Big Trip Planning
 

Hello from a long time lurker, and former (and hopefully future) china bike owner. I'm at the preliminary planning stages of a 2 week Adventure Tour most likely for late next summer, if I can get my ducks in a row. I had originally begun planning the trip around the purchase of a KLR650 until I came across the RX3. I have since been doing my best to take in all the great info you all post on this forum and the adventure rider forum, as well as anything else I can find on the net. I became excited about this idea a few months ago in the heat of the summer. Ya see, last summer ('16) was spent planning for an epic(for me) 9 day 4,000mile solo motorcycle camping trip on my Road Star 1700, which ultimately went off even better than planned in Sept of '16. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EvcYdaGmGuE
Anyway after spending much of this past year wondering what to do next, it finally came to me. I was camping with friends at AMA Vintage Days at Mid Ohio just having the time of my life as we were racing vintage motocross there, and it struck me that a big Adventure trip would be a blast, combining off-road with a long road trip. Preliminarily, the loose outline includes riding from central Ohio out to Colorado and enjoying about a week of portions of the CO BDR as well as Monument Valley and some additional off-road action in Utah. As I said until recently I had been planning around a KLR as an area dealer is selling them for a great price. When I stumbled upon the RX3 and started researching, it seems not only did this make great sense from a cost standpoint (I have a wife and 2 kids that obviously take priority over moto stuff), but it also upped the ante from an adventure standpoint as well. An epic trip on 250cc! Although I've had big bikes, I've also had small displacement bikes and really enjoyed them. I'm 6'3" and 200lbs and ride and race that old yz125 (pictured with my son and me) so I'm not really worried about the lack of power that much. When it comes to bikes it doesn't take 100hp to make me smile, as long as I can stay at around 65-70 on the highway bits when I'm loaded for the trip I'm good. i plan to film the trip and shoot lots of stills and document the trip and the bikes performance along the way and hopefully make it a bit more entertaining to watch then the vid above, as that was my first ever effort using the SENA 10c and editing. I'm going to use a DSLR for better quality stills etc, and try and make a nicer video overall. Anyway, a long winded "Hello" and a "thanks" for all the great info on this forum. I'm waiting to hear back from an area affiliate to get my first look at one in person and if all goes according to plan I'll hopefully be documenting prep and several mods along the way.

Nice YZ ... Is it a G or H ?
do yer get any water leaks at the
steering head O rings....
ours were white out here.....


..

My long trips, 3,000+ miles, are taken on my Spyder and Valkyrie, but up to about 2,000 miles, my RX-3 is my first choice. I'm sure that you'll be very happy should you buy one. My advice is to put as many miles as you can on your RX-3 before you head out, so that the valves have a chance to settle down and you perform the basic maintenance tasks a few times to sharpen your skills.

Thanks! It's a 125H. No leaks! I have restored bikes in the past, but a friend actually procured this bike and restored it. As soon as I saw it I begged him to sell it to me. When I was a kid my older brother had a 1980 yz100(g), and I loved that bike and had to have this. I currently have the engine torn down for an offseason rebuild.

That's great advice, thank you George. I figured I'd run it around the state to various off-road destinations to both break it in and acclimate myself to its off-road handling. I'd like to get a couple thousand miles on it to really shake it down before I take it very far from home.

If you have not already done so, I'd recommend getting a copy of Joe Berk's book 5,000 miles at 8,000 RPM. It's an entertaining read that will give you some idea of the RX3 capabilities....and limitations. He has 2 other books that cover riding the bike in Columbia and China. The books are available in paperback from Amazon.

I'm about 1/3 of the way into 5000 miles. Entertaining read!

I used to live in northern AZ near-ish Monument Valley when I was working for a school district on the Navajo reservation; it would be a good ride to criss-cross on the RX3. I liked Canyon de Chelly a lot which is not too far from Monument Valley. I have been itching to get a 'vacation' bike, and the RX3 is at the top of my list. If I stay in AZ I might meet up with you up north; I have a friend who moved up there to work on another school district a few years back and have been trying to get excuses to ride up there and visit him.

After your rx3 research, do you think this is doable? (65-70mph)

I don't own an rx3

It is possible. On my commute I used the "fast" lane often, only occasionally being passed by cars blowing by far above the speed limit. I run 70-75 approximately.

Other posters here have shared their rides of >70mph including RJ's SS1000 for an Iron Butt event. As much time as you seem to spend on the RX3 thread I would have thought you knew the bike's capability by now, FFS.

from what I have seen on here, it appears doable. One user "pyoungbl" mentioned fully loaded with camping gear his tops out at 74 on gps, which is pretty good. 65 wouldn't be killing it, and frankly every car I've ever had also had speedo error, so going a true 74 most cars around you are probably indicating near 80.

I'm going to use mostly non-highway routes if possible. For example, just doing a quick google maps route from say me to Denver comes in at 18hrs and change, and if I do that same route and use the "avoid highways" option, it's 23hrs and change. Spread that out over 3.5 days to get out there, an additional 1.5hr per day isn't a big thing. Besides what I discovered on my last trip is "it's the ride, not the destination" in many respects and I really enjoying riding, even on the street, or I wouldn't be into long trips.

As I'm doing more route research and all this preliminary fun stuff, I'm finding out lots about the Trans America Trail, and may try and mix some of that into the actual trip out. I'm in no hurry, literally and figuratively. I really enjoy the scenery and the whole experience of it all.

"It's the ride, not the destination."

Exactly right. Destination, for a motorcyclist, is just the reason/excuse for the ride. When my currant wife met me she was new to riding and didn't yet "get it", but as weeks passed and I would take her out for short rides after work "just because" she caught on. Finally one morning she asked me to take her to Clear Lake on the bike, a full 7+ hour round trip. I said "Sure, but why?" She quipped "It's not about the destination". Yeah, I'm a very lucky man.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irEx_LHg7co

That's a pretty cool video.

Thanks. Glad you guys are enjoying the books. The next one, Moto Baja, is nearing completion and should be available in the next few weeks.

I think it's doable as long as you understand the fact that it is a 250...a good 250 but still a 250. This summer I did a 1500 mile ride up into Canada. Lot of mountain passes. I was fully loaded for camping. I had no issue on the flats holding the speed limit of 63mph(100kph) and even did fine when it was 69mph(110kph). Couldn't do the rare 75mph (120kph) freeway speed on highway 1 but that's because I have my bike geared down one in the front and up one in the back for better torque offroad. I do a LOT of offroad riding on mine. But once I was going up the passes my speed would drop down and I'd have to shift down a gear. It didn't bother me, I just made sure I was in the right lane and had fun passing semi trucking in and out of their lane. The bike has done some LONG days of 12-13 hours of these speeds without an issue. I also did the Baja ride last spring with CSC and we did about 2000 miles on that one...same deal...it rode great and there we didn't have much big hill climbs to have to move to the slow lane for. Even running at that speed all day my mileage was over 50mpg. I have a SpeedoDRD on my bike to correct the speedometer so these are true speeds. Normally I would start looking for fuel at around the 150 mile mark as it runs dry around 180 but I don't want to expose the fuel pump to excessive heat as it is in the tank and cooled by the fuel. It's a 4.2 gallon tank but between the fuel pump and float stuff in the tank it's reduced to about 3.9 and I try to leave just about a gallon in there for cooling of the pump. I just crossed over the 15000 mile mark on mine and it still solid!

Good luck on your research and have a great trip!

Joe