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motorcycles
Presentation of the Zongshen ZS 750
Presentation of the Zongshen ZS 750
The fight with the dragon
The Zongshen ZS 750 is the first big bike from the Middle Kingdom. MOTORRAD exclusively drove the first prototype, which acted as a Chinese dragon spitting steam fountains.
Friedemann Kirn
04/17/2001
The Chinese mechanics spent half the night and the next morning putting a heart into the bare frame and fiddling with cables and other important lifelines until their mythical creature could finally be brought to life.
The miracle happens when the little red dragon actually begins to breathe deeply when the start button is pressed and first gives off an unwilling rattle, but then a hoarse, aggressive roar. For a brief moment the heartbeat stops again, but the surgeons’ anxious expressions brighten as a new fuse is inserted and the pulse of their creation returns. The kite can now be ridden, even if many of its movements seem so rusty, as if it had awakened from a thousand years of sleep the clutch is just as difficult as engaging the gears, the temporary braking system calls for a hard hand.
The beast, on the other hand, has muscles, and he shows them when accelerating as well as when burning out. First the dragon spits fiery smoke, then he coughs up hot water. The dragon slayer Markus Barth overheated the engine during the show and jumps nimbly out of the saddle when suddenly a fountain of steam rushes towards him from the radiator.
the Zongshen ZS 750 is one of those archetypes of motorcycles that, in addition to the dignified fulfillment of duties, sometimes lead a pleasurable life of their own. The first Chinese big bike is still a pure prototype, it will be interesting to see how the current Chinese production methods for motorized donkeys with 50, 100 and 125 cm3 will affect such a displacement giant: To satisfy the billions of people who are currently closed to buying bicycles switches to motorcycles, Japanese models are copied unrestrainedly and reproduced with generous manufacturing tolerances. How something drives is much less important than that and in what numbers it rolls on the bumpy roads. Almost 200 motorcycle factories produce what the tapes give, and Zongshen alone, the country’s second largest manufacturer, puts over 800,000 light motorcycles on the market every year.
The cliche of the united front in field work has long been a thing of the past: The Zongshen site in Chongqing is a boomtown where the sky is so saturated with the exhaust plumes from the factory chimneys, even on sunny days, that no blue shimmers down. In 1982, the company’s founder, Zuo Zongshen, started repairing motorcycles in a small workshop here because his income as a worker in a china factory was insufficient to support the family. “I took all the jobs, even though I had little idea about the technology,” recalls Zongshen. With the technical understanding, the challenges grew: during the day, used machines were modified and upgraded, at night new engines were secretly assembled from spare parts because the state industry was still inviolable and private individuals were allowed to operate workshops but not production facilities.
Zongshen’s great opportunity came in 1992 when in the southern part of the People’s Republic ?? one country, two systems ?? the laws were relaxed. He officially registered his company and began making engines for an insatiable market. 10,000 in the first year, 1.5 million a year today. Only in 1997 did Zongshen start producing complete motorcycles, now the production lines are already geared to a capacity of one million pieces per year. In addition to motorcycles and motorcycle engines, Zongshen also manufactures motor boats and car engines, and a joint venture is being established with the American company B&S to build three million general-purpose engines per year.
Zongshen now rules over 27 factories with global business connections, but despite the triumphant capitalist march, society still does not seem to have outgrown the cultural revolution. In the main Zongshen plant, for example, there are platforms on which workers are publicly pilloried for hours in the event of failure. The best and worst working people are listed by name on large wall newspapers, including a picture. And the working day begins with a half-hour parade, during which the workers stand at attention in front of their master, listen to long praises for employers and the future, and are encouraged to perform even better.
Individualism is not yet a widespread strength in the Middle Kingdom, and therefore Zuo Zongshen’s greatest concern is who will one day succeed him and continue the rapidly growing empire in an equally innovative and profitable manner. “My people often cannot follow the visions I have and say: This is impossible ??, sighs Zongshen. “In reality anything is possible. You just have to figure out how to make it happen.
A sentence that could also have come from Michel Marqueton. Years ago under contract with Suzuki France, the French adventurer set out on the arduous journey to Inner Mongolia one day to gallop through the vast steppes for a few days like Genghis Khan once did. On the train, by pure chance, he met the student Ling again, whom he had met a few years earlier in New York. Now a father of a family, he lives in France, Miami and Chongqing, and has made his mark in the history of the Middle Kingdom by founding the first motorcycle racing school in China and later, as a Zongshen employee, the first Chinese racing team the endurance world championship sent. With this team, MOTORRAD tester Markus Barth won the 750cc Macau Grand Prix 2000.
Michel Marqueton is no stranger to MOTORRAD readers either. A decade ago he built the Suzuki DRG, in which he implanted the poisonous, 95 hp square four two-stroke engine of the street-legal RG 500 in the chassis of the good-natured travel enduro DR Big. While Marqueton was ahead of its time with this first prototype of a Super Moto machine, his ZS 750 is the early vision of a development in which China will intervene in the global market for sporty recreational machines. One of the main arguments in favor of the ZS 750 is then above all a sensational sales price. For the 23 Zongshen models with 50, 100 and 125 cm3, wholesale prices from Miami range from 390 to 850 US dollars, around 830 to 1800 marks. “A modern 750 is only twice as expensive as a 125 ??, Marqueton calculates. »It is also our goal to offer the ZS 750 for twice the price of a 125 cc. As a result, the ZS 750 could roll out of American container ports for $ 1700 ?? and would also break all prices in this market segment in Germany.
Of course, the company saves on development costs. Zongshen has set up his own technology department with modern measuring and machine tools for Michel Marqueton, but the Frenchman is basically the only one who can operate the machines correctly. He constructed the ZS 750 with a small team of helpers, and the fact that the V2 was based on the Suzuki SV 650 is the polite description of a true-to-original copy. The only difference: the ZS 750 developed 90 hp due to its larger pistons – with the result that the first crankshafts buckled like matches.
The layout of the frame is also reminiscent of the SV 650, only Marqueton replaced the tubular steel grille with massive aluminum profiles. Wheels, brakes, forks, struts and fittings are manufactured in-house or purchased from Chinese suppliers. Where else, when in the retail trade around the corner you can get suspension struts for common 125ccs for the equivalent of 20 marks.
Only carburetors are not available in China, so the 41-millimeter versions come from Marelli. But in this point too, Michel Marqueton has long been thinking into the future: The ZS 750 is to be equipped with electronic fuel injection. Perhaps the steam-spitting, coughing dragon will become quite tame after all.
Specifications – Zongshen ZS 750
Engine: water-cooled two-cylinder four-stroke V-engine, two overhead camshafts, Marelli carburetor, (41 mm, electronic fuel injection planned, six-speed gearbox, bore x stroke 87 x 62.5 mm, displacement 743 cm3, compression ratio 12.1: 1, rated output 66 kW (90 PS ) at 11000 rpm Chassis: aluminum bridge frame, telescopic fork, stanchion diameter 43 mm, two-arm swing arm made of aluminum profiles, central spring strut, double disc brake at the front, (300 mm, six-piston calipers, rear disc brake, o 240 mm, two-piston caliper. Wheels 3.50 x 17; 4.50 x 17 1425 mm, steering head angle 25.3 degrees, caster 109.7 mm. Dimensions and weights L / W / H 2030/650/1150 mm, seat height 795 mm, empty weight 155 kg, tank capacity 18 liters
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