New Zongshen RX3 (ZS250GY-3) Dual Sport

[SpudRider]

Originally Posted by Mudflap

Death Valley NP ranges in elevation from below sea level to over 11,000' so it can be quite cold at higher elevations. I was there a couple weeks ago. Anyone interested in camping and riding at Grand Canyon north rim in July let me know. We'll have a group of small cc bike riders down there for 9 days.

Do you have any photographs from Death Valley? If so, please do post a report in our Ride Reports Forum.

http://www.chinariders.net/forumdisplay.php?f=113

[CSCDude]

Originally Posted by SpudRider

Do you have any photographs from Death Valley? If so, please do post a report in our Ride Reports Forum.

http://www.chinariders.net/forumdisplay.php?f=113

http://www.motorcycleclassics.com/cl...alifornia.aspx

[detours]

Just got my shipping estimate to Colorado ... $350 to my door. Can't wait to open the crate and break out the wrenches

I'm getting a red one, like this one. Looks good without the luggage. I might leave the panniers off for a while after it comes in.

[SpudRider]

Originally Posted by CSCDude

http://www.motorcycleclassics.com/cl...alifornia.aspx

Thanks for posting the good link, Joe.

[SpudRider]

The Hanjin Germany is full of surprises. After negotiating Amutka Pass, it began sailing east at 16.3 knots. Three hours ago the vessel was south of Umnak Island, the third largest island in the Aleutian Archipelago. Umnak Island is home to two large volcanoes, and the only geyser field in Alaska. Here are several photographs of the tallest volcano, Mount Vsevidof.







Here is a photo of Mount Recheschnoi.



In the year 2000 the island was inhabited by 39 people in the only town of Nikolski, which had its own K-12 school.

[SpudRider]

The last recorded position of the Germany was point #4 in the drawing below.

[SpudRider]

Originally Posted by detours

Just got my shipping estimate to Colorado ... $350 to my door. Can't wait to open the crate and break out the wrenches

I'm getting a red one, like this one. Looks good without the luggage. I might leave the panniers off for a while after it comes in.

The red bike looks good.

I think I might follow your example, and not mount the stock luggage for a while, but only install a mounting plate for my J.C. Whitney Travel Trunk.

[Veteran]

Thillskier, I'm no expert on how merchies lose their loads, but I've heard it can happen from wave action or materiel failures and/or how they're secured to the deck. When waves come at you from all different directions, it's often called a "confused sea state", and there can be waves that are out of sync with the others that can magnify to huge sizes. Almost all my experience was search and rescue, (although we did do law enforcement too, i.e. lots of counter drug ops down south), I hoisted a good number of injured crewmen off large merchant vessels over the years. At least with a large merchant vessel, we had good visual references at night (before we started using NVG's routinely). One of the biggest challenges is hoisting people off sailboats, because they've got a mast trying to snag the hoist cable and yank you out of the air, (four of my mates were killed in 2012 this way in Hawaii during a training flight). There are ways to mitigate the risk, but it's never easy. It's much easier to take people directly out of the water than off a boat (by hoist method). As for the ship delivering the bikes, (the Hanjin), I think bikes are typically pretty secure in their individual shipping crates and doubly so when in a shipping container, so the bikes should be ok regardless of the sea-state. Shaken, not stirred. I like the enthusiasm displayed here for the bike and am eager to finish this tour and actually retire and do a lot more adventure riding. I'm seriously considering attending some of the RX3 ride plans I see people kicking around. Unfortunately, the contract I'm in doesn't expire until mid-August, (and I may extend until April 2016). BUT, I'm still looking forward to the Zongshen experience. We have a lot of Zongshens here, but no RX3's. I doubt there's a market in this country. Most bike riders here buy the bikes for use as a taxi and most guys who ride for fun are rich and import KTM's etc. So the poor guys who need bikes for income buy a $700 model and the rich guys who blast around outside the city buy a $6-12k bike, (because the rich here are ALL ABOUT showing their wealth). A $3500 bike doesn't have the market here....other than me. Having said all that, I was looking at a brand new Zongshen ZS-250-gy-2 (I think that's the model I was looking at), it's the Enduro looking model. I'm actually impressed with the quality. It beats the pants off all the other brand Chinese-indo bikes here, (I own a MAK 250- kind of a Honda Tornado copy). The plastics appear much more robust too. I'm a little concerned about the problems a couple of guys had with their RX3s in China when they had their bikes power washed and suffered some form of fuel delivery problems. Yeah, you shouldn't use a power washer on a bike as a rule, but a bike should still be able to handle it. We'll see.

[Weldangrind]

Originally Posted by Veteran

I doubt there's a market in this country. Most bike riders here buy the bikes for use as a taxi and most guys who ride for fun are rich and import KTM's etc.

Which country are you in?

[Weldangrind]

Originally Posted by detours

Just got my shipping estimate to Colorado ... $350 to my door. Can't wait to open the crate and break out the wrenches

So cheap. $350 to ship a bike is totally fair.

[culcune]

Originally Posted by SpudRider

Bonneville was hot, but I think Death Valley gets even hotter, since it has the lowest elevation in the United States at 282 feet below sea level. In contrast, the Bonneville Salt Flats have an elevation of 4,219 feet above sea level.

I don't need to go to Death Valley to experience the heat--I just step out my door in the middle of summer.

[Veteran]

Weldandgrind,
I'm in Haiti. Not to be confused with Tahiti....you'd be surprised how many people make that mistake and say "oh it must be beautiful there, you're so lucky"

[Weldangrind]

Originally Posted by Veteran

Weldandgrind,
I'm in Haiti. Not to be confused with Tahiti....you'd be surprised how many people make that mistake and say "oh it must be beautiful there, you're so lucky"

My daughter was going to go on a missions trip there next year, but it has been cancelled. I'm not unhappy about that.

[detours]

Found the new headlight upgrade for the RX3 on taobao.com

I don't read Chinese, but the main lamp seems to be an LED, not just the accent strips on both sides. Not sure if I like the design though. Kind of looks like a transformer, which is kind of cool, but might get old fast.


Current headlight




Updated headlight




The gold RX3 with updated headlight

[culcune]

Originally Posted by Veteran

Weldandgrind,
I'm in Haiti. Not to be confused with Tahiti....you'd be surprised how many people make that mistake and say "oh it must be beautiful there, you're so lucky"

While it is probably not as nice as Tahiti, I have read some good things about it, thanks to the quake bringing it to everyone's attention. Some of the people who went there for humanitarian purposes following the quake said it had redeeming qualities. In fact, one guy joined here to ask which Chinese bike he should get since he was on his way to work at one of the television stations to get it back on line for a year or so, posted a video of his commute. As grueling as the traffic looked, many of the stereotypes of what a horrible place it must be were put to rest; for instance, no one pushed him off the bike to steal it. There were parents walking with their children on the streets and the children were in school uniforms obviously going to school. Cars were numerous, so there is some money flowing. But the biggest one, the politics, were not there, even the year when the quake hit. I remember the coops from the news year ago, and the place, politically, did not seem like a place to vacation! It seemed quite dangerous (yes, the news tends to exaggerate things and/or outright lie, but there is usually some truth behind it) back in the 90's. I never really remember the news stating or showing that those days had ended, although I remember something about the government getting more stable at some point. I think if I could afford to help (i.e. volunteer) with what must be a continued rebuilding of the country, I don't think I would be terribly apprehensive about going. Again, not necessarily a dream, tropical vacation, but at least it is tropical weather, and that counts for quite alot in my book! While there are many idiots who go to North Korea on adventure tours, I would not hesitate to pick Haiti if given a choice of the two. But if Cuba was thrown in as another choice, I would probably lean towards Cuba--but they are physically close, so could probably throw in a two for one adventure vacation!