Timeless Copies!!!

[Ian Bungy]

A Local Guy who lives near the X-Centre has quite a Selection of Bikes. He Likes to get Older Bikes and Restore them and has a couple of Really Beautiful Yamaha SR500. He just brought around His Latest Project Completed. He said He was Searching the Internet and found this Outfit.
It is a 1937 Chinese Sidecar. An Obvious Copy of the BMW Boxer :shock:

He said this is a Genuine 1937, but they made this Bike for Decades and thinks You can still Buy them New!!! Also said Spare Parts are Plentiful.

It is 750cc and the Engine was Totally Rebuilt and Polished before it was all packed in different Boxes and Sent to Him in Parts.

Once here He had everything Painted, Chromed or Polished and Re-Assembled everything Himself.

Some Pretty Impressive features considering the Bikes Age :wink:
4 Speed with Reverse, Shaft Drive, Linked Rear Brakes to the Sidecar.
He Made a Good Job with it's Restoration and has a Comfortable Passengers Compartment and Spacious Boot for Luggage. Great Novelty Item for local Transport 8)
No Doubt Hiko can Fill Us in on Full Details of this Bike

 

[Fishenough]

Wow: over 70 years old, spare parts availability, rebuilt as new with a timeless design. That is wonderful.

The sprung pillion seat looks darn interesting too.

Is that a headlight on the outside of the side car?

 

[HIKO]

Yes it is a Chang Jiang, a two cylinder boxer originally copied from the German BMW R71 side valve engine. This was probably copied already before WW2, by permission from the Germans, to Russia. This was in accordance with the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact where Russia promised to supply Germany with raw materials and Germany promised to deliver ready products and technology.

After WW2 the BMW factory was moved to Eichenau in the part of Germany that became occupied by the Russians and later became East Germany and BMW:s became EMW:s.

Actually the R71 was only manufactured in Germany between 1938-1939 and only in small amounts and it was a derivate from the old pressed steel framed R12 that was not so suitable for side cars. Then before the WW2 some 10.000 of these bikes were produced for the army. In 1941 then came the R75 which was a bike specially made for the Wermacht, and made at the Eichenau factory. When WW2 ended the toolings and last remaining R75 were shipped to Russia.

Anyhow Russia started to manufacture the R71 copy , now named M72 at the URAL and DNEPR factory.

Later they started to copy the R750 OVH machine with the very sophisticated two wheel drive.

During the 1950’s the Chinese People Liberation Army needed a reliable motorcycle. They had tried for a few years to develop their own version of an old Zundapp model , but when Stalin promised to deliver the tools for manufacturing the old but reliable M72/R71 the Chinese were happy and manufactured maybe close to one million of the bike. The bikes were made at the Xinjiang Jiang and the Hongdu Machinery Plant, both belonging to the army’s air force. Chang Jiang 750 the bikes was named.

Around 1985 the Chinese understood that the old CJ750 was obsolete and they bought the drawings for the OHV old BMW R75, which is still manufactured to day. The bike in your picture Ian may be modified. I am not sure if the factory is making bikes with a modern swing arm construction, at least I thought that they were all plunger type suspension.

There was one Chang Jiang with Chinese plates standing ten years ago at the Jomtien Police station here in Pattaya probably seized from a customer. After a few years it disappeared.

The BMW was a good bike, the Russian copies were bad but they could be updated and modified to European Standard. About this Chinese version I’m not so sure, when the toolings are copied for the third or fourth time the tolerances starts to be a little….

HIKO

 

[SilverhawkUSA]

Want one brand new??? Click here; New from South Africa

As you can see, this got my curiosity up. The link above also has the interesting history of the bike and it's manufacturing (to add to Hiko's usual incredible knowledge :wink: ).

Also try a google IMAGE search just typing in cj750. Amazing what some people have built.

 

[PICO-PICO]

60.000 ZAR = only 250.000THB

I would buy it right away as a second sidecar, but Thai Import duties are prohibitive. I paid for my sidecar alone, i.e. without bike 170.000 THB.
Plus a generous set of spare parts.