Miscellany: 2013 BMW 328i final review - Drei-er Lint, Part III

It's been over eight years since I first bought my 2013 BMW 328i, and over six years since my last review of the car, and I am finally saying farewell to the old girl.  With over 168,000 miles on the road, my 3-series is positively elderly in German car years, and it's taken a lot of work (and a lot of money) to keep it in decent shape.

What kind of work? Well, aside from normal wear-and-tear items that any car would need (oil changes, new tires, brake pads, spark plugs, batteries, etc.), I've had to replace a couple of front control arms, the fuel tank value, the turbo intake air pipe, the starter motor, the valve cover and oil filter gaskets (multiple times), the coolant system, the driveshaft flex joints, the transmission line, the differential mounts, the horns, the hood struts, the door handles (multiple times), the rear passenger door trim, the cabin headliner, and even the center console cupholder.

Absurdly high maintenance costs aside, the car was fairly reliable (it only stranded me once, when I came out of a store and found the battery was dead), and it still drives like new. But I've grown tired of throwing money at it, so I am getting the lowest-maintenance vehicle I can think of:

Music/Politics: Eating the Cats ft. Donald Trump (Debate Remix)

Whatever your politics, you have to admit that this is a funny song by The Kiffness:

 

Miscellany: Mulliga Runs a Marathon, Part 5 - The Shoes

Swiss shoe company On is a relative newcomer in the world of running, but after famously receiving backing by tennis legend Roger Federer and getting endorsements from the likes of Zendaya, On has been able to take a sizable chunk of the U.S. market. I've been using On's Cloudrunner and Cloudrunner 2 training shoes for awhile now, so here are my thoughts after about 300 miles in each shoe.

The original Cloudrunner was a big departure from the motion control Brooks and ASICS running shoes I had used in the past. The holes in the side of the shoe are On's "Cloudtec" system, which compresses with each step to provide spring-like cushioning to your feet. These were easily the plushest shoes I had ever used, and they held up well through lots of 5ks and 10ks.

Based on that experience, I splurged for a pair of On Cloudrunner 2s. What do you get for your $150? Well, the outsole design no longer catches rocks underfoot, which is nice, but the shoe as a whole doesn't feel all that different. The Cloudrunner 2 is still a "middle of the road" ride - neither minimalist nor maximalist - and I have no complaints with how it has held up.

I wear shoes out quickly with the weekly mileage I am running for marathon training, so the next shoe will be a pair of On Cloudmonster 2s.  These shoes are specifically designed for long runs, with maximum foam cushioning and a nylon "Speedboard" plate for enhanced energy return from each stride. The downside is that it's heavier than the Cloudrunner line, so we'll see if all those doodads actually work.

Guns: CZ-75B Compact L review - The Unicorn Gun

Introduction

The first handguns I ever bought were CZs - a WWII-era CZ-27, and a CZ-75B from the '90s. Despite their age, both pistols shot well, and I became a big fan of the brand.  When I got my CCW permit, I wanted to carry a CZ, but none of the models being imported back then had the exact combination of features I wanted: an aluminum alloy frame (to save weight), a manual safety (for cocked-and-locked carry), and a standard CZ-75 pattern (for maximum compatibility with holsters, grips, and sights - sorry, CZ RAMI).

After about a decade of waiting, CZ Custom released a limited number of "Compact L" variant guns. I had found my unicorn gun:

Feature Breakdown

At first glance, the Compact L looks just like a P-01 with a manual safety instead of a decocker.  But the gun has been worked over by CZ Custom, and the difference becomes apparent when you pick it up.  There's a CZ-85 trigger and CZ Competition hammer instead of the normal P-01 curved trigger group.  Those special parts, combined with a trigger job and lighter main spring, give the Compact L a very light trigger in both double and single action, probably as light as I'd go in a carry gun:



Other little durability upgrades include a "combat firing pin" and stainless steel guide rod. Frankly, I don't think these affect day-to-day function much, but they're nice to have:

The CZ Custom shop polished the gun's barrel and internals.  The Compact L felt very slick out of the box, like a good 1911, with a much nicer internal fit and finish than a typical CZ.  The whole thing is topped off by tritium night sights, front and rear.

Range Report

The Compact L is one of the most accurate and reliable alloy-framed compact-size guns I have ever shot. Most importantly, it has never malfunctioned, despite being fed every type of 9mm I could find, from steel-cased Tula, to bargain range ammo (Blazer, UMC, and Perfecta), to high-end JHP ammo (Federal HSTs and Speer Gold Dots).

Aguila 115 gr. at 15 yards:

A whole magazine's worth of Federal HSTs at 15 yards:

A whole magazine at 25 yards with S&B 124 gr. range ammo:

A whole magazine at 25 yards with Winchester 115 gr. range ammo:

A failure drill shot at 15 yards as fast as I could go:

Perfecta 115 gr. at 25 yards:

Remington UMC at 15 yards:

American Eagle at 15 yards:

A 30-round grab bag of miscellaneous 9mm rounds, fired at speed:

Federal 115 gr. +P+:

Winchester Super-X 147 gr. at 15 yards:

Conclusion

I don't normally review guns that are hard to get here at Shangrila Towers, but I had to make an exception for the CZ Compact L. There's only a tiny chance you will ever spot this one for sale at your local gunstore or even on GunBroker, but if you do, be sure to give it a look.

Tech: Garmin Forerunner 965 smartwatch review

For my marathon training up to this point, I had been tracking my runs with my Apple Watch Series 8.  It worked well overall (the GPS and heart rate monitor were really accurate), but it required constant charging, and the darn thing just broke after only 18 months of use.

So, I bit the bullet and ponied up for a Garmin Forerunner 965, a smartwatch that's almost twice as expensive as an Apple Watch Series 9. Is the Garmin worth the coin?

The Forerunner series is Garmin's line of running-focused watches, and the 965 is the most advanced model in the bunch. Its main selling point is a large 1.4" AMOLED display that makes the MIPS displays of older Garmin smartwatches look like middle school graphing calculators.  The brightness, pixel density, and color range of the 965 trump every GPS watch out there, save for smartphone-style Apple and Samsung watches.  The nicer display does mean a slight hit to battery life, but the Forerunner 965 still lasts me about 8 to 10 days between charges, including many hours of running with both the GPS and Bluetooth music playback on.  It was nice to wear a watch that I didn't have to charge every single day just to use.

The big drawback to the 965 is that aside from tracking your runs, the watch really doesn't do all that much.  It's not trying to be a smartphone on your wrist, so there's no apps for browsing the Internet, checking your bank account balance, or pulling up an airline ticket.  And paradoxically, if you don't need some of the Garmin-specific bells and whistles the Forerunner provides (full featured navigation, Spotify integration, and contactless credit card payments), there are running watches like the Coros Pace 3 that do the same thing but cost several hundreds of dollars less.

All that said, I am happy with the Forerunner 965 so far, and would recommend it to any amateur athlete looking to quantify their fun.