Tag: Oakland Bay Bridge

Catching Up

Here’s a quick update on things we’ve posted about recently.

Someone else won the auction for Hank Williams .357 Ruger Blackhawk, and like I said I would, I ordered a New Model Ruger Blackhawk instead.  To my astonishment, the Hank Williams gun sold for a whopping $4,993.37 (when new in 1972, it was a scosh over $100).  My New Model .357 Blackhawk is at the local dealer, and I’m in the Peoples Republik 10-day cooling off period.  I snagged it for $659 on Gunbroker, a reasonable price in today’s economy.  I’ve got a bunch of ammo in a variety of flavors reloaded and ready to test, but I think I know what works in a Blackhawk.  We’ll see.

I took Poppy’s watch to the repair shop and it was enlightening.  My guy opened the watch up, which confirmed it is 14-carat white gold and revealed the serial number.  The watch tech looked it up, and I learned that Poppy’s watch dates to 1884.  It’s 138 years old and it’s still ticking.  It’s the oldest and coolest thing I own.

Gresh’s blog on a proposed vintage bike gathering in New Mexico garnered a lot of comments and it was picked up by Motorcycle.com.  I think this event it is going to happen.  A few guys have posted it on other forums (we appreciate that).  We’ll keep you updated right here on the ExNotes blog.

The Harley that flew off the Oakland Bay Bridge?  It’s still under water (dive crews can’t find it).  I wouldn’t have thought it worth the effort (you know, you can buy a brand new Chinese motorcycle from CSC for less than what a used Harley costs).  I would think the divers could just look for the oil spots and work back, but hey, what do I know?

I found the piece Gresh did on the Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club particularly appealing and I joined the VJMC, too.  Like Joe, I recently received my first print magazine, and Gresh was right….there is a special excitement in getting an actual printed magazine in the mail.

The Gresh Husky saga soldiers on.   Joe is already deep into the guts of his Husky’s transmission, and his engineering talents and Ebay prowess are moving things in the right direction (you’ll get an update on that in the very next ExNotes blog).  Good buddy Terry pointed out that Gresh could have bought a used Sportster for what he’ll have into his Swedish meatball (it seems that Harleys are the benchmark for all things motorcycle).  With Gresh’s considerable skills and Harley’s rumored reliability, maybe the best approach would be to wedge a Milwaukee transmission into the Husky (a Husky-Davidson?).  Like you, I’m looking forward reading about how this adventure progresses.

And finally, one last comment, this one on Mosin-Nagant rifles.  We’ve done Mosin stories (see the Tales of the Gun page).  It’s no secret I’m a big fan, and it looks like that interest could pay dividends if I was interested in selling my Mosins (I’m not).  Rock Island Auctions recently published an article on Mosin-Nagant price trends, and it shows they are sharply up.  That’s good.

So there you have it.  We appreciate you following the ExNotes blog and we appreciate your comments.  Please keep the comments coming, and as always, please keep hitting those popup ads!

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A Harley Submarine?

Everybody who’s ever thrown a leg over a motorcycle has a story about when they crashed.  This guy (who’s name I do not know) has us all beat.  Last Thursday night, our unnamed hero was riding his Harley-Davidson across the Oakland Bay Bridge (the other big bridge connecting San Francisco to the mainland) when some dweeb in a Mini Cooper merged into his lane.  A crash ensued, the rider came off the bike and suffered minor injuries, but the Harley kept going.  And going.  And going.  Until it hit the rail and (you guessed it) went over the side.

The Oakland Bay Bridge is 190 feet above the Bay.

This fellow sounds like one tough (and lucky) dude.  According to the news reports, he transported himself to the hospital, where he was treated and released.  Also according to the news reports, no citations were issued to either our would-be U-boat commander or the Mini pilot.

The CHP and the Fire Department say they know exactly where the bike is.  (So do I.  It’s in San Francisco Bay.)  The emergency responders will attempt to recover the motorcycle at a later date (the water under the bridge is about 100 feet deep).  They are worried about it leaking gas and oil into the Bay.  There’s a joke in there somewhere.   Harleys are known to leak both, you know.  I know Harley is moving to liquid cooling, but this is ridiculous.  There’s got to be more.  Let’s hear ’em.

As motorcycle crash stories go, this has to be one for the ages.  I’m glad our hero (whoever he is) came through it with only minor injuries.  Ah, the stories he’ll be able to tell.

So, here’s an invitation.  Recognizing it’s not likely any of us will ever be able to top this story, what’s yours?  Got a good crash story?  We’d love to hear it.

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