Ural.

[V8Ian]

Defender of the motorcycle world.

https://youtu.be/cwCnelwB8xQ

[vnx205]

I have one interesting bit of trivia and one important fact about the Ural.

The Australian distributor is in Uralla in the New England area of NSW just south of Armidale. I have been assured that the similarity in the names is just a happy coincidence.

The important fact is that in Australia, the side car is mounted on the other side for obvious reasons. That means that the drive connection to the sidecar wheel is not available. However, I notice the Australian website mentions 2WD. I'm not sure what is going on there.

Ural Australia (https://www.imz-ural.com.au)

I know that the dealer has had a test ride day at least a couple of times at the Uralla showground as well as other opportunities to try them. .

[PhilipA]

From Wikipedia


IMZ-Ural (Russian (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_language): Ирбитский мотоциклетный завод, romanized (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization_of_Russian): Irbitskiy Mototsikletniy Zavod, lit. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literal_translation) 'Irbit Motorcycle Factory') is a Russian (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia) maker of heavy sidecar motorcycles.
In 1940, the Soviet Union (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union) acquired the design and production techniques for BMW (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW) R71 motorcycles and sidecars. The first M-72 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-72_motorcycle) model was finished in 1941. Originally, factories were to be located in Moscow (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow), Leningrad (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Petersburg) (now Saint Petersburg), and Kharkov (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kharkov), but due to the approach of Nazi German (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Germany) troops, the Moscow facilities were moved to Irbit (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irbit), and the Leningrad and Kharkov facilities to Gorkiy (now called Nizhny Novgorod (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nizhniy_Novgorod)).
Plans for the M-72 were later sold to the Nanchang Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanchang_Aircraft_Manufacturing_Corporation), a Chinese industrial firm, to build the Chang Jiang (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang_Jiang_(motorcycle)).




I was told that the Russians also stole the tooling form a factory in east Germany during the war.
Regards PhilipA

[V8Ian]

Not sure the Ruskies stole the tooling but they were copying BMW pre WW II.
I was aware that the chair wheel cannot be driven, in right hand drive markets.

[loanrangie]

Chinese then copied the Russian copy, my brother owned 2 while he was living there.

[V8Ian]

The Chinese also copied a modern Beemer. Nabiac museum had one. The quality was atrocious, brush marks in the duplicated paint scheme, wrong proportions and no hope of meeting ADRs.
It would seem they only had a sketch from which to build it. [bigrolf]

[4bee]

The Chinese also copied a modern Beemer. Nabiac museum had one. The quality was atrocious, brush marks in the duplicated paint scheme, wrong proportions and no hope of meeting ADRs.
It would seem they only had a sketch from which to build it. [bigrolf]


:Rolling:So just like the first series Land Rover then although it didn't become a series until various models were available.

Usually on the back of a Pub Drink Coaster, envelope , fag packet or a 2ply paper napkin.?

[Bazzle218]

I bought a new 2012 retro. I can say with my hand on my heart it never let me down once in 5 years of ownership. Sure its not a speed demon but motored along at 100kph in the north QLD heat with two up and luggage . (Air cooled). Heavy yes but the looks on peoples faces when you put it in reverse and reversed parked it. The 2022 models are now efi and have a shaft to drive the sidecar using a dog clutch. Available for the Australian version. Also the electronic components EFI, ABS are top of the range. My paint was immaculate. All in all I would buy another one but the minister for war and finance said time to give bikes away. I don't bounce to well now. Baz

[4bee]

I bought a new 2012 retro. I can say with my hand on my heart it never let me down once in 5 years of ownership. Sure its not a speed demon but motored along at 100kph in the north QLD heat with two up and luggage . (Air cooled). Heavy yes but the looks on peoples faces when you put it in reverse and reversed parked it. The 2022 models are now efi and have a shaft to drive the sidecar using a dog clutch. Available for the Australian version. Also the electronic components EFI, ABS are top of the range. My paint was immaculate. All in all I would buy another one but the minister for war and finance said time to give bikes away. I don't bounce to well now. Baz


You should have told her you will be withholding more naughties until she rectifys the situation.


Eh, wossat she has already?[bigsad]

:Rolling:

[vnx205]

I obviously have not kept up with the pace of technological change at the Ural factory. :)

The website now says:

The ever popular 2WD Ural Gear Up was previously only available in countries which drive on the right side of the road. Ural has been finally able to engineer and produce the left hand version of this model.


I must try to find out how they made that work as it didn't look easy on the 2019 model.

[vnx205]

I found what I was looking for.
I was right about it needing some clever engineering to get the drive from the right hand side to the left.
Basically the drive is sent out to the right where an axle takes it all the way over to the left
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