Old Man Winter is taking his sweet time here in New Mexico. It is late December, 70 degrees and the frozen old git still hasn’t made much of a dent. But he will arrive and I’ll be ready with my new Kemimoto heated grips.
I’ve set up the Kawasaki ZRX as my cold weather bike with a 12-volt receptacle for an Aerostitch heated vest and these grips will complete my preparations for the cold. If it ever gets here.
Installation would normally be simple as the wiring connects directly to the host bike’s battery. The main problem with this setup is if you accidentally leave the grips on and drain your battery. In the cold.
I couldn’t find an unused, switched power connection on the factory harness so I rigged a cube-type relay under the headlight faring that energizes from the instrument light circuit. This ensures the grips are off when the key is off. Power for the grips comes from the Areostitch vest power lead and runs up to the relay.
The heating elements just wrap around your existing grips and a 3-power level switch needs to go somewhere. I used a fairing mount bolt to secure the included switch bracket on the right side of the gauge cluster. It’s not a great location but it was easy.
Heat-wise these grips crank it out. On high you can feel the burn. This setting would be good for freezing weather. Low was still too hot during my 60-degree test ride so it should be good for average New Mexico winter conditions.
That wrap around heating element never really gets very tight on the grips so you’ll need to reset its position as it slowly creeps around the throttle. Or squeeze tighter.
The on-off switch is dimly lit so in sunlight it’s hard to tell what power level the thing is set at (red=high, blue=medium, green=low) I had to stop and cup my hand over the switch to see the illumination.
While I haven’t tested the grips in truly cold weather I’m sure they will help. It’s nice to pop the switch on when the elevation climbs over 7000 feet. Cuddly and warm best describes the feeling.
How long the grips will last is anyone’s guess but they’re easily unwrapped, unplugged and stored for the 10 months a year they are unnecessary in sunny, warm New Mexico. The harness, relay and switch remain on the bike full time.
I’m satisfied with the Kemimoto heated grips and give them a solid 3-star rating, a rating that could be improved if they fit the grips tighter and the switch was brighter. Maybe a section of elastic would help hold the grips better but what do I know. Now if Old Man Winter would get off his butt I could try them out in proper conditions.
You’d think with my old-age eyesight and need for bigger letters and numbers I’d wear the Citizen watch you see above more often, but the fact is I don’t. I bought it years ago when I was a yuppie, and I wore it a little, but it just hasn’t had much wrist time in the last couple of decades. But it still works well, and it’s still got those big numbers. I need those now.
The Citizen uses their E101 solar-powered quartz movement and like all Citizens, Seikos, Casios, and Orients that use a quartz movement, it is phenomenally accurate. I’m talking in the range of seconds per month. I never thought I’d need a watch that accurate, and I probably don’t, but I enjoy having one. It’s one of the reasons I almost never wear an automatic (i.e., mechanical) watch anymore. They just don’t have the kind of accuracy I’ve become accustomed to.
Another feature on the watch you see here is the lume. It’s incredible. At night, the numbers and those big hands jump out at you. Other than having a backlit Casio or Timex, the lume on this watch makes it one of the easiest to read in darkness I’ve ever owned.
Once this watch is charged after being in the light, it keeps running for a long time. If I leave it on the shelf for months, it still keeps running. Evidently, room lighting is enough to keep it charged. When it does run down, it doesn’t take very long for it to come alive when it sees sunlight again.
What surprised me is that even though I’ve owned this watch for more than 20 years (it’s probably closer to 30 years), you can still buy this model at a relatively modest price. The exact colors you see here are no longer available, but the basic watch design is, and to me the new colors are just as attractive as the old. Here’s the same watch in a brushed stainless finish with a canvas strap. I like this look a lot.
I’m tempted to buy the watch you see above, but I already have plenty of watches. You can buy the above watch on Amazon for $184, or better yet, from Jomashop for a paltry $124. That’s a hell of a deal.
The pocketknife craze continues unabated, and I am finding that in my collecting I am stabilizing around the idea of the large folding hunter style knife. These are commonly referred to as a Buck knife, even though many similar available knives are not manufactured by Buck.
A Cold Steel Ranch Boss II (top) and a Buck 110 (bottom). The Cold Steel is a big knife.
Don’t get the word Buck confused with deer hunting, as if someone armed with a Buck knife is going to chase down Bambi for a knife fight. The “Buck” in Buck Knife is actually the name of the man who founded the company, and that company is in Post Falls, Idaho (a stone’s throw from the Canadian border). I know that because I recently chatted with a guy there.
What most of us think of when we think of a Buck knife is the Buck 110, the classic folding hunter knife style. The idea Buck had back in the early 1960s was to create a folding knife (like a pocketknife) that could do the same thing as a fixed blade hunting knife. Buck envisioned a folder with a thicker 3.75-inch-long blade that locked securely in place when opened. The concept was that it would be able to do things a hunting knife could do (like skin and dress game animals). The Buck 110 style (the large folding hunter) has been widely copied and the term “Buck knife” is often used describe any large folding knife (like Kleenex is used for tissues and Xerox means making a copy).
I like the Buck 110 a lot and I’ve written about my custom Buck before, so when I recently saw an ad for an “automatic” Buck 110, I was hooked. An automatic knife is what we used to call a switchblade. You know, like in West Side Story. That would be cool. I liked that movie and I always wanted a switchblade. The automatic Buck 110 would scratch that itch. When I received an email from Chicago Knife Works offering the Buck 110 automatic for a measly $153, I was in.
A week later my switchblade arrived. I wasn’t happy with it. The bolster cutouts around the blade lock had tool marks. They weren’t mirror polished like they are on my other Bucks. It bothered me, so I called Buck Knife’s customer service.
Tool marks on the Buck 110 automatic. You might expect this on a cheap knife, but not on a Buck.
The guy I spoke to at Buck knew exactly what I was talking about. Buck changed their manufacturing process to remove cost and that’s why the tool marks were there (evidently, I wasn’t the first guy to call with this concern). I get it. I’m a guy who spent a career finding ways to reduce manufacturing costs in products ranging from bombs to biomedical devices, so I understood. But there was still this nagging problem: I spent $153 on the Buck and I wasn’t happy. The Buck guy understood that completely without my being a dick about it. “Send it back in to us,” he said, “and I’ll get it polished out.” They’re going to engrave my initials on the blade, too. That’s cool. A personalized switchblade. I felt even better when I went on the Chicago Knife website later that day and learned they had bumped the price of the knife I just bought from $153 to $199. Wow. It’s those Idaho tariffs, I guess.
The fact that I like pocketknives is out there now. Siri has been listening and I’ve been on a lot of knife websites. I get emails every day from companies selling knives.
The Ranch Boss II knife. It has a nice look and feel. I like it.
One of the emails that caught my attention was from good buddy Jeff Bezos. It was for a Cold Steel Ranch Boss II that looked a lot like a Buck. I guess I missed the Ranch Boss I (I came to the pocketknife craze late in life). The Ranch Boss. I like the name. I especially like the price: $39. Cold Steel. I like that name, too. There is a unit in the US Army (Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment) called Cold Steel Charlie, so named for their heroism and lethality. The marketing guys at Cold Steel ought to get a raise for that bit of branding genius. It sure worked its magic on me.
Amazon didn’t try to hide that the Cold Steel Ranch Boss II is manufactured in China. That didn’t bother me. I know from my CSC days and my many visits to Zongshen, Zebra, and other Chinese companies that there are companies in China making good products. The Ranch Boss. It has a John Wayne vibe. I could be a Ranch Boss. The Marlboro Man theme song played in my head. Ranch Boss. Yep, that’s me.
In the email and on Amazon, the Ranch Boss looked like a big, heavy folding hunter. $39. Complete with holster. Man, $39. That’s a sandwich with a beer these days. Buy now, and I could have it the next day. Yeah, it’s Chinese, and a real Buck is made in Idaho, but hey: $39. Buy now, Baby!
The Ranch Boss II knife is sold with and without the case. When I bought mine, the price with the case was a few bucks cheaper than the one without the case.
My Cold Steel Ranch Boss folding hunter was on my doorstep when Susie and I returned after our Jameson Motorcycle Museum 800-mile weekend. That’s one the porch pirates missed.
The spring-loaded liner lock. When the blade is opened, the liner lock moves over to prevent it from closing. To close the knife, the liner lock is pushed out of the blade’s way. You need to be careful when doing this.
You know, the Ranch Boss is a nice knife. It looks and feels good. It’s actually slightly larger than the Buck 110. It uses a liner lock instead of the Buck 110 lock design. The thing is sharp, as in razor sharp. I like the looks of it.
The finish on both the Buck and the Ranch Boss is brushed stainless steel. I like that look. The Buck has polished brass bolsters; the Ranch Boss bolsters are the same brushed stainless steel as the rest of the knife.
The Buck 110 scales are real ebony wood. They are riveted in place with brass rivets. The Ranch Boss scales are fake sawn bone. I imagine there’s a single supplier providing this material to several knife makers. I recently picked up an ultra-inexpensive pair of Old Timer Chinese-manufactured pocketknives at (where else?) Walmart. They were only $25, and the scales on those two knives look identical to those on the Ranch Boss.
Walmart Old Timer pocketknives, sold as a set for around $25. That little one is in my pocket all the time now. The scales are identical to the Ranch Boss.
I like that the Ranch Boss scales are secured with little Allen bolts instead of rivets. If I want to craft a set of custom scales of maple or walnut to match one of my six shooters, it will be easier to do than on the Buck. A real Ranch Boss has to be properly attired, you know.
Cold Steel’s SK-5 blade material. The steel is Japanese; the knife is Chinese.
Buck’s standard blade material is 420HC, a tough, corrosion resistant steel that takes a good edge and is easy to sharpen. The Ranch Boss knife blade is SK-5 steel, a Japanese steel that is well suited (or so I’ve read) for knife blades. It has good durability and abrasion resistance, and is generally corrosion resistant. The SK in the designation stands for steel kougu, which translates from the Japanese to “tool steel.” For my purposes, the differences in steels between the Ranch Boss and the Buck are moot. I just like looking at the things.
Both the Buck 110 and the Ranch Boss are big knives, with the Ranch Boss being a bit larger than the Buck. These are not really knives you carry around in your pocket. They’re cool.
The bottom line here is that I like both knives. The Cold Steel Ranch Boss II, at $39, is a lot of knife for not a lot of money. The quality of the Ranch Boss is better, in my opinion, than the Buck. But Buck is standing behind their product. I’m eager to see what my Buck 110 Automatic looks like when it is returned from the factory. I’ll let you know.
Caldwell makes several different models of forward rifle rests. The one that makes the most sense to me is the Caldwell Rock Deluxe Shooting Rest. It has what I want in a rifle rest and at $102 it is reasonably priced (as much as anything can be considered reasonably priced in our inflationary times). It includes the forward rifle pad and it is adjustable for height, tilt, and squeeze on the pad. The features are explained in the photos below.
Rifle height off the bench is adjustable by the large black adjusting collar on the center shaft.The top right arrow points to the height adjustment. Once the height is set, it should be locked in place with the locking screw denoted by the arrow on the lower right. The arrow on the center right points to one of three height and tilt adjustments on each leg of the rifle rest tripod mount. These are also capable of being locked in place. The arrow on the left points to one of two knobs that adjust squeeze on the padded forearm rest.Another view of the Caldwell Rock Deluxe Shooting Rest. The upper arrow points to one of the two rest cushion squeeze knobs; the lower arrow points to the height adjustment lock.
About the only thing I don’t like about the Caldwell Rock Deluxe Shooting Rest is that the cushion lining will peel off with continuous use. It’s not a big deal and Caldwell sells replacement cushions. Or, you could just cover the worn area with duct tape, which is what I will probably do at some point. The amount of wear you see on mine (in the photos above) has remained relatively stable for a couple of years now, so maybe it won’t wear anymore.
The Mini 14 resting on the Caldwell Rock Deluxe Shooting Rest. This photo also shows the Garmin chronograph, which I’ll review in a future blog.
If you purchase the Caldwell Rock Deluxe Shooting Rest on Amazon, be careful to make sure that you order what you see here. When writing this blog, I noticed that Amazon has an error in their ad for The Rock Junior, which is a smaller and less expensive model. In the Amazon ad, they show the Caldwell Rock Deluxe Shooting Rest, but what they describe (and what they have for the price) is actually the lower tier Rock Junior.
I’ll write about two Caldwell rear rifle rests here. The first is the Caldwell Rear Shooting Bag, which is the lower of the two rear rests I’ll describe here. I’ve mostly used this one until recently, when I bought the other model (and I’ll get to that in a second).
The problem with this version of the Caldwell Rear Shooting Bag is that it is too low. One option is to lower the Caldwell Rock Deluxe to bring the rifle back on target, but that means you have to get all scrunched up leaning down on the bench (something that adversely affects accuracy for my shooting). The other approach is to put a block under the Caldwell Rear Shooting Bag (I use an empty 100-round MTM .45 ACP ammo container). That gets the Caldwell Rear Shooting Bag to just the right height for me and it makes for a more comfortable bench rest shooting position.
The Caldwell Rear Medium High Bag gets the rifle up to a comfortable level for bench rest shooting. In fact, the height is about the same as the Caldwll with a block beneath it, as I described above. I ordered it because I saw some of my bench rest buddies using it at the West End Club and I thought it would be more stable than the Caldwell Rear Shooting Bag with an empty ammo container underneath. But the jury is still out.
So far, I found I can shoot tighter groups using the Caldwell Rear Shooting Bag with an empty ammo box than I can using the Caldwell Rear Medium High Bag. I think there’s two reasons for that. The first is that the Caldwell Rear Medium High Bag, as delivered, is (in my opinion) overstuffed with filler beads. Its bottom is not flat, and I found my rifle wants to roll either left or right, requiring me to hold it where I want it (which induces a bit of unsteadiness. I suppose I could let some of the Caldwell Rear Medium High Bag filler material out to get it sit flat on the bench, but I haven’t gotten around to doing that yet. The other thing I don’t like is that the Caldwell Rear Medium High Bag has a larger footprint than the Caldwell. When I shoot off the bench, I wrap my left arm around the base of the rear rest. I find that it’s easier to to that with the Caldwell Rear Shooting Bag and an empty ammo box than it is with the Caldwell Rear Medium High Bag. That’s just me; your mileage may vary.
If you own a Mini 14 (or any semi-automatic rifle) and you go to the range, you need a Caldwell Brass Trap. Especially with a Mini 14; they throw brass far enough and hard enough to dent cars. Don’t ask me how I know.
You’ll need to have some kind of a clamp to secure the Caldwell Brass Trap to the shooting bench. I bought the one you see here on Amazon. They were three to a pack. I’ve only ever used one.
There are two things I don’t like about the Caldwell Brass Trap. Sometimes the brass being ejected bounces off the heat resistant netting and gets flung forward of the firing line. This happens maybe 5 percent of the time. It’s not a big deal; I just wait for the next line break to retrieve my spent brass. The other thing I didn’t like is those clamps make it easy to store the Caldwell Brass Trap out of sight and out of mind. I clamped my first Caldwell Brass Trap to one of the 2x8s that run across the ceiling of my ammo factory (i.e., my garage). One day when I was going to the range with my Mini 14, I looked all over for the Brass Trap and couldn’t find it. Now I have two. Wouldn’t you know it? The day the second Caldwell Brass Trap arrived from Amazon, I looked up in my little ammo factory and saw the first one.
So how did I do with the GSR and the Mini 14 the day before I wrote this blog? Just so so. Some days you get the bear and some days the bear gets you. But I still had fun. Every day on the range is a good day for me, and if you’re reading this, it probably is for you, too.
100 yards with the GSR and its open sights. The load is one that was tailored for the M1A; it shoots a scosh low in the GSR. I could adjust for it, but the GSR shoots better with a different load, and my GSR sights are adjusted for it.A 100-yard Mini 14 group with 62-grain Hornady bullets and ARComp powder. I’ve done better and I’ve done worse. Even though it’s not a great group, it’s good enough for minute-of-bad-guy.
One of the many disadvantages of big, heavy motorcycles is the extra strain they place on your body doing routine maintenance. Oiling the chain, a simple task on a lightweight motorcycle (you just lean the bike onto its kickstand and spray away) becomes a chore lifting and spinning bit by bit. God help you if you get a flat or need to remove a wheel.
Motorcycles used to come with center stands (a few still do) and seeing how obese modern bikes have become I don’t know why manufacturers don’t tack on a bit more junk that would be actually useful. I’d rather have a center stand than a thin film instrument cluster, ride mode selector or ABS brakes. Here’s a link to the Amazon motorcycle jack.
This El Cheapo, Chinese 2-ton hydraulic Jack is slightly shorter than the other El Cheapo Chinese jacks and as such it is low enough to fit under your swing arm or front frame rail. Positioned correctly, you can rig a stable 3-point setup to lift either end of your portly motorcycle.
But the thing isn’t exactly travel friendly. Weighing in at a stout 4 pounds, 5.7 ounces it is not the sort of thing you want to carry around on your motorcycle unless you’re taking a long-ish trip. Of course I’m taking a long-ish trip so I decided to trim some excess weight off of the jack.
As delivered, the jack’s working end isn’t ideal for round tubes like a swing arm or frame so I chopped the sides off and ground a swale into the face in the hope of preventing the jack from slipping when in use. This worked pretty well it turns out, and while I wouldn’t jump up and down on the motorcycle while suspended it was fairly stable. Saving a few ounces was an added plus.
Since I’m using only a fraction of the jack’s 2-ton capacity I decided it was safe to Swiss cheese the extension lever and pivoting mechanism. This included drilling the pivot pins and connecting rod.
All this drilling removed a satisfying amount of weight and the jack was no worse for the damage. I know what you’re thinking: “Why stop there?” The base of the jack is a cast iron affair with plenty of ribbing and surface area. Again, I’ll only be lifting a few hundred pounds at most so I don’t need quite so much strength. I attacked the base with a 4-inch cutting wheel and removed everything that didn’t look like an elephant.
Trimming all that excess fat felt good and the resulting 3-pound, 15.5 ounce reading means I got rid of around a half-pound of useless weight and the jack looks better, has lower cholesterol, and can fit into its old high-school clothing again.
As far as the jack function, it works as you’d expect although it will slowly lose pressure overnight and lets the bike back down. Plan accordingly if you want the bike jacked up more than 5-6 hours. I see a few more places that I can trim but my recent experience grinding through a 200-dollar brake caliper gave me pause. I don’t want to hit an artery. I’ll need to look inside to determine how far I can go with the grinder but I believe I can thin the base at least 1/8 inch and cut a lot more metal around the pressure release valve. I’d like to get the jack down to 3-1/2 pounds just to see if I can. This will do for now, I’ll bring the jack along with me to Laguna Seca next week so if you’re in the area you can stop by and check it out.
I spotted the tool kit you see above in a Wall Street Journal list of suggested gifts. It’s made by an outfit in Switzerland and the price (as quoted by the Wall Street Journal) is an astonishing $2,850. Yes, you read that right: $2,850. Thinking it had to be a mistake (even Snap-On tools are not that expensive), I got on the Internet. Yep. $2,850. I’m thinking that kit above is maybe $50 worth of tools. So I looked around a little and saw the same Wohngeist tool kit from another retailer for $3,000. And then another for $2,800. I imagine the people who picked it up for $2,800 felt they scored quite the bargain.
Want another shocker? All three of the online retailers, quoting the prices you see above, are sold out. Gresh and Huber, we are in the wrong business.
Here’s another Wohngeist tool kit for those of you who don’t want to spend $2,895. This one is only $1,895. Like my people say: Such a deal!
If you’re thinking of something more down to earth, you can always pick up a basic tool kit from Amazon. This one was $49. It looks pretty good to me and it’s more in line with what I’m used to spending. I’m an Amazon kind of guy.
I think the Amazon version has more screwdrivers and it has a ratchet and sockets. The Wohngeist kit does not. What were you expecting for $2,895? I know, I know, the Amazon kit doesn’t have that nifty fold-out ruler. But I already own a tape measure. So I’m covered.
Not content with that find, I checked to see if Amazon had a motorcycle tool kit. Here’s one that looks like it came right out of my 1965 Honda Super 90, and it’s only $12.95.
I don’t still have the Super 90, but I do still have the tools. Somewhere.
We’ve written other blogs about motorcycle tool kits. This one explains my approach for identifying and carrying the tools I may need. It contains links to Gresh’s and Huber’s blogs on the same topic, too.
Watch for our 2022 Christmas, Hanukkah, and Festivus gift guide. It’s coming up soon.
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Here at ExhaustNotes we like to support local businesses. Without local stores and a healthy business environment a town dries up and becomes a collection of houses. Interaction between the town populace slows to a crawl and sad as it is, the only action will be found at Walmart or the Chevron station out by the highway. That’s no way to live.
In the USA we operate on the capitalist economic system. This means I do your laundry and you do my laundry, we keep handing the same money back and forth. The cyclical movement, or pumping action, of these few, tattered dollars are where the magic happens. Capitalism relies on all of us constantly spending and gathering dollars: the trick is to keep that money supply moving. If no one buys anything no one earns anything and the whole system crashes.
When we buy stuff online that money goes out of our local economy to some far-fetched location. In other words, they do our laundry but take their laundry to another town or state. Maybe they don’t even get their laundry done. Maybe they invest in block-chain cyber securities and sit on it.
If the system is functioning correctly you will eventually do the laundry of someone who did the laundry for someone else three states over who did the laundry for someone else. Except when the system gets so large and ruthlessly efficient your town becomes unable to do laundry at the massive scale required to match the price of the other, Mega-Laundry-Towns.
The local pool of cash begins to flow in one direction: out of here. Your neighbors no longer want you to do their laundry. It’s easier and cheaper to send dirty clothes to an Internet laundry service. The people in your town become bitter, superstitious and convinced the system is rigged against them. Less money circulating means people have to shop for the cheapest place to get laundry done or forego clean clothes altogether, taking money out of circulation even faster.
Look around now: the people are wearing dirty clothes because no one can afford laundry service. There’s nothing to buy and no money to pay for it if you did find something to buy. Since there is no money circulating the pulse of your community grows weaker. Young people see a bleak future with no one to do laundry for and leave. They move elsewhere, anywhere clothing is being washed, leaving the halt and the lame behind.
Neighborhoods become run down due to deferred maintenance. Angry, desperate, hungry and poor, this is the point when you turn to a life of crime. You steal from other poor people, your neighbors, and get caught doing it. After the trial you are sent away to a privatized, for-profit prison because your local prison cannot compete with the private Mega-Prisons. There you are: locked up and forced to do laundry. For free.
So ExhaustNotes likes to shop local. Like the other day when my wife’s lock switch fell out of the driver’s door of her Jeep. It’s a Jeep thing. The plastic bezel that holds the switch has two little tabs that fit behind the door panel and the switch is held in by two metal flat springs. The whole magilla snaps into place and works fine unless the tabs break off. I spent 45 seconds on Amazon and found a replacement selling for $14 with free 2-day shipping. I was about to send the bezel to my cart when I thought about our local Jeep dealer and figured I’d practice what I preach. I like having a Jeep dealer in town and I want him to stay in business.
The Jeep dealer is about 23 miles away and I know I should have called first but I usually have a hard time describing what I want to the parts guy. I drove down the hill to the Jeep dealer and chatted up the parts guy. He found the driver’s side switch bezel on his computer after 15 minutes. “We don’t have it in stock, it’ll take a couple days.” I said, “go ahead and order it for me.” The price was $35. I asked the parts guy if he gave a local discount and he knocked $10 off. I was well-chuffed as they say in England.
A few days later the Jeep dealer called and said the part had arrived. I drove back down the hill and picked up the bezel. All was well with the world. Sure, I paid $10 more than Amazon but I had supported our local economy: I kept the money in town.
When I tried to install the bezel I noticed that it was the bezel for the passenger door. The little graphic of locked and un-locked would be upside down and the angle was wrong. Darn it. Ah well, mistakes happen. I rigged a few pieces of sheet metal to hold the switch in the door and drove back down to the Jeep dealer. I know I could have called but I figured I’d have a hard time explaining that they ordered the wrong part and it’s easier to deal in person. The parts guy looked the bezel over and apologized. He said he would order the driver’s side bezel for me.
A few days later the Jeep dealer called and said the part was in. I drove back down the hill and picked up the part. It was the correct one and fit perfectly. All in, I drove 184 miles to get a $25 switch bezel that cost $14 on Amazon. I used around 12 gallons of gas. Gas is right around $3 a gallon here so I spent $36 on gasoline. My time doesn’t really count because I enjoy riding around in old Brumby but if you’re counting I spent about 11 hours driving back and forth and talking with the parts guy.
I feel really good that I supported a local business. The money I spent was circulated to the gas stations, the Jeep place and a hamburger stand where I ate lunch on one of the four trips to the dealership. I really spread it around, man. I used my Social Security check to pay for the switch so that’s Uncle Sam’s money injected right into the veins of my town. Buying local is the best way we can work together to save capitalism… and have clean clothes to boot.
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In line with our editorial policy featuring luxury goods with outlandish prices, a few weeks ago we posted a blog on the Longines perpetual moon phase automatic watch. That’s an item with what is euphemistically referred to as “prestige” pricing, which most folks would simply call overpricing (you know, like most motorcycle dealers’ freight and setup fees). The Longines is a lofty $3550, although our blog post pointed out you could find them for less if you poked around on the Internet. I did, and my best price so far was a scant $2250, which is still way too rich for my blood. Hell, you could buy a used Sportster for that kind of money.
Now, don’t get me wrong…if you want to buy the Longines watch, by all means we think you should. In fact, we think you should buy it through this Amazon Longines link, because then Gresh and I would get a cut. I have no idea how much (we’ve never helped to sell anything that pricey through our Amazon affiliates program), but it would be cool to find out.
Terry, the Prince of Tides.
But that’s not the point of this blog. If you read that earlier Longines blog and the comments that you, or esteemed readership, posted to it, you will see that none other than our good buddy Terry commented that he might consider the watch if it also showed the tides.
The tides.
Hmmm. That tickled a long-dormant neuron buried among the other neurons between my ears. They’re mostly focused on Weatherbys, Royal Enfields, SIGs, RCBS reloading gear, Baja, Michelle Pfeiffer, and God only knows what else is swimming around in there. The tides. I vaguely remembered seeing something about a watch that does, indeed, show the tides, so I went on Amazon, looked, and what do you know: The Casio moon phase and tides digital watch you see at the top of this blog appeared. Wowee!
What got my attention immediately was the price: $22.50. Could it be? A Casio watch that actually does way more than the Longines watch, but sells for a scant $22.50? That’s exactly one percent of the lowest discounted price I could find for the Longines watch! $22.50!
Hey, I couldn’t resist. I’m wearing my new Casio moon phase and tides watch as I type this blog. $22.50, and because I’m an Amazon Prime member, I didn’t even have to pay for shipping! Go Bezos!
There are just so many things that are cool about this Casio watch I almost don’t know where to begin. Yep, it shows you the tides. That waveform in the lower left quadrant of the watch face has a darkened section that shows you were the tide is at that instant. It goes through a complete cycle every 24 hours, just like the real tides do. And there’s the moon phase. That’s the little circle in the lower right quadrant (it darkens in arcs to show you what the moon is doing that day). All this for $22.50. And the Casio has a dual time feature…you can set a different time zone and switch to it instantly, although this feature is kind of weird…the “other” time is whatever you want it to be, not some exact number of hours different from where you are. It kind of reminded of a Chinese hotel we stayed in once where they had a bunch of clocks on the back wall showing different times at other locations in the world, but nobody had maintained them and they were comically different.
Ah, but I digress…back to the Casio. It has a stopwatch and a countdown feature. I can set it to military time or a normal 12-hour time. It has an alarm clock. And a backlight, so I can use it to find my way to the bathroom at night without waking up my wife or tripping on the way there. And (get this) it has a 10-year battery! Did I mention it goes for only $22.50?
More good news: As you have already seen in the photo a few paragraphs up, you can get the same Casio watch in blue, and the blue Casio goes for only $20.48. I’m tempted to buy one, but hey, I’m not made out of money.
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We recently wrote a review of Tough Rides China, and as it turns out, that was one of three rides Ryan Pyle did that are available on Amazon Prime. A couple of days ago I watched Tough Rides Brazil, one of the other two. It was a six-part series about a circumnavigation around Brazil, and Ryan did this one without his brother Colin.
Although I enjoyed it, I didn’t think Tough Rides China was as good as the Himalaya Calling series about going overland from Germany to India, and I said so in my earlier review. Tough Rides Brazil, however, was stellar, and it was every bit the equal of Himalaya Calling. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
A gold-lined church in one of the mining towns in Brazil. Pyle took us into many worthy destinations on his Tough Rides Brazil series.
You know, it’s a funny thing. I’ve been down on motorcycle adventure stories that focus too much on mysticism, philosophy, and other wordcount-inflating bullhockey and not enough on motorcycle riding (which is why I didn’t think much of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance but I loved Dave Barr’s Riding the Edge). Somehow in Tough Rides Brazil, Pyle focused only a bit on the riding and spent most of his time on the things he did in each of perhaps a dozen destinations on his 14,000 kilometer journey around Brazil, and it worked. I watched all six Tough Rides Brazil episodes in a single sitting (it was that good). It’s easy to do; they are each not that long and the story line and photography are superior.
You might check out Tough Rides Brazil on either Amazon Prime (by buying each episode) or by joining Amazon Prime and watching it on your TV or your computer. Tough Rides Brazil is included with Amazon Prime. Trust me on this: I think you will enjoy it. It’s got me thinking about visiting Brazil. This is heresy, but I don’t think I’d want to do it on a motorcycle. I’d like to fly there and see the place as a regular non-moto-borne tourist. Brazil looks like a fascinating place and the Tough Rides Brazil series has me thinking deep thoughts in that direction.
Another blog a few entries down (it was on my magical journey to Mompox, Colombia) told about the isolated and surreal nature of that beautiful town. We had to take a ferry ride down the Magdalena River to get there, and I mentioned in the blog that my ride leader, Juan Carlos, had told me they would soon be building a bridge to Mompox. Well, they are, and here’s a video Juan sent to me about it…
There’s an old saying that goes something along the lines of “bad roads bring good people, and good roads bring bad people…” I think Mompox is going to change with improved access. I’m glad I saw it when I did. It was a special place on a special ride.
I’ve set up the Kawasaki ZRX as my cold weather bike with a 12-volt receptacle for an Aerostitch heated vest and these grips will complete my preparations for the cold. If it ever gets here.
I’m tempted to buy the watch you see above, but I already have plenty of watches. You can buy the above watch on Amazon for $184, or better yet, from 
There are just so many things that are cool about this 
