History

Sidecar History

where it all begins BMW ( Bayerische Motoren Werke AG) Pre-WWII Germany

After the 1st World War, The terms of surrender, imposed trough The Treaty of Versailles, prohibited Germany from producing any form of military machinery, including vehicles. This also meant, no large capacity motorcycles. The rising German administration of the 30’s needed military equipment and thus developed a strategy to get around the restrictions by pursuing joint ventures with Russia . This was achieved by the signing of a 7 year trade agreement known as the Molotov- Ribbentrop pact, formally known as the Treaty of Nonaggression between Germany and the USSR . It was signed in Moscow on 10 ;23 August, 1939. At this time BMW’s cooperation with Uralmoto Zavod was limited to the production of the BMW R71 classical motorcycle.

They kept the newly developed BMW R75 secrets for themselves. The non-aggression treaty lasted until Operation Barbarossa of 22 June, 1941 when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union . In response, Russia joined forces with the Allies against Hitler. Russia retained certain BMW tooling and designs for the R71 motorcycle, and the Russian militarized R71 versions was designated the M72. This bike was almost identical to the BMW R71, and also featured the familiar horizontally opposed, 746 cc flat twin, side-valve engine.

CJ750

The CJ750 originated with the 1938 BMW R71, then, by way of the Soviet IMZ M72, found its way to China as the Chang Jiang.

The CJ750 motorcycle is based on the original 1956 Soviet IMZ (Irbitski Mototsikletniy Zavod) M-72 which itself was derived from the earlier German 1938 BMW R71. Nearly all of them have sidecars. They are often erroneously referred to as BMW “replicas” when, in fact, they are derivatives of the IMZ M-72.

Production began in the late 1950s or early 1960s. (Different sources cite different dates.) They were originally produced for the Chinese military and are powered by an air-cooled, four-stroke, opposed flat-twin engine displacing 746cc. The rear wheel is shaft-driven.

CJ technological history includes racing bikes, experimental engines and futile attempts at modernizing the appearance of a long obsolete machine. Beginning in the mid-1980s, over a decade after the normalization of relations between China and the USA, China opened its markets to foreign motorcycle manufacturers, which expedited the end of CJ750 mass production. Today, the marque is kept alive by interest from foreign hobbyists.