The Chang Jiang 750 is a motorcycle with sidecar made in China by Dong Tian Enterprise Co., Ltd. of Hangzhou. Its design goes back through the Soviet M-72 to the BMW R 71 of 1938, and the outfit is still recognisable by the German-style sidecar copied from the Steib TR 500.
Chang Jiang 750 at a glance
| Maker | Dong Tian Enterprise Co., Ltd., Hangzhou, China |
|---|---|
| Model | Chang Jiang 750, motorcycle with sidecar |
| Ancestry | Soviet M-72, itself a copy of the 1938 BMW R 71 |
| Sidecar | copy of the German Steib TR 500 |
| How it reached China | production equipment passed from the USSR under socialist aid |
| Shares parts with | Dnjepr and Ural: gearbox, wheels, front fork |
| Electric systems | M1 with 6-volt, M1M with 12-volt and electric starter |
| Engine variants | M1M Super with uprated OHV engine |
| Bodies | M15J four-seater |
| Price in Germany, late 1990s | new outfits for under 3,500 DM |
| Back in Europe | improved version on sale again since 2018 |
Based on one source: the German Wikipedia article on the Chang Jiang works. That article describes the marque and its models rather than a single model in detail, so this page is shorter than a full car article.
History of the Chang Jiang 750
From Bavaria to China
The Chang Jiang descends from the Soviet M-72, which was itself a copy of the BMW R 71 of 1938. Under the programme the Germans called socialist brotherly aid, the production equipment for the machine was handed from the Soviet Union to the People’s Republic of China, and the Chang Jiang was built there as a direct continuation of that line. Because of that ancestry the machine is technically close to the older types of the Russian makers Dnjepr and Ural, and a number of parts and assemblies — among them the gearbox, the wheels and the front fork — can be exchanged between them.
The sidecar
Every Chang Jiang 750 is thought of as a combination rather than a solo machine. The sidecar fitted to it is a copy of the German Steib TR 500, which is why the outfit has a very European look for a Chinese vehicle: the shape of the boat, the mounting points and the trim all follow the Steib pattern rather than a Soviet one.
The 750 in Europe
Over the years Chang Jiang worked in Germany with a succession of importers. For a time, towards the end of the 1990s, new outfits could be bought for less than 3,500 DM, but registering them caused trouble, because the machines did not meet the European standards that applied from 1997, above all for exhaust emissions, noise and brakes under the Euro 2 rules. In Switzerland the importer Fritz Egli occupied himself with bringing the Chinese machines in and improving them, while the sidecar builder Warnke in Lehnstedt offered to fit Chang Jiang sidecars to European and Japanese motorcycles.
Design and features
- BMW-derived flat-twin layout: the engine and frame line comes from the 1938 BMW R 71 by way of the Soviet M-72.
- Steib-type sidecar: a copy of the German Steib TR 500, the classic European sidecar shape.
- Shared parts with Ural and Dnjepr: gearbox, wheels and front fork can be swapped with the Russian machines.
- Simple electrics by model: 6-volt systems on the M1, 12-volt with an electric starter on the M1M.
- Cheap entry in the 1990s: new outfits were offered in Germany for under 3,500 DM.
Chang Jiang 750 versions
- M1: the basic model with a 6-volt electrical system.
- M1M: 12-volt electrics and an electric starter.
- M1M Super: the same machine with an uprated OHV engine.
- M15J: a four-seater body.
- Since 2018: an improved version of the Chang Jiang offered again in Europe.
Other machines of this kind are collected in the Chang Jiang section of the site, alongside the motorcycle and sidecar photographs in the photo galleries.
Video: Chang Jiang 750
Video on YouTube.
Sources
- Chang Jiang (Motorradhersteller), German Wikipedia: origin, sidecar, models, import to Europe