So I finally got my motorcycle! I decided to go with the Zongshen RX3. I found a shop in Zhuji and ordered it in the first week of december and was told to pick it up on the 3rd of January but a couple weeks later they called and said it had arrived early! This happened to be on the same day as I was scheduled to take the driving test for my license and the shop is right next to the traffic police station so I had a great feeling that everything was coming together perfectly! That day though turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. I couldn't take the test and I couldn't get the plates for the bike that day so I was told to come back the next day.

The people at this shop were great though. The next day they picked me up from the bus station and drove me to the insurance company. I stood around while they argued with the woman there and then they drove me to the police station where I picked out my license plate number. This is a funny process. I was lead over to a touch screen computer and told to push a button. A group of other people crowded around. Then numbers started spinning kinda like a slot machine and a few seconds later I had 10 choices. People in the crown started shouting and pointing at one choice or another but most seemed to like this one with two 6s. I picked that one and was congratulated by a few in the crowd, "ohh very good!." A few minutes later they handed me the plates and we went back to the shop to attach them to the bike. By this time though, it was getting dark so the owner offered to drive my bike back on his flat bed truck. So they loaded it up and drove me and the new bike complete with registration papers, plates, and insurance back home.

The main reason I choose this bike over a few others in this price range was the reputation of the company within China. Zongshen is said to produce some of the most reliable bikes in China and their engines are frequently used by other chinese companies. This bike also apparently has been on a couple long distance trips before and although both were designed as promotions and neither was quite as long as my trip, that gave me some confidence. I did have to sacrifice engine size, the RX3 has a 250cc engine, and, more importantly, mechanical simplicity. The RX3 is water cooled, EFI, and the engine is often awkwardly arranged. The water cooling might be nice though. I will be traveling through some pretty hot areas, and the EFI will definitely be useful for when I go through the high altitudes in the Pamirs and Tibetan Plateau but I doubt I will ever be able to learn how to fix them should a problem arise.

Overall, I am happy with my choice. It has a powerful engine, it runs very smoothly in low and high gears (there are 6 gears) and it looks pretty sweet. One thing i expected to be a problem, but probably wont be is the lack of a center stand. There seems to be a place to install one.

Although i really do like the bike, there are a few potential problems. The first and most important is the service manual. I did get a book, but it's in chinese, its large index card sized and only about 20 pages. From what I can tell, it covers only the very basics; oil change, spark plug, turning on the engine and probably a few other things. Another issue is the oil filter. No one I've talked to knows where it is. I have a guess and it's pointed out in this picture but if thats right, then it looks like i'll have to remove a good portion of the engine to get to it. Related to this, there is no dip-stick. It uses the oil window system which is kind of annoying.

So, at the moment I'm still breaking in the engine. I decided to go with the most conservative hard break in procedure i could find which included fast accelerations in each gear (it accelerates really fast!) followed by engine breaking back to 2nd then moderate speed with constant throttle fluctuation and plenty of breaks. The large wide shouldered mostly empty village roads are perfect for this. I changed the oil yesterday at 100km and found a few metal shavings. I forgot to put the o-ring back on which had fallen into the oil pan so it got a bit messy. I have this next week off so I plan to do a few more longer rides.

I can't get the pictures to upload... I'll keep trying