Not many Russian bikes around

Lovely things, those Ural outfits.

Dave

 

I had a Ural once in 1976. A heap of the most appalling kind of shite. Without doubt the worst bike I've ever owned or ridden.

Looked great and always drew a crowd (mostly to laugh I think) but the build quality was worse than shoddy. I had it from new. I sold it back to the dealer after 6 months for half of what I paid for it. At least it was used to being at the dealers as it spent 3 months there in the first 6 months.

The engine burnt oil like it was going out of fashion and seized twice. The battery boiled over taking most of the frame paint off (not that it needed much encouragement). At night the exhausts glowed a nice shade of red which was quite useful as the lights needed all the help they could get.

It really was a terrible machine well deserving of the "urinal" monicker.

 

I think the newer ones have Japanese alternators and much better brakes

 

Yes, they were called Cossack Urals although the later models used the make "Dniepr" (iirc).

They were cheap for a 650 but they certainly weren't cheerful. I've no idea why they were so poorly built but they were.

An interesting side story....

After the second seizure the dealer refused to do anything about all the issues I was having so I wrote to the Russian Embassy pointing out what a bad advertisement the bikes were for Russia. A got a letter (which I wish I'd kept!) from the embassy saying something like "We are sorry you are having problems with your Russian motorcycle and we are thinking your issues will soon be resolved".

The dealer contacted me a few days later and I ended up selling it back to him for half of what I paid but at least it was gone. I bought a 400 Four which was a brilliant bike

I would love to have known whether the embassy did contact the dealer and what they said ........

.

 

A book? Very kind of you but too much like hard work. I think I'll stick to songs (less writing )

Loved the story about the DAF You don't have a picture do you?

I was looking through my old photos to see if I could find any photos of mine but unfortunately those photos were in a previous life and I expect she's thrown them all out by now.

I did find this which was exactly as mine looked (except this hasn't got red pipes and has most of the paint in place by the looks of it). One thing I will say about it though is that the rubber saddles were unexpectedly comfortable.

 

If only I knew....