Santa Cruz, CA. USA Here (CSC TT250)
 

I'm in my sixth decade of riding, and have owned dozens of motorcycles ...so I just had to try out the CSC TT250 (Zongshen GY250).

If you like to hear my experiences with it, to date, go here: http://www.motorcyclesand2nd50.com/i...ycle-%E2%80%A6

I'm looking forward to a lot of info and help from this forum.

Thanx, Reg

Glad you found us and thanks for the link. When part 2 shows up post a link to that one as well. :tup:

hey Reg, nice article. enjoyed the read.

I'm not quite in the 50 club but I'll be there in 3 1/2 years. keep up the good writings.

Pistolclass... Don't fear the 50! It only hurts for about six months, then you start worrying about 51! (That was 23 years ago for me).

Merlin: Will do.

great write up. refreshing to read someone with the mastery of the English language. (some shorts on the internet seem to be written by 6 year old children, sign of the educational state in the country i guess). this was the most concise review i have seen so far of the tt, thank you. i was wondering if you were going to mention the 229cc engine (vs true 250), but i stumbled on to it. Joe B. just recently mentioned that the gy engine was a Honda patient but has long since ran out and every honorable Chinese grandfather has produced them in some fashion or another over the past decades.

thanks again, we look forward to part 2 :tup:

We all know you are talking about my ignant and mispeelt posts, it's OK BlackBike, you can just use my name if you must call me an idiot :hehe:

All joking with my buddy BlackBike aside,

Welcome to the forum 'Reg', I didn't have time to read everything just yet, but I have a kiddo bugging the crap out of me... seems to be doing anything and everything to avoid bedtime :lmao:

I will get around to reading it around 2 or 3am I'm sure :hehe:

laugh, but its true, my dry humor gets me in trouble

Welcome to the forum! Thanks for sharing that well-written review.

Welcome to here and loved the review! Zongshen is pretty much top of the heap of Chinese bikes/engines, and the founder Zuo Zongshen, has made quality job one. BTW, Cleveland Cyclewerks actually use Lifan as their OEM, which is also a very good company (to answer your question about their engine OEM on your blog)

culcune...
Thanx for the info on Lifan. Between you and Mudflat you've given me a much better understanding of the origins of the motor. Good stuff! Count the day lost you don't learn something.

Oh, no--that is NOT the origin of the engine by a far shot, LOL. What I find/found strange was the fact that the engines are 'code-named' the exact same thing no matter who the manufacturer of origin is--i.e, the engine in my TMEC 200 is a 163 FML, manufactured by Zongshen, but Lifan also has a 163 FML. I am quite sure others make it, too...19X cc, all calling it the 163FML. I remember when CCW first came out with 'Da Heist' a few years back, they mentioned that Lifan was their OEM, although their engine is proprietary (or at least was, back then) to CCW, so it wouldn't be common to Lifan's own bikes or other manufacturers who sourced their own engines from Lifan. Also, a good source of nonsense trivia which I find interesting is going to the EPA site and downloading their certification data of all the bikes certified as DOT/EPA for any given year. Interesting factoid (or nonsense trivia) is while the engine in the CCW bikes is Lifan-sourced, the bikes are manufactured by Qingqi. Qingqi are, or were, the OEM for some of Suzuki's under 250cc bikes, and their 200cc engine as installed in some of their enduros are near-identical to Suzuki's own 200cc engine found in their DR200. But, they only manufacture the chassis for CCW. Anyway, if you want to see the list, here is the link--scroll down and see all the manufacturers certified for cars, trucks, off-road, etc. The lists are XLS spreadsheets so you need to download them and stretch some of the lines to see all the details for particular categories.

https://www3.epa.gov/otaq/crttst.htm

Hi Reg, and welcome to the world of Chinariders.

Like you, I did my research long before actually seeing the RX3 at the San Mateo IMS. I imagine about 5 years hence that American riders will take notice of Zongshen bikes around the country and wonder "when did this all come about?" I can't speak about the TT250, but I find humor in the RX3 assemblage. Stainless steel exhaust, aluminum taper handlebars, 300 watt charging system, all countered with steel rims, no helmet lock, and lovely dash indicator lights obscured with a mask that makes them visible only in an unlit garage on a moonless night and covered under a thick tarp.

For some reason, as soon as I saw your name it rang familiar (with a scent of the 1960's), but I can't place it. Vacaville with the AFM? Dunno. Nice initial report on the TT. Looking forward to subsequent musings.

Jay

The latest: http://doc.mbalib.com/view/63da27e71...2656037d2.html