new to the market for an rxp,saw one on ebay with a riva stsge 3, impressive ride, but are they reliable to use as a recreation ride or are they a time bomb waiting to happen.Would like to find one with mods but reliabilty as well, any suggestions welcome, thanks

We don't have a dedicated research & development facility headed by one of the best in the industry just to build time bombs.

Our Stage III Kit is just as reliable as a stock boat so long as you treat it accordingly. As with any personal watercraft or other motorsport vehicle if you abuse it and don't maintain it you'll be lucky to ride an entire season. Treat your equipment properly, follow the manufacturer's recommendations and it will last you forever.

thanks for the reply, not trying to knock riva, i agree your rep is great,i just dont want to invest my money into a ski that was meant for a race course not recreation riding, been down that road with the older xp800s back in the day,ported and piped, they ran hard, but they were time bombs running all day long!

quote:

not trying to knock riva

Well, that was a pretty tough 2nd post! Our Stage III Kit is designed to run all day, whether you're at your local riding area or on the race course. If you stray from what we recommend and/or neglect the ski that chance that you will have a problem increases.

I have a '05 RXP stage III with 80 hours and have been through 2 riva intercoolers and just ordered the 3rd one today (quite expensive). The problme here is that Riva only has a one month warranty on that part and if you are riding in salt water you will have issues so i don't recommend the through the hull exhaust and riva powercooler if you are in salt water. I have barely even rode my skis and you can see the issues i have. My opinion is that it is way to overpriced for the length of time it will last.

I have had a thru-hull exhaust in mine for quite a while now. I ride in the ocean and have had no problems. I would not recommend the Riva Intercooler for salt riding, it's not anodized. Pirahna Parts makes an anodized intercooler, Rotax Racing makes a copper core intercooler.

If maintained as outlined in the installation instructions our Power Coolers will last just as long as any other out there. We have several that have been in service for 3 years. In salt water no less! But, they're just like anything else. You have to take care of it.