CSC Blog

Wow, check out my good buddy Josh’s TT250 video!

This is awesome stuff, folks! And Josh, thanks for a great video!

Hey, we’re starting a new video series called “Shop Talk” in which Gerry and I will discuss some of the more-frequent questions we get from our customers about maintaining their bikes.   We’re going to be launching these at a rate of about one or two each month.  Here’s our first Shop Talk video, and it’s on prepping your bike for storage…

Do you have a suggestion for a Shop Talk topic?   If you want to add your idea to those we are considering, drop us a note at info@cscsmotorcycles.com!

I read this piece a short while ago on the Fox News website (no comments necessary about my preferred news outlet, folks).  Check this out, as quoted from the Fox News story…

Motorcycle racer struck by lightning during event, finishes anyway

Motorcycle racer Ivan Jakes isn’t faster than lighting, but he’s tough as nails.

The Slovakian rider was competing in the grueling Dakar rally in Argentina on Wednesday when he was struck by a bolt of lightning as he sped through the Salar Centenario region….and he just kept going.

Jakes was barely past the midway point of the 485-mile-long stage when he got jolted, but managed to finish the third day of the 12-day-long endurance event in 15th place with just a pain in his arm, according to Motorsport.com.

Upon arrival at base camp, Jakes was checked out by medical professionals, and his team credited the insulating effect of the motorcycle’s rubber tires for limiting injuries, saying that if he’d had his feet on the ground at the time of the hit it would’ve been a much different story.

After taking blood tests and putting him through a period of observation, the doctors cleared him to continue on Thursday with stage four — just a short 318-mile route into Bolivia that he finished in 11th place.

The race winds its way through the wilds of Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia, finishing in Buenos Aires on January 14.

This is Jakes’ 10th try at the Dakar rally. His best result was 4th in 2013.

I just can’t make up stuff this good.   Imagine that…struck by lightning, but he kept going anyway!

I’ve been reading about unrest in Mexico in the last few days as a result of the Mexican government bumping the price of gasoline 20%.  From a cost perspective, it would be no big deal to us for the Baja ride (even at the increased prices, it’s still about the same as what we pay for gas here in California), but it’s a big jump for the Mexicans.  The Mexican government has subsidized the price of fuel in Mexico for decades and now that’s changing (old Maggie Thatcher had it right…socialism only works until you run out of other people’s money).  I think it should all be smoothed over by the time we ride into Baja in March, but we’ll be keeping our eyes on the situation down there.

Sue and I were caught in a Mexican labor riot on one of our CSC ride scouting expeditions in April 2015 (you can read my blog about that here), and I can tell you it’s no fun.

We’ll keep you posted on developments south of the border and how it might affect our ride.   If things look rough, we’ll just divert to someplace here in the western US.

Hey, we created a riding group on Meetup.com, and you can see it here.   We’ll be posting future company rides on the Meetup.com site as well as our blog and company calendar.    And, just to remind everyone, we’re riding this Saturday either in the San Gabriels or up Angeles Crest Highway.   We hope to see you at the CSC plant prior to 8:30 a.m. (that’s our departure time).   Make sure you have a full tank of gas when you get here!

A familiar bike and familiar roads….these two videos popped up in my YouTube feed earlier today, and I thought you might enjoy them!

Weather and road conditions permitting, we’re headed for Angeles Crest Highway (known the world over as “The Crest”) and Newcomb’s to take in the exotic bikes always present at that iconic location and to have lunch.  We’re leaving the CSC plant in Azusa at 8:30 a.m. (we’ll have a pot of coffee going and I think I can talk the Boss into stopping at The Donut Man on his way in).   The Crest is one of So Cal’s great rides, and we’d sure like to see you there!

You don’t have to be on a CSC motorcycle to ride with us (in fact, we encourage you stop by if you’re on another bike…it will be a good opportunity to see what all the excitement is about, check us out, and see the RX3, the RC3, and the TT250).   You don’t have to RSVP, but if you want to, drop us a line at info@cscmotorcycles.com.

I’ll call ahead, and if The Crest is icy, we’ll divert instead to our Glendora Ridge Road run…it’s another great ride.  Either way, join us and you’re in for some of the best riding in southern California!

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!

Nothing fishy here, folks!

I noticed a thread on one of the Internet forums the other day about the need to immediately drain and replace the oil on a new CSC motorcycle when you take delivery.  It’s not necessary.

In the early days when we first started importing RX3 motorcycles, we drained and replaced the oil the RX3s shipped with from China as part of the setup process.  We stopped doing that when I toured the production line in Chongqing with a specific focus on their engine installation area.   Zongshen puts 10W-30 Shell oil in every new motorcycle as part of the production process (and that’s a high quality motor oil).   What you’ll see on the Internet are the self-proclaimed experts who talk about the Chinese using “fish oil” in new bikes (along with other inane comments).  I can’t speak for what other Chinese manufacturers do (nor can I speak for what other Japanese, Italian, German, Austrian, or US manufacturers do), but I can tell you that I’ve spent a lot of time in Chongqing and I saw no evidence of fish oil on the Zongshen manufacturing campus.  No fish bones, no fish heads, no fish smell, no….well, you get the idea.  There’s nothing fishy on the Zongshen manufacturing campus, folks.

If you want to replace the oil in your new motorcycle, we’re more than happy to sell you oil, but you don’t need to replace your engine oil until the first scheduled maintenance.  Our guidance is to check your oil level before every ride, and replace the oil in accordance with our Service Manual and our online maintenance tutorials.