{"id":5032,"date":"2019-06-27T06:08:03","date_gmt":"2019-06-27T13:08:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=5032"},"modified":"2019-06-27T06:16:06","modified_gmt":"2019-06-27T13:16:06","slug":"my-rx3-and-its-campaign-ribbons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2019\/06\/27\/my-rx3-and-its-campaign-ribbons\/","title":{"rendered":"My RX3 and its campaign ribbons…"},"content":{"rendered":"

I thought it might make for a nice change of pace if I actually posted something about motorcycles on this here motorcycle blog, so yesterday I fired up my faithful old RX3 and rode over to CSC Motorcycles<\/a>.\u00a0 Steve has a very cool 1982 Yamaha Seca that he said I could ride, and I wanted to experience what it’s like to ride a nearly-40-year-old motorcycle, built during the Reagan Administration, with only 1700 miles on the clock. \u00a0 I’ll have a story on that later (Spoiler Alert:\u00a0 The RX3 is a nicer motorcycle).\u00a0 For today, I grabbed a few photos of my RX3 and I wanted to talk about my bike and its decals a bit.<\/p>\n

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Restaurants, Baja Runs, and more…my RX3 wears its decals like campaign ribbons. In a very real sense, that’s exactly what they are.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My RX3 is one of the very first ones delivered to America when CSC starting importing the bikes, and the story behind that is well told (if I do say so myself) in 5000 Miles at 8000 RPM<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 It’s orange, which became sort of a nice orange-yellow over the years, and I like the look.\u00a0 I also like the look of a lot of decals.\u00a0 I always thought that was a cool aspect of the whole ADV thing, telling folks where you’ve been and (with the help of a little artwork and adhesive) bragging about it a bit. \u00a0 And my RX3 and I have covered a few miles.<\/p>\n

My first big RX3 ride, and one of the things that I think put CSC and the RX3 on the map was the 2015 Baja Run<\/a> (our first, and maybe a first in the motorcycle industry for a new bike introduction). \u00a0 I didn’t know how that would go, I was nervous as hell that the bikes wouldn’t fare well, but my fears were unfounded. It was an incredible ride.\u00a0 And, it was our first decal.\u00a0 That’s the big round one you see just above the my saddle in the photo above.<\/p>\n

Next up:\u00a0 The Chinese and a couple of cool guys from Colombia wanted to come to the US and ride with us. \u00a0 And I got to meet a cool guy named Joe Gresh, who Motorcyclist<\/em> magazine sent to ride with us.\u00a0 You need to read 5000 Miles At 5000 RPM<\/em><\/a> to get the full story on that adventure tour, too.\u00a0 It was grand.\u00a0 Azusa to Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota, ride west across Wyoming, Idaho, and Washington, and then a turn left at the ocean to ride the western US coast back to So Cal.\u00a0 The relevant point here is that ride made for a bitchin’ decal, which you can see in the photo below.<\/p>\n

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The Western America Adventure Ride. It was grand. 5000 miles, lots of bikes, and not a single breakdown. Gresh staged a burnout with his RX3 in Port Orford, Oregon…the burnout heard around the world. John Welker planned our stops and navigated for us. It was a magnificent ride.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then we did a bunch more CSC Baja rides, and with each one came another decal.\u00a0 Then I did a ride across China with Gresh on a couple of RX3s we borrowed from Zongshen (I wrote a book about that one, too<\/a>).\u00a0 Then it was a ride around the Andes Mountains in Colombia<\/a> with my good buddies Juan (who was on ride across America with us) and Carlos, both supercool guys who took great care of me in Medellin, Barichara, Mompos, and a whole bunch of other magnificent Colombian destinations.\u00a0 Yep, that resulted in yet another book<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Luggage decals…Mama Espinoza’s in El Rosario (incredible lobster burritos), BajaBound Mexican insurance (the best), and the Horizons Unlimited Rally in northern California.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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My Chinese buddies gave me a Chinese flag to put on my bike, I had to add a US flag to show where my loyalties lie, and a decal good buddy Juan’s Colombian motorcycle magazine, DeMotos.com.co.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I could ask if you knew how many RX3 breakdowns I experienced in all those miles, but I know you already know the answer: Zero.<\/p>\n

Yep, that little 250 has taken me to hell and back, and my RX3 just keeps running and running and running. \u00a0 An added benefit?\u00a0 Mine is orange (it’s the fastest color, Orlando).<\/p>\n

And that brings us to now, and the latest decal to adorn my well-broken-in, trusty, faithful and fearless companion. \u00a0 It’s the supercool ExhaustNotes.us decal, and it’s perfect on my RX3.<\/p>\n

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Joe Gresh had a magnificent idea in creating an ExhaustNotes.us decal. I had just enough real estate to add it to my RX3!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So there you have it.\u00a0 Imagine that:\u00a0 A motorcycle story on a motorcycle blog!\u00a0 And there’s more motorcycle stuff in the pipeline.\u00a0 Truth be told, I enjoyed my RX3 sprint this morning, and it helped me realize I need to ride it more.\u00a0 Welker called me about Sturgis a couple of says ago.\u00a0 That might be fun.\u00a0 If I go, I’d do it on the RX3.\u00a0 I’d forgotten just how magnificent a motorcycle the RX3 is.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned, folks…there’s more coming!<\/p>\n

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Would you like your very own ExNotes decal?\u00a0 Hey, sign up for our automatic email updates, and we’ll shoot a couple out to you!<\/p>\n