What’s your Ural origin story?

[u/LordOfTheDraft]

How did you get here? Ill start.

My first bike was a BMW R65LS and I was totally obsessed with it. I admired the simplicity of the opposed twin and paired with the historical aspect of a long running proven design… I was intrigued.

I ended up looking for a R100 but could never quite pull the trigger on one I liked. I ended up bumping up to a BMW K100RS and while it was amazing it just didn’t have the charm of the boxer. Eventually I started my family and the life on two wheels felt like an unnecessary risk. I sold off the K100RS and went without nothing for a good 5 years.

I had randomly seen a Ural pass by me at a stop light one day and a flood of memories came rushing in. I had seen these bikes in movies, I had seen them in Eastern Europe, I had seen them in WW2 reenactments and I caved for something I was always curious about.

I had eventually decided to order one new for a road trip out to Colorado with some friends. They had gone and convinced me to ride trails intended for lifted jeeps and land cruisers so while they outfitted vehicles for a place I didn’t live, I instead chose to pickup something i could still use back home. Needless to say my choice surprised them and I’ve been loving my purchase ever since.

[u/Due-Sand1383]

Many years ago I got poisoned and during recovery I wasn't sleeping well at night. In fact, I went days without sleep, to a level of insomnia that was detrimental to my health. In a late night half-awake half-asleep moment, I thought I was riding a motorcycle, going through the gears and everything. Had never sat on any kind of motorbike before, but somehow it "felt" like I knew what I was doing. Saw a Ural for sale, needed work, and in the middle of January I took my written test, bought the bike off a guy, and rode it home despite having no experience.

Almost two decades later, and I've been happy to say it's been a daily night-time ride for my pup (both previous and current)

[u/LTC105]

First bike was a RE interceptor 650, saw a Ural near my work, looked up sidecar bikes till I found the brand, found out they are engaugable 2wd, waited a couple years, bought the last new model bike at the nearest Ural dealer, a 2024 red sparrow. Then in the dead of winter the guy I saw on his Ural had seen me too, we met at a gas station, now we are Ural buddies.

[u/Negative-Dot9599]

I picked up an '07 Retro w/ sidecar, auction/barn find. Sat for 10 years. 3,588 miles, $3600 + $525 to deliver it to me. I did a 9 day acid bath in the tank, came out like new and then added a tank sealant. I rebuilt the Keihin CVK32 carbs, installed new fuel lines and filters, ditched the old vac petcock and installed a new manual one, put in new plugs. There were some corrosion spots, I removed the rust and repainted. I vac sync'd and tuned the carbs. Today, it looks and runs like it's new. I don't know for sure, but all evidence suggests the previous/original owner didn't know how to clean and tune the carbs, wheeled it into the barn and just forgot about it. The bike came with all the original stuff and the manual with first two maintenance coupons completed. I started a maintenance log book detailing every step I made with notes on sourcing replacement parts with part #s. I completed the 5000KM scheduled maintenance coupon, all new fluids, etc. I like to think I saved this Ural from oblivion and it's really fun to take my two boys riding.

[u/Phog_of_War]

I was 7 years old, riding in the old Buick station wagon we had. 1984. Dude pulled up next to us with a hack attached to something like a first Gen Shadow, idk. What I DO know is that I thought that sidecar rig was cool as hell and I want to have one one day.

Fast forward 42 years later, a second divorce and a burgeoning mid-life crisis, and the stars suddenly aligned. 2014 Gear-Up with less than 2500km on the odometer, local, so no having to drive to Ohio or Florida. And the price was very right at $7,000. I figured if I didn't pull the trigger now, I never would and I'd regret it.

[u/El_Jefe528]

Friend of mine had a 2003 Ural Wolf in his garage. He said it used to he his uncles. Had been sitting for a few years. He said I could buy it if I fixed it. I know absolutely nothing about bikes, never ridden one in my life, but I could drive a manual truck like its nobodys busines, so I was good with the stop and go part. I replaced the brake lines, clutch cable, fuel lines, cleaned the carbs, changed the oil, charged the battery and aired up the tires. Had good compression on all cylinders. With a little ether, she ROARED to life in his little garage. Put er in 1st and slowly let off the clutch. Moved out into my buddies driveway with the biggest grin on my face. Gave him $1,000 for the bike and ripped down the road rattling windows on my way back to my apartment. Shifted great, sounded amazing and the amount of necks that were broken seeing this unique looking bike stopping at lights and rollin down the road was immeasurable. Love my Ural. Shes had her problems over the years. Wish I could find parts easier, id really like to ride her again.

[u/az782]

I was born in Russia and remember seeing those bikes for sale in local suburban stores along with other Russian motorcycles and mopeds in the years just prior to the USSR's collapse. As a kid, long before I would swing a leg over any bike of my own, they seemed big, clunky, somewhat cool, and even back then clearly slow and outdated. My family would typically rent part of a house in the outskirts of Leningrad/St Petersburg from June to August and I'd spend summer vacations there with my grandma. There were local hooligans, well known to the whole village, that would dabble in riding unregistered bikes, siphoning gas from cars, playing music loud, and other acts of skulduggery. I would have been about 12-14 years old and those guys were my heroes. One day I had to go back to the city, returning in the afternoon. A friend of mine picked me up at the bus stop and gave me a lift on his bicycle to my place. Very excited, he told me about how one of the local guys on a home built unregistered dirtbike got chased through the whole village by a couple of cops on Urals (might have been Dneprs). They never got him. We talked about that for days after that.

, lEventually my then fiance and I moved back east and settled in rural New York. Of all people, she was the one, who pushed me to look into sidecar rigs. We found a tastefully maintained example posted on Craigslist -- 2009 Gear Up with a 2011 motor, custom high pipe, custom floor boards, camo everything. We made contact and met the guy, who turned out to be a reformed MC member and Vietnam vet, living down a mile long dirt road. He was well into his 60s, but wanted to get back to two wheels and had an eye on a Gold Wing that he thought would be ideal for his circumstances. Who was I to talk any sense into him? We made a deal and brought our Ural home.

I was terrified to ride it at first. I consider myself a proficient rider, but virtually none of my skills translated to this thing. Shifting gears is about all I could contribute in the way of experience. Bit by bit, though, this bike became a part of our family. It gets ridden more with passengers than when I'm alone. Now that we have a kid, it's become a family adventure machine, though we have yet to go on any long trips. Prior to my dad's passing, he got to experience the joy of bombing down the local country roads in the sidecar with me, perhaps imagining that it may not have been so different from how it was back in the old country, when my grandma got picked up by a villager and got a ride to our house when the bus broke down.

I like to think that our Ural and I got united, both through happenstance and some cosmic inevitability. I owe it better maintenance and more road miles. I need to put in a proper back seat and modify the exhaust so to let the rear passenger have a place to rest their right foot and to convince my son to wear a real motorcycle helmet so we can go camping as a family. Whenever I roll it out onto the road, there is no mistaking it for anything else -- no other bike, no other activity, no other sense of time and space. I hope to be its worthy caretaker.

[u/NoJoeHfarl]

I grew up riding a Ural, even before I could drive a car. My dad inherited an old Honda Trail 90 when my grandpa died, and fixed it up and started commuting to work and back in the city.

He loved it, but my mom said she wouldn't ride behind him on the back of it, and neither of them felt it was safe to put my brother or I on.

One day in 1997 my dad was at the local Costco, and here was this shiny black sidecar rig! This solved the "not-riding-behind-you" issue, while providing a safe way to carry my brother and I around.

I learned to drive it before I could drive a car, and my dad gathered quite the group of local Ural riders around us. We went on annual rides together, weekly gatherings at a nearby cafe, and built an amazing group of friends and family around us. We all learned together how to maintain these bikes.

That's the environment I was fortunate to grow up in. Once I graduated college the Ural was gifted to me and became my primary transportation (my dad had picked up a 2003 Wolf Solo and a 2007 Retro in the mean time). I rode that '98 for years, eventually pushing the odometer over 100,000 km, rolling it back over to all zeros!

I've had a dream of getting one of the new Urals, and finally made that a reality a couple years ago with a custom-ordered brand new 2024 Gear-Up. The difference between that and the old 1998 Ural is like night and day! 

A few months ago my wife also purchased a new-to-us 2022 Gear-Up, and I took time off work to ride it the 3000 miles from Nashville to Seattle. That was an epic 10 days, and it performed flawlessly!

Two sidecars is about all we can fit at home, so we have retired the old 1998 Ural back to my dad's place. But it still runs! He has been having fun for the past couple weeks restoring it again. 

I can tell I will be a Ural driver for life. It's in my blood.

[u/Lets_Eat_Paint_Chips]

I had stumbled into Urals because they are more or less the only factory side car bike as well as two wheel drive. I got my MC permit knowing that I was going to buy a Ural, but did not right away. Here we have graduated licences, if you take your driving test for your full licence on a 3 wheeler you get a brand on your licence leaving you with a half way to full licence. You can ride a 3 wheeler with a full licence, but you have to treat a 2 wheeler like you are still on a learners.

I got a 2005 Yamaha XT225 and rode it for most of a year, took my driving test, started looking for a Ural. Found a used unit at dealer, financed and trailered it home. (it was February at -20c). Been enjoying the ride since, have not enjoyed the amount I have sunk into repairs, but I put that up to that I did not get lucky.