We have a winner!

And it’s our good buddy Joel from Colorado!

Wow, I thought this would be an easy one.   I received about a hundred emails in the last couple of hours, but Joel was the first one to nail it by identifying all five items that are upgrades to our stock RX3.   Here’s the photo of our blue RX3 with all the goodies…

Ah, that is a glorious photo, with the snow-capped San Gabriel Mountains in the background.   I shot it with my new Nikon, and I am quite pleased with the job this camera is doing.   But I digress…so, back to the main attraction…

Quite a few of the entries in our little t-shirt contest correctly identified 3 or 4 of the 5 non-stock features in that photo, but one was elusive until Joel nailed it.   It’s the 19-inch front wheel!   That really surprised me, because so many people told us that we should offer it as an option.   Well, we are, and what you see above is the first RX3 with that wheel!  We’re offering this as a kit (with aluminum rim and stainless steel spokes), or as a complete wheel.

Okay, so first, here are the five items:

• The 19-inch front wheel.
• Bridgestone Trail Wing dual sport tires.
• The spotlights.
• The sheepskin seat cover (it’s sweet, folks…I really like it).
• The Tourfella aluminum luggage (also very sweet).

Back to that 19-inch front wheel…take a look…

Awesome stuff, to be sure.   The stock RX3 spokes are cad-plated steel.   The 19-inch front wheel kit has stainless spokes.   Muey cool, boys and girls.

You’ve already heard me babble on about the aluminum bags.   I like them.  A lot.   My good Baja buddy John asked me if the larger bags make it harder to get on and off the bike.   It’s weird…even though they are substantially larger than the stock bags, it’s actually easier to get on and off the bike with the optional aluminum bags.   I’ll probably measure and compare where the forward edges are on both the stock and the Tourfella luggage later this week to see why that is.   I have a bad leg from a previous adventure (an encounter with an SUV that didn’t end well) and I’m pretty sensitive to this.   I believe mounting and dismounting an RX3 with the Tourfella bags is easier.

You’ve also heard me babble on about the spotlights.   I didn’t think I wanted them on my bike, but I changed my mind about that today, too.   But maybe not for the reason you might expect.   After we took a lot of shots today for our maintenance tutorials and the service manual, I went for a short ride on the RX3.   Unfortunately, it was 4:30 when I left the plant to get the shot at the top of this blog entry, and our southern California traffic was at its hellish worst.    I split lanes when I rode back to the plant, and wowee!  Because of their brightness and because of the bluish hue the spotlights emit, I believe folks thought I was a motor officer.   Traffic parted like the Red Sea (and I was Moses)!   I need these lights, folks.

Last topic for today…the sheepskin cover!   Again, wowee!  It picks you up maybe a half inch, and it is comfortable.  I didn’t get to try it on an extended ride, but I’ve used these before on my KLR, and trust me, they really work.    Yep, CSC will offer these, and you can bet one is going on my bike!

We’ll be announcing prices on the 19-inch front wheel kit and the sheepskin seat cover later this week, so stay tuned!