{"id":21537,"date":"2023-03-16T00:01:07","date_gmt":"2023-03-16T07:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=21537"},"modified":"2023-03-15T19:25:45","modified_gmt":"2023-03-16T02:25:45","slug":"the-wayback-machine-my-first-zongshen-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2023\/03\/16\/the-wayback-machine-my-first-zongshen-visit\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wayback Machine: Zongshen, Chongqing, and Tempus Fugit"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Joe Berk<\/h6>\n

Time flies when you’re having fun.\u00a0 \u00a0It’s hard to believe it’s been a dozen years since I first visited Zongshen for CSC Motorcycles<\/a>, and when I did, the RX3 wasn’t even a thought.\u00a0 I went to Zongshen looking for a 250cc engine for CSC’s Mustang replica (the photo above shows CSC’s Mustang and an original 1954 Mustang Pony).\u00a0 CSC’s Mustang replica had a 150cc engine and some folks said they wanted a 250, so we went hunting for a 250cc engine.<\/p>\n

The quest for a 250 took me to a little town called Chongqing (little as in population: 34,000,000).\u00a0 I spent a day with the Zongers and, well, you know the rest.\u00a0 This is the email I sent to Steve Seidner, the CSC CEO and the guy who had the foresight to dispatch me to Chongqing.\u00a0 I was energized after my visit that day, and I wrote the email you see below that night. It was a dozen years ago.\u00a0 Hard to believe.<\/p>\n

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Oh, yeah, as you’re reading this…please click on the popup ads.\u00a0 The folks who put them up there pay us every time you do.<\/span><\/p>\n

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17 Dec 2011<\/p>\n

Steve:<\/p>\n

Just got back from the Zongshen meetings in Chongqing.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This letter is\u00a0a summary of how it went.<\/p>\n

Our host and a driver picked us up in a Mercedes mini-van in the morning at the hotel.\u00a0 It was about a 1-hour drive to the Zongshen campus.\u00a0 Chongqing is a massive and scenic city (it just seems to go on forever).\u00a0\u00a0 Imagine mid-town Manhattan massively larger with taller and more modern buildings, built in a lush green mountain range, and you\u2019ll have an idea of what the city is like. \u00a0We took a circular freeway at the edge of town, and the views were beyond stunning.\u00a0 It was an overcast day, and every time we came around a mountain we had another view of the city in the mist.\u00a0 It was like something in a dream.\u00a0\u00a0 Chongqing is the Chinese name for the city.\u00a0\u00a0 We in the US used to call it Chun King (like the noodle company).\u00a0\u00a0 We drove for an hour on a freeway (at about 60 mph the whole time) to get to the Zongshen campus, and we were still in the city.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019ve never seen anything like it. \u00a0The city is awesome.\u00a0 I could spend 6 months here just photographing the place.<\/p>\n

The Zongshen\u00a0facilities are huge and completely modern.\u00a0 The enterprise is on a landscaped campus (all fenced off from the public) in the city\u2019s downtown area.\u00a0 We were ushered into their office building complex, which is about as modern and clean as anything I have ever seen.\u00a0\u00a0 You can probably tell from this email that I was impressed.<\/p>\n

Let me emphasize this again:\u00a0 The Zongshen campus is huge.\u00a0 My guess is that they have something in excess of 1.5 million square feet of manufacturing space.<\/p>\n

Here are some shots of some of their buildings from the outside\u2026they have several buildings like this.\u00a0 These first two show one of their machining facilities.<\/p>\n

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There were several buildings like the ones above on the Zongshen campus.\u00a0 It was overwhelming.\u00a0 This is a big company.\u00a0\u00a0 The people who work there live on the Zongshen campus (Zongshen provides apartments for these folks).\u00a0\u00a0 They work a 5-day, 8-hour-per-day week.\u00a0 \u00a0It looked like a pretty nice life.\u00a0 Zongshen employs about 2,000 people.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a shot showing a portion of the Zongshen office building.\u00a0 Very modern, and very nicely decorated inside.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Zongshen is the name of the man who started the business.\u00a0\u00a0 The company is about 20 years old.\u00a0 Mr. Zongshen is still actively engaged running the business (notice that he is not wearing a beret).\u00a0 I had the Chinese characters translated and what he is saying is \u201cI want Joe to write our blog.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Zongshen has a few motorcycles and scooters that have received EC (European Community) certification.\u00a0 They do not have any motorcycles that have received US EPA or CARB certification.\u00a0 They do have scooters, though, approved in the US.\u00a0 They have two models that have EPA and CARB certification.\u00a0 I explained that we might be interested in these as possible powerplants for future CSC motorcycles.<\/p>\n

I asked to see the factory, and they took us on a factory tour.\u00a0\u00a0 In a word, their production operation is awesome.\u00a0 The next several photographs show the inside of their engine assembly building (they had several buildings this size; these photos show the inside of just one).\u00a0\u00a0 It was modern, clean, and the assembly work appears to be both automated and manual (depending on the operation).\u00a0 Note that we were in the factory on a Saturday, so no work was occurring.\u00a0 I was thinking the entire time what fun it must be to run this kind of a facility.\u00a0 Take a look.<\/p>\n

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Zongshen has onsite die casting capabilities, so they can make covers with a CSC logo if we want them to.\u00a0\u00a0 Having this capability onsite is a good thing; most US manufacturers subcontract their die casting work and I can tell you that in the factories I have managed, getting these parts on time in a condition where they meet the drawing requirements was always a problem in the US.\u00a0\u00a0 Doing this work in house like Zongshen is doing is a strong plus.\u00a0\u00a0 They have direct control over a critical part of the process.<\/p>\n

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In addition to all the motorcycle work, Zongshen makes power equipment (like Honda does).\u00a0 I grabbed this shot as we were driving by their power equipment factory.<\/p>\n

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Here are some photographs of engines in work.\u00a0 Zongshen makes something north of 4,000 engines every day.<\/p>\n

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Yep, 4,000+ engines.\u00a0 Every day.<\/p>\n

The engines above are going into their automated engine test room.\u00a0 They had about 100 automated test stations in there.<\/p>\n

Zongshen makes engines for their own motorcycles as well as for other manufacturers.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They make parts for many other motorcycle manufacturers, including Harley.\u00a0\u00a0 They make complete scooters for several manufacturers, including Vespa.<\/p>\n

These are 500cc, water-cooled Zongshen\u00a0ATV engines\u2026.<\/p>\n

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Zongshen can make engines in nearly any color a manufacturer wants.\u00a0 When we walked by this display I asked what it was, and they told me it showed the different colors they could powder coat an engine.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Quality appears to be very, very high.\u00a0 They have the right visual metrics in place to monitor production status and to identify quality standards.\u00a0 The photo below shows one set of their visual standards.\u00a0\u00a0 These are the defects to avoid in just one area of the operation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This idea of using visual standards is a good one.\u00a0 I don\u2019t see it very often in factories in the US.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s a sign of an advanced manufacturing operation.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And here\u2019s one set of their production status boards and assembly instructions\u2026boards like this were everywhere.<\/p>\n

\"650-12_DSC6280\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The photo below shows their engine shipping area.<\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s a humorous sign in the Zongshen men\u2019s room\u2026be happy in your work, don\u2019t take too long, and don\u2019t forget to flush.<\/p>\n

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As I said before, this entire operation was immaculate.\u00a0 Again, it\u2019s a sign of a well-run and high quality plant.<\/p>\n

We then briefly ducked into the machine shop.\u00a0 It was dark so I didn\u2019t grab any photos.\u00a0\u00a0 What I noticed is that they use statistical process control in manufacturing their machined parts, which is another sign of an advanced quality management approach.<\/p>\n

I also have (but did not include here in this email) photos of their engine testing area.\u00a0 They test\u00a0all\u00a0engines (a 100% test program), and the test approach is automated.\u00a0 I was impressed.\u00a0\u00a0 Zongshen\u2019s quality will be as good or better than any engine made anywhere in the world, and we should have no reservations about using the 250cc engine in our CSC motorcycles.\u00a0 These guys have it wired.<\/p>\n

My host then took us next to a factory showroom at the edge of the Zongshen campus.\u00a0 Here are a few photos from that area.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Check this one out\u2026it\u2019s a 125, and it looked to me to be a really nice bike.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Now check out the price on the above motorcycle.\u00a0 This is the all inclusive, \u201cout-the-door-in-Chongqing,\u201d includes-all-fees price.<\/p>\n

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Yep, that\u2019s 8980 RMB (or Yuan), and that converts to (get this) a whopping $1470 US dollars.\u00a0\u00a0 I want one.<\/p>\n

The Chinese postal service uses Zongshen motorcycles\u2026.as do Chinese Police departments, and a lot of restaurants and other commercial interests.\u00a0 These green bikes are for the Chinese Post Office, and the red ones are for commercial delivery services.<\/p>\n

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Another shot from their showroom.<\/p>\n

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Zongshen also has a GP racing program, and they had their GP bikes on display with photos in the factory and the actual bikes in an office display area.\u00a0\u00a0 Cool.<\/p>\n

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And finally one last photo, Steve, of Indiana Jones having a blast in Chongqing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The bottom line, Boss, is that I recommend buying the 250 engine from these folks.\u00a0 Their factory is awesome and they know what they are doing.\u00a0\u00a0 I write books about this stuff and I can tell you that this plant is as well managed as any I have ever seen.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be in the air headed home in a few more days.\u00a0\u00a0 This trip has been a good one.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s it for now. \u00a0I will send an email to the Zongshen team later today confirming what we want from them and I will keep you posted on any developments.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thank you for the opportunity to make this visit.<\/p>\n

Joe<\/p>\n

\n

So there you have it.\u00a0 What followed was CSC becoming Zongshen’s North American importer, the RX3, the RX4, the TT 250, the San Gabriel line, the electric motorcycles, the Baja RX3 runs, the Andes Mountains adventure ride, the 5000-mile Western America Adventure Ride, the ride across China, the Destinations Deal ride, and more.\u00a0 Lots more.\u00a0 The first big ride with Zongshen was the Western America Adventure Ride, and in a few more days, we’ll post the story about how that came about.\u00a0 We were excited about hooking up with Zongshen; the Chinese were excited about riding through the American West.\u00a0 And ever since then, it has been one hell of a ride.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned.<\/p>\n

\n

Never miss an ExNotes blog:<\/p>\n

\n

The latest from Dos Joes…buy your copy now<\/a>!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Joe Berk Time flies when you’re having fun.\u00a0 \u00a0It’s hard to believe it’s been a dozen years since I first visited Zongshen for CSC Motorcycles, and when I did, the RX3 wasn’t even a thought.\u00a0 I went to Zongshen looking for a 250cc engine for CSC’s Mustang replica (the photo above shows CSC’s Mustang … Continue reading “The Wayback Machine: Zongshen, Chongqing, and Tempus Fugit”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[654,392,72,96,66,89,369],"tags":[806,2421,192,147,3033,75],"class_list":["post-21537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventure-motorcycle-books","category-back-in-the-day","category-china","category-feel-good-stuff","category-joe-gresh","category-motorcycle-adventure-ride","category-zongshen","tag-chinese-motorcycles","tag-chongqing","tag-csc","tag-mustang","tag-mustang-motorcycle","tag-zongshen"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/CSCLargeJpegs-37-900.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21537"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21572,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21537\/revisions\/21572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}