Tag: Three Flags Classic 2019

The Three Flags Classic: I dropped out

If you’re waiting for blogs from me on the Three Flags Classic and updates on the RX4, you won’t get them.   I dropped out before I even started.  I don’t like to think of myself as a quitter, but that’s what I did on this one.

It came down to this:   I’ve been on the road for the last two months nearly nonstop and I needed a break.   I am not doing a very good job at being retired, and the travel just got to a point where it was overwhelming.  I had a consulting gig with a large agricultural firm in Colorado, then it was more expert witness work (analysis and a deposition), a trip back east for my 50th high school reunion (that was a lot of fun, but it was another week of travel), a trip to Seattle for a friend’s wedding (lots of fun there, but yet another week of travel), a couple of runs up the coast to be with grandkids (more fun, but again, more travel), and on and on it goes.   I don’t think I’ve been home more than two or three days in a row in the last two months.

Three Flags for me would have involved a full day on the motorcycle in 100-degree weather to get to Mexico today, a 681-mile motorcycle day tomorrow starting at 3:30 a.m. to get from San Luis Rio Colorado (in Mexico) to Cedar City (in Utah) through 110-degree weather on a holiday weekend, and another 1500 miles of riding to get to Canada over the next week.  And then another 2200 miles or so to get back to southern California. It would be two more weeks on the road.

Baja John was going to ride with me, but when he considered the distances and the temperatures and the timing, he decided not to go.  When Joe Gresh heard I wasn’t going, he thought about taking my place, but after an initial burst of wanting to go he came to the same conclusion as John did.  Those two guys are smarter than me.   What was I missing?  At what point in your life do you decide you need to stop and smell the roses for a bit?  At what point do you say:  Hey, I made a decision that was too hasty and I need to reverse it?

For me, that point was yesterday.  There’s nothing wrong with the RX4 motorcycle (in fact, it’s a great bike and the new ones are in port waiting to clear Customs now) and there’s nothing wrong with the 3FC19 ride.   The timing’s just not right for me.   I know I’m disappointing a few people with this decision, but I’m also pleasing a few people, and I’m one of them.

An International Motorcycle Rally!

It’s weird, I know, but I usually get the pre-ride jitters on every big motorcycle ride I’ve ever done.   This time, I’m going into Mexico, back into the US, across the US from our southern border with Mexico to our northern border with Canada and then on up into Canada, and then back across the US to arrive home after riding roughly 4500 miles on the 2019 Three Flags Classic.  The weird thing this time is I’m not apprehensive at all.  I can’t wait to get started on this ride.

I was able to hook up BajaBound Insurance with the Southern California Motorcycle Association and they are now the recommended insurers for the Mexico leg of this trip (hey, that’s what happens when you advertise with ExhaustNotes), and I’m going to get my insurance as soon as I’m done with this blog.

The CSC RX4 I wrote about earlier is running like a champ, and the guys at CSC Motorcycles have done a super job prepping the bike for me.  There really wasn’t too much to do…I asked for the big Tourfella bags so I can carry my Nikon and my laptop to give you folks all the great photos and blogs you’re used to seeing on any ExNotes ride, a mount for my cellphone, and a set of running lights.  I could have done without the running lights (you know, the spotlights) because the headlight on the RX4 is so good, but don’t tell CSC I told you.  You should buy the spotlights anyway.  They look cool.

Man, I am looking forward to this one.  I’m going to make new friends and see new sights.  I can’t wait to meet the other 249 Three Flags Classic riders. And I’m going to do it all on the first RX4 in North America. It’s going to be great.

My Three Flags Classic RX4

My 3FC19 RX4 motorcycle on the road last night. It’s a great motorcycle.

I’m getting excited about the upcoming Southern California Motorcycle Association’s Three Flags Classic adventure and the CSC RX4 I’ll be riding on this epic rally.  I’ve been putting a few miles on the RX4 CSC graciously provided and I thought I would fill you in on a few of the specifics I’m discovering on this bike.

I have a measured mile by my home and I was happy to see that the RX4 clocked it at exactly 1.0 miles.  I think that’s pretty much what all the motorcycles do these days for obvious reasons.  If the odometer read more miles than you actually covered, the manufacturer would be cheating you out of a portion of the warranty, and if the odometer read fewer miles, they’d be warranting the bike for longer than they intended to.  The point is moot with a CSC motorcycle; their bikes are warranted for unlimited miles.  But it’s nice to know that whatever distance it says you’ve gone is the real distance.

Command central and my high-tech data bank. The ergos on this bike are good.

The next thing I checked was fuel economy, and I did so based on a mix of freeway, city, and mountain road riding.  The bike I rode, with roughly 1200 miles on the clock, returned 66.34 mpg.  I think CSC advertises 60 mpg for the RX4; I did 10% better than that with the one I’m riding.

Next up was motorcycle speed indicated by the speedometer versus GPS indicated speed.  I found that the speedometer was 15% to 8% optimistic, depending on velocity.  At higher speeds, the speedometer error decreased to the 8% range.  It’s pretty common for motorcycle speedometers to be about 10% optimistic.  It’s also very common for the percentage difference between actual speed and speedometer-indicated speed to not be constant (the error percentage changes with speed).

Indicated versus Actual MPH on the RX4 I’m riding in the 2019 Three Flags Classic. Speedometer error, as a percentage, decreased as velocity increased. The bike will do way more than 80 mph; I just didn’t want to go any faster for this test.

Next up was a quick look at engine RPM versus indicated speed.  The RX4 cranks way less RPM at every speed compared to the RX3.   Here’s what it looks like on the RX4…

Velocity versus RPM on the RX4.  The RX4 engine runs at lower rpm for any given speed than does the RX3.

The RX4 has a torquey motor, and I was surprised at how low the RPM is at any given speed compared to the RX3.  I know on my RX3, 80 mph is somewhere near the redline at 9000 RPM.  On the RX4, the engine is just loafing along at a meager 6000 RPM.   The RX4 engine pulls strongly from anything above 3000 RPM.   You can downshift to move away more quickly, but you don’t need to on this bike.

And hey, because I know you’ll ask, here’s what the bike sounds like…

Another area in which the RX4 excels is its lighting.  The headlight does a fantastic job; I was impressed riding it at night.

Up above the Pomona Valley with the sun going down. An orange bike photographs well, don’t you think? And hey, Orlando, what’s the fastest color?

That’s it for now.  I’ll have a lot more info on the RX4 and the 3FC19 ride, and I’ll be posting from the road every day.  Make sure you sign up for our automatic blog updates so you don’t miss anything!

Want to learn more about the RX4 motorcycle?  Take a look at our comparisons of the RX4 to the RX3 and the KLR 650 here.  And don’t forget to visit CSC’s website, too, for more information on the RX4 and CSC’s other motorcycles.

3FC19 and more…

First up today…our good buddy Gary’s Vintage Yamaha Enduro site.  Gary alerted me to it a few days ago, I’ve enjoyed poking around on it, and you will, too.

This is a cool site about cool bikes.   Spend some time here; you’ll be a better person for doing so!

I’ve always admired those vintage Yamaha enduros.  Gresh has one and it’s one his favorite motorcycles.  I remember the maroon 360 Yamaha offered back in the early 1970s (I was still in college then).  I always wanted one, but it’s an itch I haven’t scratched yet.  Maybe someday.  I’m still young.

Good buddy Buffalo, a world-class artist who rode with us on one of the Baja rides, created a line art RX3 motorcycle and it’s available in several formats.  Buffalo loves riding and he loves his RX3.  Hey, what’s not to like?

This is muey cool, and it’s from a muey cool dude.

Buffalo is a very cool guy who’s done some very cool things.  We’ve written about Buffalo before here on the ExNotes blog.  Buffalo also has a very cool blog (MotoFritz.com), and it’s another I recommend you visit.  Buffalo (along with his cousin and niece) recently toured Vietnam on motorcycles, and there are cool videos on the MotoFritz blog from that trip.

I’m going hunting.  Deer this time, in Idaho.  Good buddy J invited me to head up north with him later this year to chase Bambi, and I’ll be posting about that here on the ExNotes blog.

Good buddy J and the Power Wagon on an earlier Baja expedition.

I mentioned J recently when I described his new website (Sierra Mountain Passes), but J and I go back a few years.  We first met when we were involved in manufacturing high performance sails for ocean racing yachts.  Think a million bucks for a set of sails for one boat (and the sails are only good for one season).  Good times, those were.

Whoa!  Talk about adventure!

But back on the deer quest…I’m starting to research venison recipes (yeah, I know, it’s a little early for that and I am counting my chickens before the eggs have hatched).  I’m really looking forward to this adventure.  We may get a deer, or we may get skunked.  Either way, it’s going to be fun.  I’m thinking I’ll take my .300 Weatherby Vanguard.  It’s way more power than I’ll need, but we’ll be in some rugged country, the Vanguard is my only composite-stocked rifle, and the thing is a tack driver.

The Weatherby Vanguard in 300 Weatherby Magnum.

More cool stuff…you’ve seen the series we did on the 2005 Three Flags Classic Rally from Mexico to Canada.  I rode with good buddy Marty, and it was a hell of an adventure.

Good buddy Marty on the left and yours truly at Lake Louise in Canada during 3FC05.  There were signs warning us of grizzlies in the area!

The 3FC is one of the world’s premier motorcycle events, and it’s sponsored by one of the world’s premier motorcycle clubs:  The Southern California Motorcycle Association.   As it turns out, the SCMA is one of our biggest ExNotes fans.   They’ve run our ExNotes stories in the SCMA newsletter and they follow our zany ramblings daily.  Good buddy Gonzo, their president, suggested that I join the festivities again this year for the 3FC19 rally, and you know what?  I’m going.  I’ll be on a new CSC RX4 (one from the very first shipment), and I’ll be blogging the hell out of the ride the entire way from Mexico through the United States and on up into Canada.  And then I’ll do the same thing on the way home, for which I’ll take a different (to be determined) route.

The CSC RX4 up in the San Gabriel Mountains.

The CSC RX4 is an exciting motorcycle.  There was a recent article on this bike in Adventure Motorcycle magazine, but I thought that review was a bit on the short side.  (How about that?  A review of a review!)  You can read a lot more about the RX4 right here on ExNotes, and you’ll see a whole lot more when I do the 3FC19 on one of the new CSC 450cc RX4 adventure bikes.