|
I'm a newer rider with intermediate skills at BEST...I'm just dumb enough to continue forward. I think being a mountain bike racer helps from the skill but also the fear factor. In the last video the "Heart Attack Hill" descent was by far the scariest thing I've done on the bike as you can see how sketchy it was for a 30+ year motorcross veteran on his XR600 to go down. The ride down was good though, the RX3 is very comfortable on the highway as long as you know that you'll be in the right lane when the speeds are 70+ and traffic is exceeding it or once I get into the mountain passes. I did have to make a 3 hour detour on the way down. The Siskou pass from Oregon to Cali was snow and ice so I took Hwy 199 from Grants Pass, OR to Crescent City, CA and took 101 down to SF and then worked back towards I-5. The two other bikes were an ancient but very capable XR600 with kick start only and the other bike was a Honda CRF250L. Those guys both live in the L.A. area and trucked their bikes down the couple hour ride. For the XR he wasn't sure it would run well so wanted the truck to make sure he could get home...plus he brought a spare bike, but Matt on the CRF doesn't like riding it on the freeway. He also owns an RX3 but wanted the right weapon for the job and since he was just doing the dirt ride and not a couple thousand miles on the road that was probably a good choice. I of course rode down from WA and while having an enduro for the offroad would have been nice it would have sucked for the road travel. I think you'd have to move up to a much more expensive, powerful and heavy bike to get in the middle to have enjoyed the road and the trail...like a KTM 1090R or something...but lots more money! But once we got off-road they were kicking my butt for many reasons. 1-They are used to desert riding and SAND! I'm not, living in the PNW we have green trees and actual dirt with some mud mixed in. 2 - I'm not that great of a rider and it was scary to go over 30 mph in the sand with the bike wiggling all over the place 3 - They had twice the ground clearance and about twice the suspension as me so could hit stuff harder and faster. Their bikes have a better power to weight ratio as the CRF has a few more HP than the RX3 but is lighter. 4 - Once we got in the DEEP sand I couldn't get on top of it to plane out the bike. That was a combo of the bikes weight, my tires and how low of pressure I could run and power to weight. The CRF has the TubeLiss system installed and was running like 6PSI. I went down to about 24 but was worried about pinch flats, rim dings and spinning the tire on the rim and tearing off my valve stem. The XR guy kept higher pressure like me but the 600CC had the power to jump up on the sand. I did fine in the shallower stuff though. I had to pick my lines better than them so I didn't bottom out or get bucked hard. I was definitely riding the RX3 in areas that I don't think it was meant to go. It's an adventure bike, not an enduro like the TT250. No matter what though I've been loving the RX3 and have gotten more than my monies worth out of it. 19K miles in 14 months along with some amazing adventures and the CSC Baja tour and this next years run up to Alaska. Heck, I could abandon it in the bush and I'd be money ahead at this point...but I don't plan on doing that...I plan on riding the wheels off of it...how long it takes is anybodies guess!
Happy Holiday to you and yours and keep the rubber side down!
Joe
__________________
2017 BMW F800GS Adventure
|