Chang Jiang 750: The most historied motorcycle of all

There are quite a few motorcycle manufacturers with murky histories, but few are as clouded by the passage of time as Chang Jiang. The lineage of this bike can be traced back to the 1938 BMW R71, which was copied by the Soviets and released in 1942 as the IMZ M72. Come the mid-50s, the Soviets sold the tooling for the M72 to China, and a few years later the Chang Jiang 750 appeared. The motor is an air-cooled 746cc boxer—in true BMW style—and this particular bike belongs to a motorcycle tour operation called Shanghai Sideways, run by Thomas Chabrieres....