Jimbo's Classic Sidecars in Beijing jim@way2prc.com
Below: "Here are two bikes that were completed today. The first bike is a 1000cc BMW powered Chang Jiang. We masked and then chrome plated the tank. It's kind of a tribute to the "toaster tank" BMWs of the early 1970s. The seat is our reproduction of the "1000 mile seat". It is headed for Houston."  
 
"And this is my old 1967 BMW R50/2. It was a basket case (and a beater before that). We restored it and added a Donghai sidecar to it. It's powered by a 1000cc engine. It will be staying in Beijing."  
January 3, 2009  
Below: "We just finished this BMW R60/5 powered bike. I'm liking this color combination. And the new speedo face plate we just made up."
October 21, 2008  
Below: "This has to be one of the nicest paint jobs we've done to date. It's BMW 600cc powered and it's going to Vancouver."
August 21, 2008  
"We took delivery of a V twin diesel. We'll attempt to fabricate a bell housing to hold a clutch and attach it to a CJ transmission and mount it into a bike. The engine makes 22hp but 40lbs of torque. I expect we can get 70 or better mpg once it's assembled."
"Here's a Ural with the Hatz vertical twin diesel. I think ours looks a bit better."
August 13, 2008  
"We just got in a shipment of Mikuni VM 32 carbs. These are one of the biggest performance improvements we've seen. "
"It feels like we uncorked another 10 HP with them on. They fit the BMW motor perfectly; not sure if they would fit a CJ engine."
"They are pre-jetted to each engine application and are supposed to be set-and-orget carbs."
August 12, 2008  
"We just completed this bike which will be headed for Australia soon. Unfortunately, my lousy photography skills don't do it justice."
"It's a burgundy bike with black cherry panels and gold stripes if you can't tell by the pics. It's BMW 900cc powered of course,a nd a leftie, with a rumble seat two-seater sidecar."
"We cut the airbox off the transmission before polishing. Then we are using K&N type filters on each carb. The bigger displacement BMWs need more air."
"We just bought a nine pairs of brand new 32mm CV carbs from Mikuni. That should also make a big difference."
July 19, 2008  
The first batch of Jimbo's Classic Sidecars T-shirts is ready.
July 19, 2008  
Below: "A new(er) BMW R1150GSA with a Chang Jiang sidecar. Nothing special about that, we've done several so far. But this sidecar has a remote trunk release. Pretty cool. On the newer BMWs we have to fabricate a subframe to attach the sidecar to. But with 100+ HP this thing really flies. I'm not a fan of the seat, but I'm not the customer. We started out putting the 18 inch BMW GS front wheel on the sidecar but it looked way to small for the fender, so we mounted one of our 19" M5 wheels and it fills out the fender much better."
July 19, 2008  
"We just finished this 900cc powered bike. I'll give you three guesses where he comes from."
July 16, 2008  
"We just finished this bike and are now off to the airbrush artist for the Ohio State logo on the sidecar tub. Red and grey are the Ohio State colors we're told."
"I forgot to mention, that was the third university themed bike we've done. First was Texas A&M, second was Clemson (complete with tiger paw), and Ohio State is the 3rd."
July 6, 2008  
Below: Besides our "world famous" Harley Panhead seats, we now have sprung leather seats similar to the old NSU, Zundapp, and DKW seats. In regular and "Super Sized".  
 
July 1, 2008  
Below: Yes, this is the same bike pictured below.
 
April 14, 2008  
Take a good look at this bike. In just a couple weeks you won't be able to recognize it.
March 22, 2008  
"A water cooled CJ that pulled into our shop today."
March 27, 2008  
"I should stay away more often. My shop turned out another BMW powered bike today. That's four in the month of March."
"This bike is for a big fellow so the seat post is raised up by 5cm and the handlebars are extended as well. It has a 1000cc 65 HP motor."
March 21, 2008  
"While I was away playing (oops, I meant working) at Daytona my guys were busy finishing up three bikes. Robert's bike is done as a Clemson University tribute, Erwin's was a transplant only (BMW R75/5) and Yellowbird II was a repaint and re-seat only."
March 20, 2008  
"A shipment of BMW engines we just got in, about 30 of them, and the first week they're here we took orders for bikes using five of them." (JCS recently began their 50th. BMW engine conversion.)
February 26, 2008  
Below: "A customer commissioned a trailer for us to build, but this trailer has a suspension and an American type ball hitch. Pretty cool looking."  
 
February 26, 2008  
"A customer brought his bike in for a WWII style exhaust. We started with a 2-into-1 header, fabricated a pipe with a 90° bend and then into a muffler with a heat shield. I'm not crazy about the look, but it makes a nice sound—like Luftmeister on an old BMW."
December 27, 2007  
"We're shipping two of these bikes to Daytona for Bike Week. A customer of ours from Charleston (the R71) will be riding his bike down there so there will be at least three CJs at Bike Week. Any other CJers going to be at Bike Week?."
December 17, 2007  
"Take note of that building in the background. There's more to follow on this."
December 1, 2007  
"Here's our new waterproof fitted bike cover, made from 420D PU coated nylon. They fit sidecar Changs, Urals & Dneprs. The bottom has grommets for rope to secure the cover to the bike. They will be available on 12/10 in time for Christmas."
December 1, 2007  
"In our never ending quest to modernize the CJ we have now in stock LED lights for the four bullet type turn signals and the coffee can taillight. Not only are they much brighter than stock bulbs, but they draw something like 10% of the power the normal bulbs do. And they never burn out."
November 22, 2007  
"Here's a custom sidecar seat we fab'd for a customer. First we shape and weld the sheet metal for the frame and then upholster it in leather. A lot more comfortable than the stock seat."
November 17, 2007  
Jim says the paint jobs they've been doing on their BMW conversions lately have been pretty tricky. It looks like a lot of time went into both of these bikes.
November 11, 2007  
"Here's a clutch throwout bearing for CJs but made in brass instead of aluminum. It's thicker as you can see. We've been testing it for about two weeks and so far so good."
September 12, 2007  
Stuart Waldron's Beemer powered CJ.    
 
September 5, 2007  
"Off to the airbrush artist to have some dragons put on the tank and tub."      
 
August 28, 2007  
Not all JCS bikes have Beemer power plants.
Here's a CJ OHV purchased by an old friend of ours, Jean Descoteaux in Canada.
August 13, 2007  
Jimbo's Fashions. On the left is an excellent quality ball cap and in the other pictures is the front and back of the all-new Jimbo's T-shirt. Recognize that logo?      
 
June 24, 2007  
Below: "Who says the Finns have no sense of humor? This is headed for Finland. The rear fender didn't come out quite the way I planned. It should have been closer to the rear tire but the customer likes it."  
 
June 12, 2007  
Below: Jim reckons this just might be the nicest bike they've built so far.
May 16, 2007  
"One of these days I'll remember to take a "before" picture. This bike was pretty beat two weeks ago. Looks quite different now though."
May 11, 2007  
"Here's our under-seat hidden stainless steel glove box to keep some things from prying eyes. It does slightly reduce the ground clearance by about an inch (lower than sidecar frame crossmember)."
May 10, 2007  
"In our never-ending quest to bring new products to the CJ community we're making a Steib type sidecar fender for CJs now."
May 10, 2007  
"If you remember my old bike #105, it was black, then black with pinstripes. Well, now it's green, just like my R69S. Only difference is this one is for sale." (Contact Jim at jim@way2prc.com)
April 16, 2007  
Below: "A bike we just finished. It's BMW powered, has the Earles fork, sprung sidecar frame and M5 wheels."
March 18, 2007  
"A crazy project we inherited from a guy who started it but couldn't finish it due to time constraints."
"It's a trike with a Harley front fork, CJ frame, BMW 1000cc motor and BMW 5 speed transmission and a "Miandi" rear axle.
"I drove it yesterday and you can lift the front wheel at will. Haven't put rear brakes on it yet and we're still trying to figure out what to do about the bodywork. But for grins, it's about the ultimate."
March 18, 2007  
Below: This bike (owned by Daniel Melo) is being used in a Portuguese bank promotion. These signs are everywhere.
March 15, 2007  
Below: Bikes and accessories available from Jimbo's
February 8, 2007  
Below: "Looks like we're having a pretty decent January after all as far as rebuilds and parts sales go. Here's a new bike we'll ship out this month along with some retro-fits of M5 wheels."
January 22, 2007  
"The hubs are powder coated and then the ribs are polished. I love 'em."
"Stainless steel straight (and unbreakable) spokes, true round aluminum rims, and 50% wider braking surface."
January 10, 2007  
"We don't get many of these, but here's a 1964 M1 we rebuilt."
"We replaced the motor with a BMW and it's our first bike to install the new M5 wheels."
January 8, 2007  
"We just picked up a dozen of these cool old style nail ignition switches."
"They are very close to my BMW R69S ignition switch, but they were made for Changs."
January 7, 2007  
Below: "Our M5 hubs, aluminum rims and stainless steel spokes. No more broken spokes."      
 
January 6, 2007  
"Another Beemer powered CJ under construction. This one will have the Earles fork front end and a disc brake to boot. We'll be installing our M5 wheels as well."
December 15, 2006  
Below: An OHV with a set of Earles forks.      
 
November 17, 2006  
Is the steering damper on your CJ ineffective? Replace it with a new, high-quality reproduction from Jimbo's.
November 17, 2006  
"A set of our Earles forks installed on a bike."
November 14, 2006  
Below: "We're now building Earles forks for CJ750s.      
 
November 8, 2006  
Below: "It's taken a while but we are manufacturing our own tank shifters if anyone is still interested. Each kit comes with the tank bracket, shifter, linkages for forward and reverse gears, shifter knobs, and hardware. Available in bare metal (as shown), polished and chromed, or powder coated black."      
     
November 4, 2006  
Below: "Here are two bikes we just completed. The silver/black was done from a picture of a Harley the customer gave us. YellowBird is a 1965 bike headed for the States."      
     
October 24, 2006  
Below: "We finally received the first piece out of the new mold we put in for the M5 hub. As you can see it came out pretty clean, the splines are better than the old hubs that I've seen. We will just have to increase the bearing spacer by 5mm which is easy enough. I hope to take delivery of them (the production run) by the end of the month.

Had a visitor yesterday from the Netherlands, Frans De Wit. We'll be riding up to the moutnains around Huairo tomorrow.

P.S. I found a new career."

  
 
October 12, 2006  
Below: "The owner stopped by our shop Sunday. He claims the Earles fork bolted right on with no cutting or welding. Pretty cool "saddle" bags too. He's bringing it back for a complete rebuild."  
 
9/27/2006  
Below: "Lest anyone think we only do BMW conversions, here's a flattie we built for a local customer. It's British Racing Green with silver stripes. We bought, rebuilt and polished the motor. Brand new motors come (at no extra cost) with sand and metal filings in the crankcase. We replace all the bearings with SKF bearings while we have the motor apart."      
     
9/19/2006  
Below: "Here are our latest two bikes. The charcoal bike has a 1000cc BMW motor that will soon be dual plugged. The black bike with the tank shifter has a 750cc BMW motor. We're still waiting for the foundry to deliver our new M5 hubs."    
   
9/19/2006  
Below: "Whew. A week ago you almost couldn't even walk around our shop. We delivered four bikes in the past week. The burgandy and charcoal combination is shipping to OZ. It has a BMW R80/7 motor. The blue bike is staying here in Beijing and has the Chinese built (then rebuilt) OHV motor."    
   
September 3, 2006  
Jim had a batch of M5 hubs made.
The M5 is superior to the standard CJ hub, particularly in the braking department where they offer far more brake lining surface area.
July 23, 2006  
This is the wiring in Roel Hendrickx's bike.
 
July 23, 2006  
"We're building two bikes right now, both BMW powered. The red/black bike is for a Canadian teacher here and is powered by a BMW R100/7 motor. The frame is a mid-1970s. The black with silver stripes bike is a 1961 frame, you saw it before it was sand blasted and powder coated."
"This bike is powered by a 1970 R75/5 BMW. This bike is going to an architect who lives near Orange County Choppers. I asked him to challenge Paul and Paulie to a build-off using CJs here in Beijing."
July 17, 2006  
Below: "Roel Hendrickx showed up at our shop. He's from Holland and he's planning on riding his CJ back to Holland from Shanghai. We replaced one of his jugs and fixed his forks, but he's doing most of the other work himself. He installed a water tank around his left exhaust pipe to give him hot water. he installed a 12V to 220V converter (inverter?). He also has a small 12V battery plus a big car type battery and a switch box so he can switch just about everything off except the engine if (and when) he runs into charging problems. So, he'll be working on his bike everyday in our shop this week and then he's going to stick around until next Wednesday so he can meet Jack and Janet Murray."
July 15, 2006  
"Here's our engine testing rig we just fabricated. We're rebuilding so many motors nowadays (about one per day) that it came in pretty handy."
"We now are fabricating Chang Jiang crossover pipe exhausts."
June 27, 2006  
"Our remote brake reservoir..."
"...so people who want to retain the original handlebars with the reverse levers can still have that plus a front disc brake."
June 17, 2006  
Below: "We are finally painting our sickly pink building to a more appropriate color, British Racing Green... Here's customer Rick Van Nostram's black OHV with red stripes... We are now building bikes (at customer request) with the plastic Chang sprung sidecar. Far from original, but for long distance riders it makes all the difference in the world to the sidecar passenger... Our new M5 hub mold is finished and we'll start (re)production of new and true M5 hubs in the coming week. The hubs will be laced to cast aluminum rims for a true(er) ride and wider brake shoes... Our first prototype of an under tank brake reservoir for a front disc conversion is almost finished and we should be ready to accept orders by the first of July... And finally we are fabricating a tank shifter which should be ready by August."    
   
   
June 16, 2006  
Below: "I rode down from Beijing to see the Shanghai MotoGP. Since I had to deliver a bike to a customer down there I had a good excuse to ride down. The first day was sunny and warm. The second day was sunny but cold, and the third day was a steady downpour and bitter cold all day—16 hours. But I made it (1600km) and the bike, after a wash was none the worse for it."    
 
 
 
May 17, 2006  
Below: "This is a bike we delivered to a customer in Beijing. The engine and tranny are polished. The paintwork was done in house (with painted-on pinstripes). The interesting feature of this bike is the owner has two kids so we built an extra seat into the trunk. When it's closed it looks like a normal sidecar, but open her up and there's a seat back in the trunk—with seatbelts."
May 1, 2006  
A couple repowered CJs.
April 29, 2006  
Below: A 1961 CJ being restored into a BMW-powered bike for a customer in NY. The motor isn't original and is junk anyway as is the sidecar tub but the frame is rust-free and solid. It has zirc fittings for the seat and steering neck. The the front lower sidecar attaching bracket is clamped where newer bikes have a smaller piece welded to the frame. The clamshells have no castle nuts or cotter pins. The opening is smaller and there's a handle to tighten the clamshell. METAL straps hold the wiring harness to the frame. (This was before they invented plastic zip ties.) That may not be an original taillight on the sidecar but the bracket is heavy guage steel and fitted to the curve of the fender. Someone went through a lot of trouble (as ugly as it is.) It's off to the powder coaters and will soon be a shiny black BMW powered CJ headed to NY.    
   
   
April 29, 2006  
Jimbo's rented additional space and has hired a bodyman.
All paintwork is now done in-house.
April 29, 2006  
The first batch of steel seat pans has just arrived.
April 29, 2006  
Below: "It's taken over six months to develop it, but here it is finally. It's a modified Harley-Davidson seat made to bolt right onto a CJ. It is bigger and much more comfortable, and it's covered in leather, any color. This is the first one of the production. Wolfgang helped develop it."
April 5, 2006  
Below: "Here's a CJ powered by an R60/5 BMW motor, about 45 HP. We hope to turn out at least two per month."    
   
December 8, 2005  
An example of polishing work. These are for a R75/5 motor they're installing in a CJ.
The jugs were first painted with black high temp paint and then just the edges of the cooling fins have been polished. These pics don't really do it justice.
October 20, 2005  
Jim with his two partners in Jimbo's service and sales. The front of Jim's bike has a Triumph wheel and the rear has an M5 hub.
October 12, 2005