CSC Blog

Our good buddy Peter recently posted outstanding photos with a great ride report on the ADVRider forum.  We liked it so much we asked if we could reprint it here, in full, on the CSC blog.   Peter’s answer was swift:

Hi Joe, yes that would be ok. As you can see I’ve been having a great time with the bike and it has served as a great return to biking and adv riding in particular.

Keep up the great work with CSC and the blog.

Take care,

Peter

Peter, thanks for allowing us to share your ride report with our readers, and thanks for being a CSC rider!   So, without further ado, here we go…

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After the 2 day JL class rapped up in Pahrump NV, headed off to the Noobs rally in Death Valley. The JL class definitely helped give me the skills to tackle gravel, sands and hills. All kinds of bikes from 250wr to 500exc to f800gs to 1190adv.

The 250 RX3 definitely held its own and if there’s one thing that I observed its the rider and not the bike that makes all the difference. BTW it’s great to see all the new folks and inputs on this thread. Here’s a few pics from the rally.

As the only RX3 in attendance there were lots of questions from folks stopping by to ask what kind of bike it was and most everyone knew of it but were intrigued to actually see one.

I did a particularly tough ride through Gower wash and Mengel Pass as there was lots of gravel and sand from recent rains.  At the end of the ride everyone gave me and the bike props for hanging with the group of mostly dirt oriented bikes.

A few more from that ride.

Me at the top of Mengel pass. To the left of my right elbow in the distance you can just see the trail we would follow over the next mountain range into death valley.

Looking back from Death Valley, yes we had ridden through those mountain ranges in the background, the sand you see was only that deep the last 100 yards or so. Lots of varied and challenging terrain on this ride.

After we started back on the tarmac Arno’s Huskie 510 overheated a some miles south of Badwater and wouldn’t hold water as there was a leak, so TypeAmark road all the way back to base camp to pick up Arno’s Jeep and trailer (about 200 miles round trip). I stayed back with Arno, it was about 2:30 in the afternoon on the floor of Death Valley and a good thing temperature was only in the 90’s.

As our water supply was low I road the 15 mile or so to Badwater and conjured up 5 bottles of water from the befuddled tourists. As the southbound road out of the valley was washed out there was almost no traffic where we were. So we spent the whole afternoon sitting in the shade of our bikes and telling each other our life’s stories and shooting the shiite. When Mark got back with the trailer just after dusk he was amazed to find us joking with him and in great spirits. Honestly this was one of the highlights of the week for me (I’m funny that way) and something I’ll never forget. We had dinner and a few cold ones in Stovepipe wells and rolled into camp around 10:30 that evening.

The next day (hmmm.. this is turning into a ride report so I’ll keep it brief) I skipped the group ride I was scheduled for in favor of relaxing in the morning and my own itinerary of mostly twisty tarmac to the west to the town of Keeler and a little hike to a place called Darwin falls not too far from the base camp at Panament Springs.

Saw a sign at a dirt road turn off to an abandoned silver mine..

This is as far I would venture in since I was solo this day.

On the way to Keeler went down this road for a better photo op of the Eastern Sierras. Had the top case on to store my gear for a small hike planned later on.

The next day packed up and ready to hit the road for LA.

Some closing thoughts after a week of all types of riding.

First off and this should be no surprise. Flat out on the open road the bike really prefers secondary roads to the interstate. Buzzing along at a sustained speed over 65 the bike is just not a fun place to be and frequent stops are required. But turn it down just a notch to reduce vibration and wind fatigue and the bike is a fabulous touring platform. On back roads off the interstate where the roads have more variation and curves the RX3 is alot of fun to ride. I really enjoyed blitzing along these roads as well as slowing down and cruising in 6th gear at low RPM. I could lift my visor and feel the wind and hear and see so much.

Off road at JLR school it was clear the bike was just as capable as any bike there and was lots of fun to test the limits of traction and control. I had a few spills here and there and each time there were no complaints from the bike, the crash bars did their job and I was able to pick the bike up without any help or pulling any muscles. Again as mentioned earlier the most limiting factors were the rider’s confidence and skill level as opposed to the bike.

Tooling around during the rally I did about 60/40 dirt/hwy and can not say I was surprised at the performance of the bike as I have been riding it since November and have come to understand its overall goodness.

What did surprise me a little though was how much I was able to push myself in the toughest of conditions and how willing the bike was to handle it. As this was really my first dual sport adventure coming from a strictly street riding background I’m sure I made a great choice by purchasing the RX3 compared to any other bike which is not to say that there aren’t other more worthy bikes. But the combination of price, reliability and performance is hard to beat. It goes a long way toward enjoying the experience when one knows that parts are available and affordable.

Speaking of parts my bike is set up with the oversized aluminum bash plate which reminded me often of its utility, 19” front rim with the shinko 805 big block tires which work great on road and off, a 13 tooth front sprocket which helps off road and doesn’t give up too much on the highway. (my original plan to swap out 13 and 14 tooth sprockets for the ride to and from was thwarted by the realization I would need an impact wrench to get the sprocket bolt off. In the end I think the 13er was fine). Wrap around hand guards were a must. The Progressive rear shock and Sun aluminum rims I’m sure raised the off road quotient of the bike. Several people mentioned that the design of the centerstand might cause problems if one were to hit a big rock as the mounting tangs and axle bolt hang below the level of the skid plate. Other than that the rest of the accessories are comfort items, a taller seat, a bigger windscreen and heated grips.

Too my eyes the bike looks better now with all its nicks and scratches, it speaks to its utility and ability.

It’s raining out here.   Bad for riding, good for photography, if you can keep the camera dry.  I was in the plant yesterday so doing that (i.e., keeping the camera dry) was easy.   I grabbed a few shots…

This first one is a just a few of the bikes shipping out on the 4:00 p.m. pickup…

That cruiser in front of the crated RX3s came into the shop for service.  I thought I might not mention it at all and let the keyboard commandos start rumors about a new Zongshen cruiser, but I decided against it.   It’s not a Zong, guys.

Another cool photo…our new license plate frame….

We’re putting one on every new bike we sell, and we’ll send one to you for free with each order of $10 or more.     We’ll probably sell them, too, but the shipping might be more than the frame.   It’s best to just order some of the stuff you’d probably be ordering anyway and get the frame for free.

And hey, check this out….it’s the engineering mockup for our new headlight grille.   I have the Colombian version on my RX3 and I really like it (thanks, Enrique!).   These will be available soon; keep an eye on the website for updates.

And one last shot of my good riding and shooting buddy (and CSC tech) Duane.    He and the rest of our guys and gals are going full bore getting your new RX3s ready for shipment.   Hang in there; your bike will be leaving soon.   If you’re reading this and you haven’t ordered a bike yet, if you want a silver one you better hop to it.   We’re almost out of silver already!

That’s it for now, folks.   As always, stay tuned!

Two of the many great roads on our 5000-mile Western America Adventure Ride were Utah Highways 12 and 24.  I wrote a piece about those roads and Motorcycle Classics magazine recently published it.  You can read it here.   The shot above is Bryce Canyon, which was at the start of Highway 12.

Our RX3s performed magnificently on that ride.  The RX3 was the perfect bike for our adventure across the western half of the United States.  Good times.

I was channel surfing the other night and I briefly clicked through a rerun of Pawn Stars. You know, that’s the reality TV number about these dudes who run a pawn shop in Las Vegas.  I like that show but I blitzed right past it to subsequent channels when something clicked.

Wait a second, I thought as my thumb continued clicking channels on autopilot.   That can’t be!

So I reversed my path through the zillions of channels we pay for with Direct TV (but never watch).   I went back to Rick and the boys in Las Vegas.    They were still on the bit that had caught my attention.   Son of a gun. Almost literally…son of a gun!  I saw what it was that triggered (ah, there it is, the persistent pun) a neuron and made me click back to the Pawn Stars show.   Look at that!

What I saw on TV was a Walther LuftPistole Model LP53.   Whoa!  I actually own one of those!    A real Walther air pistol (that’s what “luftpistole” means in German).  And there it was…my gun, on TV!

What further riveted my attention was something I had sort of noticed but never really recognized before. It became clear when the guys on the Pawn Stars show were giving their background spiel on the Walther.   I suddenly realized what had captured my attention yet again.  It was another thing that clicked!  I’d been seeing it for decades and I had never connected the dots, even though I had owned a fine LP53 specimen for the last 50 years.

At this point, you should mentally key in the James Bond theme song.   You know….da da, da dahhh, da da daaaaa.   Bond.   James Bond.

In all those early posters advertising Dr. No, From Russia with Love, and the early Sean Connery James Bond classics (and they were indeed classics; those early Bond movies were magnificent), the advertising had shown Sean holding an LP53. Even though I owned one and shot it extensively, and even though I am a big time James Bond fan (you know, the secret missions and all), it had just never clicked together for me.   In all those early advertisements, big bad James Bond, Agent 007, with a license to kill, was posing with an air pistol.   Take a hard look at that photo on the left.   That’s a Walther LP53 he’s holding.  Da da, da daaah, indeed.

So here’s the story.   When the Bond franchise was just getting started, the movie folks scheduled a photo shoot in which Bond was supposed to pose with his iconic Walther PPk, the signature secret agent .32 ACP automatic Ian Fleming wrote about.   The only problem was that whoever organized the photo shoot had all the props except, you guessed it, the Walther PPk.  Whoa.   The whole studio, the tux, the photographer, and James Bond himself all dressed up with nowhere to go.   They forgot the gun.   What to do?

As it turns out, the photographer (a lensmaster named David Hurn) was a pellet gun target shooting enthusiast (me, too, but I’ll get to that in a bit).   His target pistol of choice was, you guessed it again, the Walther LP53.   The LP53 is a physically large pistol, and it’s a high class, high-ticket item.    Real steel, deep blueing, and all the good stuff that makes old guys like me get all dewey-eyed.    Hurn ran out to his car and came back with the LP53, and the rest, as they say, is history.   Much of the public is completely unaware that their hero, silver screen idol James Bond, posed with a pellet gun.   Hell, I didn’t realize it until Rick told the story on Pawn Stars, and I’ve owned an LP53 for most of my life.

That actual pellet pistol, Bond’s stand-in Walther LP53, sold for a staggering $430,000 at auction a few years ago.   That’s the story that Rick told while I was watching Pawn Stars.   Whoa, hold the presses!    $430,000, and I own one of those things!

Well, not so fast.   Rick offered the guy $200.   $200.   Wow, I thought I would be able to retire on that one pellet gun, but not so.    Maybe if James Bond had owned the one that was sitting in my closet, but mine had a less famous background.   I checked around on the Internet, and $200 seems to be about the going price (as this screen capture from a recent auction shows)…

So, back to my LP53.  It’s in immaculate condition.   To a collector it would be cool.   My Walther has everything except the owner’s manual.   That includes the interchangeable sight blades, the wooden cocking plug (the big round wooden thing that fits over the end of the barrel to assist in cocking the gun), the original box, and mine even has the original factory test target.    This is mine…

I guess the $200 going rate is a good thing, because I have no plans to retire any time soon and in any event, I’m hanging on to my LP53.   It was given to my Dad by one of his shooting buddies (a fellow named Leo Keller, who, like my Dad, was a serious trapshooter).   Dad handed it on to me when I was a kid, and I had a lot of fun with it.

One time I walked over to my cousin Bobby’s house holding that gun in my hand the entire way (Bobby lived a mile away from where I did, back in New Jersey).  Imagine that…a young teenager like me walking down the road for a mile holding a pistol in his hand.    If a kid in New Jersey tried that today, they’d call out half a dozen SWAT teams and maybe even the National Guard.  Back then, it was a normal thing to do, and nobody got their shorts in a knot over it.

Anyway, when I got to Bobby’s house we sat on his back porch shooting the Walther, and then we got the bright idea it might make sense to have something to shoot at.   Bobby looked through the trash and found an empty orange juice can.   You might remember those cans…they were little (maybe an inch in diameter and 3 inches tall).    The idea was you took the frozen concentrate out and mixed it with water, and voilà, you had orange juice.

Bobby set the can out about 30 feet away and I took a shot at it.   Bingo!   The can went down.

“Wow, that’s pretty good,” Bobby said.  Bobby was about 7 years younger than me (he still is, actually).   He was easily impressed back then (today, not so much).

“You ain’t seen nothing yet,” I said.  “I’m going to shoot it again and make it stand up.”

Bobby looked at me in amazement.  I was his big cousin.  He thought what he saw in me was supreme confidence that I could make that shot.   You know, that I did this sort of thing all the time.   The truth is I had no idea if I could make that shot, but it was such an outrageous thing to claim I had nothing to lose.   But….if I made the shot, we’d be talking about it for years.

I took careful aim at the base of the can and gently squeezed the Walther’s trigger.   The Walther spit out compressed air and the little .177 pellet connected, catching the orange juice can right at its base.   The can spun around, flipped up, whirled around a few more times, and came to rest.  Standing.   I couldn’t believe it.   It was a one-in-a-million shot, and I made it!  Pure dumb luck on my part.   But I acted as if it was the most natural thing in the world for me to do.   That was sometime in the early 1960s.   I was back in New Jersey last month and Sue and I had dinner with Bobby and his wife, Sheree.   And yes, we talked about that shot.

In researching the background of this unique handgun, I tried to learn what it originally cost. I checked some vintage gun books I own.  In my copy of the 1974 Gun Digest, I actually found it.   The retail price in 1974 was $59.   I had to go through several old books to find it, and as I did so, I was amazed at the artwork on some of them.    The 1956 Shooter’s Bible, in particular, stood out.  I thought I would scan the cover and include it as a nice touch in finishing this post…

Steve and I went to La Tolteca’s for lunch today and it was awesome.  I thought I was being good by getting a (presumably healthy) chicken burrito, but when they brought it over to our table I could mentally see my cardiologist wagging a finger at me.  The thing was the size of the USS Enterprise!  I sure liked it (I liked the fact that Steve paid for it even better)!

Hey, it’s no problem!  Give us a call!

There’s a CSC Affiliate in your area eager to show you this great new motorcycle – the one that is rewriting the rules for performance, adventure touring, reliability, and unparalleled customer support!  Around the corner or around the world – the CSC RX3 is the right motorcycle for you!

We’re going to be at the Overland Expo in Flagstaff, Arizona, from May 20th through the 22nd.   Overland Expo is a dynamite event, folks…and the people who are there are our kind of people!   Adventure riders, world travelers, and generally, folks who enjoy getting out in the world on adventure touring bikes and other overland vehicles.  It’s a hoot!

We’re going to ride out late in the afternoon on the 19th, and if anyone wants to ride with us, you’re more than welcome.   It’s about a 400-mile ride from Azusa.  We’ll stop somewhere about halfway there, spend the night, and then finish the ride the next morning.

When we did this run last year, it was a magnificent ride.   We take the slab (I-210 and I-10) for about 90 miles, and then we pick up California Highway 62 (a two-laner) across the Mojave, and then we’ll ride across the Colorado River into Arizona.   The ride to Overland Expo the next morning will be through some of the prettiest scenery I’ve ever seen as we cross Arizona’s deserts and mountains.  I love that ride!  Check out a few of the photos from our trek to Overland Expo last year…

If you want to ride with us, shoot an email in and let us know!  Oh, and if you want to know more about the event, just click here!

This TT250 maintenance tutorial addresses swingarm maintenance.   There’s not a lot you need to do to maintain your TT250 swingarm.   We wanted to take the swingarm off the motorcycle to take a look at the swingarm mounting system and its internals.   We found that by greasing the swingarm and shock absorber pivot points, the suspension was noticeably smoother.   The bike we performed this on has seen quite a few hard miles off road in dusty environments.

The first step  is to safely elevate the rear end of the motorcycle.   We use a motorcycle jack; any suitable lift method will work.

Remove the rear wheel.  Rear wheel removal is covered in the TT250 rear wheel removal tutorial.

Detach the rear brake line keepers from the swingarm.

Remove the nut and bolt that attaches the rear shock absorber to the swingarm.

Rotate the lower portion of the rear shock absorber to clear the swingarm mounting bracket, and remove the bushing from the rear shock absorber.

Unbolt the nuts securing the swingarm pivot axle.

There will be dust caps/washers on the frame between the swingarm axle nuts and the frame.   Remove these and set them aside.

Pull the swingarm pivot axle out of the frame.

Remove the swingarm from the motorcycle frame.

Remove the dust caps that fit between the frame and the swingarm.

The next steps involve re-greasing (lubricating) the swingarm pivot points.   We use Maxima waterproof grease, which is a great lubricant.   We stock the full line of Maxima lubricating oils and grease.  Please call us at 909 445 0900 if you need any of these items.

Apply grease to the frame bushings through which the swingarm pivot axle will pass.

Apply grease to the exterior of the swingarm bushings.

Apply grease to the rear shock absorber bushing.

Insert the rear shock absorber bushing and apply grease to the exterior exposed edge of the bushing.

Assembly is the reverse of disassembly.   Torque the shock absorber nut and bolt to 35 N-m.   There is no torque specification for the swingarm pivot axle nuts.  Tighten the swingarm pivot axle nuts equally such that there is no side-to-side play in the swingarm and it pivots up and down with minimal drag.

Folks, we’ve seen some dirty lowdown lies on some of the forums about our motorcycles, and you read my posts on the shenanigans of these mental misfits in the past (see, for example, my blog titled Venom, Viciousness, and Vituperation).  Today, though, the online disinhibited (read:  morons) hit a new low.   We recently boosted a Facebook post on the RX3.   It’s a good one.  I shot the photo we used in it…

When we boost a post on Facebook, people can post responses.  Most of the responses are very positive, and a large number of them are folks posting their friends’ names in the comments area to tell them about a great bike and a great deal.  The RX3 is out there, you and I have  accumulated tens of thousands of miles on our bikes, you are posting positive things about the bike and our company, and the reactions have been strongly positive.

We still get the occasional anti-China rant from the folks who don’t like China, and we get the occasional comment banging our direct-to-you sales model from the dealers and their shills, but that is noise level stuff and we can all see through it.   Today, though, the online hatred hit a new low.   Check out this Facebook comment and photo from a Robert Newcomb…

Robert Newcomb I just bought mine, but it set on fire when charging in the garage. Picture I took before I called 9-1-1. I have tried repeatedly to get through to customer service but they just leave me on hold ’til I hang up. No response to emails. Wtf?

Newcomb’s post is a bald-faced lie calculated to denigrate the bike and our company.   I know this for several reasons:

• We never heard of Robert Newcomb until he posted that ugly lie on Facebook.  He’s not a customer of ours.
• He never called, as his post claims.
• He never emailed, as his post claims.

I took the image this lying sack of suds (I’m keeping it clean here, folks) posted online and did a reverse Google image search on it, and what do you know, here it is in the original article…

MONITOR TOWNSHIP, MI — A Monitor Township man narrowly escaped an exploding garage which ended up spreading fire to his home.

At 6:38 p.m. Thursday, March 31, a man was working on his motorcycle inside his garage at 1213 E. Midland Road. When he went to put fuel in the bike, he dropped the can and spilled fuel across the floor, said Monitor Township Fire Department Lt. Brian Bladecki.

A furnace and hot water heater were in the garage, and they ignited the fuel’s fumes.

“He saw the flames come across the floor,” Bladecki said. “Just as he took off out the garage door, that’s when it blew up.”

The garage was composed of cement blocks, all of which were cracked by the explosion, Bladecki said.

“It was quite an explosion,” the lieutenant said.  

The fire spread to the man’s attached house and to a pickup parked next to the garage. A neighbor attached his wrecker to the truck and pulled it 20 to 30 feet away, though its motor and front end were already damaged by the blaze, Bladecki said.

Firefighters responded to battle the blaze. There ended up being heat, smoke, and water damage throughout the house. Bladecki said the house is considered a total loss, with the value estimated to be between $100,000 to $120,000.

The man was the lone occupant. He was a renter and did not have renter’s insurance, though the landlord did have insurance on the property, Bladecki said.

No one was injured. Firefighters cleared the scene at 9:27 p.m.

So, who is this Robert Newcomb, actually?  Beats the heck out of us…as I said, we never heard of him until today.   He’s not in Michigan (as was that poor guy who’s house actually caught on fire); Newcomb is up in northern California somewhere.   But if you want to know more about the background of a true troll, you can glean a little bit more by taking a peek at Newcomb’s Facebook page.

That’s it for now.   Newcomb, get back under your rock.   You’ve been outed.