CSC Blog

No, I’m not talking about grumpy old men (like yours truly) who haven’t had their first cup of coffee in the morning.    I’m enjoying my first cup of the morning at the Subaru dealer, and I’m waiting for the good guys here to complete some routine maintenance on my Subie (an oil change, a tire rotation, and a brake system flush).

When I arrived at the Subie place this morning, I noticed a super cool CrossTrek parked out front in a vibrant yellow color (it’s the first one of those I’ve seen).   I’ve got the Nikon and its super wide 16-35 lens with me, so I’ll probably snag a photo for you at the end of this blog.

But I digress…what I wanted to chat about this morning was that Z-1 I rode in Chongqing.  That motorcycle impressed me mightily.

I spoke at length with the Zongshen engineers about it, and my good friend Fan explained to me that the engine incorporated many advanced features (that’s Fan in the photo below, along with Bella).

The engine has swirl technology, roller rocker arms, and many other features I’ve seen in other engines for decades, but I could feel there was something more to this new motor.   What I didn’t tumble to during Fan’s explanation was why the engine felt so powerful.   It was way more than I expected from what appeared to be yet another Honda CG-150 clone.   Then Fan got to the bottom line…the new engine’s offset crank.   Here’s a picture from their literature that explains it better than I ever could…

The concept is brilliant…it uses better leverage when the piston has its greatest output (achieved by a 4mm crankshaft offset), which increases both torque and smoothness.   I’m guessing the concept has been around for awhile, but it was the first I’d heard of it, and folks, it works.  The thing had the bottom end torque of a much larger engine, and it was unnaturally smooth.

The challenge for us, of course, is this:  Does it make business sense to invest another $50K to $75K to take the Z-1 through the CARB, EPA, and DOT certification process, particularly in light of the fact that this is “only” a 150cc motorcycle?   As business people, we have to be cognizant of the fact that American riders are enamored with big displacement motors.   Still, this is a motorcycle that is mighty appealing, and if we decide to bite the bullet and make that investment, I know who CSC’s first Z-1 buyer will be.  I’ll take mine in that saucy red-and-white color, thank you very much, just like you see in the photo above!

Oh, one more thing…I did manage to sneak outside and grab a photo of that bright yellow CrossTrek…

Let us know your thinking on the Z-1, folks.  You can write to us at info@CSCMotorcycles.com.   We’d love hear from you.

Planning for our epic ride with the good folks from Zongshen (and maybe you) is shaping up nicely, folks…thanks to the good work by Baja John!

More to follow…

Folks,  your good buddy Joe here (as usual).

First, my thanks to you if you already own an RX3. We greatly appreciate your business.

The ride I spoke about in the previous blog is shaping up nicely.   It will cover the western United States from 15 July to 31 July. Our route will take us through California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and back down the Pacific Coast Highway to our corporate headquarters in Azusa.  I invite you to ride with us for all or any part of this trip.  We’ll be finalizing the route in the next day or so, and I’ll post it here.

I know that some of you rode with us on the Baja ride. We’ll do fewer daily miles on this ride and a bit more sightseeing, so the pace will be a bit more relaxed. Most of the Chinese who are riding with us have never been to the US, and they are keenly interested in seeing America.

This is a good opportunity to ride with us and to have direct conversations with the engineers from Zongshen, including many of the folks I met with last week in Chongqing. I’ve never needed an excuse to take a motorcycle ride, but if you need one, this is as good as it gets.  We’ll also be offering test rides at various points along our route, so if you don’t have an RX3 yet and you want to see and ride the RX3, this is a good opportunity to do so.

If you want to ride with us, please let us know this week.  You can reach me at info@CSCMotorcycles.com.  Again, you are invited for all or any part of the ride.

One last point: The recent favorable article in Motorcyclist, as expected, resulted in a sales surge that has our inventory down to just nine motorcycles as of this morning, and it’s probably fewer than that now.   The remaining inventory will sell this week or next, and we won’t have the next shipment until the end of August.  If you want an RX3 now, this is the time to act.

It’s good to be home.   I had a great visit with our friends at Zongshen and in reviewing my notes, we sure accomplished a lot.   But like I said, it’s good to be home.

It’s going to be busy, busy, busy in July, my friends.    We’re deep into planning the riding activity with our Chinese visitors, and like I said earlier, anybody who has an RX3 is welcome to ride with us.   We’ll be offering test rides at selected stops along the way, too, and we’ll be covering Arizona, Nevada, maybe as far east as South Dakota and Wyoming, Oregon, and down the Pacific Coast Highway.  I promised the Zongshen guys a ride across the Golden Gate Bridge, and I aim to deliver on that promise.  We’ll be posting more here on the blog, so keep an eye on us.   And Spud, if you’re reading this, there’s a real good chance we’ll be up in your neck of the woods.   I’ve heard you know a few good roads in Idaho…any chance you’ll want to mingle and show us around a bit?

I picked up some awesome photos while I was in China.  I can’t share many of them with you.   At least not yet.   As I’ve said many times before, we are not sitting still, and we have good things coming your way.   I rode the latest and the greatest while I was in China, and my favorite (after my personal RX3) remains the Z-1.  It’s just a light, flickable, smooth motorcycle, and I really enjoyed tooling round the Zongshen campus on it.

And hey, that photo to the right…that’s yours truly and Bella, my colleague and main contact at Zongshen.  One of the Zonghshen folks took that photo of Bella and me at the Zongshen Management Club high up on a mountain overlooking the Zongshen manufacturing campus.  Like that Navy recruiting slogan used to say…it’s not just a job…it’s an adventure!

It’s good to be back in the plant here in California.  I grabbed that photo you see above with my uber-camera, the mighty Nikon D810, and the low light level performance of that camera is just amazing.   The photo at the top of this blog was shot without flash at ISO 10,000, at f16.   Yep, you read that right.  ISO 10,000!    I like it.  A lot.   It’s got everything in focus (from the up-close stuff on the RX3 to Gerry’s gear on the pegboard).   Awesome stuff.

More good news…the 19-inch wheels are in stock now, but they are selling quickly.  We’ve got the matching CST 19-inch front tire, and we also have front and rear matching knobbies.   Give Ryan a call if you have an interest, but don’t dilly dally.    These are going fast.

And speaking of going fast…we’re down to about 12 RX3 motorcycles when I left the plant today.   The demand for these bikes surprised even me.   We knew these bikes were great; we didn’t know the market would react so strongly to them.   If you want an RX3 and you don’t want to wait until the next shipment arrives in August…well, see my advice above.   Don’t dilly dally, my friends!

First, a photo of my two best friends at Zongshen…meet Fan and Bella!

That’s the new 2015 Zongshen Z-1 in the photo above, and I rode it (and a couple of other new models) yesterday.   The Z-1 is great…so much so that I did not want to stop riding it, and I spent a little time rolling around the huge Zongshen manufacturing campus.   What a day, and as my good buddy Reuben would say, what a life!

As I’ve written before, the Zongshen facility is enormous.   Here’s a photo showing their main office building…

I’ve visited some interesting places on the Zongshen campus, including their motorcycle assembly area, their machining centers, their engine assembly areas, and their R&D center.  All of these places were fascinating, but one of the most interesting spots is the R&D center.   Basically, I went behind the green curtain on this visit, and the things I saw were intriguing.    Very, very intriguing.

You might notice something a bit different in the two photos above…the sun was shining!  In all my trips to Chonqging, yesterday was the first time I saw the sun.   Bella told me that happens, and it sure did yesterday.   It was a good day for a motorcycle ride.   It was very hot and the humidity here is off the charts, but it was still a good day for a motorcycle ride.   Any day is a good day for a motorcycle ride.   But yesterday was especially nice.

Back to that Z-1 for a moment…the engine uses new technology and I’ll explain more about it in a future blog.  I’m a mechanical engineer and a motorcyclist, and from both an engineering and a riding perspective, what the good folks at Zongshen have done here is most impressive.  This is an amazing motorcycle.

Okay, on to the Riding Activity I mentioned in the title of this blog.   The Riding Activity: That’s what the Chinese call it.  We call it an epic motorcycle ride.   Five Zongshen guys are flying to the US from China on July 15th, and we’re taking them (and maybe you) on an epic ride around the western US.  It will be an RX3 lollapalooza (and yes, I’m laughing to myself as I picture my Zongshen friends using their iPhone translators to find that word).  You are invited to ride with us on all or any part of the ride.   I’ll be on the entire ride, as will our good buddy and travel director Baja John, and we’ll have a number of journalists popping in for different parts of the trip.   We’ll be publishing the itinerary next week, so keep an eye on us.  I promise you this…it will be epic!

Seems like that new Zongshen Z-1 photo I posted yesterday (my yesterday, maybe not yours) piqued a few folks’ interest.   Here are a few more shots…

I guess the question is this:  How many folks would buy a 150?   We don’t have any plans (we just spotted the bike yesterday), but it’s an intriguing concept.  I’m going to see if I can get some seat time on it today.   What do you think?

I grabbed a few shots today in Chongqing on the way into the Zongshen plant…two-wheeled transport that caught my eye…

And here’s a couple of shots of an RX-3 that’s always parked across the street from Zongshen’s main headquarters building…there’s got to be a story behind that UN emblem on the topcase…

One more before I call it a night (hey, it’s 11:00 p.m. here and I’m still struggling a bit with the time change).    Let us know what you think of Zongshen’s new Z-1 150cc motorcycle…

That’s it for now, my friends.   Time to get some sleep.

It’s overcast, hot, and humid here in Chongqing…and I’m having a ball.   It was 91 degrees yesterday (nothing like the 115 we experienced in Laughlin a week ago), but the humidity is high and folks, it’s sweltering.   I’m loving every minute.

After 12 hours from LAX to Incheon, a 3 1/2-hour layover in Incheon, and another 3 1/2 hours on Asiana Airlines to Chongqing, I arrived in China just before noon yesterday.   I went through Customs in record time (I’ll bet the time from getting in line until I was through was less than 3 minutes).   The Chinese Customs officer looked at the form I filled out regarding my business in China and simply said “Ah, Zongshen…motorbike!”  He gave me an approving look and I was in.   Hey, Zongshen is the largest motorcycle manufacturer in China.  I’m not surprised the Chinese officer knew about them, and if I had to guess, I’ll bet he rides a Zongshen.

My contact Bella was waiting for me, and it was a quick run to the plant.  We visited the engine production line run by Mr. Xu, and even though I’ve been here many times before, I loved it.   There’s nothing quite like watching new RX3 powerplants being born.

We’re slated for a full day of meetings today, including a visit to one of Zongshen’s key suppliers here in Chongqing (it’s a city of 34 million people and home to China’s motorcycle industry).   After that, I’m having dinner with Zongshen’s marketing people (I think I’ll try Chinese food tonight), and then it’s more meetings tomorrow.

You know, we talk to the good folks at Zongshen nearly every day, but there’s nothing like face-to-face meetings for clear communications.  I like being in exotic places and Chongqing is surely that.   I’m Indiana Jones with PowerPoint and a passport, and I love what I do.

That’s it for today, folks (at least your today…I might blog a bit later t0night, but it will be tomorrow for you).

I’m on my way to Chongqing, and we just landed (after a 12+ hour redeye out of LAX) in Incheon, South Korea.   Interesting stuff…we flew directly over Suweon, which is where I was deployed 40 years ago (to the month!) on the Yellow Sea….that’s me on the left, and my Platoon Sergeant (Sergeant Coleman) on the right in June, 1975.

I remember it being super hot and humid back then, and it still is today.   The weather notwithstanding, a lot has changed in 40 years.   One of these years, I have to make it back to Korea and explore this country a bit more.  The Incheon Airport is new…when I was here in the mid-70s the entire area was rice paddies and mosquitoes in the summer.    But like I said, things have changed, and I had to grab one quick iPhone shot in this new airport.

Yes, folks, Dunkin’ Donuts has landed at Incheon (just like Douglas MacArthur)…

That’s it for now.  I think I’m going to grab a cup of that coffee and catch my next flight.

I’m off to Chongqing tonight, boys and girls, for a couple of days of meetings with the engineers and others at Zongshen.   There’s a lot happening and I’ll post an update or two from China.   Suffice it to say, we’re not sitting still.

I’m looking forward to meeting with my Zongshen friends this week!

On that front, we’ve got more than a few events coming up this summer:

• Another quick run or two into Baja
• The Three Flags Highway run I told you about up to Mammoth
• I’m riding a coast-to-coast RX3 trip to New Jersey and back
• A ride or two in Arizona
• A ride through the eastern Mojave Desert
• The event in Oregon I mentioned a few blogs back

In addition to the above, we have another couple of irons in the fire.   One is a big run I’ll have more info on when I return from Chongqing.  This one is going to be an epic ride, so you’ll want to keep an eye on the blog for more details.

And there’s another event we’re going to do this summer…we’ve noticed a lot of you are shooting enthusiasts.  We’re going to sponsor a barbeque at the West End Gun Club one day this summer and hold our first annual “Scoot and Shoot.”   It will be an informal match, and the only entry requirement is that you show up on an RX3.   Watch the blog for more details.

Our first annual “Scoot and Shoot” will be this summer…watch the blog for more details!

Another bit of good news…the August issue of Motorcyclist is about to hit the stands (if you have an online subscription you’ll have read it already), and in it Ari Henning gave the  RX3 a great review.

Motorcyclist Magazine’s Ari Henning riding the RX3

Our phones are already ringing off the hook, the bikes are selling quickly, and if you want to get an RX3 now without waiting for the next increment to arrive, don’t sit around thinking about whether or not you should go for the motorcycle Ari called a “remarkably good bike” and “a totally competent machine.”   I’m guessing we’ll be sold out within the next week or so, and then we’ll all have to wait until the next shipment arrives.

That’s it for now, folks.   More to follow from Chongqing.