Looking to lose weight? Well, get rid of your stair-climber and get yourself a kickstart-only Ural motorcycle. I guarantee that you will have calves of steel in no time.
Smutyanka is having ignition issues. Trying to kickstart a bike 150-200 times will give you quite a workout. I am really not pleased that [...]
Posts under ‘Ownership’
The Ural Workout
She’s Back!
Smutyanka was finally returned to us yesterday. I don’t have very nice things to say about our mechanic, who had her for 5 months and still didn’t fix everything we asked him to, but at least she’s back, with new pistons, cylinders, and brakes, and she idles well without stalling. Something is up with the [...]
Smutyanka Will Be Back Soon!
We got a call from the shop that has had Smutyanka, our Ural sidecar motorcycle, for a little over three months. She’s all ready to go, but he lost the keys (first time in his career, apparently), so he had to remove the ignition and take it to a locksmith to get [...]
A Visit to the Shop
So, Marc and I finally threw in the towel and sent Smutyanka off to the mechanic’s. We found out that the other Ural owners in this area use a very small shop called Brooks Cycles. It’s only a two man outfit, but they’re really nice, they offer free towing, they have experience working on Urals, [...]
Smutyanka is misbehaving again…
So, Smutyanka is living up to her namesake again. (Smutyanka is “female troublemaker” in Russian)
We did a lot of work on her last week and replaced the air filter, put on the new carburetor flanges and heat blocks, and replaced the torn fuel line. Our plan was to take her to Crossroads Cycles this week [...]
Ural Delay Factor Cards
One of the things about owning a vintage-looking sidecar bike like a Ural is that, well, a lot of people stop to ask you about it. Ural owners often refer to this as the “Ural Delay Factor”, or UDF for short. I’ve experienced this even in the parking lot, and when we went to put [...]
Smutka, I dub thee “Attention-Grabber”…
Smutyanka has been attracting a lot of attention even when she’s just sitting still. The folks on Soviet Steeds had warned us about the “Ural Delay Factor” if you try and run errands in one (add approx. 30 minutes of time to your errands to account for people stopping you to ask about the bike), [...]
