Maybe I’d gotten lazy. Maybe I just hadn’t thought about it, since I hadn’t been riding as much. But recently, I was going to take Sveta out for a ride, when I just happened to look down and see the exhaust knuckles, between the exhaust pipes and the mufflers, completely unscrewed on both sides. It had probably been 400 or 500 km since I’d last given them a good solid tightening.

Oops.

Five minutes with a spanner wrench had the exhaust knuckles sorted out, but it was a good reminder — that’s something I need to check regularly, and from what I’ve heard, most Ural owners do. They don’t have to be checked every ride, but every, say, 200 km or so would be a good rule of thumb.

While I was at it, I checked the oil, topped up my tires and checked the tightness on my turn signals.

And I won’t forget to check the exhaust knuckles again.