylinder wall. Combined with an expansion chamber, reed valves can more than make up for blocking the intake tract. Even without all the piston/transfer port butchery low speed running is improved by the cleaner intake signal.

With all the excitement focused on pumping more air through your mini motor you’ll find the stock carb wanting. Large carburetors are really cheap online so why not go all the way? For less than $200 you can convert your mild-mannered, reliable mini motor into an atomic bomb ready to explode between your legs at any moment. Sure it’s stupid. Sure you will burn more fuel and annoy all you neighbors, but when have those things mattered to a Rodder?

A Model 700 Varmint Rifle

A Remington Model 700 BDL Varmint gun in .223. I spotted this at the Gunrunner in Duarte, and it followed me home.

There’s gun stores, and then there’s gun stores.  I can’t pass a gun store without stopping in.  The issue is that most gun shops today are soulless retail outlets with black plastic.  Glocks, ARs, you get the idea.  Guns with no soul and gun shop owners with even less.  But there are exceptions.  One that comes to mind is the Gunrunner in Duarte.  It’s a favorite, partly because the team working there consists of older guys a lot like myself (crusty, maybe carrying a few pounds more than they should be, and a sense of humor).   But it’s mostly because they get it.  “It” being, of course, blue steel and walnut.  And military surplus rifles.  I can’t drive by Gunrunner’s without stopping in.  You never know what they might have in stock, and even if I don’t buy anything, it’s always fun looking.

One day a few years ago on just such a stop, I noticed an older Remington Model 700. It was the varmint model and it had a price that was just too good to walk away from. And the photos don’t do it justice. It had a real contrasty bit of walnut with horizontal dark stripes that were unusually nice on a production gun. As the saying goes, I pulled the trigger. I bought the rifle for a scant $400, which I thought was a hell of a deal (I think new ones are about a thousand bucks now).

The Remington was pretty well gummed up with old oil (so much so the firing pin and trigger were stuck), and the standard M-700 BDL high gloss urethane finish was going south in a big way.  I took the barreled action out of the stock and gave it a thorough cleaning.  Then I spent hours on the stock with 0000 steel wool.

When I was finished, I was pleased with the results. The rifle looked way better than it did with the original high gloss finish (which never really appealed to me…it was too Hollywood for my tastes). The stock had a few nicks and scratches before; after the refinish, those completely disappeared. It became a thing of great beauty with a nice, subdued, European look.  I grabbed a few shots, and then I played with them a bit in Photoshop to subdue the background and highlight the rifle. I like how the rifle and this photo in particular turned out…

The results of 0000 steel wool and a bit of work on my Model 700 Varmint rifle.

I mounted an inexpensive Tasco 6×24 scope on the Model 700. I wasn’t wild about the scope, as it didn’t seem to be able to focus the reticle and the target simultaneously (or maybe it was just my old eyes). A new Weaver or a Leupold might have been in order, but the results with this resurrected old warhorse were still outstanding.  The rifle shot into an inch at 100 yards before I did any load development (which wasn’t too shabby) with what I regarded as junk .223 ammo.

More photos of the Model 700 after refinishing and with the new Tasco mounted.

I went to work on developing a load to get the rifle to shoot into a half-inch, and I succeeded: I broke the half-minute-of-angle barrier with a 0.498-inch three-shot group almost immediately!

A half-minute of angle!

That was with IMR 4320 propellant, and it prompted me to try several different propellants and charge weights:

Load results for the Model 700 .223 Remington.  All of the above loads used the Hornady VMax 55 grain bullet. You should always start at the low end of the charge range and work up; do not simply take my accuracy loads and try them in your rifle!

You might think that with the above results the rifle was a keeper.  It was, but not for me.  A couple of my shooting buddies wanted it, and I transferred it to a good friend for what I had into it.

Want to read more Tales of the Gun?  Just click here!

Want to be notified when we post new blogs?

3FC19: The Route!

I am getting thoroughly pumped up about riding the 2019 Three Flags Classic this year on the RX4.   There’s just something about the Three Flags Classic that’s magic, and I haven’t been this excited about getting out on the road in quite a while.  It’s going to be grand and it’s going to be a blast, and you’ll be able to follow my personal ride from Mexico through the western United States on up into Canada right here on the ExNotes blog.  I’ll have tons of great photos and the writing will be as good as I can make it.   You’ll be able to follow first hand my further impressions of the CSC RX4, too.  This won’t be a silly superficial set of impressions like you’d read in a half-baked one-page magazine article, either.  Nope, this will be thousands of miles of international riding across three countries on the newest motorcycle to hit these shores.   I’m not worried.  I’ve never been let down by a CSC motorcycle, and I feel comfortable that the RX4 is going to be another home run for CSC and Zongshen.   Whatever happens, you’ll get the straight skinny right here on ExhaustNotes!

In poking around on the Southern California Motorcycle Association site last night, I found this description of the route…

I think it’s going to be great.  If you want to read more about the 2019 Three Flags Classic, take a look at the SCMA site here!  If you’d like to read about our 2005 Three Flags Classic ride, you can do so here.

Make sure you never miss an ExNotes blog with fresh Gresh and yours truly, and get a free decal!  Hey, sign up right here:

Dan, your decals are in the mail!

Tested to Destruction: Haix Boots

My second pair of Haix boots. They’re comfortable as slippers, they last forever, and they are perfect for adventure riding. These will last me until 2027, I think.

You read Joe Gresh’s Tested to Destruction piece on Rossi Boots.   When I read it, I immediately thought of my Haix boots.   My first pair lasted more than 10 years.  After they finally wore out I tried a less expensive brand, but then I went back to Haix.   I had worn the best; no substitute would ever be as good.  Haix is pronounced “hikes” and they are, simply put, the best footwear I’ve ever owned.

I happened upon my first pair of Haix almost accidentally.  The story goes like this:  My good buddy Mike, whom I’ve known since the 7th grade, is a retired police chief.   He worked his way up through the ranks of a major metropolitan city on the east coast, became Director of that department (it’s the top spot), and retired.   Mike goes to the International Association of Police Chiefs conventions every year, in 2004 that convention was here in Los Angeles, and Mike invited me to go with him.   It was a cool experience and we had a blast.

I had a to have a police connection to get in to the event, so Mike deputized me as the Administrative Assistant to the Chief of Police.  My new position included a cool official-looking police ID card and I asked if I could get a gun out of the deal.  Mike’s answer was a curt “No,” but hey, I tried.   We had a hell of a time at that convention.   There was all kinds of interesting gear on display.   Guns.  Helicopters.  Police motorcycles.  Patrol cars. Surveillance equipment.  You get the idea.  Oh, yeah.  And boots.  I’ll get to that in a second.

Facial recognition software. You know, Big Brother. That’s me and Mike being dropped into the data base.

There were cool guys there, too.  Mike introduced me to Willie Bratton, senior FBI executives, and the head of the CHP (I asked that guy if he could help me with a speeding ticket and no one laughed…I thought it was funny as hell).  We saw all kinds of cool  gear, including a police helicopter that you could climb into.   I did that and immediately starting pushing buttons from the pilot’s seat.  One sent power to the turbine starter, the turbine started to whir, and the blades actually started to move.   Mind you, all of this was indoors at the Staples Convention Center. Wow, talk about people descending on us quickly!  When we walked by that helicopter later, it was roped off.  You couldn’t sit in it any more, thanks to me.

Oh, yeah. The starter worked.  We’re still laughing about that one!

But I digress.  The point of this story was that one of the vendors displaying their goods was the Haix boot company, whom I had never heard of before.  The boots looked good, I tried a pair on, and they felt great.   Think slippers for comfort level, great support, and a cool combat boot look.  They were $200, but I was in.   The guy told me to take the pair I had tried on, and they would invoice me later.

I wore those boots everywhere for the next 10 years, and I always wore them on my motorcycle rides.  That included the 2005 Three Flags Rally, tons of weekend rides, tons of Baja rides, the Hells Loop Rally, and lots more.  They were waterproof, unlike motorcycle-specific boots they were comfortable to walk around in, they were lightweight, and they just felt great.  After more than 10 years of abuse, though, the soles started to separate during the Western America Adventure Ride in 2015.   I remember Gresh picking up some Shoe Goo for me in Cheyenne, Wyoming, which got me another year of use.  But finally, I had to give in.  It was time for a new pair.

Yours truly on the right, wearing my first pair of Haix boots, in 2005. Marty and I were standing in front of Lake Louise in Canada. We rode in the 2005 Three Flags Classic Rally from Mexico to Canada.

I cheaped out and bought a pair of S.W.A.T.-brand boots on the Internet prior to leaving for the Colombia ride.  They were stiff, they were uncomfortable, and after 5 days of riding through the Andes Mountains’ heat, humidity, and rain, they were toast.  My take on it is that the S.W.A.T. brand is probably good for kicking butts and taking names, but they didn’t make it for me as a comfortable motorcycle boot.  Nope, I needed me another pair of Haix.

Then good buddy Mike came to the rescue.  There was another IACP convention (in San Diego, this time), I was Deputy Dawg again, and I shelled out $200 for my second pair of Haix.  Which I’m wearing now, knowing they’re worth every penny of that $200.   In 2027, I’ll be due for my third pair, and you can bet I’ll be going for HAIX again.  I’m just hoping that the 2027 IACP convention will be here in southern California.

Dream Bikes: Ossa Pioneer

I must have been around 15 years old the first time I saw an Ossa Pioneer. It was at Haines City motocross track. Mike Mills’ mom was divorced and her boyfriend gave us a ride way out to Chrome Avenue in his boat tail Buick Riviera . What a car! The Riviera smelled great inside not only because it was new, but because the boyfriend wore cologne. This was the first time I had been around a grown man that used cologne. All the other adult men I had known up to that point smelled like dirty socks. I smell like dirty socks right now.

You know what to do:  Click on the popup ads!

“Burn the tires, c’mon!” we pleaded. It was a strange experience sitting in the plush, perfumed Riviera as the big V-8 engine effortlessly spun the tires into clouds of cotton candy. “Want to stop at the hobby store to pick up some sniffing glue, boys?” Damn we laughed and had fun with that guy. He treated us like equals, like he cared what we had to say. I wish I could remember his name. It was like going to the motocross races with Hugh Heffner.

He drove 90 miles per hour every chance he got and it wasn’t long before he was dropping us at the motocross track. He spun the Buick around and said, “I’ll be back at five.” And then lit the tires up again on Chrome Avenue. He was exactly what we wanted to be when we grew up.

Mostly Bultacos and Maicos were racing in Haines City back then but one guy had an Ossa Pioneer with the lights removed. The rider was good. He would get crossed up over the jumps and finished in the top 5 against real race bikes. I loved how the rear fender blended into the bike. That fiberglass rear section had a small storage area inside. One of the bike magazines of the era tossed a loose spark plug in the storage and went scrambling. The plug beat a hole in the rear fender and they had the nerve to bitch about it. Hell, I knew at 10 that you have to wrap stuff in rags on a motorcycle.

It rains most everyday in Florida and it started pouring. The races kept going for a while but finally had to be called because it was a deluge. You could hardly see to walk. There was no cover so we huddled in the leeward side of the ticket stand out by the entrance. It rained harder, the wind was howling. Wearing only shorts and T-shirts we were getting colder and colder. My lips were turning blue, man.

It was like Niagara Falls, a solid sheet of water that the Riviera emerged from. Man, I was so glad to see that car. “How were the races, boys?” Soaking wet and shivering we piled into the Riviera’s soft leather seats. I thought he’d get mad but boyfriend just laughed. You got the feeling he could go buy another Riviera if he wanted to.

Want to read more Dreambikes?  They’re right here!