I recently picked up a Garmin eTrex 30 GPS. It’s a good GPS for a good price, is easy to add maps to via a microSD card “slot” (not really a slot), and uses standard AA batteries or AA-sized lithiums or rechargables. The one thing that quickly became apparent while it was knocking around in my pants cargo pocket or chest rig pouch was that the lack of any key lock feature led to a random display every time I pulled it out, or random waypoints logged or purposely recorded ones deleted. The offender in this case was the multi-function toggle on the face of the unit. This toggle makes the navigation of the non-touch-screen eTrex very easy and intuitive, but it is easily actuated when the unit is on and put inside or against something. Continue reading ‘Garmin eTrex 30 Toggle Guard’
Archive for the 'Gear' Category
Page 8 of 11
I got a frantic email from Jeff the other week while he was away on the mainland for a conference. Apparently, he had been browsing the 1911 forums and came across this neat titanium bushing wrench and thought it was cool. I took one look and jumped in with the group order. Titanium? Great! Any little ti trinket is captivating, coming from a MTB background. Bottle opener? Sold! Titanium and bottle opener? Can’t go wrong there! M1911 bushing wrench? Bonus! The irony of a bottle opener and pistol-specific tool may be lost on non-firearm owners (and you can put it on your keyring?!)… hey, you don’t have to use them at the same time! A ¼” hex hole for insert bits? You already had me at “bottle opener” – how can you make this any better! Continue reading ‘NME Knife and Tool BWB-01T’
Nothing is as American as bacon… okay, the word “bacon” is etymologically German, and the consumptiom of belly pork goes back to Europe, but smoked, cured bacon is very American… anyway, check out this velcro-backed bacon patch! These popped up at last year’s SHOT Show, but Dave from Mojo Tactical on Sand Island just got these in. Ckucke was down there and gave me a call and asked if I wanted him to pick me up one (sorry I couldn’t make it down in person, Dave!). Of course I was in! There are two variations, “raw” with more natural, pinky and off-white (fat) colors, and “cooked” with higher contrast red and browns. I opted for the “raw”. Embroidery quality is nice. The patch measures 5″ x 1″ (12.5cm x 2.5cm), so it fits perfectly on a standard nametape of service branch velcro field. From what I can gather online, these source from edcknives-dot-com. Like bacon? Get this patch! Continue reading ‘Tactical Bacon Patch, Raw’
Of course, having the word “desert” in the name is a dead giveaway that the Danner Desert Acadia GTX boots were not originally designed for snow use, but the Gore-Tex liner kept my feet dry and warm with just regular mid-weight wool hiking socks in -10C weather. My feet were warm even standing for extended peroids of time in deep snow. The Vibram Sierra sole worked fine in loose snow and on packed snow, but on freshly snowplowed roads where the black ice had been exposed, they were crazy slippery. Granted it’s ice, but my Danner 453 hikers actually had more traction on the same surface. I’m not going to even get into whether siping the sole blocks like snow tires or using a harder/softer compound would make them work better in a winter environment. I’ll be looking into whether Lowa or someone else makes a snow/ice Gore-Tex boot. Continue reading ‘Slippery Boots of Death’
OK, it’s been a month and I figure I should talk about some of the stuff from our latest Salt Lake City, Utah snow trip. Guess I should start off with this image. What’s going on here? It’s for what we have come to call the MJ gloves.
Seirus Therma-Lux Heat Pocket Liner Gloves
For years I’ve been using a pair of polypro stretch gloves I picked up at a convenience store in Japan under my main snowboarding gloves. Reason being is that I often have to take off gloves to work my camera gear, but without any type of covering the hands quickly get frozen. Liners that come with gloves are warm, but too bulky and/or too loose fitting so don’t stay on hands. My Japan liners started to get a bit ratty with holes starting to appear, so I got a pair of USA made wool stretch gloves that work well too. On our latest trip spotted these liners in REI. Yes, the universal intial reaction was, “oooo, shiny!” This model was touted as this companies warmest, with the metalized gold fibers woven in supposedly spreading and reflecting warmth back to the user. It features a pocket on the back of the hand to slip a chemical hand warmer pad too. Continue reading ‘SLC Reviews & Dirt Bag Tips’
A few months back I inherited a few boxes of light bulbs from ckuke and dave, sorted through and was going to craigslist the lot but instead found that its the blue planet 100,000 bulb blitz month!
So I exchanged mine; for this!~
Thanks dave and ckuke!
Last Sunday’s Kamilo’iki hike opened up a failure point on my old Danner 453 boots. On one of the stairstep descents, the rough lava rock grabbed the rubber outsole at the heel and tore it loose. They’re almost exactly 4 years old, so that’s a pretty good service life I’ve gotten out of them. The outsole at the heels are worn flat, and the EVA midsole is packed out, but until this event there was no impending sign that the outsole or midsole was going to delaminate or worse yet crumble to powder. The outsole was still soft and grippy – it hadn’t hardened slick and begun to crack. I defenitely got my money’s worth out of these, unlike my previous two pairs of Salomons that failed prematurely for one reason or another. I guess I could try reglueing the loose flap, but it’s time to retire these with dignity. Wonder what I’ll get to replace them?
I’m not sure who “invented” the tactical trouser belt, but Spec.-Ops. Brand was definitely one of the pioneers of the genre. Years back, I wanted a fully non-metallic belt to make airport checkpoints go more quicky, but that was before September 11 and the TSA, as nowadays all belts have to come off. I ended up with a PRC-made 5.11 Tactical Gear TDU belt, which worked perfectly fine, but its country of origin left something to be desired. Spec.-Ops. Brand belts are made in the USA, so I picked up a couple, one in Coyote Brown to go with my MultiCam trousers, and a black one for everyday use. Continue reading ‘Spec.-Ops. Brand Better BDU Belt 1.75”’
Working on the rally FX, got the head back all shiny and better than new. Had the machine shop clean the intake too, but everything else I’m doing myself. In one of many wanderings in the web, I came across a posting on a homebrew soda blasting rig. 
Soda is sand/media blasting using baking soda/sodium bicarbonate as the media. It’s the latest rage in the Eastwood catalog, touted for its gentle cleaning and easy cleanup. But instead of shelling out the hundreds of dollars to order one, here is what I tried out. Go to City Mill, buy $3 worth of 1/2″ vinyl hose, goto Safeway and buy about $3 of baking soda. Take hose, cut a slit about 2 inches from end just big enough that tip of airgun will fit in. Insert tip in slit toward the short end of hose, tape. Stick other end of hose in box of baking soda. I got the deluxe kit here and grabbed the cardboard box my Toyota order came in the mail in, and a nice thick plastic bag that happened to be in it too. So here you see it, the soda blaster and blast cabinet, for $6! Too bad I didn’t have any of that Wacky Willy’s freebie hose anymore or it would have been cheaper! Continue reading ‘Soda Works’
Ever since I started snowboarding, I’ve run a carabiner on my belt or pack waist strap for clipping my gloves to when I take them off, so I don’t lose track of them. Aluminum carabiners are reasonably light, but I moved over to the even lighter plastic Fastex Tactical Link when those were introduced. What most carabiners have an issue with though, is a tendency to lie flat along the belt, so one-handed use when clipping gloves to them becomes a bit more challenging. This is particularly noticeable with carabiners with any kind of curve along the spine (back, non-gate side). Enter the Black Diamond Ice Clipper. Like other plastic accessory clip carabiners, this product is non-load-bearing, but unlike a standard carabiner, the spine is flattened sideways, so the tension of the belt or webbing over it holds the gate-side out at a right angle. It will still roll flat if you push it firmly, so you can stow it when it is not in use. Continue reading ‘Black Diamond Ice Clipper’