Mopeds, Model 625s, and mountain lions…

So I was on my way to the gym today on my TT250 (which started immediately after not having been run for at least a couple of months) when I heard the distinctive drone of a small two-stroke engine.   I didn’t see Dylan’s custom bike initially, as it was running close to the parked cars in our neighborhood, but when I spotted it I knew I had to grab a few photos for the blog.   This is very cool…

Dylan told me he built the bike himself.  I guess I would have called it a moped (you have to pedal it to get started).  It’s all custom, including the frame with an integral fuel tank.  The bike had a old skool retro feel about it and I liked it immediately.

I especially liked the headlight patina and I asked Dylan how he achieved that look.   He explained something I might have figured out on my own (given a lot of time):  Chrome is plated over copper, and if you sand the chrome, you get down to the copper.  I loved the look.  He also had 1/4-inch copper tubing that contained the bike’s electrical wiring.  The whole effect was just cool.

I wanted to get a photo of Dylan (he’s a photogenic guy), but he didn’t want me to, so I asked Dylan to grab a photo of me with his bike…

I know what you’re thinking:   Where’s the ATGATT?

Hey, it was 95 degrees here this afternoon and I like I said above, I was on my way to the gym (which is just down the street from me).  I know…that’s no excuse.   But that’s the way it is.

We’re going to the range for our informal shoot tomorrow and I’m ready.  I loaded up a bunch of .45 AutoRim ammo for my Smith and Wesson Model 625 (love that gun), and my friends and I are going to have a good time…

Loaded for bear…or maybe lion?

You’re probably wondering about that caption in the photo above.  Okay, here’s the deal.   I spend way too much time on the Internet.  Some of that time is spent perusing the motorcycle forums.  Some of it is spent on Facebook (the ultimate waste of time, in my opinion).   And some of my time is spent on the Internet gun forums. If you think we have strong opinions on motorcycle forums, you need to check out the gun forums.  As we all know, there are a lot of strong opinions on the motorcycle forums.  Raise that by a factor of 10 and you can begin to get a feel for the opinions on the gun forums.   And if the topic turns to concealed carry, some of the posts are really out there.   Not that there’s anything wrong with carrying a concealed firearm (as long as it’s done legally), but when the topic turns to caliber and how much ammunition you need, well, the comments make anything you read on a motorcycle forum look tame.   Some of these folks carry cannons and enough ammo to start World War III.

One gun forum thread discussed how much ammo you should carry with a CCW (that’s a concealed carry weapon permit, in gun talk).  It piqued my interest.  The opinions all seemed to lean toward enough ammunition to equip an infantry platoon.  It made me wonder if the Internet had any data on the typical number of shots fired in a real altercation (that is to say, when a firearm is used for self-defense).  It turns out there was a study on this.  The magic number is (drum roll please):  Two.

Two rounds. Most of the time an armed altercation required only one round to stop things (the bad guys tend to change their minds and run away when the first round is fired).  I think the average got up to two rounds because there were a few instances in which more shots were fired, and in particular, there was one data point that was way above the average.  In that altercation, the good guy had a puny .32 auto and he had to fire a whopping 13 shots to stop his adversary.  His adversary, though, was a bit unusual.  Get this:  The “bad guy” was an escaped lion.  An actual lion.  Now there’s one you don’t run across too often.

I’ll be on the range tomorrow with my friends, and hopefully we won’t see any lions.  There are mountain lions around here, but I’ve never seen one.  We see the odd rattlesnake or tarantula at the range once in a while, and on a couple of instances we’ve actually had deer wander onto the range (and being the sportsmen we are, we let them wander off the range, too).  Watch for the range report in the next couple of days…you’ll see it right here on the CSC blog.