Weight limit?

[JonnyJabs]

Hello all!! Really interested in these rx3's.. Wondering if you think this bike is not big enough or powerful enough for a 6'1 245lb rider?

[franque]

What's your intended traveling speed?

[JonnyJabs]

I would be doing some commuting on the highway about 40 miles each way. Speed limit here is 55 so around 60 to 70 mph would be ok..

[2LZ]

I'm 6' and currently 240. It hauls me around fine. Would I do 40 miles each way at highway speed? I'd take a bigger bike. Some may disagree. I just like a more powerful bike for highway riding. Personal preference.

[franque]

Yep, get the RX4 or something with bigger displacement. The RX3 would likely be able to do 55 all day long, but it's a rather heavy 250, I wouldn't buy one if those are your hopes for commuting.

[NzBrakelathes]

Originally Posted by JonnyJabs

I would be doing some commuting on the highway about 40 miles each way. Speed limit here is 55 so around 60 to 70 mph would be ok..

I think you will be dissapointed - screaming and dead flat or down hill you would get a little more then 70 acording to GPS but you are right there at 8500rpm or more.
Stock gearing a GPS true 100 KMph is 7000rpm

[willy dog]

I'm 6' 2" 275 lots of hills here in Vermont If you keep it wound up it will do fine as long as you know it is only a 250. It takes a while to get up to speed with me and overnight gear but it does get the job done

[calvarez]

Riding around town with the wife on the back, it's alright. Not great, not terrible. We never go more than maybe like 15 miles. Highway 70, and streets around 50. I'm 210 and she's 115.

I don't have a commute as I work from home, but ride into the city regularly. I have no problem going the 35 miles from my house to downtown. I would not have any hesitation to ride this bike in Phoenix traffic and the combo of 70 MPH and 50 MPH riding it requires. We don't have a lot of elevation changes, it's only a few hundred feet of change here and there.

For comparison my other bike is a CBR1100XX, so the far other end of power.

[Emerikol]

The only comparable 250 in my stable is a Hawk. Not as well equipped as an RX-3, but still a 250. There's the background; to answer your question in a word: No. I think that you will wind up frustrated with the bike, and how long it takes to get up to speed, and further by how much speed you lose on hills and getting blown around by the wind. A big truck coming the opposite direction will hit you with a wall of wind good for a 3-4mph slowdown. For the commute distance you're describing, you'd be better served with a larger bike. I take my Hawk on I-10 and I-17 out here in Phoenix every now and again, and the rubber bands are seriously as wound up as they can be, and it still struggles to keep up in the right lane. That's in downtown traffic, too. If I took it a little farther out in the desert, I'd get run over and flattened by an 18-wheeler. Now that I've bashed the Hawk a bit, let me tell you that if I'm going out on surface streets and can find the backroads to get me there, the Hawk is my go-to machine for around-town errands and a quick jaunt across the dirt access roads. Dollar for dollar, it's the best bang for the buck out there. Keeping it at reasonable speeds on the surface streets, it's a whole lot of fun, and gets roughly 70mpg doing it. There are a couple of people who have had success re-gearing the bikes (I've got a 39 tooth rear sprocket, and a 14 up front, I think), and it helps. It's better, but not a commuter for an 80-mile round trip adventure. Like I said, I think that at the weight-distance-speed triangle you're going after, something bigger would keep you safer and happier than an RX-3 or one of the variants out there. Hope this helps!

[calvarez]

Funny that two people have completely different experiences in the same place. Now the OP can be *more* confused than when he started, LOL! I have ridden the 80 mile round trip from my house at the far North end of 67th to the datacenter in Tempe several times, and will continue doing it. With servers strapped to the bike even.

Once with an Ethernet cable holding the kickstand, good thing I always carry those...

[Emerikol]

There's a ton of variation from one bike to the next. I must have one of the lower-performing ones off the assembly line. There are definitely times I think the only tool they used to put it together was a hammer. It does well enough on the surface streets, but the rubber bands just don't wind up tight enough to get it down the highways.

[calvarez]

Interesting. Going down 101 and 17 and back, I can always keep above 70 without a challenge. That's GPS measured, and I dropped a tooth on the sprocket. It will now redline in top gear anywhere around the city.

[Emerikol]

If I tuck in (in a very uncomfortable position for this style of bike), I can get my Hawk up to 72 or so, but it's so light it feels like I'm going to get the death wobble and go ass over tea kettle. For what it is, I really enjoy the Hawk just running local errands. It was great during the ride to Wickenburg a few months ago we did, too. But all in all, it's just not a very good bike to go around the world on. My DR went from Tennessee to Oregon (and then on to Washington State) on the TAT, and I didn't have a second's hesitation about taking it. That's not a ride I would do on the Hawk without three more Hawks waiting for me along the trail.

[calvarez]

Yeah, I'd never put up with that, I'm a princess for riding comfort and stability. The RX3 is something I'd never complain about, although my other current and past bikes have consisted of high end Hondas and BMWs.

[Emerikol]

As you can see from my current stable, I'm not quite a princess when it comes to riding comfort (although, I am a princess when it comes to commercial air travel - nothing but first class for the missus and I), but since I don't feel 100% confident in the Hawk's capabilities, I just can't sign off on it as a sole means of two-wheeled travel. We're getting a little off the topic of the OP's questions, but hopefully we're at least providing a decent enough real-world review.