Ride Three

For Ural Sidecar Motorcycle Enthusiasts

The famous Ural hack monkey of Eugene

This… is just cool.

A little while back, Ella, Svetlana and I were in a photo shoot. With photography by Eugene’s Jon Christopher Meyers, our own homegrown, homebrewers-turned pros Chris and Jeff Althouse were getting pictures for a big rebranding campaign. Changing their brewery’s name from Willamette Brewery to Oakshire Brewing, they just unveiled the new brand — and the new marketing campaign to go with it.

Keep an eye out for ads and posters like the one above; you’ll see people playing frisbee golf, riding bikes, rafting, and, of course, riding sidecar motorcycles. People who enjoy life. Who enjoy the Northwest. And who, of course, enjoy a good beer.

Raise your glass

It was great to help out these folks. The Althouses (well, nowadays more their head brewer, Todd) brew excellent beer, ranging from a Hefeweizen to an IPA to an espresso stout that contains one shot of espresso per pint. They’re a homegrown company, with a big focus on quality and on sourcing everything for the beer and the business as close to home as they can. You can find Oakshire beers on tap from Eugene to Portland — and if you don’t see it on tap at your favorite watering hole, be sure to ask if they can get a keg in.

We had a great time helping out Jon and the Althouses. And now, Ella and the Ural seem to be becoming, if not famous, then certainly notorious around Eugene. That’s my hack monkey — always stealing the show!

Ella has responded very well to being in the sidecar. She has become much more adept at getting into the sidecar on command, but one thing we have not sorted out yet is her riding on her own in the sidecar. We’ve been practicing that some, but more practice is needed.

Our first line of defense in keeping in the sidecar will be obedience, and making sure she perceives the sidecar as positive, a good place for a wee dog to be. But that’s not the only option, and we are keeping on eye on other solutions to keeping a dog in a sidecar, such as solutions shared in this Soviet Steeds discussion:

“How do you safely/securely rig your dog in the sidecar?” Follow the whole discussion: Soviet Steeds - Dog In The Sidecar

Leash? Harness? If we decide to install a physical means of keeping Ella in the sidecar, we’ll most likely look into the harness solutions discussed. That way if for some reason she did try to jump out of the sidecar, she could be stopped by a leashed harness, keeping the force of the stop spread over her body and not just her neck.

For now though, we’re going to focus on training. Ella is a very obedient dog, and I’m confident that all we need to do is practice more with just her and me riding, and her getting lots of praise for staying in the sidecar. We’ll see how she progresses.

A foggy Saturday morning finally gave way to a sunny afternoon, so Jodie and I geared up, got Ella in her doggles, and took our first true around-town family trip together. The destination? Eugene’s Candelight Park, an off-leash dog park in west Eugene.

We’d ridden around the neighborhood a little, but this was the first time all 3 of us had ridden around town together. I couldn’t be happier with how it went. Ella was completely relaxed — she didn’t even mind her doggles too much. We also got in some WWID (What Would Ivan Do?) thinking, when it came to our helmets.

First off was a systems check:

• Oil: Level fine.
• Tire Pressure: Pumped up all the tires, as they’d been getting a bit low. Filled tires to manual specs: 32 psi in the front tire, 30 psi in the sidecar tire, and 40 psi in the rear tire.
• Brake Lights and Turn Signals: All operational.

After a trip to the gas station, we rode off to the dog park.

Getting used to Doggles

Ella is still getting used to wearing her Doggles. After we got her in the sidecar and she nuzzled down in the tub, the first couple of miles were iffy Doggles-wise. On the way to the gas station, Ella nudged off her Doggles. On the next leg of the ride though, she kept them on and did fine — we’re guessing she realized they made a difference in the wind hitting her in the face.

WWID: Rigging up a helmet lock

Since we were going to be walking around a park with Ella, we didn’t want to have to worry about our helmets. We haven’t snagged up helmet locks yet, but while at home in the garage we realized we might not need to. A bicycle’s locking cable and U-lock later, and we rigged up a helmet lock that secured both helmets to the sidecar windshield’s grab bar. It’s perhaps not a perfect system, but it works well for now.

Comfort level

Before leaving the house, I felt pretty nervous about this ride. It was a perfect day weather-wise, but it was also 1) the farthest afield I’d gone on the rig, and 2) the first time driving around with both Jodie and Ella. These were just early jitters though — a couple of minutes in the saddle, and I felt fine. More importantly, Jodie felt fine too, and she told me later that she felt perfectly safe with my driving. That was great to hear, and it shows I’m really getting the hang of my Ural Patrol.

This was a great ride around town. We had a good destination. Going to the dog park, something Ella really enjoys, also helped further reinforce an association that the sidecar and even the Doggles are positive things — they mean she gets to go to cool places that she loves.

And as for us humans, we had a great time. Driving around Jodie and Ella — and all the waves, smiles and thumbs-up that go with it — is exactly the fun experience I had hoped and knew it would be.

Bonafide Hack Hound

On Sunday afternoon, Jodie, Ella and I all went for a ride. At last. (By the way, we rode with full gear, and just snapped the photo before we geared up. We’re ATGATT riders — All The Gear All The Time.)

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Link: Pet Supplies & Pet Products: Doggles : Goggles for Dogs

Over the past few days, Ella has been getting used to wearing her black Doggles Dog Goggles.

This hasn’t always been easy.

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Jodie and I have long pondered whether the Ural would fit both her and our 45-pound dog, Ella. I’d talked about it some with other sidecar folks in the message board thread Hacks-n-Pups - ADVrider, and opinions were mixed. I felt pretty confident that Jodie and Ella both would fit in the hack though. Well, with my Patrol arriving on Saturday, we finally got to find out:

Something Jodie and I looked forward to was being able to take Ella on trips in the motorcycle with us. Now, we know we can. Ella was very relaxed in the sidecar, even when I started the motorcycle. She didn’t even flinch. Ella really likes being close to us, so we’re thinking that the enclosed space, and her being curled up with Jodie, will help her stay calm and happy on trips.

All we need now, is to get Jodie’s helmet and some “doggles” for Ella — and we’ll be ready to road trip. Oh yeah, and I actually have to finish working on my “sidecar chops”… getting better about the turn signals though, at least.