New England Focus has put out an interesting story about Jon Taylor, founder of Ural of Oz, a Ural touring company in New South Wales, Australia:

“Jon Taylor has a passion for motorcycles. As a past competitor in off-road endurance racing, Jon was quite successful, but his love of motorcycling led him to experience other aspects of this popular pastime. We chat to Jon about his future on three wheels.”

Read the whole story: Ural of Oz : New England Focus

Now we know what we’re doing next time we go to Australia!

Sounds like there’ll be a great Ural Australia showing in Melbourne on Feb. 28 – “Dosvedanya, mate!”

Ural Sidecars In Melbourne.. Saturday March 28th - ADVrider

“I noticed on the Ural Australia webpage that they will have a couple of their sidecars on show at the Russian Cultural Festival, Federation Square in Melbourne on 28th February.”

Author Carla King is another Ural owner and blogger, and she recently posted a link to some photos of a 2007 Motorcycle Festival in Irbit, Siberia:

Motorcycle Misadventures: Great photos from Motorcycle Festival in Irbit, Siberia

“Thanks Spaceball to Jochen Vorfelder, the motorcycle editor at the German news property Spiegel Online, for sharing these great photos from the Motorcycle Festival in Irbit, SiberiaSpaceball , taken in July 2007. The show is held every last weekend in July in Irbut, where Ural Motorcycles are made, 400 kilometers east of the Ural mountains in Siberia, Russia”

Need a Ural videos fix, but with an Australian accent?

Check out Ural Australia’s Ural Webmaster YouTube Channel »

Remember Victor Wanchena, the winter-riding Minnesotan? If you’re looking for a good read about motorcycles, check out his magazine, Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly. Here are the online archives, or you can subscribe or, if in Minnesota, find a print edition in locations around the state.

I’ve been glancing through some of Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly’s 2009 issue, and particularly enjoyed this bit from Victor Wanchena’s From the Hip:

We as motorcyclists tend to be traditionalists when it comes to power plants and new fangled technology. When electric ignition was introduced, it was decried as the work of the devil. The purists claimed they would stick to their points ignition because it was simple and repairable roadside. If it was good enough for their gran-pappy, it was good enough for them. 30 years later, and I have yet to be stranded roadside by a dead, electronic ignition. Then there was fuel injection. You would have thought the end of the world was at hand. Some riders swore that fuel injection on motorcycles was the final sign of a coming apocalypse. It should be noted that bike blessing services and fuel injection became more common at the same time. But we’re all still here and fuel injection has become very common on motorcycles. We fought rear suspension, electric start, ABS brakes; the list goes on. We love our traditions and cling to them. The electric motorcycle will take some getting used to.

Check it out online: Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly

I might’ve missed a chance for snow motorcycling, but Minnesota’s Victor Wanchena certainly doesn’t. He rides every day, saying it’s not much different – or much crazier – than riding a snowmobile:

Joe Soucheray: Snow, cold don’t stop Victor Wanchena and his Ural motorcycle - TwinCities.com

Perhaps you’ve seen him — or them. Victor Wanchena explains why he rides his salt-encrusted Ural on an arctic January day

Riding a Ural in snowy conditions has plenty of challenges – from salt eating your electrics so you have to kick-start, to black ice and cellphone yappers always a threat – but Wanchena’s still out there, day in and day out.

Thanks to Alan for sending this along!

Only 18 available in the U.S.

You might not be able to get a 2009 Limited Edition Ural Wjuga in the U.S., but if you hurry you can get one of the 18 Limited Edition 2009 Ural Saharas available in the U.S. Here’s the skinny from IMZ Ural and from Ural Northwest:

The limited Ural edition 2009 is born! 100% no chrome bike, everything is kept in a dirty yellow-grey-brown paint job. A person could say, “the bike is ugly” but the 2009 Ural Sahara is definitely not unfunctional. The Ural Sahara is fitted with unique attributes which are really useful when you want to drive in the deserts of this world”

MSRP: $13,949; deposits are usually required by Ural dealers.

2008 had the limited edition Arctic Gear-Up — and, according to Total Motorcycle News, 2009 has the, um, 2009 Ural Wjuga:

“Without doubt this Ural is not beautiful. Disheveled, sloppy, grey-greyish colored. A doubtful appearance. But exactly the right answer for uncomfortable circumstances in the life of a motorcycle driver like coldness, snow, winter, wind.”

Production is limited — and to add insult to injury, you’ll have to go to Europe, as Wjugas won’t be available in North America. It reminds me a little of the Arctic Gear-Up, though the camo fairing is a nice touch.

The piece explains that “wjuga” is a Russian word for “northeast storms in the steppe of south Russia”. That’s all well and good, but my money still says “wjuga” is the sound the horn makes.

The economy is having tough times, we all know. And we all know it’s not confined to the U.S., that other countries, other economies, have been reeling and feeling the pain too. What does all this mean to a wee company like IMZ-Ural, which has been trying to keep up with demand while raising capital?

There are various rumors about, such as the one below, picked up from a fellow Uralist. As for me, and I think, him too, Ural will ride this out. If they can handle the fall of communism, they can probably get through the current economic problems. That’s my hope.

“Even with all the rumors of dealers not receiving ordered bikes, Italian suppliers not being paid, profit skimming, lots of Irbit factory workers let go, and overall mismanagement. Hope it ain’t true, I see no talk of it on the interweb, but was told all this by a dealer of Urals in the U.S. … But I have been fooling with Ducatis for near 40 years, and have seen them go broke and bankrupt many times, and look at them now. With so much demand for Urals now, I can not imagine too much grief for owners for very long. Even though I have been trying to get a part for near a year now.”

I agree, but — what is happening with Ural? How is the company doing? If you know, please say so. If anyone from IMZ happens upon this blog, I’d also be happy to publish a statement from the company.

Keep an eye out for the November/December edition of RoadBike Magazine, and their New Bike Test of the 2008 Ural GearUp:

I am not a big motorcycle mag reader but today I was killin time in wally world waiting on a rotate and balance on my tires. Stopped by the magazine section and see the words “Trikes & Sidecars” and “Ural Test” on one of the covers. The Nov/Dec edition of RoadBike has done a New Bike Test of the 2008 Ural GearUp, pages 54, 55 and 56, a short article on pages 74-75 on Learning to Drive a Sidecar Outfit and a review of the second edition printing of the manual titled “Driving a Sidecar Outfit” published by the Sidecar Safety Program. All in all each article seems to be fair and accurate.

More on this: Soviet Steeds - Ural in Magazine Article