Sidecar Motorcycle

[excess11]

URAL Motorcycles Look at these bikes. They are kinda cool,Made in Russia, They even have one model,The "patrol" that has a lever to send power to the sidecar wheel for 2 wheel drive mode,Good for snow and off road. This could keep you motorcycle fanatics driving all year round. Check out what they have to offer in the products tab. What do you think!!!

[prometheus578]

"From the people who brought you the Gulag..."

Oh, I'm trying to recall...
Four years ago, spent two days in Redmond, Wa., I think...Ural U.S. headquarters, if I 'member correctly. Instructor was some old Russian dude named Sergey... (Had a picture of Putin over his tool chest) And speaking of chests... The female interpretor, Madina, was quite the hot little turnip!
Anyway... BMW design stolen from the wehrmacht(by way of Sweden) to outfit Stalin's recon units and such.(He was impressed by their function in the Polish Campaign)
Anyway... Urals today. Okay, now have an electric starter, etc... Plagued by electrical problems.. usually the negative ground by the battery, or the wiring behind the headlight. There's also some sort of nonsense concerning the generator gear. Has a small oil fill hole... need a funnel and it takes forever to get the oil in. Comes apart easily, and can be put back together just as quickly.
Do not ride it faster than 45 MPH (It also tends to come apart quickly on it's own, too) I think the speed limit on one was 56 MPH
I liked the white camouflaged one. Had a spotlight on the sidecar where the machine gun used to go....
Unfortunetly, three months ago I finally cleaned out my truck, and I believe I threw out all my notes and service manuals I had on those things. Something now sticks in my mind concerning some aspect of it... T'was either a maint. issue, or a mechanic's issue, but it was enough of an issue that I made sure I mentioned it to my boss at the time, and also briefed the other mechanic on it in detail.
I quit that shop a week after the boss paid for me to attend the course, so he wasn't too pleased with me... but also wasn't too pleased with Urals, either, as he wasn't a dealer for them for too long.
As a machine, I rate them higher than Royal Enfields(Now there's a real horror story!) They're tough and rugged... but the design hasn't changed since the 1930's.


Stolen from other sites while I was quickly trying to refresh my memory:
Urals have a reputation of complete lack of craftsmanship, blatant flaws in the important parts of the engine, and use of metal alloys that we wouldn't use for beer cans.

An outfit named "Neval" has imported them to England for many years. Upon receipt, they take the engine apart and throw away the pistons, rings, and valves, clean out the metal chips left from manufacturing, and reassemble with good Taiwanese parts.

There's a used one on Craig's list for $4,000. New, I think they're around $10,000.

Might be fun to have... clown around in the woods and such, but...
(If I wanted a machine that I have to repair all the time, I'd get a Harley)
Ok, I'll shut up now.

[TomB]

I bought one, couldn't get rid of it fast enough!!!

I now have one of the military style sidecars on an old Honda CB550, brilliant fun

[HobbyMan]

You know that Russia isn't really known for its auto exports unless you are talking about automatic weapons. Surprisingly the design flaws and loose tolerances of the AK are what let it fire full of sand. I guess they were trying the same approach with automobiles. WHO knows?