And here we are…off to the start of 2017. Wow, time sure does fly.
It’s cold and damp out here in southern California on this second day of the New Year. I’m kicking back with a hot cup of coffee and I’m catching up on things. I just read about the 450cc Zongshen Dakar bikes finishing the first stage of that event (you can see how they fared here). It will be exciting to see how the 450 Zongshen race bikes finish each stage. What Zongshen is doing here is gutsy. The Big Z is introducing a new engine in a new bike in one of the world’s toughest competitive events, with the results out there for all to see.
The Zongshen 450cc Dakar Rally bike.
That brings me to the next topic: The RX4. We’ve had mixed emotions about publicizing the RX4 for a number of reasons, the most dominant of which is product cannibalization. Any time a new product is introduced, it will cannibalize sales of the existing product (in our case, the RX3). We think that hasn’t happened to us. RX3 sales were great last year. But pushing the RX4 at you well before it is available is still a concern.
The RX4…don’t look for it any sooner than 2018, and don’t hold off pulling the trigger on an RX3 waiting for this bike.
The earliest we’ll see the RX4 here in the US is no sooner than January 2018, and I personally doubt it will happen that soon. For starters, the RX4 design has not been finalized by Zongshen (the RX4 is not yet available anywhere in the world), nor have we defined our North American configuration with Zongshen. Zongshen tells us the RX4 design will be finalized in the second quarter of 2017, but I’ve spent my entire professional life around engineering development efforts in a variety of industries and I can tell you that the word most frequently coupled with “schedule” is “slip” (as in “schedule slip”). After the RX4 design is finalized, we have to send a product description to the EPA and request permission to bring sample RX4s in for testing (there goes another month to get the request approved). After we get permission from the EPA to bring the samples in, we have to get 3 or 4 bikes shipped to us so we can begin the testing process. You can figure on 6 weeks of transit time, and anywhere from 3 days to 3 months for the bikes to sit in Customs. That’s another 2 to 4 months. Then we get to shell out something north of $60K for the emissions testing and DOT evaluations (figure another 1 to 2 months), and then there’s the delay as EPA, CARB, and the DOT ponder the test results (and that can take another 1 to 3 months). Once we order the bikes, it’s another month to produce them, and then another 6 weeks for them to make the trip down the Yangzte and across the Pacific, and then once again there’s the time to get though Customs. And, to compound the challenge, the times I’m sketching out here assume everything goes smoothly and there are no problems or required design changes. You get the idea. This isn’t something that happens quickly.
The above RX4 concerns notwithstanding, we’ve been blessed. The RX3 continues to sell well, and our TT250 has done extremely well. It really is amazing. In a down year for the motorcycle industry (an industry that has been obsessed for more than five decades with ever-larger and increasingly-expensive bikes), we’ve done well with 250cc singles priced appropriately. A big part of our shared success has been the stellar nature of both the RX3 and the TT250, the extreme value both products bring to the market, our unique path to market (no dealers, free maintenance tutorials, free service manuals, our adventure rides, and our customer support), and the enlightened nature of our customers. Yep, our customers….folks like you. Folks who aren’t afraid to pick up a wrench, folks who make their own decisions, and folks who spend more time on the road then they do on Internet forums. We’re on to something here. You can see it in our results, and you can see it in the fact that no fewer than four other manufacturers are now copying us by planning to bring small ADV bikes to the US market. Like I said earlier, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Letting the good times roll…lobster burritos at Mama Espinoza’s on the 2016 CSC Baja Run!
2017 is going to be a banner year. We’ve got new RX3s and TT250s inbound. The new 2017 TT250s will have tachs and digital speedos (and the price will stay at $2195). The RZ3 (the naked RC3) evaluation bikes are in port and we’ll sell a ton of those. We’re going racing with Roland Wheeler and the RC3. We’ll have weekend rides every month (the first one is this Saturday), and we’re doing rides up the Pacific Coast Highway, deep into Baja, across the US to the east coast, and I may even get to ride in Africa this year. Stay tuned, folks…it’s going to be a fun year!
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One of the execs at CSC just forwarded this to me. It’s the story of a woman who rode around South America on a 150cc Zongshen, 
RX1E Electric Motorcycle
SG250 San Gabriel Cafe Racer
TT250 Enduro