61 Chang Jiang. Perfect for essential journeys.

[scdan4]

From here. Many many shiny shinies! 

Except what's just been pushed on the trailer doesn't look so shiny.... 

.... 😁 

Well excited. 😁 

[wuvvum]

OK, that's got me stumped.  Is that a 2-stroke flat twin?

[scdan4]

In the week before Christmas in a pandemic and "I've bought a bike love" "Oh god it's not a stupidly fast one again is it?" 

Nope, quite the reverse, it's dangerously slow. 😁 

Got it back to the unit. 

And it's a crowd drawer. But what is it? 

It's a Chang jiang. Obviously. A Chinese clone of a Russian copy of a 30s BMW. Germany gave the design to Russia when they worked together and the red army used it throughout ww2. When the ussr decided it was old hat they gave the tooling to chairman Mao. It's 

This one is from 1961. Substantially older than me. UK registered and has been for a while. Its a side-valved air-cooled 750 twin that is aesthetically lovely and develops a heady 20ish bhp. Or would do if it ran properly. It needs a bit of love but hopefully not a lot, in the rainy hour we had playing it was nearly there so hopefully won't take much. 

It's got a decompressor lever or something on the bars, no choke that we found and seemingly a foot and hand gear shift. Lights all work and although it's been a display piece for a bit, it's not been stood too long and was apparently a regularly used when it was traded in. 

Lots of kicking (very little by me happily) resulted in 

I feel like a kid at Christmas. It's absolutely fucking brilliant. 

Officially as cool as penguin piss. 😁 

[wuvvum]

Superb!  Not 2-stroke then - the flat cylinder heads were baffling me.  I didn't realise anything was made that recently with side valves...

[Mally]

Pull the decompression lever swing the kick start, drop the compression lever mid swing ,

It either fires or kicks back and breaks your leg.

[Asimo]

Ford were sstill doing sidevalve Escorts in ‘61,

edit.  but more relevantly and even harder to believe

 Velocette were still making their sidevalve LE until about ‘70.

[scdan4]

18 minutes ago, Mally said:

Pull the decompression lever swing the kick start, drop the compression lever mid swing ,

It either fires or kicks back and breaks your leg.

I used to be a blasé cocksure youff about such things but then once upon a time a Suzuki dr big (800cc single) fired my entire body across the mot bay and into the workshop wall like a pissed off karate kid.  Now I’m older and quite happy to watch everyone else work it out.

Not sure the decompressor lever is connected to anything. Lots to learn. 😁

[somewhatfoolish]

1 hour ago, Asimo said:

Ford were sstill doing sidevalve Escorts in ‘61,

edit.  but more relevantly and even harder to believe

 Velocette were still making their sidevalve LE until about ‘70.

Briggs and Stratton probably still make them. There's a company in Belgium that sells sidevalve aeroengines. They're cheap to make and done properly make OHV engines look like garage queens.

[martc]

1 hour ago, scdan4 said:

This one is from 1961. Substantially older than me. UK registered and has been for a while.

Bloody good going.

I read an article about these a few years ago (in Classic Bike maybe)- apparently they are all declared as being manufactured in 1961 because that was when they started to make them and there was a  misunderstanding about what date was required on the paperwork. Consequently all the UK registered ones were issued with a 1961 number, yours could be more recent. I'm trying to find a reference to this fun fact but I'm struggling.

Have you seen their website?

http://changjiang-europe.com/index.php/en/history/

Lots of dealers in Europe but none in the UK, but I'm sure F2 Motorbikes used to import them http://www.f2motorcycles.ltd.uk/main.html

 

[scdan4]

Fucking hell they were churning out that engine until 2017!

Parts should be easy?

[Psycho Charlie Knobcheese]

Has it got a manual advance/retard? If so retard the ignition before kicking it over! 

[LightBulbFun]

wow, thats quite something! love vehicles that have continued to be manufactured far longer then others around it  

 

has it been registered in the UK since new? I ask because OO183 is an 1961 Essex registration number but I cant find anything on the DVLA for OO183, and that plate looks a bit foreign so just wonder if thats a coincidence 

 

but would be fitting if it is,

because 2 letter 1 to 4 digit plates mostly all got issued in the 1930's more or less (tho some remote scottish islands never used up their original 1904 2 letter 4 digit series and only stopped issuing them when Suffix registrations where made compulsory on the 1st of Jan 1965)

except for WC and OO, which was not issued until the 1960's when Essex was running out of registration marks so the marks where finally issued, to Essex County Council, and with Essex happily issuing, OO, as OOxxxx in that 1904-1930's style, in the 1960s! before going to AOOxxx and so forth! (WC was never issued as a 2 digit series, was only issued from BWCxxx onwards skipping AWC and UWC because nobody wants to be called A Water Closet! and curiously enough xxxxOO was never issued either despite Essex happily issuing all their other marks in xxxxXX reverse format) 

 

so it would be fitting if a 1930's bike made in the 1960's happened to have been issued a 1930's style plate when it was registered in the 1960's! LOL

[wuvvum]

2 hours ago, Asimo said:

Velocette were still making their sidevalve LE until about ‘70.

You know, I never realised the LE had a sidevalve engine.  Probably because you can't actually see much of the engine on them.  Every day's a school day.

[somewhatfoolish]

33 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

You know, I never realised the LE had a sidevalve engine.  Probably because you can't actually see much of the engine on them.  Every day's a school day.

They also made an OHV aircooled version, because reasons. It's a wonder some british bike makers ever lasted more than 5 minutes, between bonkers designs and engines which wear their lubricant externally.

[scdan4]

@LightBulbFun they must be pre import. It’s on a 3 letter 3 number plate which is fixed over the 00183 on the back.

[martc]

8 hours ago, somewhatfoolish said:

It's a wonder some british bike makers ever lasted more than 5 minutes, between bonkers designs and engines which wear their lubricant externally.

They didn't last more than 5 minutes once some decent machinery started to become available in the late 60's....

[martc]

I've found a road test, which at the end claims the bike was made in the 90's but if you look the reg number up (UAS442) it's year of manufacture is 1959.

Since my bold statement about 1961, other websites I've looked at claim production started in '59. Still searching for a definitive statement about the 'year of manufacture' paperwork confusion...

https://www.classicbikehub.uk/Reviews/article/bemw03100600

[Rocket88]

I'm not a biker, but this looks charming..........

[strangeangel]

Wow, who would have thought the purchase of the year would happen with only a week of 2020 to go! Well bought.

 

As cousins of the Ural and Dnepr flat twins there is some love for these in the Cossack OC, who I have found very helpful in my travails with Soviet shite. Hope to see plenty of this on the Bikeshite thread in the coming weeks and months!

 

[somewhatfoolish]

If it's really 1961 then it's a decadent and reactionary not-very-communist machine, predating the cultural revolution and therefore may not be made of cheese as there's a possibility of it having been made by people with a passing knowledge of metallurgy and metal-forming rather than a comprehensive familiarity with Mao's little red book.

[Tamworthbay]

I could be wrong but I think the hand and foot change was to allow for the sidecar fitment. Sure I read it somewhere. They are charming things and sound great.

[Asimo]

"Closely related" 

 

[scdan4]

He was riding the tits off that. How that didn’t bounce him into the grass i don’t know.😂

Avoiding shenanigans like that is half the reason I bought it!

[Paul-l]

That’s great.

the hand gear lever might be reverse though - the Urals have that somewhere

[scdan4]

10 hours ago, strangeangel said:

 

As cousins of the Ural and Dnepr flat twins there is some love for these in the Cossack OC, who I have found very helpful in my travails with Soviet shite. Hope to see plenty of this on the Bikeshite thread in the coming weeks and months!

 

Are they Facebook only or is there stuff in the members area? I’ve not got the faceache. There would be an irony if my old timey bike made me get it. I need settings as would like to start with a birthday service. I’m assuming it’s got points? 

I was working in eyeshot of it all day but unable to fiddle. Torture. It’s still gorgeous but I’m formulating plans on how to make it gorgeouser. There’s a really really cool looking bike in there I’d like to release.

 

[scdan4]

23 hours ago, Psycho Charlie Knobcheese said:

Has it got a manual advance/retard? If so retard the ignition before kicking it over! 

I’m now thinking that’s what the mystery lever on the bars is for. 

[martc]

Not sure how good your Dutch is*, but it looks like there's a wealth of info here - https://www.bensbikes.nl/ChangJiang/index.htm

*there are some bits in English.

You could upgrade yours and join 'The People's Armed Police Force'...

[somewhatfoolish]

Ha! They've gone to the trouble of changing to alloy wheels but left the drum brakes and given the cosmetics a 70s makeover.

[strangeangel]

1 hour ago, scdan4 said:

Are they Facebook only or is there stuff in the members area? I’ve not got the faceache. There would be an irony if my old timey bike made me get it. I need settings as would like to start with a birthday service. I’m assuming it’s got points?

 

 

There is stuff on the website, but I haven't actually got round to registering for it yet! They are on Facebook too, but the best bit is their club magazine, 'Horizontal View'. which is worth the membership fee alone.

 

[martc]

10 hours ago, scdan4 said:

Are they Facebook only or is there stuff in the members area? I’ve not got the faceache. There would be an irony if my old timey bike made me get it. I need settings as would like to start with a birthday service. I’m assuming it’s got points? 

I was working in eyeshot of it all day but unable to fiddle. Torture. It’s still gorgeous but I’m formulating plans on how to make it gorgeouser. There’s a really really cool looking bike in there I’d like to release.

 

Have you found this bit on the Dutch site? Its concerned with assembling one from a crate but it may contains some of the settings details you will need although some of the advice seems to be for specific engines...

http://www.fallschirmjager.net/Vehicles/Motorcycles/BMWTechnical/Assembly.pdf