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CSC motorcycles? RZ3

Just trying to keep my nose clean here.
The book has a forward by Joe Gresh.
I like and respect that guy.
That's all I got.
You guys can continue with your bickering infomercial now.

Joe Gresh rode with me on the recent ride across China. Good guy. Great writer. Makes a good cup of my favorite kind of coffee (the kind someone else pays for). Here's his video from the ride across the Western US:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2lkyFScBt4
 
Yep, please do. You'll notice that was a Chinese RX3, most likely one of the early ones before we started importing them. We haven't experienced that failure. We've been pretty public with the problems we've had, which you'll see on the CSC blog. The heat treating flaw we had was in accessory spring we developed and had manufactured here in the US.

You mean this one right?
http://californiascooterco.com/blog/?p=21494

150520_6934-650.jpg


For those counting how many loose nuts is that? Or is the one behind the bars of this bike the only nut that matters?

By the way, did I mention my book about the ride in Colombia's Andes Mountains on Zongshens?
https://www.amazon.com/Moto-Colombi...g_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=D4NVSBW8TGGV7QYSXPKK

And this is what we call a vendor according to ToS rules 8.4 which are located here for your convenience:
http://bayarearidersforum.com/info/tos.php

BARF reserves the right to restrict or remove any commercial solicitations, group buys, or other promotions involving financial transactions, trades of services, or other forms of payment or bartering. Merchants are welcome to post promotions and sales but if the frequency is high enough BARF will ask that vendor to become an active sponsor to help support the site. Group buys will only be allowed when the merchant through which the buy is taking place is known.

Dmitry, I see you gots some KTM's, should we start posting the photos of broken frames/stems/triples?

Sure if you wish man, I had failures with mine that are well linked around here somewhere too. The difference is that KTM doesn't pay me money nor do I go around the web bumping threads to the top like Joe. Like I said I have ZERO issues against Joe personally or the bikes he sells (hell I'll ride one if given the chance though I suspect I'd still prefer my Kall.The.Mechanic) What I do have a problem with is his tactics of spreading his 'message'. He can talk to Bud become a sponsor and get his 'airtime' that way if he wishes.
 
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I don't want to post the pics, but it was just meant to convey that all bikes have issues, so unless you have the ability to really track the problems of all owners, these don't mean a whole lot. DRZ's have a design flaw with the countershaft, their primary gear spins off, the clutch basket nut spins off, you gotta do the doohickey on KLR's, the LC4's have that main bearing problem...all bikes have their 'things'.

And, the guy only came in to answer questions, he's not pushing anything.
 
Hey Joe... In recognition of your blatant disregard respect toward the general code of conduct for BARF, as well as your mockery kind words toward its members , I've decided to help you out by digging through some of the threads over at Chinariders.net, which describe in detail the excellent features of the motorcycles for sale by you and your employer...

ALL NEW FOR 2016! STANDARD FEATURES NOW INCLUDE:


ENERGY EFFICIENT FANLESS COOLING SYSTEM

Found the radiator hose rests on the right side radiator fan and has pushed it into the radiator and the fan doesn't move. I need to look further into it early this week week to find out if the fan is now damaged or the radiator itself. So check those fans and hoses.

HIGH PERFORMANCE ALLOY METALS, WITH INTEGRATED IRON OXIDE

Hello all!
Today I found that the lower chain guide mount welds had broken. Seems like an easy repair, I did send a note to CSC for advice regarding repair methods. Thought I'd pass this on to the group as this could be a corrosion problem if missed. Ride safe!

ITALIAN DRY SUMP DESIGN

Has anyone experienced a rattling noise from the engine areanwhen they are turning with the clutch engaged? Been noticing it on my bike for couple of weeks but bike seems to be normal so I just keep riding it. How long are our clutch supposed to last?

VALVELESS CYLINDER HEAD DESIGN

Cam chain is broken
Hi friends .Last week while i was riding about 50 miles an hour Rx3 stoped working and motorcycle continued moving like bike is on neutral even it was on 6th Gear.
Dang.... i figured i had a big problem
Here is the chain photo .it has codes on .May be it will help u to find it when u need one.
Btw when chain is broken ,cylinder hit the valves.they are warped 😢

TWO THREE ? MULTI PIECE BEARING DESIGN

Several days ago I replaced the Shinko 244 tire on my rear wheel. I always inspect every part of the wheel every time I remove a wheel, or replace a tire. The rear hub has two bearings, and the bearing near the rear sprocket was completely fractured. I needed to cut the outer race of the fractured bearing with my dremel tool in order to remove it from the hub.

The bearing on the other side, near the brake rotor, was notchy, and ready to fail. I replaced both Chinese bearings with Japanese bearings

REMOVABLE SKID PLATE FOR EASE OF SERVICE

I've just hit 2600 miles on my bike so I thought it do an oil change and switch to the 20w50 that was rumored to be the bees knees. Long story short.. I discovered my skid plate mounting bracket welds have rusted completely through and have broken off. The welds had pretty much corroded into red dust inside the paint. It looks as if the paint was the only thing holding it together until that finally gave up. It's starting to make me worry about the welds on the rest of the frame and what other severe corrosion is developing in other areas that I can't see

DUAL-NEUTRAL TECHNOLOGY

False neutral between 5-6th gear.
Anyone experienced these. Happens on a gentle upshift, bike surges to redline than clunks hard into 5th.

Mines got 3000 miles on it. Feels like either neutral of slipping clutch but this is riding along at a sedate pace.

I experienced this the other day on the freeway. I was under pretty heavy acceleration... I do think that I was trying to switch lanes and shift at the same time and may have just not *clicked* all the way into 6th...

I've got about 3000 miles on my roxie too. (10W-40 Synthetic, if it matters)

This is exactly why I had to replace my entire engine at 200 miles.

RED HOT PERFORMANCE

Burning plastic smell?
Last few days I've noticed a faint burning plastic kinda smell from the bike, I'm at 2000 mi., not sure what it is. Seems to be centered under the gas tank / engine area, not exhaust.
It isn't something I'm very worried about because it's nothing crazy strong...but I'll probably take the seat off and poke around this weekend.

ACTIVE WEIGHT REDUCTION CAM

TheRX3 was picked up and loaded for shipment last week.

From here it went to the shipping terminal, then was transferred to a semi truck for the cross country trip, where it was transferred once again to a smaller truck for delivery to CSC.

The engine was removed from from the bike, where it was found that the surfaces of the exhaust cam lobes were severely eroded/damaged.

The cam shaft and associated parts were replaced.

CYLINDER DEACTIVATION FOR INCREASED FUEL EFFICIENCY

Stalls while decelerating
I'm going through the Delphi Fuel Injection troubleshooting guide (thanks, Spud) because my bike stalls when I back off on the gas, usually coasting to a stop, usually on a cool night. Next step is, according to the sticky, check the wiring and connectors to the MAP/MAT sensor. Where, exactly, is that? It's gotta be somewhere between the airbox and the cylinder, but I get lost without a carburetor. Thanks in advance!

And finally, one rider took his bike on a long haul, and had the following words to say....

The BAD.

Fuel range is too low, it makes for way to many stops for my tastes. If you're in a group like I was it means your stopping the group all the time for gas when they're at near half tank. I carried a spare fuel can and used it half a dozen times so we didn't have to stop so much and because I ran dry twice.

Fuel economy in adverse conditions. If you encounter a headwind be ready for your mpg to take a huge nosedive. I saw 29mpg. Be prepared if you're crossing a 100 mile gap as you might not make it.

Top speed is fine for off highway use. It's a 250 so the highway is really only under ideal conditions and then only barely. I used the trans-canada on the way there and could barely maintain 110kmh but was so far off with a headwind on the way back it was not even close to doable. I couldn't maintain better than 82kmh in 4th pinned with traffic flowing at 130-135 which is pretty unsafe and maybe illegal if the min speed limit exceeds that. This was without luggage which I offloaded into my dads truck (his TT250 didn't make it in time) to get better speeds, with luggage I would have been far slower. Even in 90kmh areas the RX3 couldn't maintain the speed limit at times due to winds. Due to the need to get to work and no extra day of vacation to use an off-highway route which the bike would have done fine, I loaded it in the truck and skipped about 300 miles of highway.

Valve adjustment intervals got in the way on this trip. After about 2800 miles they started to tick pretty loud and when I got home they were very obviously out of adjustment. I wish the interval was longer because doing valve adjustments in a campground or parking lot isn't my idea of vacation time well spent. That interval needs to be a solid 5000 miles. Mine were set at .08mm when I left.

The USB accessory is low output and won't keep a phone running or a Delorme PN-60 running for more than 4 hours or so. I burned a ton of battery's on the GPS to keep it running. The regular 12V with a usb plug works but rattles loose a bunch.

Headlights are ridiculous, get aux lights and make sure the mounts are strong. I had one break due to vibes, the other when I fell in loose gravel. That made the ride home limited to daylight only. Way too many deer in the Northeast and never mind the Moose at night. Even with an H4 which I tried I'd want aux lights to be safe.

Don't try to keep up with KLR's on proper rough trails the RX3 has far less suspension travel than those bikes. It's basically a street bike dressed in ADV clothing with some great crash bars and a skidplate that'll likely break at the front weld when you hit something. That and the centerstand mounts are way to low and hit everything.

The paint. It scratches/chips very easy and gravel will basically bead blast the low areas. Lots of touch up needed on mine as it's missing a lot of paint. I did about 150 miles of very loose gravel and it took it's toll. (Golf ball sized)

Now then...

I don't have a problem with where something is manufactured, but I do have a problem with people trying to portray something as... well.. something it isn't.

I'll stick with that Street Triple, thank you very much.
 
That photo is from the CSC blog. It's from a maintenance tutorial I wrote when we found that problem. Here's the link to the entire tutorial, which I would encourage you to read:

http://californiascooterco.com/blog/?p=21494

Exactly like that. I took that photo and I wrote the blog to which you included a link. Like I said, we've been pretty open about the problems we've uncovered, and we recommended checking that nut at the 10,000-mile service mark on bikes sold in the first three shipments. We've had one failure of that nut, and it is the one talked about in the blog. Zongshen improved the retention method; the check is no longer necessary on newer bikes.

Your post gives me an opportunity to make two points:

We have been open about the problems and fixes we've found on our bikes.
We offer extensive online maintenance tutorials and a free shop manual with every bike we sell. You can see the online tutorials here: http://www.cscmotorcycles.com/Maintenance-Tutorials-s/134.htm

Again, thanks for posting.
 
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Did you solve this one for your customers yet?

Again, thanks for posting.

Maybe you miss understood what I am doing here so I'll spell it out for you:

Since your brand marketing strategy includes bumping this thread to the top all day long. My only recourse as a community member is to keep posting PICTURES of failures your bikes have had. Most people react to visuals much quicker so if you think your marketing is working please continue on this path.
 


Did you solve this one for your customers yet?



Maybe you miss understood what I am doing here so I'll spell it out for you:

Since your brand marketing strategy includes bumping this thread to the top all day long. My only recourse as a community member is to keep posting PICTURES of failures your bikes have had. Most people react to visuals much quicker so if you think your marketing is working please continue on this path.

Will do, and yes, we did solve that one for our customers. I took that photo and posted it on our blog, too. A question for you...do any of the other manufacturers immediately go public with problems they find on their bikes and immediately alert their owners and the public to the problems and the fixes? Can you direct me to the doohickey fix from the guys who let the good times roll for my KLR, or the...well, you get the point.
 
Well, based on these posts, seems like you're basically buying a new project bike for 3.5K.

The downside is that it's a pretty shitty project bike, so even once you've worked out all the Chinese kinks you're still left with a fairly poor-performing by today's standards 250.

Not for the faint of heart it seems...
 
Maybe you miss understood what I am doing here so I'll spell it out for you: Since your brand marketing strategy includes bumping this thread to the top all day long....if you think your marketing is working please continue on this path.

I do, and I will.

And that "Miss Understood..." did you get a phone number for her?
 
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Gimmie a, uh, liter of cola.

A what?

A liter of cola.

Liter of cola, do we have liter of cola?

I want a god damned liter of cola.

I don't know what that is.
 
Well, based on these posts, seems like you're basically buying a new project bike for 3.5K.

The downside is that it's a pretty shitty project bike, so even once you've worked out all the Chinese kinks you're still left with a fairly poor-performing by today's standards 250.

Not for the faint of heart it seems...


Project bike might be a strong term. Our market is not guys who need a manufacturer's recall to add a ziptie to their bike. Yep, we've had issues. We address them.

I don't know about the poor performing aspect of this 250 to which you refer. We've had good reviews from ADVPulse, Adventure Motorcycle, Motorcycle.com, Rider, Motorcyclist, and others. I'll add the links if you want to see them.

In any event, we sure appreciate all of this exposure, and we truly do welcome all inputs, both positive and negative. And Dimitry, Kestrel, and all of you guys, by all means keep posting whatever you find about us. I'll be here and I'm happy to respond.

I did mention the books, didn't I?
 
Well, I don't know anything about the bikes or the company - but this thread has been entertaining! :)

From what I gather, Joe Berk and his team have been pretty proactive about their products and issues. I respect that.

And reading Joe's posts makes me actually consider reading one of his books (damn that marketing scheme)!
 
Well, I don't know anything about the bikes or the company - but this thread has been entertaining! :)

From what I gather, Joe Berk and his team have been pretty proactive about their products and issues. I respect that.

And reading Joe's posts makes me actually consider reading one of his books (damn that marketing scheme)!

I must be a failure. My objective, of course, was to get you to read all of my books.
 
Now, I for one, would not buy one of these, but I think they're quite cool. My question is, are the people wretching and moaning in here the same people who complain that there aren't any small displacement adv bikes? I sure hope not.
 
I must be a failure. My objective, of course, was to get you to read all of my books.

My man, I am a voracious reader. Send me a copy of your favorite and I will post an honest review. :thumbup

In all seriousness though, I am glad you joined the thread. I have not even heard of the bikes, but I have a lady friend who is looking for an entry level bike and this opens more options for her.

Oh...and for the record: Damn your marketing scheme!
 
My man, I am a voracious reader. Send me a copy of your favorite and I will post an honest review. :thumbup

In all seriousness though, I am glad you joined the thread. I have not even heard of the bikes, but I have a lady friend who is looking for an entry level bike and this opens more options for her.

Oh...and for the record: Damn your marketing scheme!

The last thing I'd want my wife to ride is a Chinese motorcycle with questionable long-term reliability.

Tell here to look at Honda CBR300R, Ninja 300, or anything else that has been proven by hundreds of thousands of kilometers in North American riding conditions.
 
The last thing I'd want my wife to ride is a Chinese motorcycle with questionable long-term reliability.

Tell here to look at Honda CBR300R, Ninja 300, or anything else that has been proven by hundreds of thousands of kilometers in North American riding conditions.

I get that. The problem I have is I don't know about the "questionable long-term reliability." I am doing some research now.

Thanks for the feedback!
 
Since you do not have dealers, how do you handle warranty repairs for labor if the bike breaks down especially in a remote area?
 
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