Jialing JH600B Sidecar

**willem** · 04-20-2014, 11:10 AM

Originally Posted by fiddyduke

Thanks guys, i may take that route but still like the old CJ's and don't mind maintenance....just want to find a legal one hat isn't overpriced and overrestored

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.
more info about Jialing's in Europe www.motorwerk.nl

**barnone** · 06-27-2014, 01:49 PM

Originally Posted by willem

Hi,
I recently bought 7 new Jialings of which 3 sidecars. The new price depends on the color standard green goes for 47800, Black 48800, Camo/Sand/White(police) go for 49800.
With Tax and registration (Yunnan plates) came down to 55.000 all in.

If you wonder what i'm doing with these bikes.
Just started a Motorcycle Touring Company in Southeast Asia
www.corneradventures.com

Tried to make a reservation on your website and got page not found?

**barnone** · 06-27-2014, 01:55 PM

Originally Posted by willem

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.
more info about Jialing's in Europe www.motorwerk.nl

Do the Changs required as much maintenance as a newer Ural? Do bad they are not EPA/DOT approved for USA import.

**gt7599a** · 06-18-2015, 03:35 PM

Can anyone comment from personal experience on the reliability of JH600B-A? What year did they switch to making these as A models?

**tombaxers** · 06-19-2015, 05:00 AM

Originally Posted by gt7599a

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:

1) The sidecar wheel turning system and it's alignment are a total bunch of fucking arse

. 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!