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I see this as more of a glass half full situation plus a huge "attaboy" for Zongshen having the cajones to put their product out there to the highest test. I also think the expectations were fairly low for a rookie team no matter if they were on China bikes or otherwise. The CB haters are gonna hate no matter how well or poorly the team fared.
Yeah, we all would have liked them to get deeper into the race. Also bear in mind the attrition rate at Dakar is ~50+%. The engine appeared to hold up fairly well. The riders got injured or DNF'd. A lot of other seasoned Dakar riders crashed out, got injured, had mechanical issues, navigation issues as well. And, a bike crashing and burning from a fuel spill is not that uncommon hence the well known phrase "crash and burn".
In general, this is a great R&D experiment for Zongshen. I hope they learned a lot of lessons that will translate to better bikes for us in the near future. I also hope they field a team for 2018. If nothing else, the armchair rally riders will have something to talk about in the middle of winter next year.
Rojo
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'15 RX3 (Rojo's)
'15 RX3 (marzhere's)
'16 TT250
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