"It was a memory of youthful heroism and passion, so that although I am now in my eighties, my memory of the first motorcycle Changjiang 75 in new China is still so vivid." Li Xueqian, a retired cadre of Nanchang Hongdu Group, who was one of the leaders of the first motorcycle development group in New China in that year, recalled bits and pieces more than half a century ago and told reporters about the exciting and little-known past behind the birth of the first motorcycle in New China-Changjiang 75.
Li Xueqian deeply recalled the early motorcycle
The first motorcycle was of German origin
In the early days of the founding of New China, the dual-purpose motorcycle was a light industrial product urgently needed by the national economic construction. In March, 1957, the central authorities formally assigned the task of producing the first motorcycle in New China to Hongdu Machinery Factory in Jiangxi.
Li Xueqian, former deputy secretary of the Party Committee of Hongdu Machinery Factory and then principal of Hongdu Machinery Factory Technical School, told the reporter that Hongdu Machinery Factory began to produce the first motorcycle in New China by copying the M-72 tricycle of the former Soviet Union. Soviet-style M-72 three-wheeled motorcycle was formerly a military three-wheeled motorcycle developed by Germany during the First World War. This motorcycle has high horsepower and good off-road performance. Later, the former Soviet Union made a lot of technical improvements according to this motorcycle prototype and became a motorcycle with superior performance at that time, which was the Soviet M-72 tricycle.
Li Lao recalled that in order to copy the first motorcycle in new China as soon as possible according to the prototype of M-72 tricycle, Hongdu Machinery Factory set up a motorcycle development workshop with the code name "5" at that time, which was responsible for welding, assembly, experiment and manufacturing of some parts. The technicians are fitters, turners and welders temporarily transferred from different positions in the factory, and the production equipment is only a few ordinary machine tools.
"Most people, including myself, know nothing about motorcycles. To produce the first motorcycle in New China, we adopt the method of learning while doing." Li Lao told reporters that at the beginning of May, 1957, only the Soviet-style M-72 three-wheeled motorcycle prototype arrived at Hongdu Machinery Factory, without any drawings and related materials. They thought of a "stupid" way. First, they dismantled the parts of this prototype one by one, and carried out intense physical mapping on hundreds of parts. In less than two months, all the drawings of the Soviet M-72 three-wheeled motorcycle were mapped. By mid-July, the process regulations and equipment were formulated according to the physical measurement drawings. Li Lao said: "Because there are many parts with strange shapes on motorcycles, the processing and production of these parts need special tools. At that time, we only had a few conventional machine tools, so many parts were only made by hand hammering. In addition to the engine, hundreds of key components are almost all made by hand, and the difficulty is unimaginable now! "
according to Li Lao's recollection, in mid-December of that year, the first Soviet-style M-72 three-wheeled motorcycle in New China was assembled in Hongdu Machinery Factory. After various performance tests, it all met the design requirements and was named Changjiang 75, which was also the first military side three-wheeled motorcycle in New China. "After the Yangtze River 75 three-wheeled motorcycle was produced, it was soon sent to the first civilian product exhibition and won a major civilian product trial production award!" Li Lao said excitedly.
The cross-country racing car Megatron's first National Games
"The first cross-country motorcycle in New China started with the improvement of the Yangtze River 75." Li Lao told reporters that shortly after the improvement of the off-road performance of the Yangtze River 75 tricycle was successful, they received an urgent task from the Ministry of Aviation Industry-the first national sports meeting scheduled to be held in Beijing in November 1959 will set up a motorcycle off-road competition, and 5 Yangtze River 75 off-road racing cars must be built and delivered to Beijing before this.
after receiving the news that Changjiang 75 motorcycle will participate in the first national games, the whole factory is full of excitement and encouragement. After repeated tests and experiments, all the performances of 5 Changjiang 75 motorcycles made for the competition have reached the best state. Moreover, in order to better ensure the safety factor of riders during the race, these 5 Changjiang 75 motorcycles have been boldly improved in structure.
"Our technicians have repeatedly pondered and tested many extremely subtle places. It can be said that when these 75 Yangtze River races were handed over by motorcycles, we were confident! " Li Lao said.
On November 23rd, 1959, the first National Games of New China hosted by Marshal He Long was held in Beijing. At that time, a news from Beijing spread quickly in the factory: the wonderful performance of Changjiang 75 motorcycle in the competition was highly praised by the national leaders and won the cheers of the audience. This is also the first time that the Yangtze River 75 motorcycle appeared in public. The heroic motorcycle rider and the Yangtze River 75 motorcycle immediately appeared in various albums and posters, and together they became the memory of heroes in people's minds, especially young people. As a result, the majestic posture and name of the first motorcycle in New China-Changjiang 75 quickly spread all over the country.
"Alarm" Peng Zhen
At the end of p>1957, shortly after the first batch of Changjiang 75 motorcycles were delivered to Beijing, Liu Ding, then vice minister of the Ministry of Aviation, came to the factory to inspect the motorcycle production. "As soon as Vice Minister Liu saw my face, he told me with a serious expression that the Yangtze River 75 was in trouble in Beijing and alarmed Peng Zhen!" Li Lao said that at that time, he was really nervous as if his heart was about to jump to his voice. Can he not be nervous? Peng Zhen was alarmed, and the disaster must be too big!
"Then I realized it was a false alarm!" Li Lao explained: Vice Minister Liu Ding turned out to have sold him a imprison. The thing is, one day on Chang 'an Street in Beijing, after a Changjiang 75 motorcycle crashed a bus tram, the rider of the motorcycle was in a hurry and turned around the lane as soon as he stepped on the gas pedal! Things later somehow reached Peng Zhen. In an interview with the leaders of the Aviation Department, Peng Zhen highly praised the performance of the first motorcycle Changjiang 75 in New China, and jokingly told Liu Ding, vice minister of the Aviation Department that the Changjiang 75 produced by Hongdu Machinery Factory was amazing, crashed the tram and ran away without a trace! Peng Zhen's words made all the people present laugh.
trademark lawsuit of Changjiang 75
It is a well-known fact that Changjiang 75, the first motorcycle in new China, was born in Hongdu Machinery Factory. However, in the interview, the reporter learned that there is a little-known trademark lawsuit behind Changjiang 75.
The old man Li Xueqian explained the matter in detail to the reporter. Shortly after the initial trial-production of Soviet-style M-72 motorcycle in the fifth workshop of Hongdu Machinery Factory, the fifth workshop received the task of participating in the development of Qiang5 aircraft, so the further development of M-72 motorcycle was transferred to the technical school of the factory. When the first batch of motorcycles in the technical school were developed, they were named "Changjiang" brand, and according to their fuel tank capacity of 75 ml, they were named Changjiang 75.
"At that time, we designed the trademark pattern for Changjiang 75, and all the Changjiang 75 delivered to the General Logistics Department in the first batch had been labeled with the trademark pattern, but at that time, people's awareness of trademark ownership was still very weak, and they didn't think of registering the trademark of Changjiang 75." Li Lao said that it was precisely because the trademark of Changjiang 75 was not registered that there was a subsequent dispute over trademark rights. After the "Cultural Revolution", some technicians who produced Changjiang 75 motorcycles in Hongdu Machinery Factory were sent to Nanchang Aviation School, and some were sent to the countryside. Later, Aviation School began to produce motorcycles with the help of these motorcycle technicians, named and registered as Ganjiang 75. "In fact, the Ganjiang 75 motorcycle is completely the technology of the Yangtze River 75, which can be said to be the original copy of the Yangtze River 75. So we didn't want to, and hit the' lawsuit' to the Ministry of Aviation. " Li Lao told reporters that later, the Ministry of Aviation Industry came forward to coordinate, and the trademark right of the 75 motorcycle still belonged to the Yangtze River 75 tricycle.
He used to be the official guest car of New China
In the view of Li Xueqian, the Changjiang 75 motorcycle was born in 1957 and still gallops in the north and south of the country today. The proudest thing in its brand history is that it used to be the official guest car of New China.
Li Lao told reporters that before the development of the first motorcycle Changjiang 75 in New China, there was no motorcycle fleet in the fleet that received foreign guests in New China. After the birth of Changjiang 75, because of its good performance and high safety factor, it soon became a member of the national guest reception team. In the first half of 196, some foreign guests were pleasantly surprised to find that motorcycles were added to the foreign guests' reception motorcade in New China, and motorcycles were produced by New China itself.
since 1964, Changjiang 75 has been listed as the regular equipment of the new China army. In the three years from 1964 to 1966, Hongdu Machinery Factory produced and delivered 3,789 Changjiang 75 military motorcycles to the army, which contributed to the powerful national defense construction of new China. In 1991, 3 Hongdu 125 motorcycles sponsored by Hongdu Group were designated as "Asian Games Traffic Pilot Vehicles" by the 11th Asian Games. In addition, Changjiang 75 motorcycle is widely used in public security, industry and commerce, taxation, forest fire prevention, traffic supervision and other systems, galloping across the country.