What you are looking at is the 2016 RX3, made by Zongshen Motor of China, and marketed in the US by CSC Motorcycles. At first glance, it looks like a BMW GS Adventure, until you notice little details like the single-disc front wheel, lack of ABS sensors and cast steel frame.
The engine is a liquid-cooled, overhead cam four-valve single cylinder that is rated at 25 hp and 23 Nm. Fuelling is taken care of by a Delphi EFI unit, and final drive is chain, going through a six-speed box.
The 16 litre tank provides a useful range for the RX3, and the balance shaft cancels out vibration from the thumper. Braking is taken care of by front and rear single discs. No dinner plates here, just an appropriate 262 mm disc up front grabbed by a twin-piston caliper and a 258 mm unit out back.
The 37 mm inverted fork gives 130 mm of travel, and the rear has 140 mm of bouncy monoshock. Weight is claimed to be 165 kg, and the seat height is 795 mm.
The front wheel uses a 100/90-18 tyre, which isn’t hard to find, but the rear 130/90-15 is going to limit tyre choices, somewhat. Most riders will find the RX3 unintimidating, compared to the nose-bleed seat height and elephantine weight of full-sized dual-purpose machines.
For 2016, the RX3 comes in four colours – Sahara Orange, metallic Sierra Silver, metallic Garnet Red, and pearl Ice White – and US distributor CSC provides an option list that includes a lowering kit, gold-anodised forks and adjustable, Seat Concepts custom seat, satin finish handlebars and bar-end weights. The 2016 RX3 retails in the US for US$3,895 (RM16,772).
bring it into Malaysia! i’ll buy it!
Just to add in, for Malaysian market, this bike was re-badged by KTN named RS3, unfortunately, this bike was offered not EFI, but carb which is a very downside of it.
this bike sold in malaysia as KTN RS3
Already in malaysian market for quite sometime for just a bit more than 2/3rd of the American price. Brush up on your local motorcycle scene please.
Malaysian mentality: China copy, okay, dihalalkan. P1 licensed rebadged lousy, mana R&D, no originality, waste their taxpayer moni but they only pay ciku, better kolos shop.
You know what, business wise, sometimes its good to have a pirate version of your product as a kind of an effective way to popularize it.
If the RX3 is a “copy” of any BMW, then every other adventure bike on the market is too. Look at a photo of the RX3 and Triumph Tiger 800 side-by-side. And most people seem to forget that the famous BMW “Adventure beak” was copied from a 1988 Suzuki DR Big.
It simply takes its styling queues from all the other “adventure bike” manufacturers, just the same as all the “off road/SUV” manufacturers take their styling queues from other models of the same genre.
The bottom line is that it is a decent quality bike that (In my opinion) is much better for “adventure riding” than a 300Kg behemoth.
RX3 (Aka KTNS RS3) building quality very good.
Not trying to be too nit-picky, but the CSC bikes don’t come with a 15″ rear wheel. They were going to originally, but now all of them ship with a 17″ rear wheel so you have more options on tires.
Is the 2016 RS3 come with EFI or carb ?
Any owners/bikers willing to share their experience on this bike? I intend to own one and ride it around the world just as Anita Yusuff did to her Yamaha FZ150i
I own one, it’s been a very good, reliable, comfortable, smooth bike. No problems to report. I went down 1 tooth on the CS sproket, and it pulls better from a stop. I ride 2 up frequently, with ZERO decrease in performance. You won’t cruise at 80 into a headwind, it’s still a 250 thumper, but it’ll cruise at 68-70 with no issues. Fit and finish are excellent, and the only issues I have are some fasteners that are soft and round/strip. Big deal. Has a 330w alternator, and can run any electric gear you want. Easy maint. including valve adjustments. I’d take it anywhere.
hi, I’m intent to sell my bike…same model KTNS RS3 SE/2016…please pm…
(Getting new bike of Yamaha).