Rpoc

[cheesy]

Yeah, the Limited Edition Ural Air. Nice, but I’d rather see the money that went into it go into R&D. Won’t be much longer before the beloved boxer engine will have to be redeveloped or shelved for a CF twin.

[cheesy]

Rode to the annual MACMC banquet and board meeting Saturday night. First one I’ve ever been able to go to because they usually are scheduled for the second Saturday in November. Same weekend as our anniversary dinner. Anyway, good time, nice hunk o’ prime rib. No one went nuts on alcohol.
During the board meeting everyone had to stand up and say something about themselves. Several people there I’d never met. After I finish my spiel, someone pipes up that there are five Mikes in a club with less than fifty members. So, it was voted that the Mikes all got nicknames. Had me wondering if I’d get stuck with Old Mike, Baldy Mike, or Wisconsin Mike(old name from my last job). I got Ural Mike. The others were christianed Guzzi Mike, Ducati Mike, Sandcast Mike, Rockford Mike.

I got mildly drenched from the knees down on the ride home. The Aussie drover coat, now with a faux shearling liner, does a great job with keeping knees and above warm and dry. Not so much down below. Need to look into oilskin chaps or weather-proof my leather ones.

[cheesy]

Originally Posted by cheesy

Yeah, the Limited Edition Ural Air. Nice, but I’d rather see the money that went into it go into R&D. Won’t be much longer before the beloved boxer engine will have to be redeveloped or shelved for a CF twin.

Guess I spoke too soon, improvements have been made. Some pretty impressive ones at that.


https://www.imz-ural.com/2019-ural

[Sport Rider]

theyd have to address the drive train before I'd be willing to jump into it. Maintenance intervals need to be brought up to modern standards.

but....any step forward is a good one!

[cheesy]

Originally Posted by Sport Rider

theyd have to address the drive train before I'd be willing to jump into it. Maintenance intervals need to be brought up to modern standards.

but....any step forward is a good one!

That I know is being addressed. IMZ is no longer using the Russian gears made of Yak Cheese. The new gears are out of Italy and are hardened, polished, and matched. They also come with a new yoke and u-joint. The kicker is that I can get six sets of Yak Cheese gears for the price of one set of Italian gears. I have a back up set of cheese.

If the Yak Cheese gears are set up properly and the oil change schedule is adhered to, there is little to go wrong with them. Myself, I change the FD oil every engine oil change, 1500 miles instead of 3000, because the capacity is only 135cc/4oz.

[Sport Rider]

Originally Posted by cheesy

That I know is being addressed. IMZ is no longer using the Russian gears made of Yak Cheese. The new gears are out of Italy and are hardened, polished, and matched. They also come with a new yoke and u-joint. The kicker is that I can get six sets of Yak Cheese gears for the price of one set of Italian gears. I have a back up set of cheese.

If the Yak Cheese gears are set up properly and the oil change schedule is adhered to, there is little to go wrong with them. Myself, I change the FD oil every engine oil change, 1500 miles instead of 3000, because the capacity is only 135cc/4oz.

wow...that's not much fluid. at least it's easy to change though. seems to me the piece of mind with the good gears would be worth it, but then again, you probably get plenty of noise warning before failure. then I guess it's just a matter of doing the exchange. good to hear they are trying. I like the platform, just not the risks. I'd love to see Triumph or someone offer something similar with modern components. likely can't hit the same price point. would be interesting to see.

[Emerikol]

The capacity on my FD is nearly half a quart. I think that's one of the changes they made on the Gear Up models when they went to FI. I don't like the FI mapping, and I think that I'm going to pay a visit to my friendly neighborhood Ural dealer to get the latest and greatest mapping loaded on the beast. Hopefully that will help out some. The Ural engine makes so much noise, the only warning you're likely to get of gear train failure is when you shoot a set of gears out the side of the engine. Even when the valves are set perfectly, it still sounds like a bunch of midgets with brass hammers are in there actuating the valves by pounding on the end of each one. I would also like to find out if there's a different FD available. Topping out at 70 is a hassle on some of the roads around here. I would like to see 75 or so. The problem is that the faster you go, the quicker things go very wrong if you have to do any evasive steering. Getting nearly 800 very unbalanced pounds rushing down the highway has disaster written all over it. The specific reason I have a Ural is because they are the only rig left on the planet that is manufactured with the sidecar, instead of some unholy union between an off the shelf motorcycle and a couple of U-clamps from a flimsy sidecar. That's my take so far, but there's only 4,000k on my Ural. We'll see how it does with 10K and beyond.

[cheesy]

There are different gear sets available but you won’t find them in the US, Eric. Russian Garage, russiangarage.com lists a 9/35 (3.88) and a 10/35 (3.50) sets, along with the stock 8/37 (4.62) gears. These are all Yak Cheese gears. Russian Garage is also bsa_79 on EBay. I’ve purchased from him in past with no issues.

I know of a guy out east that has a 9/35 set in his cT and he seems happy with it. Lost some acceleration but gained some highway speed. That would be Chad aka Tomcatfixer on Soviet Steeds. He calls his rig ‘Mobile Chernobyl’.

I’d get the latest and greatest map for FI. Some guys have drilled and tapped the FI insulators for vacuum nipples and use those along with a Carbmate or other balancing tool to sync the TBs. Worth checking into if the mapping is correct and things still aren’t right.

[Sport Rider]

Originally Posted by Emerikol

The capacity on my FD is nearly half a quart. I think that's one of the changes they made on the Gear Up models when they went to FI. I don't like the FI mapping, and I think that I'm going to pay a visit to my friendly neighborhood Ural dealer to get the latest and greatest mapping loaded on the beast. Hopefully that will help out some. The Ural engine makes so much noise, the only warning you're likely to get of gear train failure is when you shoot a set of gears out the side of the engine. Even when the valves are set perfectly, it still sounds like a bunch of midgets with brass hammers are in there actuating the valves by pounding on the end of each one. I would also like to find out if there's a different FD available. Topping out at 70 is a hassle on some of the roads around here. I would like to see 75 or so. The problem is that the faster you go, the quicker things go very wrong if you have to do any evasive steering. Getting nearly 800 very unbalanced pounds rushing down the highway has disaster written all over it. The specific reason I have a Ural is because they are the only rig left on the planet that is manufactured with the sidecar, instead of some unholy union between an off the shelf motorcycle and a couple of U-clamps from a flimsy sidecar. That's my take so far, but there's only 4,000k on my Ural. We'll see how it does with 10K and beyond.

Unholy is only unholy in the eyes of the beer-holder.

you won't find any with 2WD except done as a one-off. that's the one selling point ural has. I'm personally not sure that's such a big deal as I don't do the kinds of trail/offroad driving others do. a nice 1WD would be fine for my needs. if nothing else, it's a little less to go wrong.

I love my current C10/sidecar setup. it's a touring setup though. light gravel is as much as it's going to see. I need reverse though. it's an inconvenience to back it up. there have been a couple times I've had to get off and push it backwards. that's few and far between. OTOH, 75 on the highway is a nice cruise.

[cheesy]

Pizza run with my oldest grandson tonight. Kind of cool out tonight, low forties, but a nice ride.


Good to keep the outtakes. Kind of snotted out my nose when I saw this one.

[Emerikol]

Originally Posted by cheesy

There are different gear sets available but you won’t find them in the US, Eric. Russian Garage, russiangarage.com lists a 9/35 (3.88) and a 10/35 (3.50) sets, along with the stock 8/37 (4.62) gears. These are all Yak Cheese gears. Russian Garage is also bsa_79 on EBay. I’ve purchased from him in past with no issues.

I know of a guy out east that has a 9/35 set in his cT and he seems happy with it. Lost some acceleration but gained some highway speed. That would be Chad aka Tomcatfixer on Soviet Steeds. He calls his rig ‘Mobile Chernobyl’.

I’d get the latest and greatest map for FI. Some guys have drilled and tapped the FI insulators for vacuum nipples and use those along with a Carbmate or other balancing tool to sync the TBs. Worth checking into if the mapping is correct and things still aren’t right.

Originally Posted by Sport Rider

Unholy is only unholy in the eyes of the beer-holder.

you won't find any with 2WD except done as a one-off. that's the one selling point ural has. I'm personally not sure that's such a big deal as I don't do the kinds of trail/offroad driving others do. a nice 1WD would be fine for my needs. if nothing else, it's a little less to go wrong.

I love my current C10/sidecar setup. it's a touring setup though. light gravel is as much as it's going to see. I need reverse though. it's an inconvenience to back it up. there have been a couple times I've had to get off and push it backwards. that's few and far between. OTOH, 75 on the highway is a nice cruise.

Cheesy, the 9/35's sound like they'd be just about right for the long hauls out here. Acceleration isn't really a problem for me. The beast has plenty of pep off the line. Put the spurs to it too much and, well, let's just say things get interesting on the slick Arizona roads... Losing a bit of the get up and go grunt wouldn't make much difference to me at all. I know of Chad over there on Soviet Steeds. He has a pretty funny story behind the naming of his rig.

Sport, the 2WD is novelty, that's true. I haven't had to use it yet, but I haven't really bounced myself into oblivion on gnarly backwoods (or backdesert) trails yet, either. I think that if I get into somewhere really bad and need the 2WD, I'm REALLY going to need it. As for reverse, I can't even begin to tell you how nice it is not to have to get off and hoof 800 pounds backwards. Murphy's Law would always have the backwards direction going uphill, too. Highway speeds are really stretching the legs out on the Ural, and it lets you know that it's not happy spinning that fast. 70 is fine for some short hops, but I wouldn't ever try a cross country jaunt.

[cheesy]

Originally Posted by Emerikol

I know of Chad over there on Soviet Steeds. He has a pretty funny story behind the naming of his rig.

Yup, the Mobile Chernobyl. Saying it got a little hot would be a understatement.



Another choice for the gear sets is vostok-motorcycles on ebay. The seller, Chris Tomes, is based in the UK but he has warehouses in Poland, Russia, and Ukraine. I bought my spin on oil filter adapter from him.

[cheesy]

Whelp, one local parts source is drying up. BBK Motorsports in Elgin, IL, my local Ural dealer, is closing its doors. Don’t know the reason as the announcement was rather cryptic just saying they wouldn’t open for the 2019 season.
Should have guessed something was up when they went from Illannoys’ top Ural dealer to just parts and service this year.

[Weldangrind]

Queso, maybe that's an interesting retirement business idea for you.

[cheesy]

Originally Posted by Weldangrind

Queso, maybe that's an interesting retirement business idea for you.

Don't think that I haven't given that some thought. However, I've developed good relationships with many dealers around the world since getting my rig. Going into competition with them holds little appeal to me.