CSC Blog

You’ll know soon enough when you take delivery on your new CSC Cyclone, but in the meantime…

If you’d like to order a new CSC Cyclone, give us a call at 909 445 0900!

If you want to see the bikes, swing by our plant in Azusa (we’re at 1331 W. Foothill Boulevard).

And don’t forget…we’ll be at the Sacramento International Sportsmen’s Exposition next week (Jan 8-11)!

During my most recent visit with Zongshen, my good buddy Fan gave a brochure to me that stopped me in my tracks.   It told the story of an incredible ride through some of the most interesting places on the planet.   My first reaction was to ask Fan if he had the brochure in digital format.   He did, and seconds later, so did I.  Now, so do you!

Folks, grab a cup of coffee, sit back, and enjoy the journey…

This is awesome stuff.   I can’t wait until we get the CSC Cyclone in your hands, when we’ll see trip reports like this about your epic adventures on our continent!

What a way to close 2014 and enter the New Year!   We learned today that the United States Environmental Protection Agency approved the CSC RX-3 Cyclone!   We’re still waiting for California Air Resources Board (CARB) approval, but it’s typical for CARB approval to take a bit longer.    We know the guys at CARB, they’re good people and good engineers, and we’re not expecting any problems.

Right now we’re cleared to deliver the Cyclone in all 49 states except our home state of California, and as soon as we get CARB approval, we’ll be able to do California, too.   Good news indeed!   Under Steve’s capable leadership, this is quite an accomplishment!

Steve Seidner, the man who is bringing the CSC Cyclone to America!

I know, I know….everyone is chomping at the bit and your next question is:   When can I get my bike?

Here’s where we are, folks.   During our visit with the motorcycle manufacturing maestros in Chongqing last week, Zongshen committed to a 25 January ship date.    Yay!

What happens next is the ship leaves the port in Chongqing (a city deep in China) and sets sail on the mighty Yangtze River.    That’s the same river Susie and I took a cable car across when we were in Chongqing!

The mighty Yangtze on a typically dreary Chongqing day…the route our bikes will take to the Pacific!

Our bikes will sail halfway across China on the Yangtze, go through the locks at the Three Gorges Dam (the largest dam in the world, by the way), and continue along the Yangtze to Shanghai where the Chiang Jiang (the Long River, another name for the Yangtze) meets the Pacific Ocean.   From there, the ship crosses the Pacific to Long Beach in California.   If you’re wondering where I’m going with this “slow boat from China” story, it’s here:  The trip from Chongqing to Long Beach takes about 3 weeks.

The route across China, sailing from Chongqing to Shanghai, and then on to Long Beach!

Once the ship arrives in Long Beach, it can take anywhere from a few days to maybe 3 weeks to clear US Customs.   It usually takes a week for this part of the cycle, but it can occasionally take longer.   For example, we’ve got another shipment of other stuff that’s been hung up in Customs for 2 weeks.  It’s unusual that it takes this long, but it can happen.

So what’s all this mean?   Right now, our best estimate is that we’re looking at 3 weeks from 25 Jan to reach Long Beach, and a week after that to get to us.   That puts the CSC Cyclone’s arrival at our plant on or about 20 February.   Might be a little longer; might be a little shorter.  We’ll keep you posted.    But I’m pumped.   I’m already digging into the detailed planning for the Baja trip, boys and girls, so keep an eye on the blog to learn more about that!

And for our friends in Canada who we know are watching things closely:   We’re working it.   Your bikes have already started the Canadian approval process.  We’ll keep you posted, too!

You asked, we listened, and as will always be the case, we put your needs first.   Yep, we’re announcing pricing for our optional CSC Cyclone Tourfella aluminum bags with this blog!

With the engineering, marketing, and manufacturing gurus at Zongshen last week

You know, if you were buying a set of lockable aluminum luggage for a BMW GS1200A, the BMW luggage would cost almost as much as a new CSC Cyclone motorcycle.   If you bought this luggage from one of the aftermarket suppliers of adventure bike accessories (other than CSC, that is), you’d pay between $1500 and $2200.

You can guess where we’re going with this announcement, folks.   We’re not going to do that to you.   Our price to you for all three pieces of luggage (with key locks, mounting brackets, and all hardware) is a flat $849.95.   There are no extras other than shipping , and we’ll keep that reasonable.   Like everything else associated with the CSC Cyclone, this is a heck of a deal.

We’ll have another post giving all the technical details on the new Tourfella aluminum luggage (capacities, dimensions, etc.), but we wanted to get the price and a few photos to you first.    Take a look at these, my fellow CSC Cyclone buddies…

The top case

Yep, it takes a full-face helmet!  And check out the bungee attach points on the bag lids!

The side bags are quick-detachable via two large handwheels, and all three bags are key lockable

See what we mean?  Easy on, and easy off!

And the $849.95 price includes all mounting bracketry and hardware!

I knew you’d ask, so here’s a closeup of the waterproof lid-to-case interface!

We’re going to be placing our first order for the new Tourfella CSC Cyclone bags in the next couple of weeks, so if you want a set, please give us a call soon.   Well, soon enough…we won’t be in the plant tomorrow because it’s New Year’s Day!   We’ll be getting these exciting new Tourfella luggage sets with the first shipment of bikes, so if you want to get your oar in the water, please let us know!

And before we wrap this blog up, here are a few questions I know you’ll ask:

What are the dimensions and capacities?   Like I said earlier, we’ll post that.   Truth is, I left this info at the plant earlier today and I don’t have it in front of me as I write this blog.

Are these larger than the stock resin luggage?   The answer is yes.   Just look at the photos above.

Can I order these instead of the stock resin luggage?   Unfortunately, the answer is no.   To keep the price of the RX-3 low and bring the best possible deal to you, we’ve standardized our production configuration.   If we were mixing and matching optional equipment on the assembly line, it would slow the process and increase the price.  My guess is that if you put your stock Cyclone luggage on E-bay, it would go quickly (we’re already getting inquiries from the KLR community on those bags).   Or, you could keep the stock bags.   Whatever.   But we’re doing like Henry Ford did on the Model T to keep the price down (other than the color options):  We’re offering one standard motorcycle configuration.

When I travel the world with my CSC Cyclone, can I paint a map and write all the places I’ve been on the luggage? 

A shot of my good buddy Reinhard’s bike in Turkey 20 years ago…we want you to do the same thing with your CSC Cyclone!

We want you to do that, and when you do, send the photos to me so I can post them on the blog!

That’s it for now, folks.   You might be thinking this will be the last blog of 2014, but you’d be wrong.   Don’t stray too far from your computer!   More good CSC Cyclone news coming your way this evening!

All you good folks in northern California…we’ll be in Booth 4023 at the Sacramento International Sportsmen’s Expo from January 8th through the 11th!   And you know Steve…he’s always thinking about the next big thing!   What might that be?   Hey, a teaser photo…

We’ll be putting the bike together later this week, so keep an eye on the blog for this latest custom CSC RX-3!

And there’s lots happening here, boys and girls.   After a very long flight home, Susie and I took the requisite 2 or 3 days to get our internal clocks back on California time, and today we stopped in at the CSC plant.

We’ll be posting cool updates in the next few days, folks, on the RX-3, the RX-3 accessories, and a whole crop of CSC-150 modern Mustangs that we’re running a special on.   Trust me on this, my friends…if you want a CSC-150, you’ll not want to let this deal get away from you!    The CSC-150s are beautiful.   There’s a desert camo Sarge in the group (that one’s a relatively rare color treatment) and it stopped me in my tracks.   It’s visually arresting, as they say.

Here’s another update coming your way:   Our next Cyclone maintenance tutorial.   This one will be on valve adjustment.    We like doing the maintenance tutorials.   Do you know of any other manufacturer doing anything like this?

Most people think that valve adjustments are too difficult to do themselves, and the dealers capitalize on that big time!   Try getting your valves adjusted on any modern motorcycle at a dealership, and you’ll be looking at a ticket somewhere between $500 and $1000 (and sometimes even more than that).   On my Triumph…well, those guys required a special tool to adjust the valves, and then just to rub salt in the wound, you couldn’t buy the special tool.   Triumph wouldn’t sell it to anyone other than a dealer!   That’s practically a crime (you sure don’t see that in any of their sales brochures).  Adjusting your valves is not that difficult.   We taught you how to do it on the CSC-150, and we’re going to do the same on your new Cyclone.  Our feeling is you should keep those big bucks in your pockets and we’re going to help you do that.   Spend the money on gas, and use your CSC Cyclone to explore the world!

Hey, more good stuff.   While we were in Chongqing visiting one of the ancient villages, I grabbed a photo of this beautiful young lady named Lraria (she pronounces her name as “Laria”).    Lraria is from Canton (known today as Guangzhou), a city we’ve visited many times.   I showed you her photo before, and she’s so pretty here she is again…

Lraria is a photography enthusiast (I could tell by the camera she was sporting…a top end Canon), and after I took a photo of her, she asked if she could photograph Susie and yours truly.

I gave Lraria my business card after the three of us chatted a bit (who knows….maybe someday she’ll want to buy a CSC motorcycle).

Well, today I received an email from Lraria, and here’s that photo she took of Susie and me…

More coming up, folks…so stay tuned!

I’m going to share with you some of the observations I grabbed on how they ride motorcycles in China.   They do things a little differently over here and it is pretty interesting.

Motorcycles aren’t toys in this part of the world.   People use them as tools, and small rules the roost.   For the most part, in the US our bikes are discretionary purchases.   In China, they are not.

Crossing the Yangtze River at midday…the sun’s up there somewhere…it pretty much looks like this all the time

Even though it rained a lot while we were here, the weather didn’t seem to make any difference in how many motorcycles were on the street.   They’re out there.    These boys ride in any kind of weather.  In fact, I just saw a motorcycle with an umbrella mounted to it.  The folks who ride here have some interesting ways of dealing with the weather.

For starters, I’ve been fascinated by these big mitten-like things most of the riders over here attach to their motorcycles.   They’re not gloves as much as they are protectors that enclose your hand, the motorcycle’s hand controls, and your forearms…take a look…

Check out the hand covers…

These hand protector things are a pretty clever design, I think, and if you’ve ever had a long ride in really cold weather, you know what I’m talking about.   I remember riding home from Tahoe about 3 years ago when it was in the mid-to-high 30’s, and I gotta tell ya, that was a brutal ride.   My hands were so cold they were going numb.   I could have used the hand-tunnel-mitten-thingamabobbers you see above.

There are just two problems:   One, I can’t find these glove/mitten/sleeve things on the Internet (if you can, shoot me a note with the link).    And two, they look kind of dorky.   When you’re cold, though, looks don’t count.   And I probably could get around the dorky look by adding leather fringe.   Maybe I’d even get them embroidered with “ride to live, live to ride” or something similarly mindless.

Another thing I noticed on the bikes over here are the heavy duty/double duty passenger footpegs.   Check out the passenger footboards on the bike above.   Pretty clever…a passenger’s legs are both protected and free to move around.   Another cool thing about that floorboard approach…it makes a dandy way to tie stuff to the bike.   It’s a sensible and functional design, if you ask me.

Here’s another shot showing those floorboards, and to also introduce the next thing I want to mention:   Fairings.   These folks have some pretty interesting approaches to keeping the wind, the mist, and the mud away…

Fairings gone wild…check out the lowers on this Chinese Honda

Complete weather protection…sort of…with room for advertising!

Fairings, mittens, racks, a tank cover, and check out the pseudo-pannier/container bolted to the inside of the right lower fairing!

A Chinese Post Office motorcycle with lots of cargo capacity and lower body wind, mud, and water protection

Another interesting observation…tricycles are a big thing over here.   Zongshen makes a lot of engines for the trike manufacturers, and they all seem to be in the 250cc to 400cc range.   Some of the tricycles are fully enclosed…they are mini-car-like things…

One of many Chinese tricycles…they are all over the place here, and they get through traffic pretty well

Some of the enclosed tricycles have side-by-side seating up front with a conventional steering wheel for the driver/rider; others have a single seat for the driver and a pair of handlebars (like the one in the photo above).

Here’s a tricycle that is more car-like…

A car-like tricycle with seating for four

And then we have the down-and-dirty tricycles used for hauling freight.   There were dozens of variations on this theme, but this one particular rig stuck out…it’s a cardboard hauler that looked like it could have rolled across the Red Sea with Moses…

A hard-working tricycle

The engine and frame of the tricycle shown above…this trike earned its stripes!

Did you notice the rebar-based custom engine guard?   Folks, this trike takes the rat-bike concept to an entirely new level!

In a solid week over here, I did not see a single motorcycle over 250cc, and in fact, I only saw one that was a 250cc (the blue RX-3 I showed you in an earlier blog).   Most bikes were 110cc or 125cc, with the occasional 150cc bike tossed into the mix.   It’s not like these people don’t have money.  There’s big bucks in Chongqing…I saw Bentleys, BMWs, and Maserati automobiles like I’d see on Rodeo Drive back in California.   But the bikes were small, and they were all Chinese (like I said, small rules the roost).    I didn’t see any Euro bikes, any Harleys, or even a single Japanese bike.

That’s all for now, folks…the blog will go dark for a couple of days or so while we’re traveling.   Ride safe and keep the shiny side up!

The good people at Zongshen know I’m a photography nut, and they were most generous today.    Our point of contact at Zongshen (beautiful young Bella) and our awesome Mercedes pilot (Mr. Dan) ran us all over Chongqing today, including the ancient village of Longxing.   Folks, feast your eyes on some of what we saw today…

Susie and Indiana Jones

Nothing like a game of Mahjong on Christmas…lots of this going on today

Awesome photo subjects

This young lady was smoking pork

Kids having fun

More kids having fun

They’re making tofu in there

Mr. Dan, Mercedes maestro extraordinaire

Making sticky rice the old fashioned way

A fellow photography enthusiast

Meet Lauria…she’s from Canton…and yes, they pay me to do this!

Folks, our best wishes to you from Chongqing….have a very Merry Christmas!

It just keeps getting better, folks.   We’re wrapping up discussions on the initial CSC Cyclone deliveries.   Boy oh boy, do I have good news for you!

You guys and gals expressed your preference for the 17-inch rear wheel instead of the 15-inch rear wheel.    We had planned to offer the 17-inch rear wheel an aftermarket accessory and sell it to you at a very reasonable $258.95, but the Boss said:  Hey, why do that if most people want the 17-inch wheel?

You spoke, we heard you, and here’s the deal:   The 17-inch rear wheel will be standard equipment on a new CSC Cyclone!   We’ll include the cush drive, too.   All at no additional cost to you.

Another Cyclone rolls off the line…yours will have the 17-inch rear wheel and cush drive!

The difference in final drive gearing with the new 17-inch rear wheel is trivially small.   The 17-inch rear wheel (with tire) is slightly smaller in diameter than the 15-inch rear wheel (with tire) using the bike’s standard 80/20 dual sport tires.   You read that right…going to the larger rear wheel will actually very slightly lower the final drive ratio.   The difference is that the larger rear wheel will give a final drive ratio that’s about 2.6% lower (but that’s with the stock tires…change to another tire and that will change again).   And if you’re like me and you want to experiment with different gearing to tune the bike to your kind of riding, rest assured:  We’re going to stock a variety of sprockets.   Whatever floats your boat, we’ll have it.

Hey, did you think it stops there?   Not so, my friends.   We know that ADV riders accessorize their bikes, and we know that folks who take motorcycling seriously ride year round.    Cold weather?   Bring it on!

One of my objectives on this trip was to speak directly to the engineers and find out what the Cyclone’s alternator puts out, what it takes to run the motorcycle, and how much was left over for accessories.   There’s good news and more good news here…the Cyclone alternator output is 220 watts, and the bike only needs 160 watts for its standard equipment.    That 220 watts compares pretty favorably to my KLR-650’s output of 187 watts.   Still, real riders need real power…you know, auxiliary lighting, heated vests, heated grips, GPS, and more.    So we asked the chiefs in Chongqing:  Any chance of getting more?

No problem here, either.   More power?   Coming up!  It turns out there’s an 18-pole Cyclone stator available, and it provides a whopping 300 watts!   Wowee, that’s more than the 280-watt high performance upgraded aftermarket alternator you can put in a KLR-650 (and the ticket for that KLR part is over $200, not counting labor).

Wanna know what the 300-watt alternator is going to cost in your new Cyclone?

$0.

Yep, you read that right.   The 300-watt alternator is going to be standard equipment.   No extra charge.   Zero more dollars.   You can argue with us all you want, but we absolutely will not let you pay more for your new CSC Cyclone.  You can thank us over a shot of Tequila, after we’ve put the bikes away for the evening on the Baja ride!

Don’t get me wrong, folks…I’m not badmouthing the KLR.  You know that I own one and I’ve been riding it for close to 10 years now.   And we’ve heard the arguments about how it’s not fair to compare a 250 to a 650.  But the CSC Cyclone doesn’t know that.  It just keeps doing what it does, and it just keeps doing it better!

More interesting tidbits.    Folks asked about the swingarm, and in particular, there was a question about its pivots.   Lower-cost motorcycles often use plastic bushings at this critical point.  Not on this motorcycle, my friends.   The Cyclone swingarm uses four needle bearings…two on each side!

The CSC Cyclone uses four swingarm pivot needle bearings

Another tidbit…the Cyclone has a rev limiter that kicks in at 11,000 rpm.  The tach redline is 9,000 rpm.   I didn’t know that until I talked to the bike’s designers on this trip.    Cool stuff to know.

Oh, the tidbits are tumbling out….

You wanted a shot of the white Cyclone.   Well here you go…

The white CSC Cyclone

I know….I know.   The aluminum luggage on that bike….wow!    The short version…no, we aren’t publishing the price yet (but we will soon).   No, you can’t order it instead of the stock luggage.   Yes, the top bag will take a full face helmet.   Yes, it’s real aluminum.   Yes, it’s quick detach.   Now, don’t be calling the plant and bugging the folks there about this yet.   We’ll post more info on this soon.   But if you drive the guys in the factory nuts with phone calls, they’ll yell at me, and then I’ll have to stop sharing this cool stuff with you.   Hang in there…we’ll let you know soon!

And yet another tidbit…this one was an absolute joy to take in…every single Cyclone motorcycle is dynamometer tested before it leaves the factory.    Listen to this:  The Cyclone has a published top speed of 84 mph.    But that’s not what it’s tested to on the dyno.   Every one of these puppies has to spin that dyno up to 91 mph.  That’s the minimum.   The bikes I watched topped 94 mph on the dyno!   I know that’s not real world (on the dyno, the bike doesn’t have to fight aerodynamic drag), but still, when I saw this my only thought was:   Damn!  (Pardon my language, folks…but this is impressive stuff!)

Getting ready to run up the dyno on a brand new Cyclone

Do the math, folks…that’s 94.4 mph!

Oh, there’s lots more good stuff.    We’ll be publishing prices on some of the accessories we’re bringing to you for your new motorcycle in the near future.   I’ll talk more about the fuel gage and speedometer accuracy issues, too, but those are topics for another blog.

We’ll be in China for another few days.  Serious sightseeing for Susie and yours truly starts tomorrow.   More photos coming your way…along with more news about the exciting new Cyclone.

Stay tuned!

Wow, have I got great stuff to share with you.   Bottom line first…I watched the line from start to finish as the wizards of Chongqing built your favorite motorcycles!   Lots more coming up, but just a teaser photo first…

Another favorite…sharing photos of what it’s like riding in the USA with the tech team at Zongshen…

And let me tell you, here in Chongqing these boys ride their Cyclones hard and put them away wet…

More to follow, boys and girls.   Right now Susie’s telling me to get off the computer ’cause it’s time to eat.

We might do Chinese for dinner tonight…