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Changs in Europe are actually cheaper than in China, reason parts are difficult and hourly wage is killing since these bikes need allot of attention. All Jialing's JH600 are EU approved, in case you ever want to take the bike back to your home country. jialing also has several dealerships in Europe: Netherlands, Germany, Belgium.Quote:
Originally Posted by fiddyduke
more info about Jialing's in Europe www.motorwerk.nl
Tried to make a reservation on your website and got page not found?Quote:
Originally Posted by willem
Do the Changs required as much maintenance as a newer Ural? Do bad they are not EPA/DOT approved for USA import.Quote:
Originally Posted by willem
Can anyone comment from personal experience on the reliability of JH600B-A? What year did they switch to making these as A models?
I cannot tell you when they changed to making the A model, but I can comment on the reliability as I have had one since October 2012 and have done a couple of big trips in Western China on one (6000kms and 3500kms respectively). In short the engine is good (it was designed by an Austrian offshoot of Bosh for Jialing about 15-16 years ago when China didn't have larger bore motorbike engine technology if my understanding is correct). The bike is relatively well assembled and on the whole being a supposed military bike has been designed with reliability in mind but there are some severe flaws with certain areas:Quote:
Originally Posted by gt7599a
1) The sidecar wheel turning system and it's alignment are a total bunch of fucking arse :confused1:. Both big trips and on a few shorter journeys the cable has stretched that attaches the head steering column (handlebars) to the turning column that in turn attaches to a shaft that then steers the sidecar wheel in the same direction as the handlebars. When this happens the alignment of the sidecar wheel gets out and when riding you have to fight the constant pull of the sidecar in a different direction than you want to ride, which after a few hours in the saddle tends to put a lot of pressure on your back and shoulders and has gone so far as to totally screw my back on one occasion. Now you maybe asking why don't you just realign it before carrying on, and that brings about the next issue the realignment is the most disingenuous ballache of a system to sort out even when you are in a workshop and have taken the sidecar completely off let alone on the side of the road in the dark. It is possible but it requires an enormous amount of patience as the 4 bolts that manoeuvre the position of the steering cable are nigh on impossible to get to with a spanner and when you can they can only be turned about 1/20th of a turn at a time as this area of the bike has a lot of permanent subframe getting in the way. In short it is an absolute cunt of a job! However, I should add that this problem probably won't come about if you are on roads all the time - it was only really on hard off-road where the alignment is pulled out. Sand for example did a fine job of screwing it!
2) The paint job is shite. I went for the black model and they had very very badly spray painted over the army green so that within the first trip the entire frame and other non plastic areas turned from black to green. So if you are going to buy then the army green is probably the safest bet - tho they do now do it in a Hello Kitty pink which would be very fetching! Ha
3) The spoked wheels from the factory are very badly built. Basically not one drop of threadlock was used on the spoke nipples when building the wheels, which means after a long haul on tough ground these get loose and I have actually had 3 entire wheel collapses (all rear wheel). Bearing in mind this is a very heavily loaded bike with camping gear and 2 people there is a lot of weight on that rear wheel, but still shouldn't mean the bloody things collapse no matter how rough the terrain is. Luckily every time I've had the spare to change out, but it was very very close to call on the last trip when the we'd had one semi collapse, I'd retightened it as best I could by hand and then put it as the spare, then the one I changed in collapsed fully and I had to use the repaired one to limp the next 100kms to a town where we found a Michelin Tyre place open at 11 at night who were absolute heros and worked on thru till 1:30 in the morning to get one wheel fully fixed using the remaining functional spokes from the two fucked wheels. A very close call! Since then I have had the wheels rebuilt with Loctite and a torque wrench and then balanced. I'm yet to really test if that is gonna make the difference as no big trips or bad terrain since then.
4) The clutch is not the best. I have had two fairly hairy moments both at +4000m and both on steep ground and fully loaded also, but the clutch began to overheat and slip heavily. First time it had nothing left at all and no power was going to the rear wheel whatsoever. Had to tighten it up and wait an hour for it to cool off. Both times once off the steep ground it sorted itself out luckily, but I think when it overheats it creates a super smooth layer on the friction plates and they just slip more and more freely. Interestingly when I came back and opened up the clutch the plates didn't actually show much sign of wear. I'm assuming these are bespoke to Jialing but I'd like to research whether it would be possible to get some from elsewhere with higher quality ceramic friction materials. Likely a pipedream though!
5) I've now had the frame crack in two places. One underneath the headlight and dash mount which seems strange as this really isn't holding much weight. And the other underneath the backbox I have, which admittedly I had probably far exceeded the suggested limit of weight to put on the back (tho I'm not sure Jialing even specify this).
6) Others. The general quality of bits and bobs is a long way from it's Japanese and European counterparts (not that it really has any counterparts). The plastics are not great; the welding of the frame is shoddy in areas, the stock chain broke on me; the wiring loom is not well shielded; all plated areas are showing corrosion - some worse than others; and there is a bit too much squeaking & rattling in general.
This all sounds very negative, but I must add I have had an enormous amount of fun on this bike and hopefully lots more to come. It needs TLC if you take it to the terrain it's supposedly designed for, probably a little too much, but then both the big trips I have done I have absolutely thrashed the tits off the bike on some of the worst terrain and highest altitudes I have ever ridden, which is gonna give any bike a run in. If you want a sidecar to tour on that is A LOT more trustworthy than a ChangJiang; that can take 2-up plus loads of camping gear; spare fuel; food for a week and still take on brutal terrain and up decent inclines then I don't believe that there is a better off-the-shelf sidecar outfit for the job (queue other user disagreements...).
Yes lots of improvements could be made but this is all part of riding a China Moto! :thumbsup:
(I'll add some photos of the various issues I have had later, now on the train using 3G)
Quote:
Originally Posted by tombaxers
Attachment 17277
Rear wheel collapse Golden Week 2012 - Qinghai province, looong day, cold as fuck, not ideal! Thank the old gods and the new I had a jack with me.
Attachment 17278
Day after the rear wheel collapse - notice the lack of spokes on the spare wheel.
Attachment 17279
Heroes at random Michelin place sorting another rear wheel collapse Golden Week 2014 - Yunnan
Attachment 17280
Good paint job.
Attachment 17281
Good stitching job on passenger seat. This was like this almost out of the factory.
Attachment 17282Quote:
Originally Posted by tombaxers
Shoddy plastics - broken mount for front faring not hit simply rattled apart.
Attachment 17283
Cable harness casing cracking in multiple places.
Attachment 17284
Corrosion on rear seat peg mount.
Attachment 17285
That paint job.
Attachment 17286
Corrosion on muffler housing.
Attachment 17287Quote:
Originally Posted by tombaxers
More sexy paintwork.
Attachment 17288
Corrosion on front searing yoke.
Attachment 17289
More broken plastic mounts.
Attachment 17290
Corrosion on exhaust mounts.
Attachment 17291
Top view of the mutha of all stearing alignment area.
Attachment 17292Quote:
Originally Posted by tombaxers
Side view of the sidecar steering alignment mechanism!
Attachment 17293
Cracked rear mudguard - admittedly this is probably from bottoming out on awful terrain but well it still broke!
Attachment 17294
New to stripped in ~3000kms - the Kenda tyre compound could certainly be improved upon.
Attachment 17295
Hello Kitty Pink! Mmm sexy!
Attachment 17296
Cracked front mount for dash & headlights.
Attachment 17297Quote:
Originally Posted by tombaxers
The cracked dash + headlight mount.
Attachment 17298
The pikey fixed dash + headlight mount.
Attachment 17299
Old & New Rear mudguards.
Attachment 17300
Cracked rear frame by the mounts for the rear pillion grip. Almost certainly caused by backbox over load. Still not an ideal design. as thin unsupported frame area.
Attachment 17301
Cracked rear frame ready for pikey welding.