I wasn’t really serious in my suggestion. But I am amazed at the maintenance these Urals demand. I read of a guy who rode cross country on a 2005 Ural, and he replaced 5 or 6 things on this machine, and still broke down three times.

You have to love what you ride and I deeply respect your commitment to the Ural. I am amazed at the patience both you and Charlie6 (Domingo) exhibit during your day-to-day love affair with these machines. For the first time ever, I will be changing my bike’s oil and doing stuff I always paid a mechanic to do this year. Money is tight and there is no alternative. (I lost 80 percent of my income in the last month.) Thank God I will not have to buy tires in 2010.

Your argument is precisely why I recommended the BMW K75. The newest one you can get is 14 years old. They look like old fart bikes. I have a 28″ inseam and can flatfoot the bike with both feet. You can attend local BMW rallys on weekends, which is like touring Jurrasic Park with live dinosaurs riding dinosaurs. And even though the K75 never breaks down, when it does, it’s just like a Ural as there are only two BMW dealers left in the United States (on opposite coasts), and each part is hand-made by a Catholic saint.

Of course, your rides would be different as the K75 will run at 85mph all day, without getting hot, or using any oil, or dropping parts. You’ll have more time for other things, like bungee jumping… You’ll be invited to high class parties… You’ll write several best selling books while your husband will become a rock star… Then again, I get sick of all this on a regular basis too.

At these enactments, does anyone show up with a tank or artillery?

If water can leak into the engine as easily as it can be prevented by a tarp, wouldn’t you have compression issues? Just asking.

Fondest regards,
Jack • reep • Twisted Roads

Here’s the thing – for us, reenacting is our primary hobby. Most months we attend an event 2-3 weekends out of the month. It’s a good hobby for us because both of us have jobs that make it nearly impossible to get off work for more than a weekend. Sure, we could do long trips like you describe in theory, but in practice, we’d both have to quit our jobs, and seeing as how we have $1600 of rent to pay a month, and I make about $800/mo at my job, it’s just…not feasible. Urals work well for us precisely because the *can* deal with a lot of down time, because really, except for use as a potential commuter, any bike we have is going to have a lot of down time.

The white stuff is actually a mix of oil and water, and it’s what happens whenever we forget to put our tarp over the bike. The engine isn’t very well sealed.

For the price of one new Ural, you guys could get 2 slightly used BMW K75s that will probably run for 150,000 miles before needing a serious valve adjustment. Instead of re-enactments, you could ride to places like the Grand Canyon, where you could open a bottle of wine and still expect your bikes to start exactly like they did 3000 times previously.

I greatly admire your perseverance. Man, are you guys patient. But after a while, wouldn’t you really rather be riding?

I meant to ask you, what was all that white stuff in the engine oil?

Fondest regards,
Jack • reep • Toad
Twisted Roads
Twisted Roads