The CJ Project by Clay Jones in Beijing
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Clay unveils the CJ Project which, aside from a few minor details, is now finished.
And he lets Gerald take it for a spin. (At least the sidecar tire won't get worn out with Gerald driving.)
Check out Clay's tribute to Harley-Davidson—a tombstone taillight.
We can expect this bike to accumulate some serious miles over the summer.
May 3, 2005  
"Well everything is going slow on the CJ Project."
"I want everything to go right and attention to detail."
"Gerald went through the engine and replaced all the bearings."
"And he installed the short skirt pistons and the long tooth fourth gear in the box."
"He also found a nice sidecar frame (without the platform)"
"Tthat will go nicely in the final design."
December 21, 2004  
"This is a picture of the 1974 6V PLA engine that will go in the project. This engine was discovered to have Japanese bearings when it was torn down for rebuild, evidence that PLA concern for quality went beyond normal production values. Even though it's new it has been sitting in a box for 30-odd years, a rebuild is in order. The frame was just painted and I am getting all those bits together that should be painted—but no chrome where it shouldn't be."
"This engine will not be polished or chromed in any way. The short-skirted pistons that Gerald has (the ones that are well-made as there are several on the market here in China) are casted well and will be installed as well as a longer 4th. gear in the box. New German bearings will also be used in the rebuild. The rear drive will have a new German bearings placed in it as well."
December 2, 2004  
"When I first came to Beijing I learned that the 32HP OHV engine was illegal in Beijing and it would cost me a lot of money to change the engine and to get it registered. Knowing now what I know about the courts in China, any given excuse to proclaim the foreigner wrong and thus liable for any accident has motivated me to try and have all my Is dotted and Ts crossed."
"Also I now have started to love the 6V having driven Alpha and Beta as well as my trip to Nan Chang showing me that the old parts are the best parts and disappearing quickly."
"If I was going to build a bike this was the time and the great god of the iron horse smiled upon me by providing an eighties bike that had a great frame and other parts of importance that were gracefully old. Like an old soul left to die, it had been abandoned and left for dead. And the price was an "old soul" price."
"The bike with delivery only cost US $125. It sat for a while outside Gerald's shop waiting for the attention that it deserved while we went to Nan Chang to sweat out the "olden goldies" of the 750. While in "da Holy City" I acquired (with Gerald's help) the finest of parts with Chinese PLA characteristics. "Three" represents old parts, original parts and replaced parts and does not just deal with politics—-it is also the heart and soul of beliefs about old tech."
"That was an era when people (especially Chinese) believed in rebuildable quality and not cheap replacements. When Chinese mechanics would take pride in their work and not half-ass it to a point where no self respecting foreigner will leave a bike with a "wrench" and expect it to come out all right."
"That said, this was my motivation for the CJ Project, a play on words that has a dual meaning. Danno was the first to call my attention to the name I use being so closely aligned to Chang Jiang and I had a project to do to—build a Beijing cruiser—so I may as well do it right and do what I want. No fancy polished engine as that affects the heat dissipation. Crossovers built from quality PLA pipes to assure line up."
"Black everywhere I can think of (although this last desire brought strong disappointment from Gerald.) As Gerald told me then, and never truer words have been spoken, replace it if it has any—and I mean any—wear. I started by having it all torn down and checking the parts to use and the ones to start collecting. The pictures provided will show you the parts I kept and the ones I have collected with expense not an issue."
"You know here in China we foreigners are blinded to the cost of things and often identify something as too expensive because we have become somewhat Chinese in our thinking. I was determined to have the best, to build the best, using the best. You can see from the pics that the teardown was done by the crew and Gerald and I inspected all parts that came from the beast."
"Even its underbelly (sidecar) was not left unturned and what we found was that the main parts were still usable with excepti the sidecar and sidecar frame. There are almost forty categories of parts being replaced or improved to include the legendary extravagance of the tapered bearings for the front end. No more wobbles in the future of this humble horse. So far I have bought a new regulator, pipes and downtubes, all pictured to show you the quality."
"Wheel bearings replaced all around as well as engine and drive bearings including one that cost over 200RMB. Expensive you may say but then again "am I not worth it?" NOS low tension cables—none of those fancy remakes for me, just good old fashioned parts. A new brake cam and swingarm for the sidecar. By the way, these are getting rare and good rebuilds require a good working swingarm."
"Many builders use the old ones and this part receives mucho wear so it is a must to replace. Now the addition of the short three-ring piston to improve performance. Gerald had these in stock although I saw old used ones in Nan Chang. The ones Gerald had were new in the box with the paperwork still intact."
"These are the really good ones and not cheaply done. A toolbox that is manufactured by Gerald using the same specs that were required to produce the originals. This of course demands that brackets are welded onto the frame and this must be done before the powder coating. Henry Ford's "you can have any color as long as it is black" mentality prevails in my camp."
"Complemented by a small filter which is the right part for the job, leaving the engine with more air space and a cleaner look. The "whoa pedal" comes in many sizes—most are too small in the freaky moments of life's indiscretions and I needed some "stompin' power" so I got the big one."
"The handlebar risers are the cool ones that are on most old bikes, not the "blockhead" variety that stands out like a wooden leg made from a table. The 6V coil is also getting rare and many 6V bikes now come equipped with a 12. This is a shame on the industry because there has been a tendency to just use what you have to get the bike out and sold."
"When I bought my Type I 6V it had a 12V thus requiring a change with the distributor that made the bike backfire because of the wrong cylinder firing."
"And the cylinders are the original type with air space all around. (Check out the photo and notice how you can see the newspaper through the fins.) Now go check yours and see if it is the same."
"Some have a little but I have a theory that this old tech design is the reason that piston meltdown may not have been a problem for the granddaddy riders of the flathead."
"New axles front and rear, still wrapped in wax. A new distributor and a new engine main seal. The copper gaskets without the controversial asbestos sandwiched in between."
"Again, this is an effort to avoid cylinder heat stroke. Even a new arm for the brake cable to make the front brake work more efficiently. Another part offered by Gerald is gas tank washers to secure the go-juice to the frame."
"Bolts and screws that have holes drilled so a security wire can be placed in them to prevent them from getting up and walking away."
"The sidecar brackets are held in place with castle nuts and cotter pins to guarantee that the sidecar and bike are on the same path to glory and not traveling separate roads."
"Again, I have not seen these on other bikes and I think that this a strong safety issue. Too few cotter pins are used in China with the issue of builder responsibility not much of an issue."
"PLA valves, even though the valves of the cylinder are in good working order, but these things are rare which means I collect them (for future bikes, of course.)"
"An old grip made from quality rubber means no unnecessary splitting. A new steering damper as the old one has given up the ghost."
"And duckboards so as not to trap moisture between that rubber piece of shit they provide which is the worst enemy that a sidecar can have."
"Well there you go. As I finish my writing I realize that I have done a lot of work so far but as a labor of love, it wasn't painful and the results should secure me a place in Chang heaven right next to Zhou Enlai."
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