One of the great things about the international nature of the custom motorcycle scene is the prevalence of staggeringly talented designers in some of the least likely places. Take Bandit 9 Motorcycles for example, they’re based in Beijing, they specialise in building Chang Jiang 750 customs and this beautiful bike is just their 3rd build.
The Chang Jiang 750 has quite a history, it’s a copy of the 1956 Soviet IMZ motorcycle which is itself a copy of the 1938 BMW R71, the twin cylinder, boxer engine is renowned for it’s reliability and pulling power and their are entire communities of people dedicated to the simple, no frills, WWII era rumbler.
This bike, dubbed “Nero”, is one of the most unusual CJ750s we’ve seen. The team at Bandit 9 went all out on the build, they started with a full engine and transmission rebuild, then fabricated a custom fuel tank, a custom exhaust, handmade seat, one-off turn signals and switches, a bespoke rear fender, handlebars and even a custom gas cap.
The finished product is quite possibly the most lethal looking CJ750 in the world and is exactly the sort of thing I’d imagine The Crow riding if he happened to be based in Northern China.
Hit the link here if you’d like to see more from Bandit 9.
Articles that Ben Branch has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
