Chinese Three Wheeled Trucks and Commercials

We saw plenty of odd vehicles in rural China. There were of course tricycle motorcycles with elaborate cabs that made them almost little trucks. They certainly were a step up from the basic trikes in the last post. These we mostly encountered in the south.

In the north especially we encountered hundreds of these blue three wheeled commercials. They came in a variety of forms from a variety of manufacturers (unfortunately it was all Chinese to me so I have no idea what they are called). In the north they absolutely dominate the roads.
This is a very small utility a small step up from the cabbed tricycles above.

Cheaper versions came without cabs.

Blue seemed to be the standard colour everywhere except around Guilin where there was a sudden rush of green.

The trucks came in a variety of sizes. Some were fully fledged trucks with dual cabs and tipping trays. They had very noisy engines. They sounded like they were two strokes, but it may have been that they just had very poor exhaust systems.

I believe these trucks are the descendants of the German Tempo Drierad (three wheeler). Vidal and Sons of Bremen built three wheeled Tempo Hanseat trucks from the 1930s and the late 1950s. They were powered by either a single or twin cylinder two-stroke engine. In 1957, Vidal and Sons sold the production rights for the Tempo to the Indian Bajaj company (now Force Motors Limited http://www.forcemotors.com/co_milestone.html). Bajaj also built a licensed version of the Vespa). In India they became known as the Dukkar triporter or rickshaw. Force continued building the Hanseat, virtually unchanged from its original 1933 spec until 2000 - the longest production run of a motorised vehicle in the world - 67 years! The only real change they made was the replace the two stroke engine with a single cylinder diesel engine. Force replaced the old style Haseat with the newer styled three wheelers photographed above. These are still being built under license in China. Here is a link to an article about the Indian triporters. http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20070512/saturday/main1.htm

A photo of a Dukkar triporter in India.


While the blue three wheelers dominated northern China, in the south the agricultural scene was dominated by these green machines. These machines are based on a design that is common across the old Communist world. Originating in Russia, they are absolutely basic in design and construction. In their most basic form they are little more than a trailer attached to an engine by a pivoting beam. The engine drives the front wheel by means of a belt transmission.

These Chinese versions offer a little more comfort and features than the basic models you sometimes see if eastern Europe. They came in four and three wheeled versions.

The Return of the Microcar in China

I was really surprised by the number of electric vehicles on the roads in China. In the regional areas, little three wheeled electric 'town cars' were everywhere. There were plenty of different makes and models and they came in both petrol and electric versions. Almost every six months some company in the west announces a new-fangled, space-aged microcar prototype at some car show, which quickly disappears and is never heard of again. China meanwhile just gets on and builds the damn things. They sell because they are actually true to the raison de entre for microcars - they are cheap and simple. With a plastic / fibreglass body and officially classed a 'three wheel motorcycle', these cars are incredibly cheap (~ $6000USD).

Bikes and Trikes in China

Shelly and I spent three weeks in October travelling around in China. I must admit China was nothing like what I expected. I was expecting scooter and motorcycle chaos like in Bali and Vietnam. Instead, there was only the silent whirring of electric scooters. In Beijing and Shanghai there were almost no petrol diven scooters or motorbikes at all. I assume this was part of China's environmental clean up push.

Brand spanking new scooters in a showroom outside Shanghai.

Roadside scooter park. Almost all the modern scooters - and there were dozens and dozens of makes - were electric.

This electric scooter is kind of styled like a Harley Topper. I only saw three of these on the whole trip.

Electric scoots charging up.

Some of the electric scooters were absolutely basic.

This was a very popular little electric scooter in Beijing. Behind it are typical Beijing taxi trikes.

People had all manner of aftermarket sunshades, windscreens and accessories fitted to their machines.

This lady was riding along with an umbrella fixed to the bike. The fact that it wasn't blown away highlights the fact that most bikes and scooters in China are driven at relatively slow speeds. These machines are not suited to Australian road conditions where a constant minimum speed of 60 kilometres per hour are required.

Wuyang Hondas dominated the market in the south. These are outside Kunming. All domestic motorcycles appeared to be limited to 125cc.

But they don't make the most comfortable bed!

A mixture of old and new in Yangshuo. A Wuyang Honda and a pedal trike. Most bikes had aftermarket legshields added.

A little commercial trike in Shanghai with aftermarket roof.

Shanghai taxi trikes.


A taxi trike motorcycle. The stainless steel bodywork was typically Beijing.

Tianjin manufacture a whole range of trike commercial motorcycles. Guilin in the south-west seemed to have a large number of vendors.

A very battered old commercial trike outside Beijing. Some machines were almost moving wrecks. In the north almost every commercial trike was painted blue. In the south, the market seemed dominated by the red Tianjin commercial.

More commercial trikes doing their thing.

One of the wildest rides of our lives - taxi trike in Xian.

Classic Motorcycles 2011 Calendar

Following the photoshoot with John Branton (https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2010/07/model-behaviour.html), his Classic Motorcycles Calendar for 2011 has now hit the streets. The calendar is really excellent and features great photos of 18 beautifully restored classic motorcycles from Western Australia. My Ariel Leader has been lucky enough to feature in October. Amongst the motorcycles featured are John's beautiful 1936 Harley Davidson VLH, a 1928 Indian Scout with sidecar, a 1959 Ariel Square Four, 1914 Douglas, a 1927 Triumph model N deluxe and many more.

The calendar costs $33 including postage (within Australia).

In addition to the calendar, John is offering a range of other products, including:

Classic motorcycle greeting cards - measuring 117 x 170, these photographic cards feature some of the historic motorcycles photographed over the past two years. There are two series -

1. Classic card series featuring 12 full landscape images of the old favourites, BSA, Norton, Triumph, Indian, Ariel, Kawasaki and Harley Davidson;
2. Artistic card series featuring artistically stylised images that capture unique distinguishing features of these bikes.

These sets of 12 cost $36 each or $48 for both (postage $6).

594 x 840mm classic motorcycle posters for $15 each featuring:

• 1957 BSA Gold Star
• 1936 Harley Davidson VLH
• 1973 Kawasaki Z1 900
• 1926 AJS G6

Stubby holders for $10 each.

To order any of these items you can email John at john@treko@net.au
or send a cheque or money order (Australian dollars only) payable to 'John Branton'
PO Box 525, Kalamunda, WA, 6076

Or now, order online at: http://www.johnbranton.com.au/

Of check out the facebook page at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Classic-Motorcycles-2011-Calendar/151140531565714

If you're the owner of an interesting classic motorcycle or scooter John's always on the lookout for machines for future calendars.

A call to arms

What will be the point in spending our time and money restoring these machines if we find ourselves banned from the road?

Having been on the receiving end of bureaucracy I'm quite passionate about protecting our hobby. The AHMF (Australian Historic Motoring Federation) is seeking the assistance of vintage scooter, motorcycle and vehicle enthusiasts to gather some statistics about the economic impact of our hobby. This information will allow the AHMF to effectively lobby Governments and other bodies on issues that may affect our interest in the historic motoring scene.

A similar survey was conducted in the United Kingdom in the late 1990's and in Australia in 2006. The results of the Australian survey were quite staggering and have been extremely valuable in representations to Government and to those who want to remove old cars from the road. The UK survey is currently being undertaken again and it is also including clubs in the EU countries. Hence we also will continue our Australian data collection. This new 2010 form is designed to be completed and collated electronically but may be downloaded printed and submitted in hard copy form to this address:

WA (Council of Motoring Clubs of WA)
AHMF Survey
PO BOx 742
Subiaco WA 6904

There is also an electronic version here:
http://www.councilofmotoringclubs.asn.au/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=46&&Itemid=62

Please take the time to complete this survey as best you can. Whilst it is unlikely that you will have 100% recall or all records of your expenses, it is important that a fair and reasonable assessment of your spending is recorded if it is to be of relevance. If we want to protect our hobby, we should all participate.

Some interesting links
http://www.fiva.org/CommonDownloads/LC-0110-00-Environmental%20guide.pdf
Austalian Historic Motoring Federation
http://ahmf.wordpress.com/
The Victorian Association of Motoring Clubs has some interesting information on a proposal to introduce a log book approach to concessional licensing, like in South Australia. This is a very good idea but has, as always, run up against bureaucratic opposition and stalling.
http://www.aomc.asn.au/

A helpful resource
The Association of Motoring Clubs (AOMC) Victoria offers a service to search their archived records of vintage and veteran vehicles registered in Victoria between 1910 and the computerisation of records in 1994. This useful service would have resolved my problems attempting to prove that my Ariel was not illegally imported. Most of the records are paper based and have very limited information. An engine number is all that is required to request a search but it may be helpful to have an idea when the vehicle was last registered, in order to speed up the search process. Volunteers from the AOMC are slowly entering the records into a database but it is slow going, given the numbers of records involved. Although the records are primarily Victorian, the AOMC has also acquired some early records from other states too. For information about this service, check out their website.
http://www.aomc.asn.au/eng&regrecords.htm

Model behaviour - Ariel Leader photoshoot

Today I had the privilege of having the Leader photographed for John Branton's Classic Motorcycles of WA calendar. The calender will be out later in September. The Leader still isn't registered for the road so we wheeled it to the park around the corner. Considering there'll only be a one photo of it in the calendar we sure did take a lot of photos.




If you're interested in John's excellent calendar, he can be contacted on: john@treko.net.au

http://www.johnbranton.com.au/classic-motorcycles.html
Details of the calendar can be found here: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2010/09/classic-motorcycles-2011-calendar.html

Update - 3 August 2010.
My paperwork from the Department if Infrastructure and Transport stating, as we already knew, that there is no record of the Ariel being imported since the introduction of import restrictions in 1989. So, here we go. Let's hope this is the last hurdle.

Update - 11 August 2010
At last!! The Ariel is road registered!

Update - 15 August 2010
I took the Ariel on a run on Sunday to the Vintage Motorcycle Club presentation day. It wasn't a big bike event though so there wasn't much to see, but I did get to ride on the freeway. The Ariel easily cranked up to 60 mph (about 95 kph), which is a respectable speed for a 50 year old bike I think. She's very comfortable to ride.

There were only a few bikes in attendance. The Ariel drew an admiring crowd.
Colin B's 1943 ex-Army surplus Indian. A beautiful machine.
I rode home along the coast with a quick stop in Cottesloe and Fremantle.

Ariel Two-Stroke Retrospective - Classic Bikes 1983

http://www.classicbike.co.uk/