Re: who will take a chance ??? CSC RX3 Cyclon & TT250
Ok reviving this mess, I was in the southwest last week and had to opportunity to meet two owners of RX3 cyclons through the CSC owner ambassador program. Firstly the obvious problem is the mindset from everyone that has only ever seen Chinese bikes at Canadian tire and container loads of $600 pit bike sold out of industrial units. They have no idea what they are railing against. Could you compare a Hyundia pony with a current Genesis? no you cant. Anybody remember Datsun, crappy rusty little cars that turned into Nissan? But its a motorcycle thread so lets stick with that, Ducati?? you couldn't ride form Toronto to Kingston with confidence you'd make it in 1970, they are now as reliable as any other product in the market.
The fuel injection in the NA models are made by Delphi, same as your redneck Chev pickup, and lots of Japanese bikes. The engine is liquid cooled dual fan setup, the components like shifters and levers and rims look very similar in quality to mainsteam Japanese, because they are made by the same sub contractors. The engine is not a '70's Honda knockoff.
The suspension is not great if your seriously going to go bashing through the desert, I was able to ride pavement, some dual trail jeep track, which in the south is rougher than single track here, it was easy to bottom the rear if I didn't pick my approach. Its not a GS or KTM, or Multistrada. Its also 20% of the cost. The brakes are not awesome, they are adequate , but coming to a quick stop from 75mph made me think. The Highways are 75 mph in AZ so you can run 80mph a lot of the time, the bike can get to 70 pretty well, 80mph is really pushing but it was stable and geometry was fine in the turns.
The owners I met were really enjoying the product, both bought the bike for off road trail riding and understand the limitations, however both were happy with the luggage kit capacity, windscreen and overall quality for what they bought.
Funny, most of the bashers of the China product have NO idea how many components in their beloved HD product (and Honda/suzi/Yamaha) are produced in China. And Thailand, Taiwan.
Nothing flew off the bike when I was riding, it started well, certainly better than my 360 Yamaha ever started and was fun. It was not my bike so obviously I didn't pound it AT ALL in the dirt, falling off was not on the menu. But I also don't ride my own bike much over 30-50kph off road. Off road for me isn't a road that unpaved. I keep meeting people that rave about off road capability when what they really mean is a gravel cottage country road.
The downside is 38% exchange . Quite simply I can buy a 5 yr old Vstrom 650 or 3-5yr old KLR for very similar money. $3495 US is just under 5K when the exchange kicks in. But if I already had a bike and wanted some reasonable priced aluminum panniers and topbox the accessories are really well priced parts. A brake lever for my triumph tiger is $100. these are $15.
Its no Caponord or Africa twin, but that's not its market niche, and at 25% the cost, they aren't pretending to be. Its sure not the piece of junk people that have never seen the product are claiming.