Most people view the old, BMW-style motorcycle-and-sidecar used by China's police and army as noisy, slow, antiquated pieces of chugging heavy metal better suited for a scrap yard. Motorbike connoisseurs, however, see it with a radically different eye: as a classic example of German engineering at its most innovative and enduring.
It is the latter group that drives the business founded in Shanghai by American jazz musician Danny Woody. At the Pudong workshop of his six-year-old VSidecars, his team of seven restores rusty Chang Jiang bikes to peak condition, ready for sale to Shanghai-based enthusiasts, or aficionados living overseas, at US$10,000 to US$15,000 a pop.
At present, he has customized orders on the books from luxury goods company Alfred Dunhill, and a Gulf State royal family member. 'It's a rich man's toy, but when people are paying those prices they want it to look great, have the best parts and be dependable,' he said.
While they may be a toy, they are not a plaything. The basic 750cc R-71-style model is the same as that used by Nazi soldiers: anyone who has watched a war movie will be familiar with the image of a BMW motorcyclist with the sidecar-gunner setting his sights on the enemy. After the allied victory, the Russians dismantled the BMW production plant, shipped machinery to the Urals, and began turning out the R71 and 75, almost-identical versions of the models used by Adolf Hitler's soldiers.
Later, when the Soviet Union and China became cosy communist comrades, the technology was passed over the border and production began once more, with the bike given the name Chang Jiang. It is little wonder that Russian President Vladimir Putin did a double take when, during a Shanghai visit, he saw one of Woody's restored models on display at the Portman Ritz-Carlton, where Mr Woody, 60, also performs at night.
The affable American certainly looks the part of the rakish musician-cum-motorbike. He dresses snappily, a look topped off with a fedora hat, and waxes lyrical about a career spent as a drummer and musical director, which has taken him from San Francisco in the 1960s through to Shanghai in the 21st century. 'I have always liked motorbikes, I grew up with them ... and music and surfing,' says Mr Woody.
Still, he seems slightly surprised by his new entrepreneurial adventure, which was aided and abetted by the bike-loving Ritz Carlton executive Mark DeCocinis, who was general manager at the Shanghai property and is now based in Hong Kong.