How I broke in my RX3

Gaijin · 06-24-2019, 02:44 PM

Hey all, just got back from picking up my RX3, and thought I'd share the story and some pics for those who may be interested, along with observations made during this 1500+ mile journey. This is going to be long, rambling, and have several pics, some effusive praise, some complaining, and some general nonsense, so -- buckle your seatbelts.

By way of introduction, I've got two bikes now:

This one's a 2018 Harley Fat Bob that I've customized quite a bit...

... and this one's a Benelli TNT 135, which is a Chinese bike. Designed by the Benelli engineers in Italy, and built in China by the Benelli parent company.

Complete opposite ends of the spectrum, I know, and that's what I like about them. The RX3 was intended to fill the hole in the middle, and be somewhat offroad capable. Seeing as I already had a Chinese bike, I hoped that I knew what to expect from the RX3.

First -- I got a 2018 RX3 with 39 miles on it. It was, for all intents and purposes, brand new. Ebay. Never bought a vehicle on ebay before. But the price was decent, he said "like new, excellent condition", and I decided instead of shipping it, I'd fly up there (Denver), inspect it, and ride it back. Spirit had a $67 plane flight, so -- why not? Plus, that way I'd get a chance to inspect it instead of having it shipped and dealing with any issues after the sale; didn't want to do that at all.

We arranged the exchange at the hotel lobby at the Denver airport. When I first saw the bike, I was seriously impressed.

I don't care who you are or what you ride, that's a good-looking bike, especially for the money! I had one guy ask me if it was the F850GS. So major props to Zongshen for making it full-size and good looking.

I inspected it, everything looked great, and it had even fewer miles than the seller said. He had said it had 183 miles on it when he listed it, but apparently he didn't see the decimal point(!), it had 39.3 miles on it.

So why does someone buy a brand new bike, ride it 18 miles and park it, then sell it five months later at a substantial loss? I couldn't see anything wrong with it, not that I'm any sort of Grade A mechanic, but I do know my way a little around a bike (been riding on and off for 40+ years) and I couldn't see anything amiss. I asked to take it around the parking lot for a test ride and he said go ahead. And that's when I discovered the problem.

THE BRAKES. Or lack thereof. This thing had two serious problems. First, the front brake pads, or should I say "pats", because when using the front brake it felt like the brake pads were big pats of butter, trying to get a grip on a disc that seemed about as slick as a Jimmy Dean sausage patty. There was little to no front brake grip at all. Now, fortunately, I knew about this issue going in; CSC had mentioned the issue in their break-in instructions on their website. You have to scrub in those front brakes with a bunch of simulated emergency stops in a parking lot, before you rely on them. CSC actually devotes an entire line to say "Brake early". Yeah, no kidding! If the previous owner didn't know this, he must have thought he was riding on a deathtrap, no wonder he only put 18 miles on it.

The second brake problem was the rear brake, in that ... there was no rear brake. At all. Zero. Stomp on the lever, and absolutely nothing happened. I asked the seller about it, and he said "oh, I never use the rear brake, I just engine brake." Yeah... not buying that. So now it became clear, the seller was dumping this bike because he thought it was fundamentally unsafe (and, in its current condition, it was). His guilt got to him though, he cut the price another $300 for me having to deal with the rear brake, so ... at this point, the price was $2,500 for a brand new bike with two eminently solvable problems, so I decided to go ahead. It's not my first bike, I know my way around issues, and I thought this wouldn't be a problem.

He took my cash quickly and got out of dodge, and I set about installing a battery tender and wiring a USB charger for my phone GPS and installing a phone holder and all that. I took the bike to the local Wal-mart and did a whole bunch of braking runs, squeezing the handle as hard as I could, and the front brake went from greased-butter to adequate. Yanking on the front brake brought about some satisfying fork dive now. With that, I was prepared to find a hotel for the night and start my grand adventure tomorrow.

Except -- it was hotel apocalypse in Denver! There were no hotel rooms available: zero, none, nada, zilch, zip, no room at the inn. Priceline, Hotels.com, Kayak.com, everybody came up blank, and driving down "hotel row" looking for "vacancy" signs was useless. Apparently there were several big events in Denver that night, and every room was sold out. So I decided, "eh, what the heck, I'll just head down to Colorado Springs, it's only an hour away."

Mind you, it's now past midnight, and Colorado gets rather cool after midnight. I had brought my mesh riding gear because I expected to be riding in the daytime summers, not in the 45-degree nighttime. But it was an adventure, so I set out.

Did you know that if you obey the RPM limit in the manual, an RX3 can go an absolute maximum of 45 mph? And that if you're varying the RPMs a lot, that means you're probably going from 35 to 45 constantly? So, at 40 mph, Colorado Springs is not an hour away, it was more like 2.5 hours away, especially because I had to take a circuitous state highway route to avoid being a rolling roadblock on the Interstate.

To paint the picture, my initial ride on the RX3 was with no license plate, no insurance, no rear brake, no sleep, and no hotel, no warm clothing, and nearly 3 hours in pitch black Colorado backroads in 45-degree weather, puttering along at an average of 40 mph. Adventure!

Then the rain started. That was annoying. BUT -- as with so many things in life, it was a blessing in disguise. I pulled on the rainsuit that I had fortunately thought to bring along, and it blocked all the wind getting through the mesh jacket, so I was a lot warmer the rest of the way. So that was good.

Never knew how much I relied on the rear brake until I didn't have a rear brake. I like rear brakes. I don't like not having one.

And the seat -- wow, that's not made for long duration rides, is it? I had some serious ache set in after about an hour, and I was riding for about three...

Eventually, near 3:30 a.m., I pulled into Colorado Springs, found a Super 8, and asked for a room. "Sold out." Really? Yes, they were 100% sold out. So I pulled up Priceline and Hotels.com etc., and found out that they are utterly useless once the clock strikes midnight -- you simply cannot book a room for a night that has already started, they would only allow me to book a room for the next upcoming night. The lady at the Super 8 made a couple of suggestions, which didn't pan out, so I parked my aching rump on the lobby couch, drank in the wonderful heat of the lobby, and set about calling every hotel, fleabag and roach motel that Google Maps brought up. And every one of them was sold out. On about the 30th call, after 4:00 a.m., I found one place that had one room, and I hightailed it over there as quick as I could. Settled in to grab maybe six hours' sleep before beginning the next day's adventure.

To be continued...

Gaijin · 06-24-2019, 03:15 PM

Fresh and early that morning, and with about 160 miles on the bike, I set about to solve the most pressing issue: the rear brake. I found a small indie shop, Universal Motosports, one of those real gems, a one-man shop that works on all sorts of bikes and the guy was all too happy to take a look at it. Turns out his shop sells Zongshens, although not the RX3 of course. He diagnosed the issue as a bubble in the line, and 10 minutes later he had bled and refilled it and I had a working brake! I could not ask for a more satisfying customer experience, and if you ever need anything done in Colorado Springs, definitely give Universal Motosports a chance, they were excellent.

Okay, brake sorted, I got on the web and added the bike to my insurance. Now, get this -- adding the bike to my policy actually brought my premiums DOWN by about $1.36. The multibike discount is worth more than the cost of the insurance! Same thing happened when I added the Benelli, my insurance went down. If I keep buying Chinese bikes then apparently my insurance will be free, I guess. At least that's what I tried to tell my wife.

Next problem: registration. I don't want to register it in Colorado, as it will be based in Texas. But I'm driving with literally no plate at all, so I have to do something. The dealers won't help me out, so I head over to the DMV. Who doesn't want to start their vacation at the DMV? Well, I will say that the folks at this DMV were extremely pleasant, and half an hour later and after paying $7, I had a Colorado 10-day temporary license, exactly what I needed.

LEGAL!

So, here we are: last night in Denver I had no room, no sleep, no insurance, no registration, and no rear brake. Today, by 11:30 a.m, I have all of that! So, it's time to break in the RX3's engine. CSC's article says "Choose curvy, slightly hilly sections of road if possible." How about Pike's Peak? Sounds like that would qualify!

So I set out to ride Pike's Peak, about 30 miles of extraordinarily gorgeous curvy roads and a gradual climb up to 14,000 feet. Yeah, baby!

The RX3 ate it up. Absolutely no issues all the way up, and the speed limits were so low (generally 20-25 mph) that the RX3 was able to keep ahead of all traffic even though we were climbing high. And it was gorgeous there. What a way to start the day...

To be continued...

Gaijin · 06-24-2019, 03:35 PM

On the way down the canyon, I gotta tell you how happy I was that the rear brake was fixed! That would not have been fun without the rear brake, but the RX3 was a joy to ride down that canyon and back to flat earth. At which point I took a look at the odometer:

At 194.8 miles, it's about ready for its first oil change. Off to O'Reilly's to get the necessary stuff...

The oil change process was straightforward except for two things: one, I didn't have a new filter yet (more on that later), and two, the bolts were seemingly drenched in Gorilla Glue and then tightened by Bruce Banner in a bad mood. Holey Moley were those 17mm bolts tight. I got two of them eventually, but the third would not loosen with my 12" socket wrench. The O'Reilly's people were extraordinarily helpful, and loaned me an 18" wrench so I could break the seal on that last bolt. Nasty toxic sludge spewed forth. And the drain bolt was interesting, it has a very strong neodymium magnet in it, which serves to catch small floating bits of metal, almost like it's an additional filter. It had about 1/8" of black gunk piled on top of it, which I presume were metal shavings. I cleaned that off, cleaned out the strainers, got as much oil out of the filter as I could, reassembled, refilled, dumped the old oil in the O'Reilly's waste oil collection tank, and hit the road again, this time to the appropriately-named Garden Of The Gods park.

Folks, if you haven't toured Colorado, you have to. This was scintillating.

The Balancing Rock is pretty much the first thing you encounter. I couldn't get a picture that showed just how cool it was, but it was breathtaking.

(for some reason I always leave the light on. I stop the bike, pull the phone out of the phone holder to take the picture, and see that I never turned the key all the way off. That's a bad habit!)

To be continued...

Gaijin · 06-24-2019, 03:50 PM

At this point, it's time to get headed back to Texas. I'm using Google Maps for navigation, and have selected the "Avoid Highways" and "Avoid Tolls" options, and I used my Harley Owners Group Touring Handbook to map out some nice scenic roads, and as always I consulted RoadsideAmerica.com to see if there were any oddities along the way that I needed to stop at.

The first road was very promising. It's leading out of the Garden, and it's something like 16 miles and looks like this:

Rough road? Dirt? That's what I came here for, that's why I wanted a small ADV bike.

Note the sign on the side, there are very few pics of this section because there was no place to stop to take photos. I did get a few though.

This is not a good situation. The little tiny poky foot on the kickstand is totally not suitable for parking offroad (or even on hot asphalt, as it'll poke right through). Gotta get a footpad for that. I have one for the Harley but didn't bring it, and I should have, it would have fit fine.

Turns out my hopes of an off-road adventure here were dashed. The entire 16 miles was dirt, but it was hard-graded and well maintained. The road was a *little* rough in some spots, but it's nothing that I wouldn't have easily driven my Harley over (although, where there were some washboard sections, I was glad that it was the $2500 bike's suspension that was getting pounded rather than the big bike's). Let me put it this way -- any pretensions of being a big manly outdoor wilderness adventurer were slashed when I saw the Dodge Challenger on the same road. And the Honda Civic. And then the 50+ year old woman riding her bicycle at the peak. So, yeah, not much for the "adventure" street cred, but it was still a gorgeous ride and a magnificent way to spend an hour or two.

To be continued...

2LZ · 06-24-2019, 03:55 PM

Simply awesome!...and yah, the seat sucks. It works good as a chew toy for the dog.

**JerryHawk250** · 06-24-2019, 04:02 PM

Wow! excellent pictures and post.

I guess you would consider this the hard break in method?

Gaijin · 06-24-2019, 04:28 PM

At this point I'm brimming with satisfaction about the little RX3. Sure, it's only a 250cc, but it's doing everything I'm asking of it, and doing it well. Great little bike.

The route I plotted back to Texas involved going through Taos, NM, so instead of Oklahoma I ended up going west and south through Colorado. And here's where some of the shine began to fade from the RX3.

So, here's the thing: it's a 250. It's got a fairly small engine. And Colorado has some fairly big hills. That's not a good combination. While the RX3 was fantastic at the slow-paced touring in the canyons, out on the open road is not where it belongs. At least, not in hilly, mountainous areas of the country!

Google Maps has the "avoid highways" feature, but let me tell you: that is not what it does. It will avoid "interstate freeways", but it will absolutely route you onto state highways all the time, and those state highways can have speed limits of 60 mph (in Colorado; in Texas many of them were 70 mph and quite a few were 75 mph!) The RX3 struggled like mad. I didn't enjoy this section of riding -- I had to hold the throttle wide open just to get to 35 mph on some sections, and that was on a road with a 60 mph speed limit! Pulling over, driving in the emergency lane with the hazard lights flashing, at 35 mph when cars are blasting you at 60 mph or more, is not fun. My opinion of the RX3 will rise and fade over the course of this trip, but right now it was near the bottom. This little bike needs another cylinder, pronto.

And this seat is, literally, a pain in the butt. Spending any sort of time on it leads to two very sore spots in short order:

This bike needs two things: a bigger engine, and a better seat. Oh, and a third thing, it could use a better front brake. I can get some fork dive, but the stopping is still far more gradual than my other bikes. I can stand the Benelli up on its front wheel at will, but on the RX3 I can't get either the front or back brakes to lock no matter how hard I try. (I guess on the plus side we could call that "poor man's anti-lock brakes"?)

I dunno, but if I'm gonna keep this bike and keep touring on it, I think I need the big bore kit, the brake upgrade, and the Seat Concepts comfort seat pronto.

RoadsideAmerica took me to a big ol' rocking chair in Woodland Hills.

Yeah, that's a big chair right there.

Across the street was a dinosaur exhibit with a couple of nearly life sized models (well, I don't know if they were life sized, but they were decently big.)

Out on the open road, I got a good look at the mountain line that I believe is part of the Continental Divide, and there's a trail that runs from the border of Canada down to the border of Mexico that runs across it. That's right, mountains, you guys are next (but not this trip!)

Next I was headed south, and I saw that I was driving past the "world famous" UFO Watchtower. Gotta stop in and see what that's all about, right?

They have a big circular area they call "The Healing Garden." RoadsideAmerica's article had this to say about it:

Quote:

The vortexes have been outlined with rocks and the Garden has grown around them, an organized clutter of items left by visitors: CDs, sunglasses, hubcaps, stuffed toys, and lots of pens. Judy explained, matter-of-factly, that anyone who leaves something personal in the Garden is entitled to make a request, and that "there are two large beings here who protect the entrances to the vortexes, but they are also here to help." According to Judy, the success-to-request rate has been quite good.

I dunno. I showed my wife the picture and she said "looks like they don't get trash service out there."

Yeah, I'm not buying what they're selling, but it's still fun to see how people live and make a living. Plus, they had discount tickets to Colorado Gator World, and that was worth the stop right there!

To be continued...

Gaijin · 06-24-2019, 04:50 PM

Colorado Gator World? Yes, just a few miles from the UFO Watchtower is a gator rescue habitat. Apparently they have some natural hot springs there, and the gators just love it. They had hundreds of gators, crocs, lizards, tortoises, turtles, and other such beasts. It was fantastic. I only wish I'd known about the $100 "Gator Wrestling Class" ahead of time, because you have to pre-book it a week in advance. (unfortunately, it's not quite what it sounds like, but it does sound awesome).

And no, they weren't kidding about the smell.

(they weren't kidding about that either...)

This thing was enormous. I don't know how enormous, but I'm guessing 15 feet from tip of nose to end of tail, and probably 400 to 500 pounds.

And emus. Lots of emus. Why emus? I don't know.

To be continued...

Gaijin · 06-24-2019, 05:57 PM

It was getting warm, needed a drink, so I got a Gatorade. Of course. The guy behind the counter claimed that it was "fresh squeezed".

After Gator World, I headed south and crossed the border into New Mexico. And, simultaneously, crossed over 500 miles! HOOOORAH! Finally, the break-in period is over, and the limited RPMs and varying RPMs nonsense is done. Maybe now I can make some time...

Or not, as I ran out of gas. Well that's not fun. I had read repeatedly that the "low fuel light" comes on with two gallons left (and my first fill-up had happened with the odometer reading over 220 miles), and I had also read that the CSC RX3 gets about 65 mpg. Well, I had 10 miles to go to the gas station, 200 miles showing on the tripmeter, and it stopped dead. I pushed it a way, found a very kind farmer who hooked me up with some gas, and got back on the road.

I do wish the gas gauge was more accurate. But I will just have to be more careful, and fill up before 200 miles next time.

Pulled in to Taos for the night. A lovely little town, a ski resort high in the mountains, and all the buildings look like old Spanish mission-style architecture. This was the first photo opp that greeted me:

Probably the high point of the trip was actually being able to book a hotel room! Whatever zaniness that was causing the mass sellout across Colorado, didn't apply down here in New Mexico.

The next morning, reality hit -- almost all the good roads were behind me, and it was going to just be a long, long, long haul across the empty plains of Texas to get back down to the Houston area. I had about 900 miles in front of me, and only two days to do it in. And two very, very, very sore bones that were not in any hurry to make contact with that seat again.

First stop was Rio Grande Motosports, to pick up an oil filter. The manual calls to change the oil at 200 miles, and then again at 1,000 miles, and I was going to cross that threshold on this trip. There are no oil filters anywhere, of course, but I was able to call ahead to CSC and they agreed to ship one out Priority Mail to Rio Grande Motosports, where Richie there had agreed to accept it and hold it for me. People in the motorcycling community are just awesome, and I was very appreciative that they'd both go out of their ways to make this happen.

I inquired about something like an AirHawk or other seat pad, but no, they don't carry anything like that. Seems like they're mostly an ATV style shop. There was also a custom bike shop in town, but they were closed. So, no pad. I girded up my loins as it were, planted it on the seat, and faced a decision: do I just cut and run straight for home, or do I take the last road that I had picked from the H.O.G. touring handbook?

For whatever reason, I decided to man up and take the original route. And OH MY GOSH, was that the right call! The area to the east of Taos is SPECTACULAR. Stunning. Easily the best road I have ever been on. There are two sections, one through (I believe) the Carson National Forest, and the other just past Eagle's Nest, and those canyons were absolute perfection. I could have, and should have, ridden them all day. When you get to the end, just turn around and go back. It was gorgeous beyond belief, the roads were perfect, the curves were magnificent, and the RX3 was a tremendous amount of fun. The roads' speed limits were low enough that the RX3's limited engine wasn't a problem, and frankly, I really enjoyed the lower speed. Sometimes bikers blast through canyons as if they're their own personal racetrack, endangering themselves and others, but with the RX3's more relaxed pace, I was able to enjoy the outstanding scenery, the beauty of the forest and the canyon, and it was just a brilliant time. I popped open the face shield so I was as immersed in the scene as possible. And it struck me -- motorcycling, like this, in places like this, is basically like hiking, but without the actual hassle of actually hiking. Something I picked up from "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" is: A car doesn't let you experience it like this. In a car, you're in a container, separated out of the scene. Even if you roll the windows down, you're still in a box, behind a big sheet of glass. When you go around a curve, you get thrown sideways in the container, whereas on a motorcycle you're in the scene, connected to the scene, leaning into the corners, feeling the frosty breeze on your face, smelling the trees... cars just can't compare. They can't compete with this.

This, right here, was the purpose of life, was to ride these canyons over and over and over. And the RX3 was perfectly suited to the task, and I will always be grateful to it for bringing me that experience and these memories.

I'd show you pictures, but unfortunately I have a #^&#^$%^@%*^%$ Google Pixel 2, which is an absolute piece of *@^&%^@!!($. It's a defective product, the camera fails unexpectedly and permanently, they've replaced the stupid thing under warranty twice already, and it died again on me on this trip. It's horrible. There's a law firm trying to arrange a class action suit about it; Google's opinion is that they'll just keep replacing your failed phone with a refurbished phone until the warranty runs out, and then you lose. Sigh. So, no pictures, but maybe that's for the best, because now you'll have to go ride it yourself. it's worth it.

After the canyons, at Des Moines NM, I plotted a route home. I used the "avoid highways" feature for what it was worth. And it set me straight onto a 75mph highway. Sigh.

Okay, well, I've got 900 miles in front of me, and absolutely NOTHING to see anywhere, and the engine's fully broken in, so it's time to open up the little RX3 and see what it can do. Laying down flat over the tank, tucking my elbows in, on a straight flat road, wide open throttle, and ringing its neck with it screaming and howling, I can get about 72 mph out of it. That's actually not that bad! (Note: I'm quoting GPS speeds here; I'm not going to bother quoting the grossly distorted speedometer readings).

At 72, I might be able to get home in a reasonable time. But, of course, 72 is only possible in ideal conditions -- as soon as the headwind kicked in (and oh, how it kicked in) that 72 dropped down to 66. And any time there was a hill involved, it dropped further. But the good thing about hills is, what goes up must come down, right? So on the far end of the hills I could do some flat-out speed runs. I must hold the world record for the fastest CSC RX3 run, I got the speedometer to tick up to 91 mph and the GPS said I was doing a legitimate 84 miles per hour! Of course, that only lasted until the hill ended, then I dropped back to 63 or so, but for a moment there I was actually moving pretty well! Even so, it's not fast enough to go the speed limit on some of Texas' Interstates; we have sections where the speed limit is 85.

Crouching over the tank became my coping mechanism. At highway speeds, the wind noise from the windshield gets obtrusive (and that's with earplugs in). The windshield does a remarkable job of keeping wind off your chest and I was quite happy with that; the thing is, it redirects the turbulent air up to about ear level, so it's quite a noisy ride. I didn't encounter any of the hated "helmet buffeting", but the noise level was uncomfortable for hour after hour after hour. I was logging 10 to 12 hours on the road on these days, so a lot of seat time, and a lot of wind roar. I found that if I moved my head to about the 2:00 position, over the right-hand mirror, all the turbulence went away and my helmet was sailing in fresh clean air and it was quiet and blissful, but I could only hold that position for a short while before it became uncomfortable. So I found that if I laid my chest on the tank I could duck in behind the windshield, pick up a couple MPH, and drop the noise level. Most importantly, it took the pressure off the seat, so I could get a brief respite from the onslaught of pain.

I rode this way for about 450 miles that day, swapping between the passenger pegs and the regular footpegs, sitting up or lying down, head straight or at 2:00.

This went on for hours, interrupted by a deer bolting straight into the street and coming to a halt directly in front of me. I grabbed all the brake I could, and the little RX3 slowed down with room to spare, and the deer ran off. Man, am I glad I read that article about scrubbing in the brakes and man am I glad that the guy at Universal Motorcycles in Colorado Springs got my rear brake working! I wish I would have had a dashcam active, that would have been some fun but disturbing footage.

Back on the road, great, more hills. At one point I was laying down over the tank, holding the throttle wide open, milking every drop of power out of that little 250, and it wasn't enough, so I had to pull over into the emergency lane. So I could be passed by a convoy of three motor homes, all of them pulling trailers. Yes, I was passed by motorhomes, pulling trailers, going UPHILL. Now that's just sad.

The footpegs are wide and comfortable, and I find that riding standing up fits me well. Which is good, because I do it all the time whenever pulling into a small town (where the speed limits are lower). Not because I'm offroad, no. It's to get a break from the onslaught of pain that seat wages against my heiney!

Overnighted in Childress. 500 miles to go.

The next day, the wind was back. I fought it for hours, and ... dammit, I ran out of gas again. At 144 miles on the odo, it was dead empty. What gives? Apparently, that 65 mpg figure doesn't apply when you're ringing the bike's neck at redline for hours on end facing hills and headwinds, trying to hold near 70 mph. In that scenario you're getting at most about 44 mpg. Something to be aware of. I decide I'm gonna fill up after no more than 120 miles on the tripmeter from now on.

Running out of gas in Texas could be a really bad thing, but the state has a roadside assistance program. I called it and explained that I was 10 miles away from the nearest gas station, and they said they'd send someone out. Half an hour later an SUV roars up, and an old guy gets out and says "what are you, a dumbass?" Well, I couldn't really argue with him, tried to explain that the bike was new to me and I was still learning its ranges and limits, and he went to the passenger seat and pulled out a jug of piss. Well, that's what I thought it was. Seriously, it was about a gallon-sized jug that you'd see a moonshiner brewing booze in. He said "It's gas." I tentatively smelled it, and yes it was, so I poured it in. He said he was a retired deputy, and he heard my call come over the radio so he decided to help out. I said "You're a retired deputy?" and he decided that the way to demonstrate that he was, was to lift his shirt and pull his gun out of his holster. "See?" he says. It was a surreal moment -- on the one hand, he's helping me out, on the other hand, he's got a gun IN HIS HAND and has already called me a dumbass. My firearms experience is that you don't actually draw your weapon; you can show someone a holster without having to actually handle the firearm, so that was unnerving, but then again, it's Texas and I would have been surprised if he wasn't armed, deputy or not. He said that he came out because there was an officer's funeral happening, and he didn't want to see any active-duty officers distracted; I expressed my condolences and my thanks for his help, we shook hands and I was back on the road.

So, yeah, that was surreal.

Hours and hours more of droning on at redline...

I swear, that seat is a weapon of ass destruction.

Repeatedly filling up, I'm calculating an average of 44 mpg. Not that bad, but -- my Harley can sustain 75 mph at 44 mpg all day long, and its engine is literally 7.5x as big as the RX3's. I was hoping for better from the RX3.

Three hours outside of home, my rump has had enough. It's time for a break. Like I said earlier, my opinion of the RX3 comes and goes in waves, sometimes I love it, sometimes I'm ready to be done with it and move on. This is one of those times. I want to do lots of adventures, and I don't think the RX3 is "enough" bike to make them fun. I pulled into the local Triumph dealer, just to see what they'd give me in trade-in against a full-sized, full-engined bike like the Tiger 800 XRX Low. This is not an enjoyable experience, as they are rat bastard sleazy tricks dealers who try to offer me $750 as a trade-in on a bike I paid $2,500 for four days earlier, along with fees and charges up the nostrils, so ... y'know what, to hell with 'em. The RX3 is paid for, it works, and with a few hundred dollars I can fix the seat and get some more engine, so ... back on the road.

On the last stretch the wind is bad; the bike is leaning about 15 degrees to starboard the whole way home. When a semi passes me and then pulls back in my lane, the resulting turbulence has me feeling like I'm in the dryer on the spin cycle. It's a little bike, I get that. I wanted a little bike. I wanted a LIGHT bike, I don't want a six-hundred-pound monster. Heck, I have a 650-pound monster (the Harley). I wanted something light that I could take on trails and if it falls over, I can pick it up easily and just keep going. The RX3 does almost everything right (especially when the price is factored in). But I do wish it had more engine and could hold another 10 mph faster, that would transform it.

I finally pulled into my garage, after 525 miles in a single day. That's a lot on a little RX3.

Concluding thoughts:
1) This is a hell of a lot of motorcycle for the money. Especially at the used price, it's just incredible.
2) This bike is a great size and weight.
3) For a commuter bike, this would be pretty much perfect.
4) Can't speak to off-road, as my experience there was pretty minimal.
5) This is not a good highway bike. It's just too small. Not enough engine. I found it dangerous on hilly roads, it couldn't hold the speed limit in mountainous Colorado, and it couldn't reach the speed limit on large swaths of the highway in Texas. It is a little punishing to ride long days on, between that infernal seat and the wind noise. I've done 650-mile days on my Harley and been fresh and ready to keep going; this 525-mile day on the CSC was an endurance marathon.
5) At 50 miles per hour or below, the RX3 is a joy. Truly. Maybe up to 55. The wind and turbulence are low at those speeds, the engine is strong enough to hold those speeds even over hills, and you have some leftover reserve in case you need to pass someone. If I could have booked navigation with a maximum speed limit of 55, I think I would have enjoyed this trip more. In the canyons at 40-50 mph, the RX3 was light, nimble, well planted, and just plain FUN. I really, really liked those times.
6) I'm seriously considering the big bore kit now. This bike NEEDS more engine, for the places I want to ride. Either that, or I'll have to trailer it to the destinations, but I'd rather not have to do that. If I'm going to keep this bike and keep touring on it, I believe it needs the big bore kit, the comfort seat, and the brake upgrade.
7) If this bike had the RX4's 450cc engine, better brakes, and better seat, but kept the same size and weight and price, it would dominate.
8) If you live in Colorado, or other mountainous terrain or areas with long, long inclined hills, the RX3 may not be for you. It struggles mightily in those scenarios. On the other hand, if you live in flat areas (like Florida, Kansas, etc) and can find roads with 65mph or below speed limits, you might just LOVE the RX3. It shines at lower speeds and on flatter terrain.

So I'm of mixed emotions. I really like it for what it is, but I'm not sure it's what I wanted it to be. Maybe I can get there with some upgrades, maybe I should just bite the bullet and buy a bigger bike. I'll tell you what, if Kawasaki puts that Ninja 400 engine in a new Versys 400, I'd find it hard to resist upgrading to that. But as it is, I really like the RX3 for what it is, and I'm laughing all the way to the bank.

Well, limping to the bank. Because of that seat...

Gaijin · 06-24-2019, 06:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JerryHawk250

Wow! excellent pictures and post.

I guess you would consider this the hard break in method?

It was certainly a fun break-in!

It wasn't hard though. I generally was able to keep to CSC's recommendations. Putting the engine under load is good for it during break-in, and engine braking is also good for it, so a hilly road really lets the piston, cylinder and rings get a good workout. I was able to do all that up this mountain without exceeding the 5,000 RPM limit.

dpl096 · 06-24-2019, 09:12 PM

Great thread! And without a doubt the biggest drawback i had with my RX3 was that damn seat. A lot of thought and engineering went into the rest of the bike and the seat was an after thought. . almost like they picked the cheapest piece of junk they could find and just stuck it on....... I loved my seat concepts though... Changed the riding experience and was worth the money.

rd1959 · 06-24-2019, 09:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dpl096

Great thread! And without a doubt the biggest drawback i had with my RX3 was that damn seat. A lot of thought and engineering went into the rest of the bike and the seat was an after thought. . almost like they picked the cheapest piece of junk they could find and just stuck it on....... I loved my seat concepts though... Changed the riding experience and was worth the money.

IMO there hasn't been a comfortable stock seat from any brand since the 70s.

rjmorel · 06-24-2019, 09:57 PM

Superb first hand experience of breaking in an RX3 and then riding it iron butt style to get home. Agree with all your assessments. I didn't upgrade the front brake on my 2015 because even though it seems a little anemic , the few times I've had a car pull out in front of me and I had to hit the brakes as hard as I could, it got me slowed down and avoided a crash. Had the brakes been more powerful it probably would of caused me to crash. Agree with you on the poor man's ABS brakes.
I did get the better narrow seat and 300cc kit and Performance shock. I"m at 17,500 miles on it now. Has taken me on many wonderful rides . No regrets. rj

Gaijin · 06-24-2019, 11:41 PM

Did you get the 283cc kit, or the 300?

And the narrow seat is the one I'm looking at. Would you say it's a definite substantial comfort upgrade?

KenL · 06-25-2019, 07:37 AM

Excellent posts on your trip. I own a 2018 also, I believe they all have ABS. I had the same issue with the rear brake and a lot of air came out when I bled them and now they are fine, must be a factory issue. When the custom seat came up for sale on the CSC site I jumped on that offer and got the tall seat, I'm 6'1" and it raised me up a bit and it's flatter so I can slide back and forth a bit. Had the rear go flat at 800 Miles and on replacing the tube found wrinkles in the old tube and the hole at one of the crease points, so poor wheel assembly in China. When you get around to the valve adjustment you'll find it more interesting than previous years due to the addition of the ABS assembly directly in front of the exhaust valve covers. Just completed my 1000 mile oil change to synthetic and now look forward to some maintenance free miles for the rest of the season. Overall I love the bike and get a lot of comments on it at traffic lights.

06-24-2019, 02:44 PM	#1
Gaijin Join Date: Jun 2019 Posts: 85	How I broke in my RX3 Hey all, just got back from picking up my RX3, and thought I'd share the story and some pics for those who may be interested, along with observations made during this 1500+ mile journey. This is going to be long, rambling, and have several pics, some effusive praise, some complaining, and some general nonsense, so -- buckle your seatbelts. By way of introduction, I've got two bikes now: This one's a 2018 Harley Fat Bob that I've customized quite a bit... ... and this one's a Benelli TNT 135, which is a Chinese bike. Designed by the Benelli engineers in Italy, and built in China by the Benelli parent company. Complete opposite ends of the spectrum, I know, and that's what I like about them. The RX3 was intended to fill the hole in the middle, and be somewhat offroad capable. Seeing as I already had a Chinese bike, I hoped that I knew what to expect from the RX3. First -- I got a 2018 RX3 with 39 miles on it. It was, for all intents and purposes, brand new. Ebay. Never bought a vehicle on ebay before. But the price was decent, he said "like new, excellent condition", and I decided instead of shipping it, I'd fly up there (Denver), inspect it, and ride it back. Spirit had a $67 plane flight, so -- why not? Plus, that way I'd get a chance to inspect it instead of having it shipped and dealing with any issues after the sale; didn't want to do that at all. We arranged the exchange at the hotel lobby at the Denver airport. When I first saw the bike, I was seriously impressed. I don't care who you are or what you ride, that's a good-looking bike, especially for the money! I had one guy ask me if it was the F850GS. So major props to Zongshen for making it full-size and good looking. I inspected it, everything looked great, and it had even fewer miles than the seller said. He had said it had 183 miles on it when he listed it, but apparently he didn't see the decimal point(!), it had 39.3 miles on it. So why does someone buy a brand new bike, ride it 18 miles and park it, then sell it five months later at a substantial loss? I couldn't see anything wrong with it, not that I'm any sort of Grade A mechanic, but I do know my way a little around a bike (been riding on and off for 40+ years) and I couldn't see anything amiss. I asked to take it around the parking lot for a test ride and he said go ahead. And that's when I discovered the problem. THE BRAKES. Or lack thereof. This thing had two serious problems. First, the front brake pads, or should I say "pats", because when using the front brake it felt like the brake pads were big pats of butter, trying to get a grip on a disc that seemed about as slick as a Jimmy Dean sausage patty. There was little to no front brake grip at all. Now, fortunately, I knew about this issue going in; CSC had mentioned the issue in their break-in instructions on their website. You have to scrub in those front brakes with a bunch of simulated emergency stops in a parking lot, before you rely on them. CSC actually devotes an entire line to say "Brake early". Yeah, no kidding! If the previous owner didn't know this, he must have thought he was riding on a deathtrap, no wonder he only put 18 miles on it. The second brake problem was the rear brake, in that ... there was no rear brake. At all. Zero. Stomp on the lever, and absolutely nothing happened. I asked the seller about it, and he said "oh, I never use the rear brake, I just engine brake." Yeah... not buying that. So now it became clear, the seller was dumping this bike because he thought it was fundamentally unsafe (and, in its current condition, it was). His guilt got to him though, he cut the price another $300 for me having to deal with the rear brake, so ... at this point, the price was $2,500 for a brand new bike with two eminently solvable problems, so I decided to go ahead. It's not my first bike, I know my way around issues, and I thought this wouldn't be a problem. He took my cash quickly and got out of dodge, and I set about installing a battery tender and wiring a USB charger for my phone GPS and installing a phone holder and all that. I took the bike to the local Wal-mart and did a whole bunch of braking runs, squeezing the handle as hard as I could, and the front brake went from greased-butter to adequate. Yanking on the front brake brought about some satisfying fork dive now. With that, I was prepared to find a hotel for the night and start my grand adventure tomorrow. Except -- it was hotel apocalypse in Denver! There were no hotel rooms available: zero, none, nada, zilch, zip, no room at the inn. Priceline, Hotels.com, Kayak.com, everybody came up blank, and driving down "hotel row" looking for "vacancy" signs was useless. Apparently there were several big events in Denver that night, and every room was sold out. So I decided, "eh, what the heck, I'll just head down to Colorado Springs, it's only an hour away." Mind you, it's now past midnight, and Colorado gets rather cool after midnight. I had brought my mesh riding gear because I expected to be riding in the daytime summers, not in the 45-degree nighttime. But it was an adventure, so I set out. Did you know that if you obey the RPM limit in the manual, an RX3 can go an absolute maximum of 45 mph? And that if you're varying the RPMs a lot, that means you're probably going from 35 to 45 constantly? So, at 40 mph, Colorado Springs is not an hour away, it was more like 2.5 hours away, especially because I had to take a circuitous state highway route to avoid being a rolling roadblock on the Interstate. To paint the picture, my initial ride on the RX3 was with no license plate, no insurance, no rear brake, no sleep, and no hotel, no warm clothing, and nearly 3 hours in pitch black Colorado backroads in 45-degree weather, puttering along at an average of 40 mph. Adventure! Then the rain started. That was annoying. BUT -- as with so many things in life, it was a blessing in disguise. I pulled on the rainsuit that I had fortunately thought to bring along, and it blocked all the wind getting through the mesh jacket, so I was a lot warmer the rest of the way. So that was good. Never knew how much I relied on the rear brake until I didn't have a rear brake. I like rear brakes. I don't like not having one. And the seat -- wow, that's not made for long duration rides, is it? I had some serious ache set in after about an hour, and I was riding for about three... Eventually, near 3:30 a.m., I pulled into Colorado Springs, found a Super 8, and asked for a room. "Sold out." Really? Yes, they were 100% sold out. So I pulled up Priceline and Hotels.com etc., and found out that they are utterly useless once the clock strikes midnight -- you simply cannot book a room for a night that has already started, they would only allow me to book a room for the next upcoming night. The lady at the Super 8 made a couple of suggestions, which didn't pan out, so I parked my aching rump on the lobby couch, drank in the wonderful heat of the lobby, and set about calling every hotel, fleabag and roach motel that Google Maps brought up. And every one of them was sold out. On about the 30th call, after 4:00 a.m., I found one place that had one room, and I hightailed it over there as quick as I could. Settled in to grab maybe six hours' sleep before beginning the next day's adventure. To be continued...
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06-24-2019, 03:55 PM	#5
2LZ Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Volcano, Ca Posts: 7,078	Simply awesome!...and yah, the seat sucks. It works good as a chew toy for the dog. __________________ "Light a fire for a man, and you heat him for a day. Light a man on fire, and you heat him for the rest of his life." 2007 Suzuki DRZ400S (SM convert) 2009 Q Link XP 200 1967 BSA B25 250cc Starfire 2022 Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 2023 Royal Enfield Scram 411 1948 Royal Enfield Model G 350
	1

06-24-2019, 04:02 PM	#6
JerryHawk250 Moderator Join Date: Oct 2016 Location: Houma, La. Posts: 11,552	Wow! excellent pictures and post. I guess you would consider this the hard break in method? __________________ 2023 Lifan Lycan 250 Chopper 2023 Venom Evader 2022 Lifan KPX250 2020 Kawasaki Vulcan S 2004 Honda ST 1300 2016 Black Hawk 250 (sold) Keihin PE30 carb,125 main,38 slow.Pod filter,ported & decked head 10:1 CR,Direct Ignition Coil,15/40Sprockets,NGK DPR8EIX-9,De-Cat,Dual Oil Cooler,Digital Cluster 2016 Cazador180 XL 2014 Coolster150 JerryHawk250.com My YouTube Channel
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06-24-2019, 09:12 PM	#11
dpl096 Join Date: Sep 2015 Location: East Central Hellinois Posts: 1,344	Great thread! And without a doubt the biggest drawback i had with my RX3 was that damn seat. A lot of thought and engineering went into the rest of the bike and the seat was an after thought. . almost like they picked the cheapest piece of junk they could find and just stuck it on....... I loved my seat concepts though... Changed the riding experience and was worth the money. __________________ ************************************************ * " Time you enjoy wasting, is not wasted." - John Lennon “I predict future happiness for Americans, if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.” ― Thomas Jefferson "If you don't know where you're going any road will take you there" ....George Harrison song
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06-24-2019, 09:57 PM	#13
rjmorel Join Date: May 2007 Location: Warshington Posts: 928	Superb first hand experience of breaking in an RX3 and then riding it iron butt style to get home. Agree with all your assessments. I didn't upgrade the front brake on my 2015 because even though it seems a little anemic , the few times I've had a car pull out in front of me and I had to hit the brakes as hard as I could, it got me slowed down and avoided a crash. Had the brakes been more powerful it probably would of caused me to crash. Agree with you on the poor man's ABS brakes. I did get the better narrow seat and 300cc kit and Performance shock. I"m at 17,500 miles on it now. Has taken me on many wonderful rides . No regrets. rj __________________ Live Zong, and Prosper
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06-24-2019, 03:15 PM	#2
Gaijin Join Date: Jun 2019 Posts: 85	Fresh and early that morning, and with about 160 miles on the bike, I set about to solve the most pressing issue: the rear brake. I found a small indie shop, Universal Motosports, one of those real gems, a one-man shop that works on all sorts of bikes and the guy was all too happy to take a look at it. Turns out his shop sells Zongshens, although not the RX3 of course. He diagnosed the issue as a bubble in the line, and 10 minutes later he had bled and refilled it and I had a working brake! I could not ask for a more satisfying customer experience, and if you ever need anything done in Colorado Springs, definitely give Universal Motosports a chance, they were excellent. Okay, brake sorted, I got on the web and added the bike to my insurance. Now, get this -- adding the bike to my policy actually brought my premiums DOWN by about $1.36. The multibike discount is worth more than the cost of the insurance! Same thing happened when I added the Benelli, my insurance went down. If I keep buying Chinese bikes then apparently my insurance will be free, I guess. At least that's what I tried to tell my wife. Next problem: registration. I don't want to register it in Colorado, as it will be based in Texas. But I'm driving with literally no plate at all, so I have to do something. The dealers won't help me out, so I head over to the DMV. Who doesn't want to start their vacation at the DMV? Well, I will say that the folks at this DMV were extremely pleasant, and half an hour later and after paying $7, I had a Colorado 10-day temporary license, exactly what I needed. LEGAL! So, here we are: last night in Denver I had no room, no sleep, no insurance, no registration, and no rear brake. Today, by 11:30 a.m, I have all of that! So, it's time to break in the RX3's engine. CSC's article says "Choose curvy, slightly hilly sections of road if possible." How about Pike's Peak? Sounds like that would qualify! So I set out to ride Pike's Peak, about 30 miles of extraordinarily gorgeous curvy roads and a gradual climb up to 14,000 feet. Yeah, baby! The RX3 ate it up. Absolutely no issues all the way up, and the speed limits were so low (generally 20-25 mph) that the RX3 was able to keep ahead of all traffic even though we were climbing high. And it was gorgeous there. What a way to start the day... To be continued...
	4

06-24-2019, 03:35 PM	#3
Gaijin Join Date: Jun 2019 Posts: 85	On the way down the canyon, I gotta tell you how happy I was that the rear brake was fixed! That would not have been fun without the rear brake, but the RX3 was a joy to ride down that canyon and back to flat earth. At which point I took a look at the odometer: At 194.8 miles, it's about ready for its first oil change. Off to O'Reilly's to get the necessary stuff... The oil change process was straightforward except for two things: one, I didn't have a new filter yet (more on that later), and two, the bolts were seemingly drenched in Gorilla Glue and then tightened by Bruce Banner in a bad mood. Holey Moley were those 17mm bolts tight. I got two of them eventually, but the third would not loosen with my 12" socket wrench. The O'Reilly's people were extraordinarily helpful, and loaned me an 18" wrench so I could break the seal on that last bolt. Nasty toxic sludge spewed forth. And the drain bolt was interesting, it has a very strong neodymium magnet in it, which serves to catch small floating bits of metal, almost like it's an additional filter. It had about 1/8" of black gunk piled on top of it, which I presume were metal shavings. I cleaned that off, cleaned out the strainers, got as much oil out of the filter as I could, reassembled, refilled, dumped the old oil in the O'Reilly's waste oil collection tank, and hit the road again, this time to the appropriately-named Garden Of The Gods park. Folks, if you haven't toured Colorado, you have to. This was scintillating. The Balancing Rock is pretty much the first thing you encounter. I couldn't get a picture that showed just how cool it was, but it was breathtaking. (for some reason I always leave the light on. I stop the bike, pull the phone out of the phone holder to take the picture, and see that I never turned the key all the way off. That's a bad habit!) To be continued...
	3

06-24-2019, 03:50 PM	#4
Gaijin Join Date: Jun 2019 Posts: 85	At this point, it's time to get headed back to Texas. I'm using Google Maps for navigation, and have selected the "Avoid Highways" and "Avoid Tolls" options, and I used my Harley Owners Group Touring Handbook to map out some nice scenic roads, and as always I consulted RoadsideAmerica.com to see if there were any oddities along the way that I needed to stop at. The first road was very promising. It's leading out of the Garden, and it's something like 16 miles and looks like this: Rough road? Dirt? That's what I came here for, that's why I wanted a small ADV bike. Note the sign on the side, there are very few pics of this section because there was no place to stop to take photos. I did get a few though. This is not a good situation. The little tiny poky foot on the kickstand is totally not suitable for parking offroad (or even on hot asphalt, as it'll poke right through). Gotta get a footpad for that. I have one for the Harley but didn't bring it, and I should have, it would have fit fine. Turns out my hopes of an off-road adventure here were dashed. The entire 16 miles was dirt, but it was hard-graded and well maintained. The road was a little rough in some spots, but it's nothing that I wouldn't have easily driven my Harley over (although, where there were some washboard sections, I was glad that it was the $2500 bike's suspension that was getting pounded rather than the big bike's). Let me put it this way -- any pretensions of being a big manly outdoor wilderness adventurer were slashed when I saw the Dodge Challenger on the same road. And the Honda Civic. And then the 50+ year old woman riding her bicycle at the peak. So, yeah, not much for the "adventure" street cred, but it was still a gorgeous ride and a magnificent way to spend an hour or two. To be continued...
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06-24-2019, 04:50 PM	#8
Gaijin Join Date: Jun 2019 Posts: 85	Colorado Gator World? Yes, just a few miles from the UFO Watchtower is a gator rescue habitat. Apparently they have some natural hot springs there, and the gators just love it. They had hundreds of gators, crocs, lizards, tortoises, turtles, and other such beasts. It was fantastic. I only wish I'd known about the $100 "Gator Wrestling Class" ahead of time, because you have to pre-book it a week in advance. (unfortunately, it's not quite what it sounds like, but it does sound awesome). And no, they weren't kidding about the smell. (they weren't kidding about that either...) This thing was enormous. I don't know how enormous, but I'm guessing 15 feet from tip of nose to end of tail, and probably 400 to 500 pounds. And emus. Lots of emus. Why emus? I don't know. To be continued...
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06-24-2019, 05:57 PM	#9
Gaijin Join Date: Jun 2019 Posts: 85	It was getting warm, needed a drink, so I got a Gatorade. Of course. The guy behind the counter claimed that it was "fresh squeezed". After Gator World, I headed south and crossed the border into New Mexico. And, simultaneously, crossed over 500 miles! HOOOORAH! Finally, the break-in period is over, and the limited RPMs and varying RPMs nonsense is done. Maybe now I can make some time... Or not, as I ran out of gas. Well that's not fun. I had read repeatedly that the "low fuel light" comes on with two gallons left (and my first fill-up had happened with the odometer reading over 220 miles), and I had also read that the CSC RX3 gets about 65 mpg. Well, I had 10 miles to go to the gas station, 200 miles showing on the tripmeter, and it stopped dead. I pushed it a way, found a very kind farmer who hooked me up with some gas, and got back on the road. I do wish the gas gauge was more accurate. But I will just have to be more careful, and fill up before 200 miles next time. Pulled in to Taos for the night. A lovely little town, a ski resort high in the mountains, and all the buildings look like old Spanish mission-style architecture. This was the first photo opp that greeted me: Probably the high point of the trip was actually being able to book a hotel room! Whatever zaniness that was causing the mass sellout across Colorado, didn't apply down here in New Mexico. The next morning, reality hit -- almost all the good roads were behind me, and it was going to just be a long, long, long haul across the empty plains of Texas to get back down to the Houston area. I had about 900 miles in front of me, and only two days to do it in. And two very, very, very sore bones that were not in any hurry to make contact with that seat again. First stop was Rio Grande Motosports, to pick up an oil filter. The manual calls to change the oil at 200 miles, and then again at 1,000 miles, and I was going to cross that threshold on this trip. There are no oil filters anywhere, of course, but I was able to call ahead to CSC and they agreed to ship one out Priority Mail to Rio Grande Motosports, where Richie there had agreed to accept it and hold it for me. People in the motorcycling community are just awesome, and I was very appreciative that they'd both go out of their ways to make this happen. I inquired about something like an AirHawk or other seat pad, but no, they don't carry anything like that. Seems like they're mostly an ATV style shop. There was also a custom bike shop in town, but they were closed. So, no pad. I girded up my loins as it were, planted it on the seat, and faced a decision: do I just cut and run straight for home, or do I take the last road that I had picked from the H.O.G. touring handbook? For whatever reason, I decided to man up and take the original route. And OH MY GOSH, was that the right call! The area to the east of Taos is SPECTACULAR. Stunning. Easily the best road I have ever been on. There are two sections, one through (I believe) the Carson National Forest, and the other just past Eagle's Nest, and those canyons were absolute perfection. I could have, and should have, ridden them all day. When you get to the end, just turn around and go back. It was gorgeous beyond belief, the roads were perfect, the curves were magnificent, and the RX3 was a tremendous amount of fun. The roads' speed limits were low enough that the RX3's limited engine wasn't a problem, and frankly, I really enjoyed the lower speed. Sometimes bikers blast through canyons as if they're their own personal racetrack, endangering themselves and others, but with the RX3's more relaxed pace, I was able to enjoy the outstanding scenery, the beauty of the forest and the canyon, and it was just a brilliant time. I popped open the face shield so I was as immersed in the scene as possible. And it struck me -- motorcycling, like this, in places like this, is basically like hiking, but without the actual hassle of actually hiking. Something I picked up from "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" is: A car doesn't let you experience it like this. In a car, you're in a container, separated out of the scene. Even if you roll the windows down, you're still in a box, behind a big sheet of glass. When you go around a curve, you get thrown sideways in the container, whereas on a motorcycle you're in the scene, connected to the scene, leaning into the corners, feeling the frosty breeze on your face, smelling the trees... cars just can't compare. They can't compete with this. This, right here, was the purpose of life, was to ride these canyons over and over and over. And the RX3 was perfectly suited to the task, and I will always be grateful to it for bringing me that experience and these memories. I'd show you pictures, but unfortunately I have a #^&#^$%^@%^%$ Google Pixel 2, which is an absolute piece of @^&%^@!!($. It's a defective product, the camera fails unexpectedly and permanently, they've replaced the stupid thing under warranty twice already, and it died again on me on this trip. It's horrible. There's a law firm trying to arrange a class action suit about it; Google's opinion is that they'll just keep replacing your failed phone with a refurbished phone until the warranty runs out, and then you lose. Sigh. So, no pictures, but maybe that's for the best, because now you'll have to go ride it yourself. it's worth it. After the canyons, at Des Moines NM, I plotted a route home. I used the "avoid highways" feature for what it was worth. And it set me straight onto a 75mph highway. Sigh. Okay, well, I've got 900 miles in front of me, and absolutely NOTHING to see anywhere, and the engine's fully broken in, so it's time to open up the little RX3 and see what it can do. Laying down flat over the tank, tucking my elbows in, on a straight flat road, wide open throttle, and ringing its neck with it screaming and howling, I can get about 72 mph out of it. That's actually not that bad! (Note: I'm quoting GPS speeds here; I'm not going to bother quoting the grossly distorted speedometer readings). At 72, I might be able to get home in a reasonable time. But, of course, 72 is only possible in ideal conditions -- as soon as the headwind kicked in (and oh, how it kicked in) that 72 dropped down to 66. And any time there was a hill involved, it dropped further. But the good thing about hills is, what goes up must come down, right? So on the far end of the hills I could do some flat-out speed runs. I must hold the world record for the fastest CSC RX3 run, I got the speedometer to tick up to 91 mph and the GPS said I was doing a legitimate 84 miles per hour! Of course, that only lasted until the hill ended, then I dropped back to 63 or so, but for a moment there I was actually moving pretty well! Even so, it's not fast enough to go the speed limit on some of Texas' Interstates; we have sections where the speed limit is 85. Crouching over the tank became my coping mechanism. At highway speeds, the wind noise from the windshield gets obtrusive (and that's with earplugs in). The windshield does a remarkable job of keeping wind off your chest and I was quite happy with that; the thing is, it redirects the turbulent air up to about ear level, so it's quite a noisy ride. I didn't encounter any of the hated "helmet buffeting", but the noise level was uncomfortable for hour after hour after hour. I was logging 10 to 12 hours on the road on these days, so a lot of seat time, and a lot of wind roar. I found that if I moved my head to about the 2:00 position, over the right-hand mirror, all the turbulence went away and my helmet was sailing in fresh clean air and it was quiet and blissful, but I could only hold that position for a short while before it became uncomfortable. So I found that if I laid my chest on the tank I could duck in behind the windshield, pick up a couple MPH, and drop the noise level. Most importantly, it took the pressure off the seat, so I could get a brief respite from the onslaught of pain. I rode this way for about 450 miles that day, swapping between the passenger pegs and the regular footpegs, sitting up or lying down, head straight or at 2:00. This went on for hours, interrupted by a deer bolting straight into the street and coming to a halt directly in front of me. I grabbed all the brake I could, and the little RX3 slowed down with room to spare, and the deer ran off. Man, am I glad I read that article about scrubbing in the brakes and man am I glad that the guy at Universal Motorcycles in Colorado Springs got my rear brake working! I wish I would have had a dashcam active, that would have been some fun but disturbing footage. Back on the road, great, more hills. At one point I was laying down over the tank, holding the throttle wide open, milking every drop of power out of that little 250, and it wasn't enough, so I had to pull over into the emergency lane. So I could be passed by a convoy of three motor homes, all of them pulling trailers. Yes, I was passed by motorhomes, pulling trailers, going UPHILL. Now that's just sad. The footpegs are wide and comfortable, and I find that riding standing up fits me well. Which is good, because I do it all the time whenever pulling into a small town (where the speed limits are lower). Not because I'm offroad, no. It's to get a break from the onslaught of pain that seat wages against my heiney! Overnighted in Childress. 500 miles to go. The next day, the wind was back. I fought it for hours, and ... dammit, I ran out of gas again. At 144 miles on the odo, it was dead empty. What gives? Apparently, that 65 mpg figure doesn't apply when you're ringing the bike's neck at redline for hours on end facing hills and headwinds, trying to hold near 70 mph. In that scenario you're getting at most about 44 mpg. Something to be aware of. I decide I'm gonna fill up after no more than 120 miles on the tripmeter from now on. Running out of gas in Texas could be a really bad thing, but the state has a roadside assistance program. I called it and explained that I was 10 miles away from the nearest gas station, and they said they'd send someone out. Half an hour later an SUV roars up, and an old guy gets out and says "what are you, a dumbass?" Well, I couldn't really argue with him, tried to explain that the bike was new to me and I was still learning its ranges and limits, and he went to the passenger seat and pulled out a jug of piss. Well, that's what I thought it was. Seriously, it was about a gallon-sized jug that you'd see a moonshiner brewing booze in. He said "It's gas." I tentatively smelled it, and yes it was, so I poured it in. He said he was a retired deputy, and he heard my call come over the radio so he decided to help out. I said "You're a retired deputy?" and he decided that the way to demonstrate that he was, was to lift his shirt and pull his gun out of his holster. "See?" he says. It was a surreal moment -- on the one hand, he's helping me out, on the other hand, he's got a gun IN HIS HAND and has already called me a dumbass. My firearms experience is that you don't actually draw your weapon; you can show someone a holster without having to actually handle the firearm, so that was unnerving, but then again, it's Texas and I would have been surprised if he wasn't armed, deputy or not. He said that he came out because there was an officer's funeral happening, and he didn't want to see any active-duty officers distracted; I expressed my condolences and my thanks for his help, we shook hands and I was back on the road. So, yeah, that was surreal. Hours and hours more of droning on at redline... I swear, that seat is a weapon of ass destruction. Repeatedly filling up, I'm calculating an average of 44 mpg. Not that bad, but -- my Harley can sustain 75 mph at 44 mpg all day long, and its engine is literally 7.5x as big as the RX3's. I was hoping for better from the RX3. Three hours outside of home, my rump has had enough. It's time for a break. Like I said earlier, my opinion of the RX3 comes and goes in waves, sometimes I love it, sometimes I'm ready to be done with it and move on. This is one of those times. I want to do lots of adventures, and I don't think the RX3 is "enough" bike to make them fun. I pulled into the local Triumph dealer, just to see what they'd give me in trade-in against a full-sized, full-engined bike like the Tiger 800 XRX Low. This is not an enjoyable experience, as they are rat bastard sleazy tricks dealers who try to offer me $750 as a trade-in on a bike I paid $2,500 for four days earlier, along with fees and charges up the nostrils, so ... y'know what, to hell with 'em. The RX3 is paid for, it works, and with a few hundred dollars I can fix the seat and get some more engine, so ... back on the road. On the last stretch the wind is bad; the bike is leaning about 15 degrees to starboard the whole way home. When a semi passes me and then pulls back in my lane, the resulting turbulence has me feeling like I'm in the dryer on the spin cycle. It's a little bike, I get that. I wanted a little bike. I wanted a LIGHT bike, I don't want a six-hundred-pound monster. Heck, I have a 650-pound monster (the Harley). I wanted something light that I could take on trails and if it falls over, I can pick it up easily and just keep going. The RX3 does almost everything right (especially when the price is factored in). But I do wish it had more engine and could hold another 10 mph faster, that would transform it. I finally pulled into my garage, after 525 miles in a single day. That's a lot on a little RX3. Concluding thoughts: 1) This is a hell of a lot of motorcycle for the money. Especially at the used price, it's just incredible. 2) This bike is a great size and weight. 3) For a commuter bike, this would be pretty much perfect. 4) Can't speak to off-road, as my experience there was pretty minimal. 5) This is not a good highway bike. It's just too small. Not enough engine. I found it dangerous on hilly roads, it couldn't hold the speed limit in mountainous Colorado, and it couldn't reach the speed limit on large swaths of the highway in Texas. It is a little punishing to ride long days on, between that infernal seat and the wind noise. I've done 650-mile days on my Harley and been fresh and ready to keep going; this 525-mile day on the CSC was an endurance marathon. 5) At 50 miles per hour or below, the RX3 is a joy. Truly. Maybe up to 55. The wind and turbulence are low at those speeds, the engine is strong enough to hold those speeds even over hills, and you have some leftover reserve in case you need to pass someone. If I could have booked navigation with a maximum speed limit of 55, I think I would have enjoyed this trip more. In the canyons at 40-50 mph, the RX3 was light, nimble, well planted, and just plain FUN. I really, really liked those times. 6) I'm seriously considering the big bore kit now. This bike NEEDS more engine, for the places I want to ride. Either that, or I'll have to trailer it to the destinations, but I'd rather not have to do that. If I'm going to keep this bike and keep touring on it, I believe it needs the big bore kit, the comfort seat, and the brake upgrade. 7) If this bike had the RX4's 450cc engine, better brakes, and better seat, but kept the same size and weight and price, it would dominate. 8) If you live in Colorado, or other mountainous terrain or areas with long, long inclined hills, the RX3 may not be for you. It struggles mightily in those scenarios. On the other hand, if you live in flat areas (like Florida, Kansas, etc) and can find roads with 65mph or below speed limits, you might just LOVE the RX3. It shines at lower speeds and on flatter terrain. So I'm of mixed emotions. I really like it for what it is, but I'm not sure it's what I wanted it to be. Maybe I can get there with some upgrades, maybe I should just bite the bullet and buy a bigger bike. I'll tell you what, if Kawasaki puts that Ninja 400 engine in a new Versys 400, I'd find it hard to resist upgrading to that. But as it is, I really like the RX3 for what it is, and I'm laughing all the way to the bank. Well, limping to the bank. Because of that seat...
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06-24-2019, 11:41 PM	#14
Gaijin Join Date: Jun 2019 Posts: 85	Did you get the 283cc kit, or the 300? And the narrow seat is the one I'm looking at. Would you say it's a definite substantial comfort upgrade?
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06-25-2019, 07:37 AM	#15
KenL Join Date: Sep 2018 Posts: 19	Excellent posts on your trip. I own a 2018 also, I believe they all have ABS. I had the same issue with the rear brake and a lot of air came out when I bled them and now they are fine, must be a factory issue. When the custom seat came up for sale on the CSC site I jumped on that offer and got the tall seat, I'm 6'1" and it raised me up a bit and it's flatter so I can slide back and forth a bit. Had the rear go flat at 800 Miles and on replacing the tube found wrinkles in the old tube and the hole at one of the crease points, so poor wheel assembly in China. When you get around to the valve adjustment you'll find it more interesting than previous years due to the addition of the ABS assembly directly in front of the exhaust valve covers. Just completed my 1000 mile oil change to synthetic and now look forward to some maintenance free miles for the rest of the season. Overall I love the bike and get a lot of comments on it at traffic lights.
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