Steve and I are going to put a few miles on the RX3s tomorrow, and I’m really looking forward to it. We’ll be posting lots more photos, so keep an eye on the blog. There’s a slight chance of rain tomorrow. and that’s a good thing. You’re probably thinking I’m nuts, hoping for rain on a motorcycle ride, but you get better photos on an overcast day. It evens out the light and makes the colors pop a lot better.
Speaking of colors…you remember the CSC Stalker, the bike we did in a camo wrap for the International Sportsmen’s Expo recently. When Steve put that bike together, he told me the color changes are interesting. Indoors, it looks mostly tan and brown. Outdoors, it turns green. I grabbed a photo of the Stalker today that shows the phenomenon well…
The chameleon-like CSC Stalker
I’ve noticed a few folks on other forums talking about the CSC logo on the Stalker, with opinions going back and forth on the CSC logo versus the Zongshen logo. Bottom line first: The production bikes will have a CSC logo that looks like the one you see in the photo above. We thought about this a lot. We originally planned to go with the Zongshen logo because we didn’t want anyone to think we were presenting the bike as something other than what it is, and, truth be told, we didn’t want to offend Zongshen. But when I was over in Chongqing last month, our Zongshen friends brought the subject up. They told us that most of the other countries importing the RX3 (there are about a dozen now) use their own logo. We asked Zongshen if they had any objection to us using our CSC logo, and they said they were fine with it.
It has been a busy month for us since my return from China. There’s a 16-hour time difference, and what that basically means is that for us it’s been a near 24-hour day every day. Our late evening is the morning and middle of the workday for our good friends in Chongqing, and we have been communicating with them every night on the nuances associated with getting your bikes exactly the way you want them. It’s been one of the most exciting things I’ve ever done.
Logos, check. On to the legends portion of this blog.
The bike we want to beat is the KLR-650. Anybody who knows motorcycles (and I’m talking about real riders here, not the keyboard commandos who have nothing better to do than post negative comments on forums) knows that the KLR-650 is a good bike. I’m one of those guys; I’ve owned my KLR for nearly a decade and you’ve seen lots of photos of it from my past adventures right here on the CSC blog. The KLR is a cult bike. A legend, if you will. That’s what the RX3 is rapidly becoming. We’re making it a legend, and when I say we, I mean you (our customer community) and CSC. I believe the RX3 will unseat the KLR as the best deal ever in motorcycling and the best bike for serious world travel. I’m looking forward to reading about the first person who rides a CSC RX3 around the world. I can’t wait to read your RX3 adventures. I’m going to make a few epic rides myself.
Legends, check. Now, for the lots of miles part.
Steve and I have a ride planned for tomorrow that’s going to be about 300 miles. That’s not an enormous distance, but we have a specific destination in mind that will make for some great photography. You’ll know more on Sunday. I feel like a little kid right now. I can’t wait to get out and ride. It’s going to be great!
Baja! That’s coming, folks. That ride will be about 1250 miles and we’ll do it in 5 days. My good buddy J and I are planning that one now. We want you to ride with us. We’ll set an easy pace (about 250 miles a day), and we’ll show you some awesome sights. It’s part of the adventure riding deal, folks. No keyboard commandos here…we get out and ride! This is the real deal. I know for many of you there’s lots of reasons why you think you can’t go. Take my advice: Lose them. Folks, this ride is going to be great. You need to do this.
Baja will be the first big multi-day RX3 ride for me, and hopefully, for you, too. But we’ll have lots more RX3 rides coming, folks, both in the US and elsewhere. Alaska. The Canadian Rockies. The Oregon Coast Highway. Hell’s Canyon. The Black Hills of South Dakota. The Badlands. We are making history here. We’re making legends.
Would you like to see a few photos from some of my past rides? Folks, this is what we (you, me, and the rest of our RX3 rider community) are going to be seeing!
Ever ride your motorcycle to Guadalajara just to watch the puppet show? I have. Why not do it again on the RX3?
Up close and personal where the deer and the buffalo roam in South Dakota? Hey, I’m in if you are!
A ride to Oregon’s Crater Lake on the RX3? You bet! So what if there’s a little bit of snow!
Perhaps a close encounter of the RX3 kind with Wyoming’s Devil’s Tower?
The Badlands…let’s do it!
On to a brief hint at the next big ride: It’s being secretly planned right now and all I can tell you today is that I’ll be on it. This one is going to be about 5000 miles. Yep, you read that right. We’ll be announcing more about this one in a few weeks.
Later, my friends. I’ve got to charge the Nikon batteries and get my riding gear ready!
TT250 Enduro
RX4 450cc Adventure
SG250 San Gabriel Cafe Racer