Baja, the Cyclone, and Tiger talk…

Here’s more cool stuff from the recent IMS shows, and a bit about real adventure riding.   We are seeing huge interest in the Baja ride I’ve been writing about here in the blog.   If you’re interested in riding with us, drop a note to me (info@cscmotorcycles.com) so we know how many people want to go with us.   We’re going to hold the number of participants to something reasonable, but don’t worry about the number.   We’ll be going down there on a regular basis, and if you don’t get your oar in the water on the Inaugural Ride, we’ll get you in on a subsequent run.    We’ll provide more details as our plans become firmer, so check our CSC blog often.

The first time I saw the RX-3 Cyclone, I knew it was the perfect bike for Baja.   The comfort, the layout, the fuel economy, and the engine displacement are optimized for adventure touring in Baja (or anywhere in the world, for that matter).   The picture below shows a recent view from the RX-3 cockpit…the road in that photo is in California, but much of the riding in Baja is exactly like what you see in the photo below.   We’ll be seeing about 500 miles of it on the way down to Guerrero Negro.

Once we get on the road, I promise you that the riding will be some of the best (perhaps the best) you’ve ever experienced, and the food, the scenery, and the camaraderie will absolutely be off the charts.   And for any of you who are reading this and have made the trip before….yes, we will stop at Antonio’s for fish tacos.   Trust me on this…you’ll want to ride the 500 miles to Guerrero Negro just for that.

Anyway, back to the Phoenix show for a moment or three.   I have a few photos of a Triumph Tiger I saw that I want to share with you.   You’ve probably already figured out that I’m a Triumph fan.  I don’t own one anymore and I am convinced the RX-3 makes a lot more sense for the kind of real world riding I do, but I rode Triumph for a lot of years and they make a good bike.   My tastes and needs have changed…the Triumphs are too big and too expensive in my opinion, but I still respect them.

One Triumph I’ve always admired is the Tiger.   I had a 955 Tiger that I rode all over Baja.   It was big, it was beautiful, and it was fast, but it was heavy and a real handful in the dirt.   This is the ’06 955 Tiger I used to ride in Baja…and the photo actually is in Baja.  Those are giant Cardon cactus plants in the background (they grow nowhere else on Earth).

I like to see the latest Tigers whenever I’m at a show, and I saw some interesting ones this past weekend.   Triumph now has two versions of their Tiger model.   My 955 is no more…now they make a 1200 Tiger, which is a monster (no pun intended, Ducati) at nearly 700 lbs…

That 1200 Tiger is tall, it’s heavy, and when I saw it, my first thought was that I’d have a hard time just getting on and off the beast.   My next thought focused on what it would be like making a U-turn on that motorcycle on a dirt road.   I didn’t need to think about what it would be like in soft sand…I already knew that based on my adventures on the old 955 Tiger.

I think Triumph must have had similar thoughts, because a few years ago they introduced an 800cc version…

The 800 Tiger is a little smaller and it’s a move in the right direction, but it’s still too big in my opinion.   I’m past all that now, but I’m still interested in the technology.

Triumph had a bike on display in their booth that the Raiden team raced in the Baja 1000 this year, and it was impressive.   Here’s the “before” picture, when the bike was spotless…

The particular bike you see above (No. 121) was a DNF (did not finish) in the Baja 1000 this year, but the overall look and engineering of the thing was impressive.  I think that as a serious off road bike, the 800 is still huge, but it makes a bit more sense than the Tiger 1200, which (as I said above) is a monster.  What was cool about the Raiden Tiger at the Phoenix show was that it looked like it just finished the race…it was coated in dirt, oil, and dead bugs.

I grabbed a bunch of close up photos showing different features on the Raiden bike.  The first shows the flyscreen and the headlights.

Here’s another macro shot showing the headlight and the driving lights.

This is an interesting detail shot of the cockpit.   Notice how they moved the starter button and kill switch.   I’m not sure why they did this; maybe it was to give the throttle a bit more room.

This Baja 1000 racing motorcycle has an auxiliary fuel tank mounted behind the seat.

The RX-3 gets 70 mpg and it has a 4.2 gallon fuel tank.  It has a cruising range of about 250 miles, which is a good thing to have in Baja.   There’s one stretch on our ride (between El Rosario and Guerrero Negro) where the distance between Pemex stations is 221.6 miles.   Yes, I know the distance to the tenth of a mile, and I ran dry on that stretch once when I was on my Suzuki TL1000S.  The RX-3 won’t have that problem.    With its big tank and 70 mpg, it will go the distance…

Anyway, back to the Baja 1000 Raiden Triumph….this Tiger was ridden hard and put away wet…

An Arrow exhaust system on the Triumph….we’ll offer accessory exhaust systems on the RX-3 in the future…

Here’s a feature I didn’t quite understand.   I grabbed a shot of these metal bits on the Tiger’s exhaust headers.   My guess is that they are there either as guards (for dirt kicked up by the front wheel), for additional air cooling (maybe) or as vibration dampers.   I sent a note to my buddy Art (he’s a Triumph guy) to find out what these clips do…

Some of you might be wondering if there is an RX-3 race bike in our plans for the next Baja 1000.   At this point, the answer is:  Who knows?   We’re not planning any race activities today, but we are planning the CSC RX-3 Cyclone Baja Inaugural Run and it will be a hoot.  I want you to think about coming with us if you aren’t already doing so.   If you’ve already ridden Baja, you know what I’m talking about.  If you haven’t (trust me on this) you’ll thank me during and after the ride.

You know, when I listen to the beer belly brigade brag about where they’ve ridden, it’s usually to the corner burger bar or maybe Angeles Crest Highway.   The distances are short (they’re day runs at best).   You know the drill…the guys with the vests that have a zillion badges showing the various “runs” they’ve been on (almost as if they were campaign ribbons), the Ricky Racer bikes with carbon fiber bits, the Harleys with boom box sound systems, and all the other stereotypes.  Hey, it’s all good…we’re all out riding and whatever you ride, it’s fun.   But there’s something different about having ridden Baja.  It puts you in another league, in my opinion.

Imagine your inputs to those “where do you ride” discussions after you’ve ridden with us through Baja.  Think about how you’ll feel when you name towns most people have never even heard of…El Rosario…El Marmol…Bahia de Los Angeles…Mulege…Bahia de Concepcion…Guerrero Negro…Santa Rosalia.   This is the reason the RX-3 exists, my friends.   Real riding.   Adventure touring.   The real deal.

Are you up for it?