A simple review of the new CJ650 from a Jialing 600 Owner

[bigheadsnake]

The news of the new CJ650 Sidecar first came out 2 years ago in 2016, every sidecar fans in China was looking forward to it, and in this January, the sidecar was finally published to.
After 3 months waiting, I got this bike at the beginning of April, and trailer it to register.




After the registration, I ride this sidecar for hundreds of kilometers, in the city and on the Highway. There's a picture of it at the suburbs of Beijing with my dad's JH600B-A, you can easily tell the difference of the dimension of them, the new CJ650 is wider and lower, and the Jialing looks much stronger and bigger.



We can see it more clearly when they are on the same trailer, although the new CJ650 is wider and the trailer can hardly load it but it looks much smaller than Jialing.




After several times of riding, the battery of it had run out, so I had to start it with my own Jialing bike.




So after hundreds of riding experience, I do can summary some advantages and disadvantages of this model.

First, there's still some small problems like some other Chinese bike, as far as I got, there's

The handlebars* cannot be locked, the nail cannot be inserted correctly, but the bike shop said it is the*assembly issue and can be easily fixed.
The oil indicator is not working properly and shows randomly.
The trunk is hard to close and the locker of it finally broke, I had to make one by my own.
Well, some of the problem I mentioned above may not be the common problem, but then I want to list some bad riding experience.

There's NO REVERSE GEAR!* Which makes you so hard to park in the city, and you will never want to park it on a down slope road if there's no ground ahead, it can be hardly pushed on a slope.
The turning radius is very large, honestly it cannot be a problem, but it has*NO REVERSE GEAR! If you want to make a U turn and can't finish it one-time, get off the bike and push it, great experience when there's a big traffic. If it equipped with a side-wheeling turning system like Jialing, it could be much better.
The*spring-seat chair is not very comfortable, shaking strongly when the suspension works. I'd rather like the normal seat.
The minimum*ground clearance is too short for a sidecar which makes it can't go off-road.
The braking system works well but when you make a panic breaking, the sidecar slides to the left, very serious.
The sidecar body is too small and too low, not very comfortable for a adult man to sit in it, only fit for women and chaildrens, and the suspension of the body is not working very well, it jolts strongly when the road is tough.
The quality of the engine is not so good that some of them will leak the engine oil or the coolant.
The gearbox is not designed for a sidecar, it's a copy of CF650NK Streetbike, what the factory does is to make a big chain wheel to gain more low torque. However that makes the 6 gears unnecessary, I ride it 10km/h on first gear, 20km/h on second gear and 60km/h on 6th gear, after 60km/h to more than 130km/h, 6th gear at all time. 4 gears is enough in this case just like the Jialing sidecar.
Still, there's some good points of it.

The power is pretty strong, the engine from CF MOTO is 52kw, 62Nm, much stronger than Jialing even Ural, it can easily get to the speed of 100km/h.
The combined breaking system works fine most time, where you press the brake pedal, the all 3 wheels will brake at the same time. However, in a panic breaking, it's not very*effective and the sidecar slides to the left.
It looks good.
After spending more than 64000 RMB on it, I still think that the Jialing JH600B-A sidecar is the best sidecar in China.


My JH600B-A


My CJ650

[bigheadsnake]

Just copied from my own blog, like to discuss here.

[a_steel]

hello, bigheadsnake

sorry, bit off-topic, but I noticed you have an oil cooler on your JH600. can you share some experience after this upgrade? what does it change?

I have JH600 solo version and I noticed, that first 15-20 minutes gearbox work smooth enough, but later it become hard to find neutral or change gears on low speed. I suppose it is related to the temperature of oil, so I am wondering how that does work on your bike.


BR,

Alex

[bigheadsnake]

hello, bigheadsnake

sorry, bit off-topic, but I noticed you have an oil cooler on your JH600. can you share some experience after this upgrade? what does it change?

I have JH600 solo version and I noticed, that first 15-20 minutes gearbox work smooth enough, but later it become hard to find neutral or change gears on low speed. I suppose it is related to the temperature of oil, so I am wondering how that does work on your bike.


BR,

Alex

Hi a_steel

The oil cooler is connected from the cover of the oil filter, however, I don't think there is enough pressure to fluid the oil, so the cooler is always cool even in summer, I have that cooler is just because it was on the bike when I bought it.

What the problem you've got might be the common problem of JH600, the lifespan of the gearbox is not long enough. When it's get used for about 10000km, the gearbox is hard to change gears especially in low speed and the bike is easily to stall on gear one in high temp.

I've met the same problem with you, just change all the clutch slices, about 300 RMB, pretty cheap.

To avoid this problem, you'd better avoid to ride in low speed and in half clutch, or you can change some other clutch slices suite not manufacutered by Jialing, it may extend the life of the clutch slice.

[prince666]

Hi and welcome to MCM

Love the bike, love your pictures.

IMO the only good thing about the new CJ 650 is the CFmoto 650 Engine.?

[bigheadsnake]

Hi and welcome to MCM

Love the bike, love your pictures.

IMO the only good thing about the new CJ 650 is the CFmoto 650 Engine.?

Thanks, like many other people to buy the old CJ750, the retro style really attract people, it's very good looking and all the light is LED.

I think every model of sidecar has lots of things to be improved, if the gearbox can be redesigned and add a reverse gear, most of the problem will be solved and it will worth the price.

Some of the disadvantages cannot be solved like the spring seat, it's always uncomfort but it's a part of retro style, and also the co-driver seat, if the sidecar body is bigger and higher, it will look very stupid, what the comparation I made is from Jialing, if you compare it to Ural or Old CJ, the reivew will be totally different.

[ChinaV]

Great review, thanks for sharing!

[Kennon]

Damn/ how did I miss this review, been wanting to see first ride reviews.

In regards to the rear seat it's no wonder Ural and Dnepr switched to a thickly foamed bench seat:
ural.jpg

I'm based out on Moscow nowadays and have been looking to get an original IMZ M72 as a project

[Kamilleli]

hi all
i want to built my own sidecar,
i need a shematic,plan,diagramm to gave me guidance from where to work on.
Anyone have a plan,a picture of a frame from an actual sidecar??
anyhelp will be appreciated

thanks
merci
Gef

[Kamilleli]

"looks" like a gap in the goggle lens just under the camera too. It appears in pic one, the rider pic, and the pic on the link. Could get ugly on a dusty day