We have access to PLA (People's Liberation Army) bikes of various vintage years.  The year's of our bikes ranges from 1960's to 1980's.  Though these bikes are of vintage years, they have only a few kilometers on the odometer.  Some of the bikes only have several thousand kms and some just less than 100 kms .   Most of these bikes were only use for training purpose by the Chinese PLA soldiers. With the help of our PLA contacts, we are given the first right of refusal so we are able to select the best stock that becomes available and that is the reason why our bikes starts with a good foundation for a custom restoration.

This is how all of our bikes are restored.  

The following two pictures show how an original PLA bike looks when we receive them when they become available.  

First, we disassemble the bike completely. We try to keep all the original parts that is essential to a quality bike restoration.  Plus, we replace any inferior parts using better quality modern parts when necessary.  Such as stainless steel nuts and bolts, bearings etc…

Paint:

The following pictures show the parts with original paint after being disassembled.

First, we fully remove the original paint and remove any unwanted contaminants.  This process really makes a big difference when the paint is applied.

      

     

   

 

  

After the removal of the paint, we inspect and restore as needed by the customer. We can low the front fender to make it the same as style of BMW R71 and also can install sidecar brakes. Just to name a few.  We reweld all the parts again as needed to make the frame strong and more durable. Please see the following pictures.

After inspecting all the welds, we clean the joints to make it as beautiful as possible.

We now can begin the painting process. First, we apply a thin layer of sandable primer sealant on the parts that need to be painted. The result is as the following picture shows.

We then will sand it down to a smooth finish. Our next phase is to use a special primer that will fill in any imperfections we miss giving it even a smoother finish.  When the whole part is smooth, we will again apply another type of special red primer to help bond and seal the paint.

 ( This special red primer are for filling the small sand holes caused by scraping putty.) The final outcome is a smooth even finish.  After we check that everything is perfect, we will start the painting process with the first layer of paint, which is anti-rust paint.

After the layer of anti-rust paint, we can start to paint the color.  This is a two step process in painting twice. We have to wait for an hour after the first color paint. Then we will color sand very carefully with sandpaper to keep the smooth finish. Next is the second layer of colored paint. After this, we again have to wait for an hour. Then again we color sand very carefully with sandpaper.

When we finish the above work, we will paint pinstripes, labels or flame if our customers request.

Then we will do the clear coat paint, which need to be done 3 times. After the first clear coat of paint is finished, we wait for 10 hours for it to dry.  Again we color sand using 2000M a wet and dry sand paper. We than add the second layer of clear coat paint.  We repeat the last process one more time before the final layer of shining paint.

After the painting is finished, we have to wait for 2 days to be sure the paint is fully dry. Then we will do a complete buff and polish. After polishing work, the whole painting work is finished.

Engine:

After the engine is moved from the bike, we first remove all the motor oil, gear oil and final drive oil in the engine. Then we clean up them with a solvent degreaser.

The following step is to fully disassemble the engine. Then we again clean up all the parts. When cleaning up parts, we carefully inspect each part to ensure that each one is perfect. We replace all our parts from army stock if any part does not meet our standards.

(If our customers want a polished engine, we will polish the parts as needed) After inspection, we start to assemble the engine. We replace all the old bearings with Switzerland or German bearings.

All the engine seals will be replaced with high quality new ones. And the old gaskets of engine and head gaskets will also be replaced with PLA copper ones. The pistons and rings will be replace with new PLA high quality parts or with high compression pistons per the customers request. Please see the following pictures.

          

When we finish assembling of the engine, we will install it onto our inspecting equipment for inspection.

 

We will let the engine work for about an hour. During the process, we check the power of engine, if there is any noise and adjust the timing of the engine. After everything checks out to our specifications and the engines is running smoothly, we will install the engine onto bike. Please see the following picture.

 

 

All the PLA bikes comes with a 24 HP engine. But if our customers want an upgraded 32 HP engine, we can buy new a 32 HP engine from our engine suppliers.

                                   

                                                       

(In the meantime, we replace the bearings of 32 HP engine with SKF bearings and install high speed pistons and piston rings.) The picture shows our polished engine that is best in China .

 

 

Gearbox:

All the gearbox that are on the PLA Bikes comes with four forward gears and no reverse.  This kind of gearbox is of high quality. If our customers want this type of gearbox without reverse, we will replace all the bearings using new Switzerland bearings, new oil seals and new gaskets. The following picture shows the original gearbox of 24 HP PLA bike.  

                                      

If our customers want the new style of gearbox that has four forward gears with reverse, we buy if from our suppliers and install for our customers. Since the quality of this type of gearbox is lesser than the two that is available, we have to make some necessary improvements.  We do this by inspecting each part and replace all the bearings that are made in Switzerland to ensure the reliability when the gearbox is used. The following picture shows the new style of gearbox that with four forwards and one reverse .

 

We also can install a taller fourth gear for higher speed if our customers request.

Final drive

                                    

As we done with engine, we also disassemble the final drive. We inspect each part to ensure each one is perfect and we replace all the oil seals, gaskets and bearings with ones that are made Switzerland .

Chromed parts and other parts:

We send parts that need to be chromed to the best chrome factory in Beijing . All the parts will be chromed 6 times to make them very beautiful and durable. Furthermore, our chromed parts can stand rain and rust. The following picture is of our chromed parts.

 

Wheel:

Rim : The rims of PLA Bikes are made of steel. The biggest disadvantage of this kind of rims is that they are not perfectly round. To avoid this problem, now we use high quality aluminum rims for all our wheels. They are rounder and rides much smoother. We replace bearings inside wheels with NGK ones from Japan to make the wheels more durable.

Spoke: Our customers can select any kind of spoke. We have two kinds of spokes: one is high quality chromed spoke and the other is stainless one. The following picture shows aluminum rim with high quality spokes.

                                

Tire rubber : The quality of the original tires from PLA Bike are made by some local Chinese factory that are not very high quality. Though the price is cheap, it will wear very fast within only 5000kms. We use Taiwan Zheng Xin Brand cover tire, which is more expensive but of higher quality in China . This picture shows the wheel with aluminum rim and Zheng Xin brand cover tire.

                                    

Assembling:

After we finish all the preparation, we start to assemble the bike. When we assemble, we use new wires and tapered front fork bearings.

The picture shows we are installing the tapered front fork.   

                                               

We only use stainless steel nuts and bolts on everything on our bikes.   After assembling, our mechanic will test ride for about 50kms to ensure that everything is good running condition and  to meet our customer's standards. This is how we finish the whole restoration. This picture shows our mechanic is doing the final checking of the bike.

After test-riding, our mechanic will pass the bike to our quality control person who will check the bike again to ensure everything on the bike is perfect. Our QC person is 61 years old and has over 35 years of experience building these bikes.  This picture shows our QC is checking our bike.

The whole restoration only takes 15 to 20 days to finish.