Definitely helpful

I love the ironic name of this post on the Soviet Steeds message boards – Possibly Helpful Stuff.

“Possibly helpful”? This list has pretty much every part name and part number for just about any bit of part wotsit on your Ural sidecar rig, from “Air box hose: 21047 Gates radiator hose” to “Woodruff keys For 4th gear: 6mm x 6.5mm”.

As many of the folks on the forum have said, I too will be printing this out and hanging it in the garage. Many thanks to Soviet Steeds comrade FatMack for posting that “possibly” helpful list!

The future of Ural is always a good topic for discussion. Personally, I see Ural and its uniqueness as having a lot of opportunity to grow and become a stable, globally well-known brand in the motorcycle marketplace. Ural will be facing some real and tough challenges to get there, mainly in securing more capital (which is a long story in and of itself), but the company’s new CEO, Rick Clark, sounds like just the person to help the company get the money and growth they need to succeed:

Siberian bike’s allure draws investor | TheNewsTribune.com | Tacoma, WA

As the article points out, Clark is optimistic, and I’m glad to see that. He has good cause:

“There’s something unique about this bike that people get passionate about,” he said. “People love this bike. At shows, people take pictures of the bike, they sit in the sidecar. There’s something visceral about this. Of all of the consumer products I’ve been involved with, none comes close to the passion these owners exhibit.”

I’m curious, and excited, to see where the next few years take Ural. With the company’s unique position in the motorcycle industry — offering nothing but sidecar rigs, and with a rich history of doing so — I think they’re going to stabilize and grow.

Team Oregon’s website has a great 6-point checklist for fitting and trying on motorcycle helmets.

1. Measurement
2. Try-on
3. Horizontal and Vertical Movement Check
4. Retention Check
5. Pressure Point Check
6. Confirming Proper Fit

Jodie and I will be making a lot of use of this. After the holidays are over we’ll be trying on lids at Discount Motorcycle Parts here in Eugene, and a print-out of this checklist will be going with us.

While 2004 and 2005 models were pretty decent, Ural has made leaps and bounds in quality during the 2006, 2007 and 2008 model years. Ural Northwest has a side-by-side comparison of the year-over-year Ural improvements, very handy to anyone considering a Ural motorcycle, or just wondering how their reliability is nowadays:

Ural Yearly Changes from 2006-2008

After much pleading and begging many requests and lots of sidecar posts in other forums, the venerable Adventure Rider Motorcycle Forum has opened the Hacks - ADVrider forum. The ADV folks have also moved all the old sidecar-related posts to this forum.

At the time of this typing, there are about 9 pages worth of threads in Hacks, dating all the way back to 2002. I’ve spent a lot of weekend reading up on these; ADV not having a sidecar-specific forum actually kept me away from it for quite a while. No knock on them, it’s a great forum, I just didn’t have time to go scouring everywhere for Ural and sidecar posts. Now they’ve made it all easy.

I was going to highlight a few threads anyone and everyone should check out, but there’s too much variety to try to pin down a few. So just hop over and start reading for yourself:

Hacks - ADVrider »

The Ural Tourist and Gear-Up models are expected to be available for fun
sale in Australia in early 2008. IMZ Ural Australia is posting regular updates to their site on testing, passing Aussie moto regulations, and anticipated arrival dates for the first batch of Ural sidecar rigs into the Australia market

34 bikes are expected in the first shipment, which could be ready for sale in the Australian market by March.

In the meantime, get some sidecar training in Australia with Ural of Oz or in Oregon with Vernon Wade’s Adventure Sidecar.

Ural Mufflers

Dan Malinowski has announced his new site for Ural Mufflers: Modtop Performance - Black Mufflers for Ural.

The site says this about the Ural mufflers:

Specializing in parts for your Ural motorcycles. We currently create high quality retro muffler assemblies. We know how much you enjoy your Ural motorcycles and created this special line of performance parts to make your Ural extra special.

If you’re looking for performance mufflers for your Ural motorcycle, give Dan’s product a whirl — Modtop Performance - Black Mufflers for Ural Motorcycles and Sidecar Rigs

On the Ural message boards, markhas is looking for a new pair of motorcycle boots, preferably made in the U.S.:

Been looking for decent boots, that are made on lasts and repairable heels & soles…. I’m looking at Langlitz, Wesco, and Sullivan Moccasin. These all have high initial purchase price but are repairable and will be cheaper in the long run. I like to get some opinions from people who have these boots.

Here are some of the motorcycle boots recommended by folks in the forum:

• Aerostich Combat Touring Boots #400
• Specter Road Motorcycle Boots (Canada)
• Wesco Boots - West Coast Shoe Company, Since 1918 — based in Scappoose, OR… on a personal note, being Oregon-based, Jodie and I will be looking hard at their products. We always try to keep our dollars in Oregon.
• Cruiserworks
• Red Wing Shoes
• Chippewa Boots

We haven’t looked a whole lot at motorcycle footwear yet, but this list is a great place to start. Like I said, the Wesco’s immediately grabbed out attention. There are so many good manufacturers and quality products in Oregon, that it’s easy to keep our many here — which helps since that’s our first preference anyway.

Air Vent #4482Z Leather Motorcycle Jacket from Taylors Leatherwear

Regular Price $249.99 Close-out Price $99

By the way, I’m not getting paid for this post.

More info about this jacket »

Order this jacket at Taylors Leatherwear’s e-commerce site, ourleathershop.com »

Web editors don’t wear leather

When Jodie and I began our quest for motorcycle apparel, I told her that I wasn’t interested in leather. Most of the leather jackets I’d seen were that “classic biker” style. Now, that works for a lot of folks. But for this 5′5″, 135 lb., clean-cut, goateed internet dork, well, the “classic biker” look doesn’t exactly look classic biker. I could think of a lot of things I think it would look like, but they all turn my stomach and I don’t want to type them out.

This all changed, however, at work.

But they’ll reconsider if the cut (and price) is right

Not long after putting down the deposit on my Ural Patrol, I got word from our merchandising folks that we had added a police leather jacket vendor, and I needed to prep their products for our website (Leather Duty Jackets @ CHIEFsupply.com, by the way) .

Taylors Leatherwear is based in Tennessee, and has been making leather jackets for a long time. They had nice stuff — but when I saw their Air Vent jacket (on close-out, no less), I knew I had found a leather jacket I could wear and like. Especially when I saw that it was on close-out for only $99. I was sold.

So far, so good

Since I’m still waiting for my Patrol to arrive, I haven’t gotten to field-test the jacket yet, but I’m confident it will perform fine. The fit is good (I got a Medium — a Small would fit me a bit better, but I can’t complain), the look is just what I was hoping. The liner zips out easily, and the brass zips should last ages.

I like this jacket a lot, and would encourage anyone looking for a leather jacket, but in a different styles from the traditional cuts, to have a look at the Airvent Jacket before it’s sold out.

Or, as my dad put it, “Son, you really hit a home run with this coat.”

And I didn’t think I’d want a leather motorcycle jacket.

The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more card
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part

Tom Petty has it so right.

The hardest part about ordering a new Ural, is waiting for that shiny new sidecar rig to arrive — though it does help (a little) to know the hows and whys of getting a Ural motorcycle from the mountains of Siberia to western Oregon.

Granted, I’ve plenty to keep my foil-shrouded mind occupied in the meantime. It’s the holidays, so there’s plenty to do in terms of gifts for other people – but this is also my and Jodie’s first motorcycle, so we’re also keeping tabs on gifts for ourselves. (Which is another set of posts in and of itself.)

Then there’s telling everyone in all creation that “we’re getting a Ural… and no, we didn’t say “urinal”. Ural. U-R-A-L. Right. No, it’s a motorcycle. Steel, not porcelain. With a sidecar. A sidecar. Yep, that’s right, we’re nuts…” Repeat.

Then there’s arranging the rest of the financing – in some ways, not the world’s worst headache, but in many ways, something that merits a rant post all its own.

It’s only a matter of time. My 2007 Ural Patrol could be here by the end of December. Or maybe the middle of January. I don’t know. But it will get here. And in the mean time, I will wait — even if that is the hardest part.