Ural M70 sidecar

[ptrthgr8]

Hi, folks.

Last week I took delivery of a 2012 Ural M70 70th Anniversary edition sidecar. The wifey loves the sidecar - we took it out over the long holiday weekend here in the US and we had smiles on our faces the whole time. It great fun because it clearly has an old-school look; this M70 is a tribute to the original Irbit M72 bike as originally produced by the Ural factory in 1941... and that bike was a complete knock-off of the BMW R71. So, it has all the fun quirks of a 70 year old design (gearbox makes an endearing clunk every time it's shifted, the pipes rattle and the whole frame shakes under throttle), yet it's got lots of modern upgrades that make it far more reliable than even the original BMW design (i.e. Brembo from brakes, Ducati ignition, etc.) It certainly handles differently than a two-wheeled bike, but that also adds to the fun.

We plan to spend a lot of time riding around this summer. My wife has never hated bikes, but she's also never really been a bike person. When I first showed her this bike online and told her I was going to buy it, her first and only question was "When can we go buy a helmet for me?" She really has no desire to drive the bike, but she absolutely loves riding in the sidecar. She has fun, I have fun, we all have fun. Good times!

Below are some pics.

Cheers!

~ Greg ~

[Marker]

Wow nice G. That looks pretty cool.

[zappaFREAK]

Very nice!!!

[Puros Y Vino]

That is one sweet ride. You need to get a couple of those WWI German helmets with the spike. Ride around town yelling "Schultz"!!!!!!!

[Scdalak]

That is one sweet ride. You need to get a couple of those WWI German helmets with the spike. Ride around town yelling "Schultz"!!!!!!!

+1 on that Frank, Dont forget your Luger Greg...

Sweet Looking Ride, really cool.. That Shovel on the side car is sure to come in handy when you wipe out in a ditch, just like in all the movies I have seen these bikes in...

[ptrthgr8]

I've got plenty of Mausers and other German weapons (Luger, P38, C96, whatever), but since it's a Russian bike I think it would make much more sense to get decked out in some surplus Soviet gear from www.soviet-power.com and then load up a few Mosin-Nagants for a day of fun. And I'm still working on a way to get the M1919A6 added to the front of the sidecar using the provided mount... think I need to do some tinkering with the pintle from my M2 tripod, but it should be do-able.

As for the shovel... yeah, that will come in handy. It's unlikely that I'll ever go offroading and there aren't a lot of big ditches in town... but this *is* North Dakota after all. I may just get a burr up my butt and go taking off through a random beet field. Or maybe I'll be dumb enough to see how it handles in the North Dakota snow. Either way, it makes me feel a little more at peace knowing that shovel is there to save the day.

Cheers,

~ Greg ~

[Scdalak]

Every WW1 movie i have seen these bikes in ,wether in a chase scene or other. They always seem to end up flipping head over heals into a ditch, with the poor SOB in the Side Car taking the worst of it.... Makes me laugh...

Good idea staying on Paved roads...

[Habanos2000]

That bike looks great! I'm sure you'll have a blast tooling around in it.

[ptrthgr8]

Every WW1 movie i have seen these bikes in ,wether in a chase scene or other. They always seem to end up flipping head over heals into a ditch, with the poor SOB in the Side Car taking the worst of it.... Makes me laugh...

Good idea staying on Paved roads...

Well, the poor SOB in *this* sidecar will almost certainly be the wifey more often than not. So... I'll have to make sure the end over end flips are kept to a bare minimum.

[Scdalak]

Good idea staying on Paved roads...

I take that back!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4rWJJq0HpU

[ptrthgr8]

Ha! Yeah, the 2WD versions of these bikes are pretty amazing. The bike I have wasn't available with the 2WD option, though I can get the conversion kit later if I'd like... but it's expensive. Something like another $2500 just to have an axle extend out to the sidecar wheel. We don't have a lot of hills in my neck of the woods and I never intended to go cross-country riding, so the standard 1WD setup on our rig will work fine for now. But it is awesome to see what a 2WD Ural sidecar rig is capable of doing.

~ Greg ~

[SmokinLightning]

Love the bike... drive around with that Mosin strapped to your back for a true old school look!

[ptrthgr8]

Love the bike... drive around with that Mosin strapped to your back for a true old school look!

I'll have to check local laws, but I have a sneaking suspicion they pooh-pooh the idea of folks riding motorcycles with rifles slung over their shoulders. This *is* North Dakota, though, so I may be surprised. I'll look into it for sure... rolling around with an M91/30 with a fixed bayonet would be classic.