My Chang Dong ...or the ugliest bike in California by Richard Cook
		I first heard about this bike from another rider quite a while ago. This water pumper was rumored to have been brought in about 2001 in an attempt to sell them in CA. It may have done a couple of shows and one of them was the big one in San Mateo where I live. This is where a local biker saw what I think is this one. There may have been another late model plastic Chang that is blue and white, but not a Chang Dong that carries a regular OHV engine. (I’d like to have that one too. If any of you spot that one I’d like to know.) I have no idea why the sales attempt failed but I suspect very expensive changes in customs and CARB certification may have contributed. This bike has some storage damage but nothing serious. A few things are bent, seat handles broken, dent in the tank, missing front directional, a few hanging wires and moving strap damage on the sidecar. Checking it over today I found a few interesting things. Much of the bike is plastic and some things you would expect to be plastic are steel. The fenders including sidecar are glass. The rear pagoda was glass and plastic, side panels were glass, fairing is glass and dash is plastic. Yes Rebecca, this is the fabled plastic Chang. Tank and sidecar body are steel according to the magnet. The bike has full instrumentation including gas gauge, oil light, charge light, tach and temp gauge, looks like a Honda. The ignition is electronic and it has a parking brake with warning light, of course it has a reverse light too. I understand the engine is supposed to have 40 hp and it has a cute little fan to keep it cool at that massive number. The frame looks like it was designed for a truck with massive swing arms. The head area has gigantic reinforcement plates. Even the sidecar has a swing arm and this one uses a spring and a four way adjustable spring and shock combo. In the pictures you can see the spring adjustment parts on all ends which all seem to be the same units. No featherbed torsion bar here. The front fork is an Earles type that appears to be about twice as large as ones I have seen on older BMWS. I imagine Chinese roads can be daunting and this thing is designed for them. The wheels seem to be white powder coated aluminum. Somebody must have been inspired by those old white Jeep wheels. There is a lock on the seat to protect the battery, locking snap gas cap like an old Norton, and strangely enough no way to lock the side car storage. Electronic ignition seems strange with the old Bing copy carbs but there it is. The frame number is 000028A and you can see the engine number in the pictures. Tonight I picked the set lock and removed the pagoda behind the seat. I’m leaving that rear grab handle for the moment as it may help me move the bike around while I work on it. With the pagoda off I may just be able to ride it for while as I think that helps the looks a lot.