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The RX4: First Impressions

A stunning RX4 in the San Gabriel Mountains. The paint is pearlescent metalflake orange, the new fastest color.

I rode my TT 250 to the CSC plant early today and picked up a new RX4. Steve asked me to ride the RX4, make observations, and write about the new bike on the ExhaustNotes and CSC blogs. I’ll be preparing several blogs on the RX4; this is the first of many.

I rode my favorite Azusa Canyon, East Fork Road, Glendora Mountain Road, and Glendora Ridge Road route. It’s one of my favorite rides, it’s just under 50 miles of the best riding on the planet, and I knew it would give me a good chance to wring out the bike’s handling. The RX4’s handling was my biggest concern going into this review, as the RX4 I first rode in China two years ago left a bad taste. That early bike was porky and it handled poorly.

First significant observation: The RX4’s handling is phenomenal. It’s really, really good. I’ll get to that in more detail, but I wanted to mention that first.

Next, let me tackle the weight issue. That was another one of my earlier concerns, but not anymore. The RX3 has a published weight of 386 lbs. The RX4 has a published weight of 450 lbs. I never put much stock in any published weight figures, because I know how the manufacturers calculate weight. They do it the same way we did it in the defense industry: Mass properties analysis. Some engineering weenie tucked away in a cubicle looks at the dimensions of every part, calculates each part’s volume, identifies the part’s material and its density, and puts it all together in a spreadsheet to calculate total weight. It’s a scientific guess. They’re always low compared to reality.

Me? I go by what the bike feels like and how it handles. Sometimes if there’s a scale handy I’ll do something old-fashioned and actually weigh the thing. My KLR 650, for example, had a published weight of something in the low-400-lb range. We had a scale when I worked at Layne, and I rode the KLR onto it one night and saw that my Kawasaki actually tipped the scales at well over 560 lbs. So much for published weights.

So, the RX4 is heavier than the RX3. No, I didn’t have a scale available, so I didn’t weigh it today and I don’t know if that 450 lb number is accurate or not. The weight concerned me big time in China two years ago, and then again when I first sat on the new RX4 last week. Last week, it was mostly because the bike felt heavy when I tipped it off the sidestand. Last week, the RX4 had the CSC tall seat on it. And, the RX4 has a 19-inch front wheel (the RX3 has an 18-inch front wheel). The bigger wheel and the tall seat make the bike taller, and that 19-inch front wheel means the bike leans at a perceptibly steeper angle on the sidestand, so tipping it to vertical (off the sidestand) made for a noticeable increase in effort compared to my RX3. First order of business was to have the boys put the stock seat on the new RX4 (it takes the same seat as the RX3). That alone made it easier to get off the sidestand. But yeah, it’s heavier than the RX3. Is it a problem? Read on, my friends.

It was on to my ride, where I would soon learn if the RX4’s added weight adversely impacts handling.

Let me get to the good stuff. I was soon on Highway 39 and in the twisties. The bottom line? The bike handles phenomenally well. It feels more planted than the RX3 and handled the twisties just fine. Actually, it was great. The bike handles better than the RX3, and the RX3 is a sweet handling ride.

I wanted to stop for photos on 39 (I have a few favorite photo op spots), but truth be told, I was having too much fun riding the thing. The RX4 sounds a lot like the RX3, but the exhaust note (love that phrase) is a bit deeper and a bit louder. Not objectionably so, but it’s noticeable.

I stopped for a few photos on the East Fork Road, and then I was on Glendora Mountain Road. I had the road to myself and it was a glorious morning. Cool, crisp, California mountain air. Life is good.

Glendora Moutain Road is all tight uphill twisties. This stretch climbs sharply and it literally has no straights; it’s curve city all the way to the top. To cut to the chase here, it was on this stretch that I could feel the RX4’s huge improvement over the RX3. In the lower rev ranges, the RX4 has more grunt than the RX3, but it’s not a dramatic difference. It just has more oomph in the 3500-5000 rpm range.

Then I noticed a couple of things: I was getting through this stretch way faster than I would on my RX3, and I wasn’t rowing up and down through the gears like I would on my RX3. I just left the RX4 in 3rd and throttled up and down as needed. The bike wasn’t in its power band yet (and it’s not broken in yet), but it liked being in 3rd powering up into the San Gabriels. Then I noticed something else: This bike handles. It’s rock solid and it doesn’t seem to have any lean angle limits. Oh, I know it does and at some point something would have to scrape, but let me tell you, I was surprised at how good I must have looked carving my way up there this morning. I kind of wished somebody had been there to YouTube the thing. I was cooking. I’m not normally a guy who cooks, but I sure was cooking this morning.

The run east on Glendora Ridge Road was similarly exciting (I mean that in a good way). From the time I left Highway 39, all the way up on Glendora Mountain Road, and then all the way to Mt. Baldy Village on Glendora Ridge Road, I had the road to myself. I didn’t see a single other car or motorcycle. That doesn’t happen too often. Like I said, it was a glorious morning.

Up on Glendora Ridge Road. I was the only guy up there this morning.

A quick check on my GPS shows the RX4 speedo to have the characteristic Zongshen 10-12% optimism built in. The speedo reads faster than you are actually going, just like it does on my RX3. I don’t know why these guys won’t correct this. I tried. Hey, it is what it is.

More impressions: The peg to seat distance felt very slightly cramped for me with the stock seat. It wasn’t a big deal. I guess I need to find something negative to say to be like one of the magazine guys, and so far, this and the speedo error are it. I have the tall seat on my RX3 (which is a better deal from a comfort perspective). I may have Steve put the tall seat back on the RX4. There may be an opportunity down the road for CSC to offer a footpeg lowering kit. But it’s not a deal breaker. I guess I’d say the RX4 felt about like my Triumph Tiger used to feel.

A lot of guys want to know about the brakes. They’re a significant step up from the RX3’s stock brakes. The RX4 has dual disks up front. I have the large diameter aftermarket front brake on my RX3, and the RX4 subjectively felt maybe a little bit better than that. On that subject, though, I will tell you that I think the whole issue of the RX3 standard front brake has been overblown. I made a comment about the magazine guys having to find something to bitch about to prove they are objective and not unduly influenced by advertising dollars. On the RX3 it was the front brake. I never quite got that, though. I had a Harley Softail and a KLR 650 before I got my RX3, and the stock RX3 front brake was better than either of those bikes.

I like the headlight on the RX4. I have no idea how good it is at night (that will come later); my comment is based on the looks of the thing. The way it works it has a trace light around the headlight (that’s the daytime light). You can either switch the headlight on, or leave the lights on auto and when it gets dark, the lights will come on automatically. When I first saw this headlight in China, I thought it looked too much like BMW’s GS headlight design, but it’s grown on me. You can bet some Internet weenie will make a snarky comment about Zongshen copying BMW. Throw ’em a bone, boys. They gotta bitch about something.

The RX4 headlight. I don’t yet know how it does at night. I sure like the look!

The bike I’m riding has a pearlescent metalflake orange and silver paint theme. It’s beautiful. I don’t know what colors CSC will specify for their production order, but I hope this one makes it to our shores. It’s way nicer, I think, than the standard RX3 orange. I know that orange bikes are faster, too. It’s a win-win.

My RX4 has the optional Tourfella aluminum bags and top case. I rode with these through the Andes in Colombia (I like being able to say that). The Tourfella luggage capacity is amazing. They are huge, though, and I know on an RX3 I can feel the difference in handling between the stock bags and the Tourfella bags (on an RX3, the stock bags are faster). I didn’t have an RX4 with stock bags to make a similar comparison. It’s a tough question; I don’t what I would do on a new RX4. I do like those big aluminum boxes, though.

So, my first impression is that the RX4 is an awesome motorcycle. The handling is great. It just seems to find its way through the corners and the added power makes the bike feel more planted and more stable, if that makes sense to you. I would say it’s the bike’s strongest point.

Steve told me the RX4 is going to sell for $5,895. That’s $2,000 more than an RX3. Is it worth it? In my opinion, yes (assuming you’ve got the shekels). But I will also say this: The RX3 is one hell of a motorcycle, and I like the idea of a 250 for serious adventure touring in less developed countries. We’re a freeway country. In other parts of the world, freeways are rare or non-existent. Don’t get me wrong; I’ve done a lot of freeway miles on my RX3 and it’s quite capable in that environment. But the RX4 would probably be better on the freeway. I say that having ridden no freeways on the RX4. Yet. All in good time.

There’s a lot more coming on this bike, folks. I’m just getting started. Top end, high speed long distance touring, fuel economy, freeway handling, and more…I’ll get into all of that. I’ve got a lot going on back at the ranch right now, but I may see a quick two-day ride through Baja on this bike. Hey, I gotta probe for weaknesses, or this wouldn’t be a complete report.

One last thing…somebody asked the spoke diameter. Before I forget, Joey measured that for me before my ride this morning. It’s 3.5mm up front, and 4.0mm in the rear.

Need I say it? Stay tuned…

Loud Pipes Save Lies

A symphonic ’79 CBX with a wail as sweet as sugar…

Air-conditioning is a luxury in my world. Compressors, evaporators, electric clutches, if that junk fails I never bother to repair it because my trucks are not worth the investment. Running without AC requires open windows and I heard the 4-cylinder sport bike coming up behind me on the left. He was about three car lengths back and well up into the RPM range. You may not like that sound but it was music to my ears.

The main point is I heard him. So many motorcycle anti-noise campaigners claim that exhaust noise is one direction and useless as a safety measure. Like no one in front of you can hear your blat-blat-blat. The naysayers turn into online audio engineers describing the physics of sound and how loud pipes can’t possibly alert anyone to your presence. And they are full of crap. I heard the bike coming up behind me.

Go ahead and argue sound is annoying on a motorcycle. Push for better rider training. Explain to me how citizens shouldn’t be disturbed from their slumber as they text down the highway running over anything not traveling their same speed and trajectory. Say that loud motorcycles are causing Cagers to dislike us and that lawmakers will try and ban us. It all may be true. Those are worthwhile arguments.

But don’t tell me you can’t hear loud pipes. With your widows up and the stereo blazing away you probably can’t but there are other, less-insulated road users that can hear the outside world. Bicyclists, walkers and people without air conditioning will be alerted to your motorcycle long before you collide with them. Electric car owners report that pedestrians wander in front of their silent rides. That kind of stuff won’t happen to a drag-piped, stretched-swingarm Hayabusa spinning 9000 rpm.

Loud pipes can’t be both annoying and unheard on the road. The effect is even more pronounced in town: A straight-piped hog announces itself blocks away. The damn thing sounds like a bear rifling through garbage cans but I know it’s out there somewhere because I can hear the big V-twin stumble and fart like internal combustion is not settled science.

Sure, pipes make more noise towards the back because that’s the direction they are pointed. Would it be so bad if some Whopper-eating, stereo-adjusting, GPS-programming car driver heard you a few hundred feet before running your annoying ass over? If sound doesn’t equal safety then why are street-driven motorcycles equipped with horns? You can’t have it both ways.

Personally I don’t like loud pipes. They wear me down on long trips so I mostly run stock mufflers. My Husky came with an aftermarket muffler that is pretty loud but I leave it on out of inertia.

Has anyone’s life been saved by a loud exhaust system? Who knows? It’s difficult to prove a negative, something that didn’t happen. Trying to work within the system or to curry favor from others by silencing your motorcycle is a mug’s game. Run whatever exhaust system you prefer. Motorcycles, loud or quiet, are going to be annoying to the general public. Our very existence seems dangerous to them and their anger towards us isn’t noise related. It’s because we are not following the rules.

The RX4

I first rode the first prototype RX4 in June 2015, which is really quite a ways back if you think about it. I was in Chongqing to discuss things we were doing on the RX3 and the new RC3 model, a sports bike based on the RX3 engine. The RC3 bike was stunning, but it suffered from a bad case of “me, too” (Honda, Kawasaki, and Yamaha all had credible 300cc sports bikes here in the US) and the RC3 just didn’t sell well when it reached our shores. The RX3 was going great guns, though, and there was a cry for a similar bike with more beans.

Enter the RX4.

That first one was wild. I remember standing out in the heat and humidity with the Zongshen folks snapping photos of the RC3 when a Zongshen engineer rode into our midst on what appeared to be a hacked-up RX3, smartly executing a stoppee that lofted the rear wheel 3 feet in the air, and coming to rest right in front of us. This guy can ride, I thought. In my younger days I had done stoppees like that, but not by design and they didn’t end the same way.

The bike was rough. It was an RX3, but somehow the Zongsters had shoehorned a prototype 450cc motor into the frame. The engine was made of castings and machinings, and it looked (and sounded) very rough. Telling me that they hadn’t worked out the mapping, my hosts asked if I wanted to ride the prototype. Is a bear Catholic? Does the Pope poop in the woods? Hell, yeah, I wanted to ride it. I couldn’t talk about the bike in the CSC blog at the time, and that was probably a good thing. It didn’t run well, and the handling was, well, let me put it this way: Imagine you’re drunk as a skunk and you’re wearing stiletto heels, and you’ve got to walk across a rocky stream bed through swiftly-flowing water. In my checkered past, I’ve done two of those three things, and I don’t need to try the stiletto heels thing to imagine what the combination would be like because I rode that first prototype RX4. It was that bad, and I told the Zong folks what I thought. They smiled politely. They knew.

Passport in pocket, standing in the rain with an RX4 in Chongqing about a year or so ago. The GS decals had to go, I told Zongshen…others can advertise their “Go Slow” ADV bikes with big GS decals. Thankfully, they’re gone.

A year or two later I was in Chongqing again, and I rode an RX4 that was closer to what the production bike would be. It was a much more refined machine. Heavier than an RX3, most definitely. Faster? I really couldn’t tell. It was raining and I was on the Zongshen test track, which is a tightly wound affair with topes and no straights tucked away on the Chongqing manufacturing campus. It felt a lot better than that first prototype, but I really couldn’t let ‘er rip because there wasn’t enough room. I also saw a clay mockup of the RX3S (the 380cc twin) in the Zongshen R&D center, a bike I just couldn’t understand. Again, no photos allowed, but it made no matter to me because the RX3S was a solution to a marketing problem that didn’t exist.

Singing in the rain on Zongshen’s tight test track.

That brings us to today and the production configuration RX4 I am picking up later this afternoon. Or maybe tomorrow. It depends on when Joey has it ready. It’s going to be interesting. I’m flattered that CSC wants my take on the bike, and that they want me to write about it with no preconditions on what I can and cannot say.

Like I always say, folks: Stay tuned.

The most ubiquitous engine in the world…

Ubiquitous. I love that word.

The dictionary tells us it means existing or being everywhere, especially at the same time, and folks, that pretty much summarizes the Honda CG clone engine. I first heard the term used by a Harley dealer when he was describing that little thumper, and did he ever get it right. You see these engines everywhere. I know. To quote Mr. Cash, I’ve been everywhere, man, and I’ve seen these engines there. Everywhere, that is.

When I first hooked up with CSC 10 years ago, the CSC Mustang replicas used a CG clone motor. I didn’t know anything about it at the time, although I am a well-traveled fellow with the frequent flier miles to prove it. I’d seen the engine everywhere; I just didn’t know (at the time) what I was looking at. Then I had my first trip to Zongshen, and I saw that they were using variations of the CG clone in many different motorcycles. You want a 110, no problem. A 125? No problem. A 150? Same answer. How about a 250? Yeah, we got those, too. You want 4 speeds or 5 speeds? Counterbalancer, or no counterbalance? Black? Silver? Some other color? No problem. Whatever, there’s a CG clone to fit your needs and wants and the budgets of your intended markets. And it isn’t just Zongshen making these engines. There are companies all over Asia (and elsewhere) doing it. It is an engine that is, in a word, ubiquitous.

Take, for example, the CSC TT250. That bike came about as the result of my being in an RX3 meeting, in Chongqing, in one of the Zong’s many conference rooms. It was hard for me to pay attention in that meeting because Zongshen had a white scrambler on display outside the conference room, and my gaze kept turning to it. I told the Zongsters it would be cool if we (i.e., CSC at that time) could get the bike as a 250. No problem, they said, and the rest is history. Same story on the CSC San Gabriel…it was presented to CSC as a 150, we asked to get it as a 250, and, well, you know the rest. I’d say they were selling like hot cakes, but hot cakes couldn’t keep up with the San Gabriel’s sales pace.

So I travel a lot, and after my exposure to the Mustang replicas, I started noticing bikes in China, Thailand, Singapore, the Middle East, Mexico, Colombia, and elsewhere, and the overwhelmingly dominant engine was (you guessed it) the CG clone.

I’ve written about the CG engine when I used to write the CSC blog, and you might want to look at a couple of those stories, too. They are here and here.

So you might be wondering…what’s the story behind this engine and why is it so reliable? The Reader’s Digest version goes like this: Honda was building bikes in Brazil a few years ago, and those Brazilians just wouldn’t take care of their motorcycles. Honda was getting clobbered with maintenance issues and folks badmouthing their bikes. You might be thinking hey, how can you blame Honda if the people buying their bikes weren’t maintaining them, but if you have that thought, maybe you don’t know as much about the motorcycle business as you thought you did. When folks bitch, it doesn’t have to be rational, and the most of the time the bitcher doesn’t care if the bitchee is at fault. If you’re the manufacturer, you can’t afford to have people bitching for any reason, and Honda realized this.

Honda recognized this well before the Internet came along. The CG engine development happened back in the 1970s, when Honda set about designing an engine that could, like the old Timex ad used to say, take a licking and keep on ticking. That’s what the CG engine was all about…it was designed to be an engine that could survive with little maintenance. Like I said, that’s the Reader’s Digest version. If you want the straight skinny, this article does as good a job as I’ve ever seen on this subject. You should read it.

You might be wondering: Who all makes these engines, where do they go, and how is it the other companies can make an engine originally designed by Honda? The answers, as best I can tell, are everyone, everywhere, and beats me. Zongshen is but one company in one country that makes the CG engine, and to put this into perspective, Zongshen manufactures 4,000 engines a day. They’re not all CG motors, but a lot of them are. The Zong motors are used in their bikes, and they ship a whole bunch to other motorcycle manufacturers. Every day. All over the world.

So are the engines reliable? In a word, yes. If you are following the CSC 150 Cabo story here on the ExNotes blog, you know my friends and I rode the little 150s to Cabo and back, in super oppressive heat, and we absolutely flogged the things. They just kept on going. The TT250 is wonderfully reliable. Are they super fast? Nope. But they just keep on keeping on. It’s a tortoise and the hare story. You’ll get there, while the hypersports are waiting for desmodromic shims.

CG motors are also made by several other manufacturers in China, at least one in South America, another one in Taiwan, and who knows where else. Maybe it’s easier to say who isn’t making them. That would be us, here in the USA. It sure would be nice to see someone set up a plant here to do so. It’s a simple engine. We could do it.

And there’s that last question: How can other companies build a Honda design? As near as I can tell, I don’t know. When I ask the folks in China about this, they just sort of smile. I imagine whatever patents there are must have expired, or maybe Honda just feels okay with other people doing this. The short answer is that I don’t know. But it’s a worldwide phenomenon, and I imagine if it was illegal, Big Red would have done something about it a long time ago.

So there you have it: The CG clone engine story. The ultimate ubiquitous motorcycle engine.

Zed’s Not Dead: Part 5

Regular readers (if anyone who reads this endless chain of Kawasaki Z1 resurrection stories can be called Regular) will recall the broken intake manifold screw problem. I tried soaking the busted screw in penetrating oil, drilling it and using an easy-out to no avail. I heated the cylinder head around the broken screw. It didn’t budge (the screw, that is). I even ground a Harbor Freight screwdriver into a straight-sided, square easy out so as to not expand the screw tighter into the hole like commercial, spiral-type easy outs. I had a really good purchase on the thing but nothing doing. The screw was well and truly stuck.

My last resort hinged on drilling a hole exactly through the center of the broken piece with a left-hand drill bit. If you’ve never used a left-hand drill bit they are exactly like a right-hand drill bit but they cut in an anti-clockwise direction.

The reason lefty bits are the nads for removing stuck or broken bolts is because of their natural tendency to unscrew whatever they are drilling into. By increasing the bit size in stages hopefully you can get the offending screw so thin that the remaining threads weaken, collapse slightly and wind out of the hole looking like a coil spring. And that’s mostly what happened except the thread came out in pieces.

After clearing out the swarf I ran a bottoming tap into the hole and tidied up the threads as much as possible. I will use a slightly longer screw to compensate for the compromised hole but I’m pretty sure it will be fine and I have avoided using a Helicoil thread repair, which is the hack mechanic’s favorite crutch.

Zed was missing a few ignition parts so my Internet buddy Skip Duke sent me a spark advancer that very nearly fit the Kawasaki. The bolt that holds the advance to the crankshaft was a size too large for the hole in the advancer. Skip and I held a web-confab and decided that the advancer was the wrong part. Skip dug around his Z1 parts horde and found another unit that will work. This is the best thing about the Internet: you meet generous people that share your old motorcycle affliction.

I haven’t forgotten about the carburetors either. I’ve been soaking them in Evapor-rust and the stuff is doing a fine job. It’s very mild so you can leave zinc carb bodies immersed for days without fear of eating away the good parts. All four of the carbs are clean and I’m waiting on a few parts before I can reassemble the rack.

Zed’s little clutch-cover, oil level window was black with sitting-bike mung. It was so black the oil level could not be determined. I removed the cover and cleaned out behind the metal back-plate. Since I had the cover off I figured it would be a good idea to check the clutch plates for wear. The fibers are within tolerance and the steels are only slightly rusty so I’ll clean all those parts up and Zed should have a functioning clutch.

When Kawasaki designed the Z1 they went all out. This was Big K’s flagship motorcycle and the robust clutch is a fine example of strength. The large, straight-cut clutch gear would not look out of place in a one-ton manual truck transmission. The fingers that locate the fiber plates are surrounded by a steel band to prevent them from spreading under load. This clutch is awe-inspiring and looks like it could handle double the Z1’s 82 (claimed) horsepower. The bike has 41,000 miles showing on the clock and the metal parts show minimal wear. I am impressed.

Don’t take my word for it, here is the author of the Z1 repair manual waxing eloquent over the Z’s clutch.

I’m making another list of parts and will be blowing more money on Zed. I really hope this engine runs without a lot of knocking and the transmission shifts like butter.

A Suggested Baja Itinerary: 4 days on the road…

This is a nice leisurely run down to San Felipe on the Sea of Cortez, mostly staying off the freeways. It’s ideal for a smaller bike. I’ve done it many times, most recently on the CSC TT250 (a bike with a 229cc Honda CG clone engine) and it’s a laid back, fun ride. About half of it is through the lower portion of southern California, and the other half is through the upper portion of northern Baja, touching two oceans and taking in the best scenery of both areas. Here’s what the Baja portion of this ride looks like on a map…

A day in So Cal heading south, two glorious days in northern Baja, and a fourth day in So Cal headed home.

The idea is to spend a day meandering through southern California to get to Tecate. My favorite route heads east on Rt. 66 through San Bernardino and beyond into Yucaipa, diverting north for just a bit through the mountains into beautiful Oak Glen, crossing I-10 (without getting on it) to the 243 up to Idyllwild, and then picking up 79 to head south through Julian and on to Tecate. This part of California is an amazing country ride, and it’s likely you’ll see bobcat, wild turkey, deer, and coyote. Good times, to be sure. There are two Tecates, actually…one on the US side of the border, and the far more interesting Tecate on the Mexico side.

Headed south through So Cal toward Tecate on a 229cc roadburner. Life doesn’t get much better!

Tecate is a fun town. If you call ahead, you can arrange for a tour of the Tecate brewery. Tecate’s town square is cool, and if you stay at the El Dorado Hotel, it’s within walking distance. There’s a great Chinese restaurant across the street from the El Dorado, although you probably didn’t venture into Mexico to eat Chinese food. That’s no problem, as there are a couple of outstanding taco stands (also an easy walk from the El Dorado, and any of the Mexican restaurants on the town square are great. Trust me on this; I’ve tried them all.

On Day 2, pick up Mexico Highway 2 out of Tecate and head east toward Mexicali. The Rumarosa Grade is the best part of this road. The scenery is breathtaking and it’s a spot where you will want to stop for photos.

Good buddy Dan the K on the Rumarosa Grade. This is dramatic scenery and a fabulous ride.

Highway 2 runs directly into Mexicali, but you don’t want to do that. Mexicali is a large industrial town (some might argue that Mexicali has its charms, but I’m not of them). Take the bypass that veers off to the right before you enter Mexicali (it’s well marked), and you’ll cut a quarter circle around Mexicali. The bypass will put you on Mexico Highway 5, which heads due south toward San Felipe (and that’s our destination for the second evening of this 4-day road trip).

Mexico Highway 5 is a cool road. For the first 15 miles or so south of Mexicali, it’s built up. I haven’t tried all of the taco stands along this stretch, but the ones I have visited have all been great, and the timing will be right for a lunch stop. As you continue south along 5, the surrounding land changes dramatically. You will enter a volcanic field that borders the northwest corner of the Sea of Cortez. The scenery is stark, with bleached white and beige desert accented by dark burgundy and black rock formations. You’ll smell the sulfur (this is a geologically active area, and it’s another great spot for dramatic photos).

A taco vendor on Mexico Highway 5. The real deal.

A stop along geologically-active Highway 5. I can still smell the sulfur.

You will soon see the Sea of Cortez as Highway 5 parallels the shoreline. Highway 3 cuts off on your right; but don’t take it (it’s the road we’ll travel the next morning). For now, continue south on 5 and you’ll run right into San Felipe.

There’s a Pemex as you enter town, and I always like to top off there. Bear left to downtown, and you’ll enter the Malecon area. It’s a tourist area, but it’s nice. The Rice and Beans restaurant is the dominant eatery in this area, but any of the others are good (my favorite is Chuy’s). There are several hotels along this stretch; I like to stay at the El Cortez on the southern edge of town. The El Cortez has a fine restaurant, and they do a great job for both dinner and breakfast.

The photo ops in San Felipe are what make this a great destination. I like to grab evening shots, and then get up early the next morning for sunrise photos looking out across the Sea of Cortez. The tidal variation in the Sea of Cortez northern regions is extreme, and in the evening, you’ll see miles of exposed ocean floor. As you look out over the Sea of Cortez in the morning you’ll be facing due east, and the dawns are dramatic.

A room with a view at the El Cortez Hotel.

The next day brings us to Day 3 of this Baja adventure. After a great breakfast at the El Cortez restaurante, head north on Highway 5 again for maybe 20 miles, and then pick up Highway 3 east (the one we passed coming the prior afternoon heading down toward San Felipe). Highway 3 is another great road. It cuts through the coastal deserts and then climbs into northern Baja’s mountains. Watch for the rock art in this area. A favorite is a set of boulders painted to look like a whale skeleton, or maybe a giant lizard. It’s cool.

Highway 3 cuts across northern Baja, running from the Sea of Cortez to the Pacific Ocean.

There’s a Pemex on Highway 3 in Valle Trinidad and it’s a good idea to top off here. Stay on Highway 3 and you’ll ride completely across the Baja peninsula. You’ll see the Pacific Ocean as you enter Ensenada on Baja’s west coast. It’s a gritty ride into town and you’ll get to see what a Mexican city looks like. Stay on Highway 3 and you’ll soon find yourself in the Zona Turistica. Highway 3 joins Mexico Highway 1 (the Transpeninsular Highway) for a few miles, and then it veers off to the right in El Sauzal. That’s on Ensenada’s northern edge (you’ll be headed northeast once you make the turn).

This is the Ruta del Vino, another great road. We’re headed back to Tecate for our third evening in Baja, and we’re passing through northern Baja’s wine country. This is an awesome stretch. Lunch has to be at Naranjo’s (it’s on the left as you head toward Tecate). There are many wineries through this magnificent stretch; my favorite is the L.A. Cetto vineyard. They have a great tasting room, but keep two things in mind: Don’t overdo it (remember, you’re on a motorcycle ride), and you can only bring one bottle back across the US border.

That night, the stay is in Tecate again, and you can try a different restaurant than the one you visited two nights ago. Like I said before, they’re all great. On the morning of Day 4, I always take my breakfast at the little restaurant right next to the El Dorado, and I’ll fill up again at the Pemex diagonally across the street. The lines at the garita (the border crossing) are usually hideously long, but hey, that’s not a problem for us. There’s a break in the concrete K-barriers just before the entry point, and nobody ever seems to mind when motorcycles use it to jump the line.

Day 4? It’s a rerun of Day 1 if you wish (and that’s what I always do, as the scenery is magnificent) or you can take any of several other options through So Cal as you head home.

Managing Expectations

Alta, a manufacturer of electric dirt bikes, very recently announced they are closing their doors. Here’s the article I read on it: Alta Motors Ceases Operations. This is interesting on several levels. Alta previously announced a strategic partnership with Harley-Davidson. I thought this would figure into Harley’s Livewire project and help both companies enormously, but I guess that isn’t the case. Last year, Alta lowered their prices substantially. I thought this would increase their sales, even though their prices were still high. Alta had the electric dirt bike niche all to themselves, and this niche seemed to be more suited to an electric motorcycle’s range limitations. Basically, motocross racing doesn’t require extended range, making Alta’s focus appear to be a well-thought-out strategy. And finally, Alta had sold a large number of bikes, and they had orders for several hundred more (see the link above).

I guess, in the final analysis, it all comes down to profitability and cash reserves, and if you don’t have enough of either, you can’t keep going. This makes Alta the second big US e-bike effort to flop (the first being the Brammo).

We are living in interesting times, and that is especially true with respect to the e-bike world. The e-bike industry is simultaneously emerging and going through a shakeout.

I have been to the mountain. In this case, I did it on Slick. Slick isn’t the last e-bike that will emerge from Chongqing’s inner chambers; he’s only the first of many.

The CSC City Slicker, the newest player in this arena, is already playing a significant role. The three big things Slick has going for it are its price, its quality (it’s world-class; see our earlier blog posts) and CSC’s well-earned reputation for customer service. The biggest challenges for CSC and the City Slicker, I think, will be overcoming the US aversion to Chinese products, the ongoing uncertainties in the US/China trade relationship, and redefining customer expectations.

Overcoming US aversion to Chinese products is the least of these issues, and personally, I wouldn’t waste a single second attempting to do so. I think CSC and Zongshen put that issue to bed with the RX3 (it’s a world-class machine, with quality as good as or better than any motorcycle produced anywhere in the world). To be blunt, anybody still singing songs about Chinese slave labor and low Chinese quality is too stupid and too ignorant to waste time listening to. They won’t change their minds, so expending any effort attempting to convince them otherwise is an exercise in futility. Hey, there are still people who think the earth is flat and that we faked the moon landing. Best to forget about them, thank your lucky stars you aren’t that stupid, and move on.

I think the current uncertainties in the US/China trade relationship will sort themselves out within the next several months. I think the tariff issue will either go away or have relatively insignificant effects, and I think much of what is going on now is posturing and positioning for a serious set of negotiations between our leaders. Our trading relationship with China is, to borrow a phrase, too big to fail.

So we’re down to that last issue, redefining expectations, and that will be the biggest challenge for CSC and the electric motorcycle market. There’s no question that CSC has a pricing advantage that is insurmountable, and I think when CSC announced the City Slicker it set a new reality in the US e-bike industry. I think Alta realized that and that it might have played a role in their throwing in the towel. I have to think that the folks at Zero are similarly eyeing the situation and ingesting huge amounts of Pepto-Bismol (and that’s using as charitable a phrase as I can think of). You might argue that Alta and Zero have (or had) bigger motorcycles with different missions, but that would be as shortsighted and wrong as arguing that all Chinese goods are low quality or the earth is flat. Yes, Zero motorcycles are bigger and have more capability, but that’s the world as it exists this instant. The world does not stand still, my friends. Do you think, even for one second, that the City Slicker is the only sensibly-priced e-bike that will emerge from Chongqing? Do you think that future e-bikes from China will be small and have the same limitations as do today’s e-bikes? I have been to the mountain, folks. The answer is no.

A street scene in Beijing. You might see 50 e-bikes for every gas-powered scooter over there. It’s a tsunami, and it’s coming this way, folks.

But I digress: Back to this expectations thing. The City Slicker is not a bike that you can hop on and ride 2000 miles through Baja with a few stops for gas (or topping off the battery). The range is limited to something like 40 to 60 miles today, depending on how fast you want to go. The challenge here is to reach customers willing to use their City Slickers like their iPhones…something you plug in and top off whenever you have a chance. That’s a different market than folks who buy internal combustion bikes. But it’s potentially a huge market, as I saw firsthand in China where zillions of e-bikes were tethered to extension cords in front of every business on every city street. More on this expectations thing: CSC recently announced the price for a replacement Slick battery, and I think it’s about $1100. Some of the keyboard commandos were choking on that number. Hey, go price a replacement Zero battery. You could buy three brand new City Slickers for what a Zero battery costs. Like I said earlier, the challenge is going to be redefining expectations. Are we up for it and will CSC market the City Slicker (and the Chinese e-bikes that will inevitably follow) in a manner that emphasizes this new reality?

Time will tell, but I know where I’d put my money.

That’s Not How We Do It In China

See that gap? That narrow space between the semi-truck hauling 20-foot long, 6-inch diameter solid aluminum rods and the BMW M6? I’m taking it, man, riding the horn button and twisting the throttle: zoom-zoom. See that intersection? The one with a whirlpool of scooters, three-wheeled single-cylinder diesel trucks and at least a hundred cars spinning left leaving eddys of pedestrians lapping at the edges? I’m a Hurricane Hunter riding straight into the maelstrom buffeted from side to side, tip-toeing around, swerving, cussing, sweating and focused, man, focused.

China’s city traffic requires all your intensity, taxes all your ability and is like nothing I have ever seen on the planet. There is no respite. There is no pause, You must lock on and track hundreds of individual trajectories from every point on the compass, constantly. Insane traffic scenarios unfold at a lightning pace, there’s no time to marvel at the stupidity. There’s only time to act.

The chaos is cultural: Chinese motorists drive like they’re riding a bicycle because they were only a few years ago. In less than one generation the Chinese have gone from pedals to 125cc Honda clones to driving millions of air-conditioned automobiles on surface streets designed for a sleepy agricultural nation. At any given moment dozens of traffic rules are being broken within 50 feet of your motorcycle. It’s a traffic cop’s dream.

Except that there aren’t any. For a Police State there are not many police in China. I’ve ridden entire days and not seen one Po-Po. My Chinese friends tell me the police show up for collisions but otherwise stay low-key. Because of this hands-off approach stop signs are ignored. Red lights mean slow down. You can make a left turn from the far right lane and no one bats an eye.

China uses the drive-on-the-right system but in reality left-side driving is popular with large trucks and speeding German sedans. Get out of the way or die, sucker. Painted lane-stripes are mere suggestions: Drive anywhere you like. Of course, sidewalks and breakdown lanes are fair game for cutting to the front of the cue.

China’s modernization process has happened so fast that the leap from two-wheeled utility vehicle to motorcycles as powersports fun never really occurred. In China there are millions of people riding motorcycles but relatively few motorcyclists.

If the cars don’t get you there are other strange rules that serve to dampen the popularity of Chinese motorcycling as a hobby. Motorcycles are banned on most major toll ways between cities. Law-abiding motorcyclists are shunted off to the old, meandering side roads. Which would be fun if they weren’t so infested with heavy, slow moving semi-trucks and near certain construction delays. In practice, since tollbooths have no ability to charge motorcyclists, Chinese riders blow through the far right lane, swerving to avoid the tollgate’s swinging arm. Ignore the bells, shouting and wild gestures of the toll-takers and roll the throttle on, brother.

Being banned from the highway is not a deal breaker, but being banned from entire cities is. In response to crimes committed by bad guys on motorcycles many cities remedied the problem by eliminating motorcycles altogether. Sales of new motorcycles in these forbidden cities is non-existent.

Rules designed to discourage motorcycling abound. Vehicles over 10 years old are not allowed to be registered, thus killing the used and vintage scene. Gasoline stations require motorcyclists to park far from the gas pumps and ferry fuel to their bikes in open-topped gas cans. Add to that the general opinion of the public that motorcycle riders are shifty losers too poor to afford a car.

So why do Chinese motorcyclists bother to ride at all? It’s not the thrill of speed; 250cc is considered a big bike in China and it’s really all you need to keep up with the slow moving traffic. I’ve spent a lot of time with Chinese riders and even with the language barrier I get that they ride for the same reasons we do: The road, the rain, the wind. After being cooped up in a high rise apartment (very few Chinese live in single-family homes) I imagine the wide-open spaces between crowded cities must seem like heaven. They did to me. Chinese motorcyclists and Low Riders ride a little slower, taking long breaks to smoke a cigarette, drink in the scenery or just nap. Every motorcyclist you meet is instantly your dear friend because we share this passion and despite all the minor regulatory hassles everybody knows love conquers all.

More epic motorcycle adventures? You bet!

The Route 66 MSILSF Endurance Run!

You’re going to like this. It’s an endurance event, but not the kind you might be thinking of. No BMW GS ADV monsters, no Gold Wings, no Harleys, in fact, no motorcycles. It’s scooter time, folks!

Alan Spears, MSILSF honcho and motor scooter madman…my kind of guy!

First, let’s wind back the clock about 8 years. Let’s see, that would put us at about 2011, and that would be the Hell’s Loop scooter run, organized by the Motor Scooter International Land Speed Federation, and in particular, my good buddy Alan Spears. Alan, you see, is a bit different than the rest of the children. He’s an attorney by day, but at night he becomes a superhero dedicated to fighting villains and standing for Truth, Justice, and the American Way. Well, sort of. Alan, you see, organizes motor scooter endurance events. I know this because the one I entered was the aforementioned Hell’s Loop, and it was a hoot.

‘Twas a dark and stormy night…nah, not really. The sun was shining but it was freezing as the three of us rode our California Scooters into Death Valley back in 2011 during the Hell’s Loop event. That’s good buddies TK and Arlene out in front of me.

There were three of us, and we were on California Scooters. Those were the little 150cc Mustang replicas you’ve been reading about on the ExhaustNotes blog, the very same ones we rode to Cabo and back. The event was a hoot, and we might have won it, but one of our group forgot their gloves and then we got lost, and then…well, you get the idea. But we did finish, and we did 400 miles in a single day on our 150cc Mustangs. We froze our butts off, too, but what’s an adventure ride without a little loss of creature comforts? You say you want proof? It didn’t happen if there are no pictures? Hey, there’s that one above and here are a couple more…

Flat out on my 150 somewhere in Death Valley. Note the Baja decal on the windshield.

Filling up in Panamint, at $5.19 a gallon. Those little bikes got nearly 100 mpg, so I didn’t care.

All right, so where am I going with this story?

You can’t keep a good man down, and Alan is a good man. His next adventure is the Route 66 X-Treme Endurance 400-Mile run. It’s going to be the 21st of April in 2019, it’s going to be in Arizona, and you know what? I’m working real hard to scare me up a scooter. I want to play in this one, folks. Alan, you be my witness…I’m casting about to find a scoot. Contingent on that, Amigo, count me in.

The Route 66 MSILSF route, scheduled for April 2019. I have got to find a ride…because I want to play in this game!

Part of the Route 66 itinerary for the April endurance event. I’m guessing this is somewhere near Oatman, Arizona.

If you would like more information, you can contact Alan directly at msilsf@yahoo.com. Hopefully, I’ll see you in Arizona next April!

Baja, 150cc at time: Part V

The trek south on our 150cc California Scooter Mustang replicas continues. On the off chance you haven’t followed this ride, here are the first four installments of this grand adventure. I almost called it a mini-adventure, but only the bikes were “mini.” Everything else about this ride was a full-bore adventure. So, to bring you up to speed…

Part I: Baja, 150cc at a time…

Part II: Baja, 150cc at a time…

Part III: Baja, 150cc at a time…

Part IV: Baja, 150cc at a time…

And with that, we’re back on the road, with our little 150cc Mustang CG clones, built by CSC Motorcycles, thumping their way south yet again…

Here’s a shot of our bikes parked in front of the Las Casitas Hotel in Mulege (it’s pronounced Mool-a-hay). The Tropic of Cancer was just a few miles down the road.

After a great stay at the Las Casitas Hotel in Mulege (one of my favorite places in Baja), we were on the road again, headed south to Ciudad Constitucion, our stop for the next evening. The regions we passed through were amazing, but the riding was beyond brutal. September is one of the hottest months of the year in Baja, and we were riding in 100-degree weather.

We soaked our clothes several times that day. J had a bunch of water in 5-gallon jerry cans on his big Dodge Power Wagon, and we used a trick I learned in the Army a long time ago…we soaked ourselves and then put our jackets on. The jacket keeps the water from evaporating too quickly, and in this kind of weather, you can stay cool for about an hour before you need another soaking. It really works.

My riding gear. Joe Rocket gloves. They work. Don’t ask me how I know. My new Bell helmet. Lightweight, comfortable, and very, very cool. Everybody loved it. My Olympia riding jacket. Visible, and I’m still wearing it.

After Mulege, we continued south out of Mulege, and we soon found ourselves along what I believe to be the most beautiful part of Baja…and that would be Bahia Concepcion. I’ll let the photos do my talking here.

John’s California Scooter parked in front of Bahia de Concepcion on the Sea of Cortez.

The Sea of Cortez along the Transpeninsular Highway. The water really is that color.

South of Bahia Concepcion, we stopped in Loreto. It’s a nice town but it is a touristy spot. John and J got nailed for a couple of traffic infracciones, paid their fines, and we bolted.

We stayed the night in Ciudad Constitucion on the way down and on the way back. It’s a pretty interesting town, but it is not a tourist spot (which is why I find it interesting).

This local motor officer on a 250cc Suzuki stopped us as soon as he saw our bikes. He knew they were new and different. I tossed him my keys and asked for the keys to his police motor. We both had a good laugh about that!

Ciudad Constitucion was celebrating the Mexican Bicentennial, as Santa Rosalia had been the day before, and they had an awesome fireworks display. It was impressive.

We had dinner at a sidewalk restaurant in Ciudad Constitucion, and we ate at a plastic table with plastic chairs right on the sidewalk. It was a cool evening, the town was festive, and it was great. The green things in the photo are nopales, or boiled cactus (very tasty). The tacos were delicious, too.

Yours truly flirting with the waitresses. Dos senoritas.

We were up early the next morning, and we continued our southward quest. We knew the next major town was La Paz, but we didn’t want to get into it. La Paz meant heavy traffic and more heat.

You might be wondering…what were these little 150cc Mustang replicas, and what were the original Mustangs? Hey, if you want to know more about that, you can read that story right here…

Original Mustang motorcycles. Click on the image to get to the story!

CSC Motorcycles no longer manufactures new Mustangs, but more often than not they’ll have a nearly new trade-in on the showroom floor. If you have an interest in these born-again Mustangs, here’s a link to the CSC website.

To be continued…

Want to learn more about riding in Baja? Check out the ExhaustNotes Baja page!