Rattlers, RX3s, the range, the riots, and more…

Boys and girls, it’s been an interesting day!   I was in the plant this morning to grab some photos so I could share some of our newest RX3 accessories and support gear, and like always, things are hopping.

You might have seen the photos on the Motorcyclist magazine Facebook page up on GMR and in front of the plant.    Lots of Facebook “likes” on those, my friends!   Here are the photos…one from our ride showing Ari Henning wringing out the RX3 up on Glendora Mountain Road….

And another showing Ari talking to an old bald fat guy in front of the plant…

That sure was a fun ride.   Motorcyclist is doing a story on smaller displacement bikes, and Ari told me he thought the RX3 was great.   He said he’d been testing small bikes all week and all of the others had glaring deficiencies, but he gave the RX3 a thumbs up.   Ari knows his stuff!

More good stuff…after leaving the plant today, I decided to take some personal time and head over to the range.   It was great and I had the place to myself this afternoon.    It’s relaxing, it’s fun, and I had a chance to put my bright stainless steel Colt .45 and the Springfield Armory 9mm through their paces…I love shooting those handguns…

My club is in a remote location up in the San Gabriels and it requires driving a couple of miles on dirt roads to get there.   On the way out, I spotted what I thought was a Pacific ribbon snake on the side of the road, so I stopped, grabbed my iPhone and walked right up to it to grab a photo…

You can imagine my surprise when I leaned over the thing and saw the rattles.  Whoa!    I guess it’s springtime, and young rattlesnakes are out doing what they do when the weather gets nice.   You may recall the one Susie and I saw on our way to see the cave paintings in Mexico last week…

You know, the iPhone does an okay job when taking pictures, but it just doesn’t compare to a Nikon with a big lens.  That “up close and personal” photo of the Mexican rattler was with a 70mm lens…I was in the Subie and the snake was just outside my car window.   It looks like the thing is about to kiss me, but trust me, I was a good 4 or 5 feet away.   In the photo up top (the one I grabbed with my iPhone), I was nearly on top of the thing.  In both cases, neither snake rattled.   They were checking me out and I was checking them out.   The things fascinate me.

Okay, enough of the snake stories.  On to more interesting stuff.

Everybody wants to know when the Xian Fei Zhou is going to unload.   I wish I knew.  Our shipping guy is telling us between the 1st (that’s tomorrow) and the 4th.   As soon as we know, we’ll post it here.

Next topic…what’s happening in Baja?   The LA Times has published stories on the labor riots in and around San Quintin for the last week.   It looks like the riots have subsided.   Here’s a photo I grabbed off the Internet (it’s not mine)…

It was pretty scary when Susie and I got caught in it, but it’s calmed down considerably.   We’ll be okay when we ride through there.   We just have to get the bikes off the boat and into your hands so that we can head to Baja, and we’re doing what we can to make that happen.  We’re as impatient as I know you are.

More good stuff.  I’ve got an updated accessories and supplies list for the RX3.   That’s the good news.   The bad news is that I ran out of steam tonight.   Keep an eye on the blog…I’ll post the updated accessories and supplies list tomorrow.

Later, my friends.