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I considered the Honda CRF250L and the CRF125L, the Yamaha XT250 and the RX3. I felt the Honda 250 just too tall for me, the Yamaha is ok in height but the fuel tank is small , same with the Honda.
I wanted a Dual Sport bike, not a Dirt Bike and defiantly not a Sport/Street Bike.
I like the features of the RX3, the tanks size, the crash bars and luggage cases being standard were big feature for me. I would have had to design and have hard bags made for the other bikes, they are a necessity for me and the non-profit work I do, I travel into the back country and deliver vitamins to the very poor prior to them having free cleft surgery; I typically carry 20/30 kilo's in the custom hard bags on my Yamaha YBR125G. I have to park and leave my bike many times on the side of the road or trail and hike to see a child and this, many times in the pouring rain; lockable hard bags are a necessity to me.
My YBR125 just doesn't have the power (rated 10 HP but that's not at the wheel) and I burnout three clutch sets a year just from the excessively steep hills.
I plan to order that new HD clutch set from CSC, maybe today. I read the story of the fellow in Colorado burning his clutch and the push pull trip home; I've done that with the YBR and can't imagine pushing the RX3 up some of the hills; I need to go back to see the kids up on the mountain but hesitate with the YBR, it's steep and some of the toughest trail riding I've ever done (may be the toughest).
I designed a crash bar for the YBR because sometimes I fall over (have many times in the past, very good at it), this OEM feature on the RX3 was a benefit.
I am putting together an order from Taobao (thanks SpudRider for the info) for a bunch of basic replacement parts and that 13 tooth sprocket. I need to have basic stock on hand, our dealer here doesn't stock any parts and takes forever to order things, common with many of the dealers of all brands here (the saying is "No stock Sir").
Have already changed the rear tire to a more dual sport pattern, Samsun brand, 140/80-17; a bit taller than I'd like but my access to available tires is very limited. the wheel a 17"alloy and HD spokes. Also changed the front tire to one with more off road pattern and grip.
All the bikes I considered, I would have had to modify the stock seat, had to on the YBR and all five previous bikes I had in the US. I have modified the RX3 seat base, being carbureted rather than EFI, the wire loom is quite different. I don't like the position of the starter relay under the seat (same on the EFI), they had to put a bump in the eat pan to clear the relay, on mine it was easy to relocate it towards the rear under the passenger seat thus allowing me to lower the seat pan by a half inch. I rebuilt the seat foam and reshaped it and then had it recovered, do to the more "saddle" shape the recovering was beyond my ability. Haven't had a chance to ride on that seat yet due to the carb issue.
I upgraded the headlight system with a set of relays and a 65/55 H4 and need to add the driving lights; would have done the same on all the bikes I considered.
I really want to get to know this bike and get some Kilomoters/miles on it and get it out into the back country, I really do think it will meet my needs.
I did have the crash bars and luggage carrier frames repainted with a Zinc and Epoxy primer, in the very wet climate I live in and being 720 meters from the ocean, everything rusts or goes moldy here including me. There was a bit of rust developing at the open ends of the tubes and the weld locations. I see it on the headlight/speedo bracket and plan to touch up those weld spots with a zinc primer. If Zong put on more and higher quality paint, we'd have to pay more for the bike, cheap fix here for me.
When it did run good I got up to 25 liters to the Kilometer, that's about equal to 70 MPG and hit a top sustained speed of 145 KPH (indicated on the speedo, we know it's optimistic so closer to 128 KPH or about 79/80 MPH; good enough for me here, that will get the job done and really is way too fast for the road conditions here (traffic, road surface, stray dogs, cows and chickens... and the to common drunk walking on the side).
I really feel the bike is a good buy for the money and with a few after market items and a few custom features (as I did with the BMW's in the US) it will be "mine".
Hope to get all the panels back on this weekend and the carb too, will get some pictures and post when it's back together.
This site is great and I used the info and comments posted here when making my decision to buy the RX3, thanks to everyone here for all their help, comments and suggestions.
Riceburner
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