Zongshen Dakar bike and RX4

[AdventureDad]

Well, Peter (and others), I've got to say I agree with you. I was discussing it with my wife, and her comments were almost the same as yours. Upon retrospect, I didn't have enough information to assign them that name. And I remembered that discretion can be the better part of valor. (I hope you took no offense to the military analogy, I used it with my wife during our discussion) I am disappointed that the team is out, for whatever reason.

[pyoungbl]

AD, absolutely no offense taken. It appears that all five Zong entries are now out of the race. I wish I were fluent in Spanish so I could more fully understand what is going on. Maybe Joe @ CSC can fill in the blanks for us.

Peter Y.

[2strokecycle]

Originally Posted by Juanro

Fifth member of the Zongshen team is out too:

"07:55 Los (numerosos) abandonos de ayer
Si la tercera etapa ya fue difícil para los pilotos, la cuarta jornada hizo estragos de lo lindo. En motos, Thierry Béthys, David Megre, Toby Price, Walter Terblanche, Alessandro Botturi, Rodney Faggotter, Jorge Lacunza, Ronald ter Beek, Armand Monleón y Jurgen van den Goorbergh se vieron obligados a tirar la toalla. En quads, Josef Macháček y Pablo Luis Novara no tomarán hoy la salida, mientras que, en coches, Stefano Marrini, Yazeed Al-Rajhi, Ebert Dollevoet y Carlos Sainz también fueron víctimas de esta demoledora cuarta etapa. Por último, en camiones, el Dakar acabó ayer para Paolo Calabria y Pep Sabaté. "

Translation from a Polish, Bethysa's bike caught fire.

Zongshen Cyclone Rally Team finished in the Dakar Rally for the fourth stage. The last Chinese motorcycle, driven by Thierry Béthysa, caught fire on the way to Tupiza. Bethys not reached the WP2.

[2LZ]

Whatever happens with the riders is one thing...it's the bikes I'm concerned about. How many broke? Of course, the term "caught fire" is never a good sign, but if the majority of the bikes went as far as they did without a problem, that's a success in my eyes. Zong is just getting off the ground on the world theater and it was a ballsy move to do this. Go for it next year also.........

[Jay In Milpitas]

If I understand correctly he had a "go down" and the fuel ignited a little bit.

http://www.ouest-france.fr/pays-de-l...-video-4719782

[BlackBike]

If the term, man and machine runs true...it takes a thinking man for every machine

Consider the temperatures encountered. I would assume the operators were of the experienced variety?

Just not enough info to qualify opinions, we may find out there was a fatal flaw in this new 450.

This is not what I expected/hoped for after 4 stages

[culcune]

RIP Zongshen Rally bike...might look worse than it is... (the fire is around 10:58)

[jbfla]

Originally Posted by culcune

RIP Zongshen Rally bike...might look worse than it is... (the fire is around 10:58)

That's funny. Don't see how it could get much worse.

All that remains of the bike is a smoldering pile of metal and ashes..

jb

[Dualsport Chic]

Back to the drawing board to Zongshen. It's all good - you can't improve something without testing its limits - all important to the development of the brand which I am sure the engineers at he company know and will scour the failures of the machine to make it better, sounder, more reliable.

[2strokecycle]

Well, the reality is that other than the name, core engine and transmittion none of the bike is the RX4. They were custom one off race machines that were speciffically built for the race. If they went out from drive train issues I would have concerns on the new bike but from what little I can find none of it was. Even the best riders have offs, Jakes, Price and most of the rest of the riders.

[BlackBike]

Originally Posted by 2strokecycle

Well, the reality is that other than the name, core engine and transmittion none of the bike is the RX4. They were custom one off race machines that were speciffically built for the race. If they went out from drive train issues I would have concerns on the new bike but from what little I can find none of it was. Even the best riders have offs, Jakes, Price and most of the rest of the riders.

It's the engine that I wanted to perform since it's a new block design. From what I have learned around here, Chinese engines don't have a very good reputation north of 250cc. Fingers crossed.

[BlackBike]

01/06/17

Thierry Bethys was the last representative of the Chinese constructor Zongshen, which is participating in its first Dakar. However, the brand's debut hopes went up in smoke, because the Frenchman, who completed his first five Dakars, could do nothing but drop out of the race after his machine caught fire and burned on the fourth stage


01/04/17

Officially participating for the first time on the Dakar, the Chinese constructor Zongshen has had an extremely complicated debut. Out of the five “Cyclones” at the start yesterday, four have dropped out. Only Frenchman Thierry Béthys, three times winner of the Enduro du Touquet race, is still in the race, occupying 116th place in the general standings.

[pete]

it's a step learning curve competeing at that level when you have
no experience to draw from...



..

[Juanro]

It still not clear to me if the bike catched fire due to an electrical problema, other problem (temperature?) with the bike, or because of a drop & fuel spillage.

[BlackBike]

Wondering also, fuel on hot engine. super hot those first days, summer time you know.

I looked on the Zongshen sites, facebook,etc...seems like they just went silent, no info.