Ural videos

On this webpage there are two interesting video downloads for
the Ural with sidecar:

I particularly enjoyed the one of the military version and
things they could do with it.

The dirt video was a two wheel drive unit. Those look like they'd be a lot of
fun, but did you see the top speed rating of 68? The salesman talking to me
said his has a sweet spot at 60. That's the primary negative to me.

I guess it depends on what your goals are. I could see the
fun using a side car on a place as say, the Navajo
Reservation. To access some friend's houses required us to
travel on dirt/gravel roads. There and on the 2 lane paved
roads, you don't need anything faster.

However, if your thing is traveling fast on the Interstates,
then this type bike is not the one. The place for the bike is
using off-beat path, 2 lane roads, and not being in a hurry,
slow down and enjoy the scenery.

No interstates up here, but most of our roads are two lane and others are
typically in a hurry to get where they're going. A top speed of 60 say, and
less on hills, means folks would be on your tail. Not a big deal so long as you
don't mind pulling over to let them by as state law says you must pull over if
more than 5 vehicles stack up behind you. Multi-lane or relatively straight
two-laners wouldn't be a problem.

Where it would really be fun is in snow country. All others
have their bikes locked down for the winter, while you are
tooling around the country snow in a Ural. That is the
ultimate fun.

My brother was recently lamenting the fact that most of the official trails that
allow motorized vehicles have a two-wheel drive minimum requirement, with the
intent of minimizing vegetation damage. The two-wheel drive Ural would clear
that hurdle. The two wheel drive option is what really makes them appealing.
For paved road only, a stronger bike would be better. I see the Patrol and
Gear-Up are the two models with the engage two-wheel drive. The site says they
way about 740 pounds while the owners manual says their gross weight is 1344.
600 pound load limit if decent enough. Interesting that the owners manual for
the Gear-up says not to use the canister or fuel or drinking water. Assuming

Pro'ly because they used lead to seal the can, so it is not
suited for potable water. Also because the canister is
pro'ly not properly vented, could expand and damage the
canister. Or they used an incompatible paint with it that is
disolvable in petrol.

May be one of those plastic gerry jugs might fit.

they mean the gerry can, what else would you put into it? I see factory is

Leave it for pictures (poseuring). However, I liked their M-
60 equivalent. Now one could play "Rat Patrol".

Rat Patrol was cool. With a Ural, I could ride in our Fur Rendezvous parade.

The manual says it get 30 mph and requires 91 octane. Not especially
economical. With 150 miles to the tank, it would probably be good to be able to
carry a few extra gallons when away from the city.

I think you mean 30 mpg. The Wolf 2003 manual doesn't state
what MPG it gets, but it shows it is geared higher (lower
numerically), does state a top speed of 80 MPH (129 KMH),
which tells me it pro'ly gets somewhere around 45 - 50 MPG.
It seems cruise capable, but then you lose the advantage of a
side car.

As far as the petrol requirement for 91 octane, it does seem
a little odd for such a rough and tumble machine. Perhaps
because in 3rd world countries, lower octane fuel varies in
quality considerably?

8.6 compression ratio should be low enough to run on regular
87 octane. It probably has to do with the way the engine is
timed out of the box. One is on his own to do his own
experimenting, but I'd be bold enough to try 87 octane if I
had one.

Wolf does have a bit of mystique about it. Manual cover
picture resembles a Suzuki Marauder with boxer engine. Front
peg position would appeal to those who like the
feet-out-front position.

$10,000 US. Tack on another $1000 or two for markup, plush sidecar seat, etc.

I love playing army,

You have to admit, that red, yellow & black (brown? green?) camo paint
is pretty cool.
I really dug the Russian blues soundtrack.

True. Seems like it would make a great second bike.

Robert

I was looking at importing one of the 'two wheel drive' units to NZ, but
they only come in 'left hand drive' configuration (sidecar on the
'wrong' side for me) and couldn't be registered for road use. I even had
rough plans drawn up for a gun mount for the sidecar.......

I ended up with an Aprilia instead....go figure?

Aprilia -- Ural . . . . Not a lot of difference, right?

pooder was here -- they both have engines; what's the difference??