Congrats. I got my Ural at 26, now 27. So now I spend my days riding with old farts in the woods (and it's awesome).
Dammit I want to do the same thing!! Haha I am moving from NYC to Houston on Sunday. Taking the Ural with me. I plan on a crazy adventure and I'll post as much as I can although someone might be able to help me on where the appropriate part of the forum to do that is. Can I post it here in the hack section?
Do it in ride reports and stick a link here so we find it. Good luck on the move. (I should have done it at your age too. F'n snow) Are you riding to your new home?
I too got my Ural when I was 26. It definitely seems like an old man's bike, but I love it. People are always shocked I'm so young when I take my helmet off, and when I say people I mean the old men that come to look at it.
Glad to see you are heading this way. To quote David Crocket "You may go to hell, for I am going to Texas". Didn't work out too well for him, but it has for the rest of us. You may not be much of a fourm person, but owning a Ural you will become familliar with AND use Soviet Steeds. When you get settled in, head over there, introduce yourself and start reading. There will be much to learn, and you will use when you start reading. Do not become too overconfident with that right turn thing. When the wheel comes up the first time when you are not expecting it or think you have envough lean to the right, it will put the hash mark on the tidy's. And that cap you have a picture of? Beautiful Russian polish job. Get moved, settle in then put on the foil hat, and welcome to Texas.
Congrats on the bike. I just bought my geezer-magnet a month ago at age 28. I might be the youngest Dnepr owner on here though! I'm surprised at how many young Ural owners are on here! Glad I'm not the youngest.
The Ural gets a lot of attention from people of all ages. Occasionally it's creepy, like time a guy told me he'd seen me riding it the week before and I was so cute he wanted to follow me home. But for the most part I enjoy having people come up to talk about it, everywhere I go. I have made several new friends just because the Ural brought them to meet me. I had it out in the snow a couple weeks ago, and I stopped at my friend Steve's house. The next day, Steve told me his sister-in-law sent him a cell phone picture she took, of something she was sure he'd be interested in. And it was a picture of me riding down the road on my way to his house. :)
Yup the Ural gets a lot of attention. The first time I rode it out to Brighton Beach here in NY, I got two different cars honking and loud screams at night. I get the thumbs up from almost every cabby and construction worker. I get the "what year is it" a lot too. It's hard to explain sometimes to people in the moment since you both have to go on your way. But yeah I love the attention. I feel like I am actually safer since people know where I am on the road of of interest hehe. Also, I've been debating on wether to put a lock on the trunk. I think I will, but I get a strong sense of safety parking it here in the city because people don't mess with it but rather just admire its uniqueness. Anyways it's good to take off the helmet and be younger than expected. People look confused but in a good way. This is a chick magnet for sure. It's snowing in NYC again btw.
Never sell it or if you do replace it with another one. Ride that damn thing until you're an old bastard and you'll look back on all the memories. Trust me, time flies and you'll be looking back before you know it. I've been into motorcycling for years and regret not getting one years ago. I have 4 bikes sitting in the garage now and ride my Gobi more than any of them. Thing is a major pain in the ass at times but .............. I think I'll keep it. Oh yea, make sure you post up a ride report when you ride that thing to Houston. That should turn into a major adventure and one you won't forget when you're an "old bastard". Congragulations!
My sidecar is one I pieced together from various derelicts. We've traveled thousands of miles around the West. Always an experience to travel on a rig. Welcome aboard and have fun!
Lot of truth here! Just talking about that with some buddies, old geezers like me. 30-40 years from now the world won't make much sense compared to today, and to us there's little sense in it now! It's really good to have some tangible hardware that's a living link with the past. The memories associated with it are priceless. I know for a fact that many of those old memories far exceed today's active events. It's a quiet thing of the heart, much needed when the world seems to be spinning a little faster than it should be. With a rig like that you can 'hold on to the moment' as long as you want, even for years. .