My review of Ural Motorcycles (2012)

... bottom of the third ... Who's on first ... Shhhh , pitchers ready ...




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I went to a 'Off Road' event on my Honda XL hack this weekend, it happily went around the off road course where 4x4's were getting stuck, but one of the vehicles getting the most looks was a 6 wheel drive Ural.

6 wheel drive? I hear you say, yes I say, 6 wheel drive. It was a bloody great Russian Army truck that was a crude as anything you could compare it to, the engine ran on anything combustible,petrol,diesel,kerosene, anything, but that thing went everywhere,slowly,but everywhere.

УралАЗ (Ural Auto Plant) in Chelyabinsk, relocated from Moscow in 1941 from ЗиС (Plant in honour of Stalin). Unconnected to IMZ. The truck was most likely a Ural-375D or a Ural 4320. The factory is now part of the ГАЗ (GAZ) Group. Run this through a translator http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/&#1059...9;й_завод

I like urals so please don't take this the wrong way . Just curious as far as the posters go here. How many Ural riders have run other sidecar outfits prior to going with a ural? Was the ural your first experience with sidecars and you stuck with it? We were close to taking on a ural dealership last year. Chime in please.

A Ural was my first non passenger experience with a sidecar, since getting it I have ridden a few other rigs, a Harley, a BMW, a Dnepr, but not enough to really form any real opinions other than than the Suzuki/Sputnik rigs the evergreen school has, they were truly dreadful. I hate to think they are the first impression some folks have of sidecars.

Claude,

Just pointless idle curiosity,
How many rigs a year do you build? And do you have any idea how many new sidecars are sold in the US each year?

Yes, never drove any sidecar before the Ural.
Stuck with it? Well now, I should say stuck with them

Best place to ask this would be a new thread on Soviet Steeds. The only people left here on this thread after 800+ posts are us hardcore nutcases!

I'm not sure my experiences would qualify me as an expert. I have driven several others, but most for short times or one night stands. Drove a wla that had a period sidecar attached to it. Took a trip on a friends r100rt with a dnepr sidecar to Washington and back. That one was absolutely beautiful on the road. Drove an 1150 gs with some friends with a passenger offroad on a camping trip in the 90's for a week. That one was well set up with a subframe and the BMW forks handled really well. I love my 650 ural, and for what I have in it, (less than 2500$ including original purchase price and rebuild ) I can't beat what it does. Much cruder than either BMW rig I rode, but handles rough offroad better. I like that it is low enough to get under trees, will hold deer, pigs, and wildlife feed, and i don't have to trailer it to the meat locker after hunting.
If I had the $16000 sitting thee, I would probably end up picking up another 1150 or 1200 gs and putting a sidecar on it rather than paying for a new ural, but I can't lol down on anyone who would go the other way, because they are fun.

. Have we met??? LOL

Howdy Claude,

I learned how to ride, shift and brake motorcycles on an old hacked Indian Scout, ( a REAL Indian built back in the 1930's ). That was well over 50 years ago, since then I have ridden Harley's and a couple of old Brit bikes that had hacks on them. The first sidecar rig that I bought was the first Ural back in 2005, IMWA gave me the 2008 Gear-Up that I rode around the USA in the summer of 2008.

Riding the Ural all around the USA, a trip of over 17,000 miles convinced me that I not only wanted but needed a rig capable of prolonged modern day highway speeds. So about a year ago I spent a ton of money having my long neglected 2001 BMW R1150GS setup with a hack by Jay at DMC. By the way THANKS for all the advise and suggestions you gave during our phone conversations before I decided to do the Beemer hack.

So what it all comes down to is this, if I want to TRASH and ABUSE a rig in serious sometimes stupid off road rides the Ural is the weapon of choice hands down; on the other hand if I want to ride 2,000 miles to get someplace on a hacked rig and I need or want to be there in two to three days the Beemer is the only reasonable way to go. Different tools for different tasks, it really is the only way to go.

Hey Claude,
I guess you finally got me to put a post in this mess. I have always liked sidecars but I didn't buy my first one until 2006 when I bought the Patrol new. I bought it for the main purpose of riding all Winter up here since I couldn't ride my 2 wheelers for 4 or 5 months out of the year because of the snow. I love the Ural and I have abused that rig on the mountain passes and in Moab and such to the point that I can not believe that it has put up with all of the abuse and still runs. I still consider it as trustworthy as any motorcycle I have ever owned and still ride it regularly.

That said it also convinced me to hack the GS and as you know that has become my long distance weapon of choice.

Reason Why you should NOT buy a Ural motorcycle #42:

Old guys in Corvettes will yell at you about your "commie" motorcycle.

When old guys yell at you, you post on ADV about it.

When you post on ADV about it, other people will go off on political rants.

When other people go off on political rants, your thread gets booted to the basement.

When your thread gets booted to the basement, you become sad.

Don't buy a Ural and get yelled at by old guys in Corvettes.....

Heyload!

That was good

"- Stearing (SIC) is quite difficult with 2wd engaged (because there is no differential)"

It's a common denominator that sidecars with two-wheel drive are difficult. Moot point.



"- You can't use 2wd on hard surfaces (because there is no differential) "

Referred to the remarks I made sometime before. (You're not going to run studs on asphalt either.)




That said, if what you said (all of it, not just some) is true than every Ural owner would be beset by problems and no one would buy the machines. Just like Yugos. Some people are getting what they paid for.

Howdy All,

When in two wheel drive, most of the steering is done with the THROTTLE and body MOVEMENT if your actually in nasty terrain, you can also fly the chair or SLIDE the rig if you want to make a radical change in direction. Its a SKILL like many others that need to be learned if your going to use the rig to its full potential. No big deal, just do it.

It's funny you mention this. I have never had any real sidecar training, and I've never been much of a dirt bike guy. I toss my Jeep around with the best of them, but I've never gotten a bike muddy until I owned a Ural.

My first offroad experience was steep hills and extremely loose sand. A few of my friends on lightweight dual sports (DR-Z, and a Yammy of some sort) couldn't make the hills without bogging down. I threw it in 2wd to make the steep grades, and it only took me a couple tries to figure out exactly what you said. I rarely turned the bars, but really just balanced my throttle and threw my weight around to steer it in the loose sand. Easy Peasy.

I've loved tossing the Ural around ever since, but Misses Donkeys gets upset when I steal her Ural and bring it home filthy.

I had a Yugo, another vehicle that wasn't anywhere near as bad as some claimed.
Got it right after they went under, only 6 months old with 4800 miles on it, payed $300. Used to do all kinds of off roading with it in the jersey pine barrens, and eventually drove it cross country with everything I owned stuffed in it.

Crude, slow, needed a bit of tinkering, but it got the job done.

This only applies to the latest generation of IMWA Urals. All CSMI Urals (basically pre-2002) and Dneprs are full-time 2WD and some of the Dneprs have locking diffs on top of that!!!

My poor little Ural did 575km today... Just saying...


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Speed limits: a challenge, not a restriction - Ural