The three motorbikes used for our expedition are Changjiang 750′s which are replicas of the 1930′s WWII BMW’s.
At the end of WWII, the BMW factory was moved from what became Eastern Germany to the Ural mountains and became Ural; during the 1950′s, the technology was transferred to China under the name of Changjiang, the mechanic has hardly been modified in the past 50 years (apart from an electric start which works one day out of two and a reverse gear that badly damages the gear box) which makes our bikes unique and the most appropriate time machine to take this unique journey.
Changjiang 750 specifications
Dimensions : LxWxH (mm) 2400 x 1590 x 100, LxWxH (ft/in) 7’8″ x 5’2″ x 3’3″
Weight : 350kg, 772 pounds
Capacity : 746cc
With its 1938 technology, it has 750 cubic centimeters for only 32 horse power, the Changjiang can hardly go faster than 80 km/h. Previous expeditions across China of several thousands of kilometers have shown that we cover on average 150km per day. The team has decided however to push up to 170km per day in order to complete this journey in the round number of 100 days.
Depending on fatigue and the reliability of the bikes, the journey’s length might vary by 17 days.
Environmental conscious, the team buys back its emissions of carbon and fund a project developing Biogas plants in China through actioncarbone.com which was funded by the photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand.
