My RX3 and its campaign ribbons…

I thought it might make for a nice change of pace if I actually posted something about motorcycles on this here motorcycle blog, so yesterday I fired up my faithful old RX3 and rode over to CSC Motorcycles.  Steve has a very cool 1982 Yamaha Seca that he said I could ride, and I wanted to experience what it’s like to ride a nearly-40-year-old motorcycle, built during the Reagan Administration, with only 1700 miles on the clock.   I’ll have a story on that later (Spoiler Alert:  The RX3 is a nicer motorcycle).  For today, I grabbed a few photos of my RX3 and I wanted to talk about my bike and its decals a bit.

Restaurants, Baja Runs, and more…my RX3 wears its decals like campaign ribbons. In a very real sense, that’s exactly what they are.

My RX3 is one of the very first ones delivered to America when CSC starting importing the bikes, and the story behind that is well told (if I do say so myself) in 5000 Miles at 8000 RPM.  It’s orange, which became sort of a nice orange-yellow over the years, and I like the look.  I also like the look of a lot of decals.  I always thought that was a cool aspect of the whole ADV thing, telling folks where you’ve been and (with the help of a little artwork and adhesive) bragging about it a bit.   And my RX3 and I have covered a few miles.

My first big RX3 ride, and one of the things that I think put CSC and the RX3 on the map was the 2015 Baja Run (our first, and maybe a first in the motorcycle industry for a new bike introduction).   I didn’t know how that would go, I was nervous as hell that the bikes wouldn’t fare well, but my fears were unfounded. It was an incredible ride.  And, it was our first decal.  That’s the big round one you see just above the my saddle in the photo above.

Next up:  The Chinese and a couple of cool guys from Colombia wanted to come to the US and ride with us.   And I got to meet a cool guy named Joe Gresh, who Motorcyclist magazine sent to ride with us.  You need to read 5000 Miles At 5000 RPM to get the full story on that adventure tour, too.  It was grand.  Azusa to Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota, ride west across Wyoming, Idaho, and Washington, and then a turn left at the ocean to ride the western US coast back to So Cal.  The relevant point here is that ride made for a bitchin’ decal, which you can see in the photo below.

The Western America Adventure Ride. It was grand. 5000 miles, lots of bikes, and not a single breakdown. Gresh staged a burnout with his RX3 in Port Orford, Oregon…the burnout heard around the world. John Welker planned our stops and navigated for us. It was a magnificent ride.

Then we did a bunch more CSC Baja rides, and with each one came another decal.  Then I did a ride across China with Gresh on a couple of RX3s we borrowed from Zongshen (I wrote a book about that one, too).  Then it was a ride around the Andes Mountains in Colombia with my good buddies Juan (who was on ride across America with us) and Carlos, both supercool guys who took great care of me in Medellin, Barichara, Mompos, and a whole bunch of other magnificent Colombian destinations.  Yep, that resulted in yet another book.

Luggage decals…Mama Espinoza’s in El Rosario (incredible lobster burritos), BajaBound Mexican insurance (the best), and the Horizons Unlimited Rally in northern California.
My Chinese buddies gave me a Chinese flag to put on my bike, I had to add a US flag to show where my loyalties lie, and a decal good buddy Juan’s Colombian motorcycle magazine, DeMotos.com.co.

I could ask if you knew how many RX3 breakdowns I experienced in all those miles, but I know you already know the answer: Zero.

Yep, that little 250 has taken me to hell and back, and my RX3 just keeps running and running and running.   An added benefit?  Mine is orange (it’s the fastest color, Orlando).

And that brings us to now, and the latest decal to adorn my well-broken-in, trusty, faithful and fearless companion.   It’s the supercool ExhaustNotes.us decal, and it’s perfect on my RX3.

Joe Gresh had a magnificent idea in creating an ExhaustNotes.us decal. I had just enough real estate to add it to my RX3!

So there you have it.  Imagine that:  A motorcycle story on a motorcycle blog!  And there’s more motorcycle stuff in the pipeline.  Truth be told, I enjoyed my RX3 sprint this morning, and it helped me realize I need to ride it more.  Welker called me about Sturgis a couple of says ago.  That might be fun.  If I go, I’d do it on the RX3.  I’d forgotten just how magnificent a motorcycle the RX3 is.

Stay tuned, folks…there’s more coming!

Would you like your very own ExNotes decal?  Hey, sign up for our automatic email updates, and we’ll shoot a couple out to you!

They’re out there…

The ExNotes decals, thanks to the tireless efforts of Uncle Joe Gresh, are starting to pop up likes daisies after a Spring rain!

This just in from good buddy YooHoo Fred:

I received my Exhaust Notes blog sticker in the mail yesterday. It’s like how getting your name in the phone book felt years ago. I am humbled at being included in the select few to receive this honor. A hearty thanks to a couple of great Joes: Joe Gresh & Joe Berk for bestowing this honor upon a mere mortal like me.

And another from good buddy Terry…

Honors and privileges at such a young age! My long awaited and much anticipated Exhast Notes Stickers came in mail today! Joe Gresh Belen Wagner I can wait show this to all my motorcycle friends, get yours, too. See http://Exhaustnotes.us or see Joe Gresh!

None other than our good buddy Robert has an ExNotes decal on his Sporty…

And good buddy Carlos never leaves home without his overhead publicity…

Hey, be one of the cool kids!   Get your very own ExNotes decals!

A Tale of Three 300s

The word “wow” might have been invented in anticipation of the .300 Weatherby Magnum.   It’s that impressive.  I’ve owned and fired a lot of different cartridges over the years, and the one that I find the most interesting, the most intimidating, and the most coolest ever is the .300 Weatherby.  For a lot of years it was the most powerful .308-caliber cartridge on the planet.  Roy Weatherby, my personal hero, created the cartridge in 1944 and it’s only been in the last few years that two or three more powerful .30-bore cartridges emerged, but these new .30-caliber cartridges are overkill.  In fact, I could make a good argument that the .300 Weatherby is overkill.  But I won’t.  I love the round and I love the fact that it scares me a little every time I shoot it.

A sense of scale. From left to right, it’s the .22 Long Rifle, the .45 ACP, the .223 Remington (essentially, our M-16 round), the .30-30 Winchester (America’s premier deer cartridge), the mighty .30-06, and the last two are .300 Weatherby Magnum cartridges. Every cartridge shown here (with the exception of the .22 Long Rifle) is a reloaded round.

The first rifle I ever bought chambered for the .300 Weatherby, oddly enough, was not a Weatherby.  It was a Winchester Model 70 that I bought maybe 35 years ago.  It was a limited production item and that might have been a good reason to buy it, but the thing that grabbed my attention on this particular rifle was the walnut.  You just don’t see factory Model 70s with fancy walnut, but this one had it in spades.

A 1980s Model 70 Winchester in .300 Weatherby Magnum, wearing a Weaver T-10 telescopic sight.
The right side of the .300 Weatherby Model 70.
Ah, that beautiful walnut. It’s not often lumber like this appears on a Winchester.
Both sides, too! When I saw this rifle I was still in my 30s. I really couldn’t afford it, but I couldn’t afford to let it get away, either.

I think I paid just over $400 for that rifle back in the 1980s, which is what they were going for then.  I had a Weaver T10 target scope I had used when shooting metallic silhouette and it went on the Model 70.  It’s most definitely not the scope for a .300 Weatherby, but it’s what I had at the time.  The scope is a collectible item all by itself…it’s steel and it was manufactured when Weaver made their scopes in El Paso.

So that’s the first rifle in this trio of .300s.   The next is one I bought exactly 10 years ago, in 2009, at the height of the Great Recession.   I was lucky in 2009…I was working, and lots of folks were selling things to raise cash, including more than a few gun stores.   An outfit called Lock, Stock, and Barrel advertised a new-in-the-box Mark V Euromark on Gunbroker, and I was on that in a New York minute.  The store was in the upper Midwest somewhere and they stated in their ad they would not sell to California (our state commissars make life difficult in a  lot of ways, and more than a few sellers simply won’t ship to California).   But I wanted that Euromark something fierce (the Euromark is a Mark V Weatherby with a satin oil finish, rather than the Mark V’s usual high gloss urethane finish).  I called the guy, did my “woe is me” routine, and he agreed to ship the rifle to my FFL-holder here in the Peoples’ Republik.

Saw it on Gunbroker, saw the wood, and I couldn’t say no.
It was nice on both sides, too. Rosewood accents, beautiful walnut, and the mighty .300 Weatherby Magnum in a Mark V. What’s not to like?

I bought a new Weaver 4×16 scope, put it on the rifle, and then I put the Mark V in the safe.  It stayed there for 10 years.   I fired it for the first time this weekend, for this blog.

You know, the funny thing is my good buddy Marty saw the Weatherby before I put it in the safe and he decided he needed one, too.  He tried calling Lock, Stock, and Barrel a week after I received mine, but they had already gone out of business.  The Great Recession was rough.  My grabbing that rifle was a lucky break.

These photos impart a bit of an orange hue to the Mark V’s stock. It’s really a bit more subdued.
Like the Model 70, this Mark V is pretty on both sides. The stock profile is the classic Weatherby Monte Carlo look, which actually works very well in reducing felt recoil.
Unlike the other Deluxe Mark V rifles, the Euromark has a classic, low-sheen satin finish. It works well with the rosewood accents.
It was sunny when I was on the range this weekend. I get better photos when it’s overcast, but you get the idea. The 4×16 Weaver on this rifle is a magnificent optic.

The last .300 Weatherby I’m going to talk about today is my Vanguard.  It’s one of the original series Weatherby Vanguards, and it has what we tongue-in-cheek refer to as the Tupperware stock.  I’ve written about this rifle on the ExNotes blog before.  I wasn’t looking for a Vanguard when I bought this one, but I saw it at the Gunrunner gun shop in Duarte, the price was right, and, well, you know how these things go.  It came home with me.

My Series 1 Weatherby Vanguard with the plastic stock. It’s accurate. And it’s hard-hitting (on both ends).
A view from the port side. You can see the profile similarity between the Vanguard’s composite stock and the Mark V’s walnut stock above.
The Vanguard came from the factory with a Bushnell 3×9 scope. It needs more eye relief. Before I go into the field with this rifle, I’m going to replace the scope.

The deal on the Vanguard rifles is that Weatherby wanted to bring a lower cost rifle to market without cheapening their flagship Mark V, and they contracted with Howa of Japan to build the Vanguards.  The principal difference is that the Vanguard has a 90-degree bolt lift compared to the Mark V’s 54-degree bolt lift, and the Mark V sells for about $1400 more than a Vanguard. I’m here to tell you that the Vanguard is an outstanding rifle, every bit as good as the Mark V, and in many cases, more accurate.

So how do these three puppies shoot?

Like I said at the beginning of this blog, the .300 Weatherby is intimidating.  I like to think I’m not recoil sensitive, but the .300 Weatherby is right on the edge of what I think I can handle shooting from the bench.  It’s not an easy rifle to shoot for accuracy.  To get the best groups from any rifle, I like to minimize contact with the rifle.   I let the rifle lay in the benchrest, lightly hold the fore end with my fingers, barely touch my cheek against the stock, move my head to an appropriate position to get a full image through the scope, and just touch the recoil pad with my shoulder.  The idea is that I don’t want to exert any force on the rifle, as that can move the rounds around on the target, and I’m shooting for the tightest group.  That works with rifles that have light to moderate recoil, say, up to the .30 06 level.   Try that with a .300 Weatherby, though, and you’re going to get popped in the face by the scope when you drop the hammer.  Really.  Trust me on this; I know.  Nope, when you shoot the .300 Weatherby from the bench, you need a solid grip on the rifle, and you need to pull it firmly into your shoulder.  It’s a little harder to get tight groups doing that.   But it’s easier than getting smacked by the scope.

Before I get into the accuracy results, I’ll share my impressions of the three rifles based on trigger pull, felt recoil, fit, and optics.

The Mark V has the best trigger. I broke cleanly at about 3 lbs, and it made shooting the rifle easier.  I guess that’s to be expected with a rifle that has a price tag like the Mark V (these things ain’t cheap).   The Model 70 had a crisp (no creep) trigger, but it was heavy.  That made it a little harder to shoot well, especially when shooting it right after I shot the Mark V (I got spoiled; it’s pretty hard to follow the Mark V act).  The Vanguard trigger had a bit of creep in it, and it was about as heavy as the Winchester’s trigger, which is to say both the Vanguard and the Winchester triggers were heavier than the Mark V’s trigger.

The Mark V is a clear winner from a felt recoil perspective.   There are several reasons for this.  One is that it is the heaviest of the three rifles, with its dense walnut stock and 26-inch barrel.  Another is the Weatherby stock profile.   Folks make fun of it, but it works.  When the gun recoils, it draws away from your cheek, and the perception is that it has less recoil.  Another factor is Mark V’s recoil pad.  And the last one is the Weaver 4×16 scope’s eye relief.  Head position isn’t critical, and you’re far enough back from the scope that it doesn’t hit you in recoil.  Don’t get me wrong:  The Mark V still packs a wallop.  It’s just easier to shoot than the other two.   The Winchester Model 70 was a close second, most likely because it also has a real stock (read: walnut), but it’s thinner recoil pad made it slightly more punishing than the Mark V.   Third place from the felt recoil perspective was the Vanguard. It has a big recoil pad like the Mark V, but the plastic stock and 24-inch barrel make the gun lighter, and like we say in the engineering biz, f still equals ma.  Also, the Vanguard’s low end Bushnell Banner scope does not have generous eye relief, and I got smacked a couple of times.  Not enough to draw blood, but enough to get my attention.

I’ve already started talking about scopes, so let me continue that discussion.  The Weaver 4×16 I purchased for the Mark V is a killer scope.  It’s incredibly bright, crisp, and clear.  In fact, it’s so good I didn’t realize I had it turned down to 4X for the first couple of groups I fired.   Eye relief on this scope is generous enough for a bucking bronc like the .300 Weatherby.  It’s the clear winner.

The Weaver T-10 on the Model 70 was out of its element.  It’s a target scope. Eye relief was good enough, but alignment and distance were hypercritical; move just a little too far forward or backward, or left or right, and you’ve lost the image.  I like the scope (I’ve owned it for over 40 years), but it’s in the wrong place on a hunting rifle.

The Vanguard’s Bushnell Banner…what can I say?   Maybe this:  Halitosis is better than no breath at all.  I played around with the focus adjustment, but the Bushnell just isn’t as clear or crisp as either of the Weavers.  That said, it’s considerably less expensive than the other two scopes.  When I bought the Vanguard, it was essentially in as new condition, and the Bushnell was part of a factory package (it came with the rifle).   If I was do it over, I’d get the Weaver 4×16, or maybe a Leupold, for this rifle.  I may do that anyway.  I know this is heresy, but I actually think the Weaver has a crisper image than a Leupold scope.

Of the three rifles, the Mark V fits me best, with the Vanguard a close second.  I like the Weatherby profile.  It just works for me.  If I had to choose one of these three rifles for a hunting trip in the mountains (and I do, as I’m chasing deer with good buddy J later this year in Idaho), it would definitely be the Vanguard.  It’s lighter, and that counts on a hunt like the one I’m headed into.  Yeah, I know…a .300 Weatherby is a bit much for deer. You take what you want when you hunt.  I’m taking my .300.

Okay, so the big question emerges:  How about accuracy?

I almost didn’t include this.  I did a bit of accuracy testing, but my advice is to take my results with a grain of salt.  A big grain. Maybe a barrel of salt.  I hadn’t been on the rifle range in a month or two, and firing 50 or 60 rounds of .300 Weatherby Magnum ammo in one sitting is not the best way to do this kind of shooting.   Stated differently, I was not really giving these rifles a fair shake in this test.  The first few groups you see below are me getting settled in, and the last few groups you see below are more likely than not me deteriorating after getting smacked around all morning.  These rifles are better than what the results below indicate.

That said, here we go.  All groups you see in the chart below were 3-shot groups at 100 yards from the bench. There was no wind, it was a bit warm, and conditions were about ideal.

The loads. Don’t take my word for this stuff; get thee to a load manual, study it, and do your own testing. Start low and work up.

I knew from past dealings that IMR 7828 propellant is good stuff in the big magnums, and I think that my 76.5 grain load with the 180-grain Remington jacketed softpoint bullet is a great load.   I was a bit off on the first group I fired with this load (two shots were touching; the third was a flyer most likely induced by me) and then the other two groups with this load were at minute of angle.  I could do better if I shot this rifle more (yeah, that’s another factor; this was the first time I had this rifle out and the barrel is not broken in yet).  This is not a max load (I could go hotter) and the group size was smaller with the warmer of the two loads I tried with 7828 and the Remington 180-grain bullets.  That suggests an even warmer charge of 7828 under this bullet is where greater accuracy lives, but I just don’t feel a need to go there.   No animal on the planet would be able to tell the difference from an energy-on-target perspective and minute-of-angle accuracy is close enough for government work (especially for the game I plan to hunt).  Dead is dead.  There’s no sense getting beat up by more recoil to make an animal more dead.

The 80 grains of 7828 with the 165-grain Hornady bullet I show in the table above is near a max load, and I think it’s obvious I was losing my edge toward the end of this range session.  I shot a 0.507-inch group at 100 yards with that same load in the Vanguard a couple of years ago; I just couldn’t duplicate it near the end of my range session this past weekend.

Yeah, this dog will hunt.

The difference between a cup of coffee and my advice is you might have asked for a cup of coffee, but I’ll give you my advice anyway.  If I was going to get one rifle in .300 Weatherby, I’d get the basic model Vanguard with a walnut stock, and I’d put either a Weaver 4×16 or a Leupold scope on it.   You’d be getting the Vanguard’s accuracy, with the walnut stock you’d get a little added weight to soak up the recoil, and you’d save a cool $1400 over the Mark V.  I think the Weatherby Vanguard is the best rifle value on the market today.  Shop around on Gunbroker.com for a bit and you can find new walnut Vanguards for about $600.   That’s a phenomenal deal and owning a Weatherby will make you thinner, taller, and better looking.  It will make you a better man.  Trust me on this.

One last comment:  The results you see above regarding different loads are my loads in my rifles.   Your mileage may vary.  Consult a load manual, and always work up your own loads starting at the low end of the manual’s recommended propellant charges.

More Tales of the Gun?   No problem.   Click here, and enjoy!

More Weatherby articles are here.

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More random walking…

It’s another one of those stream-of-consciousness blogs, folks…things I’ve been meaning to mention but forgot, new stuff that’s cool, and more.

For starters, you all will remember my good buddy and former US Army paratrooper Mike.  I first met Mike on one of the CSC Baja rides and we’ve been friends since.

Airborne all the way…that’s Mike.

Mike posted a photo on Facebook over the weekend of himself and, well, take a look…

Hmmmm….

I saw that photo, and I realized:  This is an image that cries out for a caption. So, we’re having a caption contest.  There’s no prize, other than seeing your entry posted here on the ExNotes blog.   There’s all kinds of possibilities with things related to being Airborne, being a turkey, sitting under a turkey, that “almost airborne” T-shirt Mike is wearing, and on and on it goes.  Let’s hear your thoughts in the Comments section, or shoot us an email.

If you missed this one, you gotta go back. And if you didn’t miss it, read it again. I have. Several times.

More good stuff…I keep returning to Gresh’s blog on the BMW R18.   I first read it when I was enjoying an Einstein’s bagel in the Denver airport a couple of nights ago, and I realized that folks were looking at me because I was laughing out loud.  The writing is classic Gresh.  Funny as hell.  My good buddy Arjiu can write.

Another one…you might remember my blog on the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site a few weeks ago.

Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site.  It’s in southeastern Colorado and it’s worth a visit.

While I was out there, I asked the US Park Ranger which of the several books they offered for sale he would recommend, and he suggested A Misplaced Massacre by Ari Kelman.

A Misplaced Massacre is a great read.

The Ranger’s book recommendation was solid, and A Misplaced Massacre was a fascinating read.   Part of the book was about the massacre, but most of it was about the controversy in contemporary Colorado associated with recognizing that Sand Creek was a massacre (and not an heroic battle, as claimed by the cowardly cavalry officer who led it).   Another aspect to the story I had not heard before was the uncertainly associated with the actual massacre site (since resolved, but the effort involved in finding it was one hell of a story that resulted in the title of this fine book).  And yet another aspect was US Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell’s involvement in designating the site as a national historic site.  I met Senator Campbell over 20 years ago at the Laughlin River Run.  Yep, Senator Campbell is a motorcyclist.

Gordon Smith as the XO of VA-152 during a deployment in Southeast Asia.

More good stuff…30 years ago, I managed the Sargent-Fletcher plant in El Monte, California, where we designed and manufactured aerial refueling equipment and combat aircraft fuel tanks.  It was a fabulous place to be and I had a wonderful team, but the best part was that I worked for Rear Admiral Gordon Smith, one of the best bosses I ever had.   I learned more about leadership working for Gordon than I did in any other job, and I’ve worked for several truly outstanding leaders.  Sue and I reconnected with the Admiral a few weeks ago, and we’re having dinner with him this week.   I’m really excited about that.  It’s a story we may share here on the ExNotes blog.

A 2014 L.A. Cetto Malbec.  This, all by itself, is worth a trip to Mexico.

Another random thought…Joe and I did a Baja run a few weeks ago for Royal Enfield, and I mentioned that story is running in the current issue of Motorcycle Classics magazine.  On our way home, as I always do on any Baja run, we stopped at the L.A. Cetto vineyard along the glorious Ruta del Vino between Ensenada and Tecate.    It turns out that I am somewhat of a wine snob.  Well, not really a wine snob…that implies a degree of sophistication I don’t possess.   What I am is a guy who appreciates a good Malbec, a wine I learned about on a business trip to Colombia 15 years ago (I had never heard of Malbec before then).   When you re-enter the US from Baja, you can only bring one bottle of wine, and when Joe and I visited the L.A. Cetto vineyard, I asked if they had a Malbec.  It turns out they had a couple, and the guy there recommended the 2014.  It cost a little more than the other one so I figured it must be good (like I said, being a real wine snob requires a level of sophistication I don’t have).  Based on my wine selection logic (more expensive must be better), I bought it.  Susie and I barbequed salmon last week and we opened the Malbec (another demonstration of my lack of sophistication…drinking a red with fish).  Good Lord, it was wonderful.  I checked, and you can’t buy L.A. Cetto Malbec in the US.   You know what that means:  Another trip to Baja!

And finally, I was out on the rifle range yesterday, and we’re working up a good story tentatively titled A Tale of Three 300s.

Winchester made a small number of Model 70 rifles chambered in .300 Weatherby in the 1980s, and I managed to get one.  Nope, it’s not for sale.

A Tale of Three 300s will be up in another day or two after my shoulder recovers from the recoil.  In the meantime, if you need more gun stuff, just mosey on over to Tales of the Gun!

Random Sunday Thoughts….

I’m up early before I head to the rifle range, poking around a bit on the Internet, checking the news sites and reading the latest propaganda from both ends of the political spectrum (is anyone objective any more?), and generally just catching up on things.   This is another random  walk through an ever-increasingly random place (i.e., my mind).  Bear with me; here we go…

One site I’d like to alert you to if you don’t know about it already is Bator International:

Check out the vintage iron for sale at Bator International.

Bator International popped up in my Facebook feed.  I knew of it, but I didn’t know much about the place, so I clicked and wow I was impressed.   The photographs of vintage motorcycles are awesome, and I saw more than a few I’d like to own.  Bator International is in Ojai, California, and I know that makes for a nice motorcycle ride.  Take a look.  You can thank me later.

The sticker business is going well.  Gresh had a great idea with this stickers, and we’ve been getting lots of signups for our automatic email update notifications…

Do you have your ExNotes sticker yet?

You can get your ExNotes sticker by signing up here…

We’ve had requests and your two Joes have been talking about organizing the Baja staff ride we mentioned earlier.  We’re thinking maybe a 7-day ride to see the whales in Scammon’s Lagoon, and that puts it sometime in the first quarter of next year.  You’d have to have your own motorcycle, of course, and you’d have to be on our automatic email update list.   If you want to go, let us know, but only let us know if you’re willing to commit.  You know how that goes…you say you want to do a big ride, 200 guys say they’re going, and the morning you roll, it’s you and one other guy.  So if you say you’re in, please be for real.  And those whales….wow!

So I’m leaving for the rifle range in a little bit, and I’m pumped up.  I bought a box of once-fired vintage .300 Weatherby brass at a gun shop in Lamar, Colorado a couple of weeks ago, I loaded it last week (we’ll be doing a series on reloading rifle ammo in the near future), and I’m going to send lead downrange through a rifle I bought a decade ago but never fired.  It’s a Weatherby Mk V I saw on a Gunbroker.com auction at the height of the Great Recession.  A gun shop in the upper Midwest was going under, and this one was a real find.  These photos are from that Gunbroker ad…

A Weatherby Euromark in .300 Weatherby. Check out the wood!

The price was right, the caliber was the quintessential .300 Weatherby, and I pulled the trigger (figuratively speaking).  I just never got around to firing it, and today I’m going to correct that character flaw.   I’ll post more photos of the Euromark later this week, and we’ll add a feature on this fine rifle to our Tales of the Gun page.

And that, folks, is a wrap for today’s ExNotes blog.  Stay tuned; we’ve got more good stuff coming your way.

Wild Conjecture: BMW R18 Concept

BMW’s R18 Concept is that rare thing in the motorcycle world: a BMW that doesn’t look like the contents of the junk drawer in your kitchen. Most of the GS series have a rubber band, plastic-handled corkscrew and expired AA batteries look about them. Cluttered and stolen-valor-military-ish, the big GS’s take a concerted effort to look at without smirking and feeling superior. Except for the very first ones. The early GS800 was much cleaner and actually was pretty good off road.

Concept bikes are a great way to get the reaction of the riding public without spending a bunch of money on a bike nobody likes. It’s smart to ask your customers first. Personally, I love the thing. It has a vibe that goes all the way back to the beginning of BMW. Back when they were still trying to kill us all.

The engine is huge and air-cooled because that’s what cruisers are supposed to be. Liquid cooling on a cruiser is a negative. Four cylinders on a cruiser is two too many. The whole point of a cruiser is laid back and relaxing. This is not to be confused with comfortable.

The seat on the R18 is a concession to the Brat trend that is slowly but surely vandalizing Honda’s entire production output from the 1970’s. I would prefer a dual seat more like the old R69 came with. It seems a waste for such a long bike to neglect the pillion accommodations. The long reach to the bars is another styling cue that will probably make it into production. Motorcyclists have proven time and time again that they will put up with any silly riding position as long as it makes them cool.

And you will be cool on the R18. It’s long and low and black, all these are good things to be. I hope the exposed driveshaft makes it past the product liability wonks at BMW. I like a dangerous spinning bit on a motorcycle.

The front end has about 1-inch of travel, generous for the cruiser segment. I hope BMW replicates that crazy-huge, aerodynamic skeleton key when they design the keyless proximity fob for this bike. Come to think of it all those keyless entry thingies are too big to fit in the skintight leather rockabilly pants you’ll be wearing on the R18. Maybe a plain old key would be better. The headlight nacelle looks great if a bit Royal Enfield Bullet-ish. Hey, that’s ok.

My biggest concern about the R18 is not the bike itself but the manufacturer. BMW puts entirely too many electronic doodads on their modern bikes. The excessive reliance on E-trickery to protect the rider from himself has created heavy motorcycles. BMW used to pride itself on lightweight motorcycles. It was in their advertisements! The damn things may be safer as long as they don’t land on you but reliability has suffered with the additional complexity.

Here’s hoping BMW can pull their heads out of their…ahem…you know, and build a strong, simple machine that won’t cost a fortune to buy or maintain because it would be a crime for such a pretty motorcycle to be restricted to Starbucks parking lots and BMW service centers.

ScooterScribes.news and more…

Ah, lots of good news and a few things to catch up on.  For starters, I was alerted to another top notch motorcycle site, and that’s Terry Roorda’s ScooterScribes.news site.  You’ll like it.

Terry is the former Thunder Press editor, and there’s lots of cool V-Twin stuff on ScooterScribes,  and you don’t have to be a Big Twin dude or dudette to appreciate it.  It’s good.  Trust me.

More good news…the ExNotes stickers are in, and the extensive Direct Mail arm of the ExNotes empire is busy sending them out.

We sent an email requesting your address if you signed up, so watch for it and shoot that info back to us.  We promise that as soon as we get your snail mail address and confirmed that you’re on our email list, we’ll shoot them out to you as soon as we get around to it.  Want to help us more?   Hey, share our site and get more folks to sign up for our automatic emails, or just get them to visit www.ExhaustNotes.us.   We think we’ve got a good thing going.  Guns, motorcycles, scooters, opinions, dream bikes, resurrected bikes, books, articles, Baja, and lots, lots more.   Let us know what you think by posting your comments here on the blog.   We get all kinds of inputs.  Folks want more on Harleys, they want less on Harleys, they want more political commentary (seriously?), they want less political commentary…hey, let us know.  There’s no guarantee we’ll take any of it seriously, but you never know.

Yet more news…several online pubs are breaking the news that Harley is working with a Chinese company to offer a small HD.

Hey, we saw a Chinese manufacturer making parts for Harley a decade ago.  But the recent news is this is going to be a complete small bike, just over 300cc.   I’m surprised Harley didn’t do this several years ago, but then, Gresh and I were in the catbird’s seat on the small bike thing from the gitgo.  CSC and Zongshen were way ahead of the curve on this one.  Dollars to donuts says that the small Harley will find its way to the US, and that’s a good thing.  I’ve seen the photos and I think it looks good.  I’m waiting for the inevitable jokes and the anti-China rants to start, but Harley, if you’re reading this, ignore those folks.  The only thing worse than a smartass is a dumbass, and anyone who criticizes a motorcycle based solely on its Chinese origin is most definitely in that latter category.

One last bit of news…make sure you pick up the latest issue of Motorcycle Classics magazine.   It’s got my feature story on our Enfield Baja trip, and my Destinations piece on Tecate.  Good stuff, Motorcycle Classics is.

A Pair of Prancing Ponies…and that first No. 1

Good buddy Python Pete and I went to the range a few days ago to let loose with a pair of prancing ponies (that is to say, Colts), in both revolver and automatic flavors.  The auto was my tried-and-true bright stainless Colt Government Model 1911; the wheelgun was Pete’s stunning 8-inch Colt Python.   Both are stunningly beautiful and both are good shooting guns.

A custom bright stainless Colt, with Baer barrel, Millet sights, and a few other nice touches.

I bought the 1911 you see above at a pawn shop brand new back in the mid-1980s for just over $500.   Colt no longer offers bright stainless steel guns, so I guess you could say mine is collectible, and when you see bright stainless Colt 1911s come up for sale (which doesn’t happen very often), prices start at $2,000 and go north from there.  I guess you could say I made a good investment (except I won’t ever sell it).

A few years ago the front sight popped off my 1911, so I took it to a local gunsmith to have it restaked. That repair lasted all of 50 rounds, and I realized I needed to see an expert.  That’s when I hooked up with TJ’s Custom Guns, and I had TJ revamp the Colt.  It’s got a Les Baer match barrel, an extended one-piece guide rail, an engine turned chamber (I love that look), high profile/high visibility Millet fixed sights, and TJ’s exclusive high reliability tune.  That last little bit means that my Colt 1911 will reliably feed any bullet configuration (semi-wadcutters, hollow points, etc.) and it will work no matter what.   Folks, I’ve put tens of thousands of rounds through my 1911 since TJ massaged it, and it’s never had a failure of any kind (no failures to fire, no failures to feed, and no failures to eject…it just goes and goes and goes).

On to the Python.  I’ve known good buddy Pete for more than 30 years (we sort of grew up together in the aerospace industry).  Pete owns a Colt Python, a gun that is arguably the finest revolver ever made.  His is the super-rare 8-inch model, too.

Revolver royalty…the stunning Colt Python. The Colt Python is perhaps the finest revolver ever made.

Colt no longer makes the Python, probably because they were too expensive to produce.  The fit and finish are superior, and the feel of the thing is just sublime.  It’s a .357 Magnum, one of the world’s all time greats, and a cartridge that dominated the police market before 9mm became all the rage.  Colt revolvers were hand-fitted and involved lots of custom assembly, and I suppose it just didn’t in with the need for low cost manufacture in a market dominated by black plastic 9mm handguns.   No, the Python is from another era characterized by highly polished blue steel and finely figured walnut, an age in which I felt more comfortable.   Seeing a Python on the firing line again was a treat, and when Pete asked if I wanted to try the big Colt, he didn’t have to ask twice.

Pete and I had four handguns with us (the two mentioned above, plus a SIG 9mm and my Rock Island Compact 1911).   I shot my two 1911s offhand for a while, and then I tried my luck with Pete’s SIG and the Python.  It was fun.

You can argue about a good automatic being as accurate as a high-end revolver, but you won’t convince me. The Python is a tack driver.

I fired 5 shots of “nothing fancy” factory ammo with the Python, and the accuracy was superb.   The targets don’t lie, folks.

I’ve owned two Pythons in my life, and both were back in the 1970s.   When I was in Korea, I found out I could order one though the Base Exchange at a substantial discount.  I couldn’t believe what the nice lady was telling me at the Kunsan AFB Exchange, so I ordered a 6-inch blue steel Python for something like $150 (it sounded too good to be true).   Incredibly, it came in the mail to me in Korea.  Before I rotated home, I had to submit a form through the Army to get permission to import the revolver back to the US.  I did that, and a few weeks later I had a letter signed by the Director of the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Bureau allowing me to bring my Python home.  It went into my duffel bag, I produced the letter when I went through Customs in San Francisco, and that was that.  Better times.

You know how it goes with these things.  When I was back in Texas shortly after my stint in Korea, I saw a Ruger No. 1 single shot rifle in .30 06 I couldn’t live without, and I traded the Python for it (the guy at the store through in a couple of boxes of .30 06 ammo, too).  Then I felt a void in my life because I no longer owned a Python, so I ordered another one (this time a 6-inch nickel-plated model) through the Fort Bliss Gun Club.  It was under $200.   Then I traded that for something else (I can’t remember what).  Ah, the mistakes we make.  But maybe they weren’t all mistakes.  I’ve sent a lot of lead downrange with the Ruger No. 1 over the last 45 years, it’s one of the most accurate rifles I own, and it has stunning walnut.

The Ruger No. 1 in 30 06 I traded the Kunsan Python to get. It’s a 200th Year Ruger.  I miss the Python, but I love my ’06 No. 1.  Some day I’ll do a blog on this rifle.

Today, Colt Pythons typically sell for something in the $3,000 to $4,000 range.   Pete’s would command even more, because it’s the 8-incher, which is a rare item.  I’ve asked Pete if he wanted to sell his, but all I got in return was a smile.  That’s probably just as well; I couldn’t afford it at today’s prices.

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The Crimes Men Do

Glenn sent me a few photos from the old days and one that got my attention was a shot of us building a Sportster in the living room of the shack we used to live in. Having a living room to work in was a luxury because prior to renting the shack I was homeless. I had an old Chevy truck with a bench seat that I could stretch out enough to get some sleep and I had a job that let me take a dry bath in the restroom after work. But when Admiralty Marine closed its doors for the evening I was on my own until the next morning. The boss let me know that the situation couldn’t go on forever and that I really needed to find a place to live.

It wasn’t so much lack of money.  I was working a lot of hours, but I was only 19 and landlords didn’t want to rent to a greasy, punk kid. I can’t blame them. I would do the same thing myself. Finally a co-worker who was a full-fledged adult vouched for me when his landlord had a vacancy next door. I shaved, dry-bathed, put on clean clothes and did everything I could do to look like a respectable young man with a future. I’ll be dammed if it didn’t work. I was in after paying first, last and a deposit. Cash.

After waiting for the dust to settle the first thing I did was to rebuild my Sportster in the living room. When I bought the 1968 Sportster I was kind of shocked at how archaic the motorcycle felt. It was cool and all but the front end was so wobbly it felt like silly string and the front brake might as well have been deleted and an AM/FM radio installed in its place for all the stopping it would do.

The engine seemed to run well but I was going to ride across country on the thing, so a freshen-up was in order. I don’t know if it was a good idea because the 900cc V-Twin had some strange things going on inside and I was destined to do even more stupid stuff to the poor bike.

Someone had replaced the stock Harley intake valves with huge, unknown-origin valves. The valves were so big they had to cut the seat into the dome of the combustion chamber. Once the giant valves were removed the old seats were revealed along with the stock porting. The only advantage I could see to the big valves was a bump in compression ratio due to the valves occupying more space in the combustion chamber and the circumference increase giving slightly more flow when the valve first popped open. Once into the lift though the stock ports would probably be the limiting factor.

I wasn’t having any of it. I bought standard Harley valves and guides and set about putting things right. Admiralty Marine had a Sioux valve grinding kit so I could do all the work myself. After the seats were re-cut to fit the new valves the installed height was wrong so I had to trim the ends of the valves and shim the springs. The heads were a mess.

The Sportster’s high dome pistons were ok so a quick hone job and a set of rings finished off the top end. After that you’d think I’d leave the engine alone but I had to have a tin primary cover like the XR750 flat trackers ran.

Opening and consuming a whole ‘nother can of worms, I had to get rid of the crankshaft’s spring and ramp style compensating sprocket. The compensating sprocket absorbs the 45-degree V-Twin’s power pulses before sending smooth, less spikey power on to the clutch basket, gearbox and rear sprocket. This vital part stuck out way toofar for my tin primary so into the trash it went.

A solid front sprocket was fitted to the crankshaft and the tin primary would still not fit so I had to make a 3/8’ aluminum spacer the same size and shape as the primary cover gasket. The ’68 XLH was electric start but I wanted to eliminate as much weight as possible. At an independent Harley shop I swapped the starter motor, big battery box and oil tank for a kick-start shaft, gears and kick lever. You can anticipate the next problem: the electric-start primary case had a square-ish hump on the back to accommodate the starter Bendix. I had to weld a flat metal part onto the tin primary to cover the hole.

Without an XLH-style starter motor there was another gaping hole on the other side of crankcase. I blanked off the hole where the electric starter fit with a large chunk of angle aluminum that doubled as a battery box for the much smaller kick-only battery. Now the engine was ready to slot back into the frame. And that’s yet another can of worms I’ll write about later.

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German Military and Police Motors: Part II

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Our last blog on German Military and Police Motors: Part I ended with a photo 0f good buddy Ben’s his personal bike, and I thought a good way to start Part II would be with another photo from Ben…one showing a vintage Swedish police BMW…

Nothing slowed these guys down…check out this Swedish ski-equipped BMW!

When I wrote the Complete Book of Police and Military Motorcycles, I guess the word got out and I received a number of police motorcycle photos.  As you might imagine, many of these photos were of police BMWs, as BMW has been a dominant force in the police motorcycle world for decades.   BMW has offered several engine configurations over the years, and nearly all are represented in their police motorcycles.

BMW’s early K-bikes used 3 or 4 cylinder engines (the photo below shows a 4-cylinder model) that were oriented in an unusual manner. The crankshaft was parallel to the frame, and the engine was oriented with the pistons moving in a horizontal plane (the engine laid on its side). The cylinder was on the bike’s left side. BMW tried to enter the US market with these motorcycles, but they made little progress until they offered the 1100cc boxer twin.

An K1100LT BMW formerly in service with Belgium’s federal police. Ruud Willems sent this photo to me.
Another cool photo from Ruud, this time showing an 1100cc BMW boxer twin formerly in service with the Belgian federal police.

The photos came in from all over the world.  Here’s one from good buddy Ian in the UK…

A cool photo from Ian showing police BMWs in Birmingham, England.

And another from my old stomping grounds in New Jersey…

An F650 BMW police bike with ABS in service with Egg Harbor Township in New Jersey. The Egg Harbor PD likes this bike’s ability to go off road. They also use the larger R1200RT-P BMW, which you can see in the background.
One of Egg Harbor’s Motor Officers on the F650 BMW providing an escort to the Police Unity Tour.

Here’s a great photo from my CBX friend Ian Foster of Hong Kong showing two BMW R1100RT-Ps and two Honda VFRs in Hong Kong. How about that…Honda VFRs as police bikes!

Hong Kong police motors…Beemers and VFRs.
A Hong Kong BMW in Causeway Bay, sent to us by Ian.

And good buddy Danny send us a several photos from the Netherlands…

A cool shot of a 1200 cc BMW police bike in the Netherlands from my friend Danny Hoek.
Danny also sent this shot, along with detail photos below of the Netherlands-based BMW police bikes.
An 800cc twin BMW police bike in the Netherlands from Danny Hoek.
And Danny’s shot of the BMW R1200RT-P police bike in the Netherlands

When I wrote Motors for Rider magazine back in 2009, I took a bunch of photos of police motorcycles.  Here’s a cool shot that made the cover of two BMW-mounted Motor Officers in La Verne, California…

A pair of La Verne, California’s finest…on their BMW R1200RT-P police motorcycles in 2009.

When police BMWs are retired from service, they are picked up by civilian motorcyclists. Although the bikes may have a few miles on them, they have usually been meticulously maintained, and they in excellent condition. Converting a police BMW to civilian use is straightforward…the blue and red strobe lights, the police radio, and the insignia come off, and it’s ready to go.  Most civilian riders also remove the police BMW’s extra battery to save weight.

This is a photo of my good friend Bob staying two steps ahead of Hurricane Norbert in Baja, Mexico, on his “demilitarized” R1150RT-P.

So that’s it for now, folks.  Our next bit on police motors will feature Kawasakis, but that’s another time and another blog.  In the meantime, if you would like to see our other police motorcycle articles, please check out the ExhaustNotes Police Motors page!

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