RC3 Fork Maintenance Tutorial

This maintenance tutorial addresses RC3 fork maintenance.

Lift the front end of the motorcycle and remove the front wheel and tire in accordance with the front wheel removal tutorial.

Remove the four Allen bolts securing the front fender and remove the front fender.

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Loosen (but do not remove) the two Allen pinch bolts on the upper triple tee.

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Loosen (but do not remove) the Allen bolt securing the fork top clamp.

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While holding the fork, loosen (but do not remove) the lower triple tee Allen pinch bolts.  When both are loose, the fork will be free to fall, so make sure you are holding it as these bolts are loosened.

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Carefully slide the fork from the triple tees, taking care not to scratch the front fork anodizing.

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Using a small screwdriver, gently pry the lower fork seal away from the fork upper, taking care not to scratch or gouge the fork upper.

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Fully unscrew the damping adjuster until it can no longer be turned.

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Unscrew the front fork cap assembly.  We use a rag over the aluminum hex head and a socket one size larger to avoid marring the cap assembly.

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The fork contains oil, and when you remove the cap assembly, tilting the fork down will allow the oil to drain.  Drain the oil into a receptacle.

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Next unscrew the fork cap assembly from the fork internal rod.   This is made challenging by the fork spring and the lock nut arrangement securing the fork internal rod to the fork cap assembly.

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After unscrewing the fork cap assembly, remove the fork spring.

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Remove the inner clip securing the lower fork seal.

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At this point, the fork lower can be removed from the fork upper.  Drain any remaining oil in the fork lower.

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Inspect the condition of the seals, the spring, the fork lower plated surfaces, and the bushings.  If any parts are damaged, please contact CSC for replacements at 909 445 0900.

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The fork capacity is 270cc of fork oil.  We generally use 10W fork oil when replacing the fork oil.   Please contact CSC at 909 445 0900 if you need fork oil.

Assembly is the reverse of disassembly.   Torque all fasteners in accordance with the torque table in the CSC RC3 Owner’s and Service Manual.  Torque the fork cap assembly to 35 ft-lbs, but do so after the upper and lower triple tees (but not the fork top clamp) pinch bolts have been tightened.   Torque the fork top clamp pinch bolts after torqueing the fork cap assembly.

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RC3 Front Wheel Removal Maintenance Tutorial

This maintenance tutorial addresses removal of the RC3 front wheel.

Lift the front end of the motorcycle as addressed in the motorcycle lifting maintenance tutorial.

Remove the bolts restraining the front brake caliper.

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Loosen (but do not remove yet) the front axle bolt.

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Loosen (but do not remove) the Allen pinch bolts at the bottom of the fork legs (there are two on each fork).

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Remove the front axle nut on the left side of the motorcycle and pull the axle out to the right.

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Note that there are two bushings (one of each side of the front wheel) between the front wheel and each front fork.

Remove the front wheel.

Reassembly is the reverse of disassembly.  Torque all fasteners in accordance with the torque table provided in the RC3 Owner’s and Service Manual.

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Iron Butt Rob!

Folks, check this out!   Our good buddy Rob Morel just completed an Iron Butt run on his CSC RX3!

Hi Joe.

I rode  my RX3 on  an Iron Butt 1000 this weekend. Its 1000 miles in under 24 hours and you have to document start, stop time, all gas stops with receipts to prove you actually did it. Took just under 20 hours to complete. 11 gas stops. Burned thru  23.111  gallons of gas for 1055 miles for an average of 45.65  mpg costing $57.90.

What amazed me was the flogging the motor took. I literally rode it full throttle at 65-70mph on the GPS for 70-80% of the trip going up and down interstate hills where the speed limit was 70 and 80 mph in Oregon and Idaho. The motor seemed to take it all in a stride.   Judicious use of the gear box to keep it above 6500 rpm was needed to get over mountain passes and curvy hills in 4th and 5th. Never had to run it above 8000 rpm. On a long down hill I held it wide open to gain speed to get up the next hill and 75mph GPS was attained. Usually ran from 65-70mph on the GPS with 80 mph cars passing me like flies on the way to the milk barn.

Gearing was 2 teeth up from standard on the rear sprocket. Stock gearing would have been fine.

Oil was the CSC 20-50 premium synthetic.

I used  one of the nice gel seats you guys sell.  Rear held out pretty good till temps got hot and sweaty, then what’s a fella to do?

Ran the lowest grade of gas first 500 miles then switched to middle grade and it gained me 2-3 mph and more power to get over the hills so I didn’t need to downshift as much. 

The bike never once gave me trouble or left me wondering if I would make it home.

It impressed the Harley, Indian, and Victory guys I started out with. They soon left me with their higher top speed so I was riding solo most of the 20 hours it took to complete. I made it to the last fill up to certify the end of the ride maybe 15 min after they finished.

I have around 9300 miles on the bike now.

While not the best choice for Iron Butting, the RX3 showed that it can on play with the big boys and finish what it starts.

Have a great trip around China, Joe.

As for me, where’s my Tylenol?

Rob

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Rob, that’s impressive riding, and we are all very proud of you.  Thanks very much for sharing this tremendous accomplishment with us!

Folks, I first met Rob on the Western America Adventure Ride, during which Rob met us in Idaho and then rode along with the group for the next several days.   Rob impressed me greatly the first time I saw him.   I was leading our group north on the road into Cambridge, Idaho, where Rob had told me (via email) he would hook up with us.   It was early in the morning and I was in my normal funky mood after trying to get everybody moving on time (without a lot of success).  I did not yet know Rob, but I had corresponded with him and he told me he would be in Cambridge.  I remember thinking we’d have another delay as I tried to find this guy, but that wasn’t the case at all.   Rob had parked his RX3 at the edge of the road and he was sitting in a lawn chair, watching and waiting for our arrival.  When I first saw him, he was getting out of the lawn chair to start his bike so he could fall into formation with no delay.   My kind of guy, Rob is.

Here’s a photo I took of Rob that fine morning in Idaho…

Good times, good people, and grand adventures…it’s what riding CSC and the Cult of the Zong is all about, folks!

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Riding my TT around the neighborhood…

I’m going to bring my GoPro with me to China.  I think my Motorola video camera is much easier to operate and has a better mounting system, but the GoPro has better sound suppression (for the wind noise).   I was checking out some mounting approaches (trust me, the tiny headlight fairing is not the place to mount a GoPro camera) and for now, I am using a helmet mount.    It was 109 degrees out there earlier today when I shot this video, folks…

I mounted the GoPro on the side of my helmet, and that ain’t the long term solution.  The GoPro is a heavier camera than the Motorola, and I can feel the extra weight on the side of my helmet (it pulls the helmet to the right).   It does look kind of cool, though, with the thing mounted off to the side of my carbon fiber helmet.  Sue thought I looked like the Predator in that Arnold Schwarzenegger movie.  If I could get the GoPro to emit a triangular red laser beam, I would really freak out my riding buddies when I get to Chongqing.

Predator

I know most people mount their GoPro cameras on top of their helmet, but knowing when the camera is on and off is problematic when you do that.   The GoPro has a wireless connection; maybe that is the way forward.   But then, I’d have to mount my iPhone on the bike in front of me.  It gets complicated, which is why I like the Motorola solution better.   Ah, we’ll see.

One more thing…I’m personally playing with a few mods to my TT, so my bike sounds different than a stock bike.   These parts are not yet available, so please don’t bug the guys by calling and asking about them.

China preparations are underway.  Oh boy oh boy oh boy!  I am looking forward to this trip!

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China, in my sights…

It hit 109 degrees out here in my neck of the woods in So Cal today.   It’s too hot to ride, so I’m bunkered down sipping a cold one with the AC running flat out.  I’ve spent the last hour or so painstakingly translating the itinerary our Zongshen friends sent to us for our upcoming China adventure (with the capable assistance of the Google Translate page), and here’s what this epic adventure looks like….

Intinerary-English

Wow.  I’ve been to China perhaps a dozen times, but this journey is going to be the definitive Chinese adventure ride.   The things on that schedule above are going to be epic.

You’ll notice Day 18 casually mentions “terracotta.”   Folks, that’s the Chinese Terra Cotta soldiers, which I first encountered approximately 25 years ago.  That site (located in Xi’an) has been named the Eighth Wonder of the Ancient World, and I have to tell you it is unquestionably the most breathtaking thing I’ve ever seen.  I’ll be telling you more about Xi’an roughly 3 1/2 weeks from today after (and I love saying this) I’ve ridden my motorcycle there.

And Day 18 is only one day.   One day out of the 37 days I’ll be putting around China.  “Epic” is perhaps the best word I have to describe this upcoming RX3 extravaganza, but it somehow just doesn’t seem strong enough.

Over the next few days, I’ll be researching each of the destinations in the above table…I want to know more about each place before we get there so I will be able to more fully appreciate what we are about to experience.   One of my Cal Poly Chinese students gave me a detailed map of China, and I’ll be studying it before we leave (and carrying it with me on the journey).

Oh, this is going to be a grand one!

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Father’s Day and a few favorite photos…

Here we are, Father’s Day, 2016.   Wow.

First, our best wishes to all of you Dads out there.  Today is a special day.  It’s one of my favorites.  It’s been close to 35 years since I lost my Dad, and I still think about him every day.  I’m a Dad, and now I’m also a Grandfather.   It’s a good feeling.  I have two daughters and one granddaughter.   One of my daughters (the local one) is coming over for lunch later today, and Sue and I (and my little girl) are going to go to Bass Pro for lunch.   I love walking around in that place, and their fish tacos are good, too.

I thought I would do something a little bit different today and share with you what some of my favorite photos have been in the 6½ years I’ve been writing the CSC blog (yep, that’s 6½ years and more than 1800 blog entries).  I’ll be adding to the list of photos in the next two months.   As you know, I’m headed to China next week for a 37-day romp through the Old Kingdom, and you can bet I’ll be getting a ton of great photos on that ride.  You’ll be able to see them right here on the blog, but I’ll be saving the best ones for the book I’m going to write about the China adventure.   I haven’t thought of a title for the China book yet, but I’ll have 37 days and 3,500 miles to think of one.

So, on to the favorites.   Some of these you’ve never seen before, and some have been on the blog and in either 5000 Miles at 8000 RPM or Moto Colombia!   The first favorite is a photo that is appearing here for the first time.   It’s the Zongshen GY200.

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The reason I like the photo you see above is that it is the seed that started what ultimately became the CSC TT250.   The GY was on display in Zongshen’s office area when I was over there finalizing details on the original RX3 contract back in December 2014.

That GY200 glistened, and my eye kept returning to it during our discussions.  I showed the photo to Steve and his reaction was the same as mine…the GY would be great if we could get it as a 250 and add our signature CSC upgrades (inverted forks, 300-watt alternator, improved switchgear, adjustable suspension, and more).   And that’s exactly what happened.   It all started with the bike you see above.   It was a brilliant move on Zongshen’s part to display it right next to their conference room.   And, as mentioned above, all this led directly to the CSC TT250, which brings me to another favorite photo…

Many of my favorite photos came from our motorcycle adventure rides.   The rides are a big deal for us.  Nobody (none of the other motorcycle manufacturers or importers) do what we do with our adventure rides, which is to offer real adventure at no charge to our riders.   It’s been a hoot for me, and the folks who have been on our rides tell me they feel the same way.

Here’s one from the most recent Baja ride, with my good buddy J enjoying a brewski in Ensenada…

From that same trip, here’s a shot I particularly like of my good buddy Keith when we were motoring out to see the whales, and another one of Doina photographing the whales…

Turning back the clock a solid year, I have a few favorites from our first CSC Baja run, too.   Here’s one of my good buddy Tucson Greg.   It’s on the road in Baja’s Sierra San Francisco Mountains, en route to the ancient cave paintings…

Here’s another one from that same trip…this is good buddy and intrepid adventurer Justin on the San Ignacio Mission steps…

On that same ride, here’s a first Sea of Cortez view through my RX3’s windshield while descending through La Cuesta del Infierno.   Trust me, that’s a ride you want to have on your bucket list…

Of course, the Western America Adventure Ride was a solid 18 days of nonstop riding with tons of great photos and stories.   I’d say I could write a book about that one, but hey, you know I already did!   From that ride, here’s a photo of good buddy Joe Gresh I shot in Idaho, with Lester (aka Yul Brynner) in the background.  I’m going be riding with all of these guys in China next week…

Another shot of Gresh at the Grand Canyon.   It looks like it’s been Photoshopped, but it is untouched…you see it the way it came out of the camera.

And, of course, there was the adventure of a lifetime…my ride through Colombia’s Andes Mountains with good buddies Juan and Carlos.   That’s the Volcan Nevado del Ruiz, an active volcano that killed something north of 20,000 people when it erupted in the 1980s, you see steaming in the background.

The Cauca River Valley in Colombia…

Andean twisties, with chicken strips to match…

Here’s a photo I like of Carlos and Juan at the edge of the world, just outside of Barichara en route to Guane…

And a few shots of a great pizza dinner and an evening in Mompos after an exciting ferry ride down the Magdalena River…

And there are a few photos from the earlier days on the CSC 150 Mustang replicas.    We had a lot of fun with those bikes!

I like this photo from the saddle of my CSC 150 (the Baja Blaster) chasing Arlene and TK into Death Valley on the Hell’s Loop Endurance Rally…

Here’s one of Simon Gandolfi, the world famous novelist and adventure rider, somewhere in Baja.   Yep, we rode our CSC 150s all the way to Cabo San Lucas and back…

And one last photo…this one is one of the very first Mustangs we built with a 250cc engine.   We called it the P-51, and Steve did it up in a World War II aviation motif…

Steve originally planned to keep that bike, but after I posted the above photo here on the blog, the offers started pouring in.   You wouldn’t believe how high they were…we scarcely could, either.   The bike sold within a day of our posting it!

I guess that’s enough for now.   Enjoy the day, folks.

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RC3 instrumentation…

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We’re well into the new RC3’s service manual preparation, and I thought I would share a few preliminary photos with you.

The RC3 dash is completely digital (except for the indicator lights), and you can adjust it to three different shades.  I like the red best…

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Blue is cool, too…

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You can also change it to the plain OD green sort of background with black letters.   The RC3 dash has a number of cool features, including the ability to adjust brightness.  The dash includes readouts for total mileage, trip mileage, temperature, time, speed, fuel, engine rpm, and gear.  Another cool feature is the ability to record the max velocity attained on a ride…

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The above are all in kilometers (this was our preproduction bike for CARB and EPA testing), so the number you see above is in kilometers per hour.  You can do the math, though.

The RC3 includes as standard equipment our 300-watt alternator (just like our RX3 and TT250), the underseat handlebar accessories outlets (with handlebar mounted Off-A1-A2 switchgear, just like our RX3 and TT250), and dash mounted additional power outlets (one in the USB configuration with a 5V feed for charging your iPhone, the other in a standard cigarette lighter 12V configuration).

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Things are happening fast here, folks.   I leave for the China expedition in less than a week.   I’m excited.  It’s going to be a hoot.

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Targets, TTs, tacos, and more…

It’s been a busy week.  I guess I could say I’m doing a lot to get ready for China, but the truth is I am not.   I am ready to go right now.  I’ll throw my stuff in a bag when Joe Gresh gets here, and we’ll be wings in the well bound for Guangzhou.

I travel light.  I’ll probably have more weight in my laptop and my camera gear than I will in my clothes.   When we did our recent 8-day CSC Baja run, I was the only guy that fit everything (including my camera gear and my computer) into the RX3’s stock three luggage bags…there was nothing outside of the standard luggage on my bike.   One of the Colorado boys on that ride told me he didn’t know how I could travel so light.   He said he only bought four sets of underwear (and he had the larger Tourfella bags) and he still couldn’t fit it all inside.   “You wear underwear?” I asked.   It got a laugh.

Baja! You bought underwear?

Tuesday night was Taco Tuesday at the local Mexican place, and my daughter and I went there.   I saw this really cool Jeep parked out front…

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A very cool Jeep at Taco Tuesday

I always wanted a Jeep.   I always wanted a Jaguar, too.   And I never heard from those Bentley guys about getting my payments under $200 a month.  Guess I’ll be sticking with my current wheels for a while.  Still, that Jeep was awesome.

Coming home from Pasadena the other day, I noticed a sign for the ALCO target company.   Shoot (to borrow a pun), it was only a couple of miles from the CSC plant, so after lunch I stopped in for a visit (the sign said it was open to the public).  It was a cool place, and their prices were substantially below what I’ve been paying for targets.  They had some unusual stuff for sale, too…

An ALCO ghillie suit

An ALCO ghillie suit

ALCO targets...

ALCO targets…

...and more ALCO targets

…and more ALCO targets

So, back to the motorcycle world.   The boys are in overdrive prepping new TT250s for delivery…

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Ready for crating and shipment to you!

We still provide parts and service for our CSC 150 and 250 Mustangs, and there were a couple of these classic bikes in among the TTs today…

A CSC 150 in the mix...I rode one of these to Cabo San Lucas and back a few years ago!

A CSC 150 in the mix…I rode one of these to Cabo San Lucas and back a few years ago!

Our Mustang’s CG engine is the same basic design as the TT250’s engine, and these little powerplants are bulletproof.

As I was admiring the black CSC 150, I noticed my good buddy Arlene’s Go Go Gear CSC 150.   Now there’s a bike with a pedigree!

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We did a custom paint job for Arlene on that bike, and it’s a famous little motorcycle.  In addition to making the Baja run with us several years ago, Arlene also rode it onto the stage when she appeared on the TV series Shark Tank

The crew…famous novelist and moto-adventure rider/author Simon Gandolfi, Arlene, J, Baja John, and yours truly with Arlene’s Go Go Gear bike in Baja, on the Sea of Cortez shoreline!

Robert Herkjavec, one of the Sharks, trying on Arlene’s CSC 150 on TV!

And folks, that’s about it for today.   One last shot I grabbed just a minute ago of what has become a very hot color this year…

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One of our fastest colors!

See you on the road, my friends.   Now, you need to get off the Internet…get out and ride!

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A note from Doug…

Ryan forwarded this nice note from Doug (along with a great photo of Doug’s RX3)…

Ryan …

Just popping in with a quick pic for Joe … Hope all is well. I’m loving this bike! 

Doug

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Doug, thanks for your note and the photo.  Your bike looks good!

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A few photos from Overland Expo…

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Willie, Ryan, and Gerry visited Overland Expo a short bit ago, and Willie came back with some dynamite photos.   I thought I would post a few of them here for your enjoyment.

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Overland Expo is a cool event.   I was there last year (the weather was so bad we called it Snowverland Expo), but things got too busy for me to attend this year.   I missed going, but I’m going to do my best to get to it next year.   It looks like Willie, Ryan, and Gerry had a great time and much better weather…I’m jealous!   Great job on the photos, guys!

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