But, reading stuff on the Internet from owners and absorbing what a sales person has to say, contrasted with one's personal motorcycling experience can lead a consumer to confusion. As the Sales Manager I figured I had to find the true bottom line on this product and see if it was as good a choice as it seemed.
I knew that a Ural was derived from a 1930's German military design and proudly upgraded over the years to serve the Soviet/Russian armed forces, and a market need for inexpensive and simple to maintain transportation.
I knew some U.S. owners were quite devoted to their Ural bikes claiming uncomplicated ownership, and I knew there were a lot of owners equally unhappy with their ownership experience - which seemed, in the main, to be quality and durability related. What was true? Good bike with ignorant owners (maybe), bad bike made from inferior materials by a manufacturer that had no pride in their product (doubtful), perfectly reliable product? (also doubtful) or something else? (probably).
I sort of knew Ural bikes were slow compared to modern motorcycles, but I didn't quite understand how slow, and if this was a condition that one could resolve with "parts". I knew several owners in our customer base in varying degrees of Ural ownership yet also heard the problems they spoke about were seemingly being resolved at the factory. I needed to own a Ural to really understand the brand, get the ownership experience, and determine if we should actually go forward with the product.
To that end I ordered a 2007 Ural Patrol from Raceway Services in Salem Oregon, and waited a long time for it to show up. The long delay had to do with parts acquisition in Russia - specifically Austrian made gears - and my bike had to wait for the supply to arrive before it could be finally assembled. It was no big deal as I first needed to get my sidecar endorsement, as required by Washington State. I could have had that endorsement grandfathered a few years ago but chose against the freebie preferring to get proper side car education if and when I decided to add a rig to my collection. One of my more brilliant decisions.
Had I not taken the course I would have crashed the Ural. Nothing from 40 years on motorcycles translates, except hanging off. The basics of brake throttle and clutch are the same but that's about it. Even after safety course completion, my first rides on the Ural were quite challenging - different than my frame of reference and way outside my two wheeled comfort zone - and I think this initial experience could sour the love affair of a new owner if it wasn't explained to them. It took me a month or two to get reasonably adjusted to driving a hack and I will add it was fun to do. Here's some obesevations:
First, it just feels weird to ride if you have a zillion motorcycle miles under you. Your body weight is moved around for you in an unfamiliar way, and like a transition from skiing to snowboarding some things migrate, some do not.
Second, the bike IS slow compared to what I normally ride that has 4 times the horsepower; folks, that is really weird! My survival mode had to be adjusted as I could no longer just twist the throttle and escape a dimwit. I re-learned to anticipate, scan for idiots, and so on. It all came together and being slower than others in some conditions became a non issue; but it is something to be aware of.
Third, negotiating corners left and right is different and throttle input steers the rig - all related to having a sidecar hanging on the right; sidecars represent a lot of drag to be compensated for. Steering with the throttle became normal and a fun part of my growing competence. But at first it was way different.
Fourth, having the single digit IQ driving the pickup tailgate you - because the reptilian brain cannot compute for him/her that you can't go faster is, a bit off-putting. More so the fact that s/he also can't figure out how to pass you when the road is clear.
Fifth, a Ural weighs 700+ lbs and can achieve a top speed of 65+ once broken in. That ultimately becomes OK once you get used to #4 above and think in terms of riding a vintage motorcycle instead of 175 hp bikes.
Clearly the new owner experience, especially if not prepared for it, can/will persuade a lot of folk they made a bad choice. Something to know and work with customers on, and I suspect is a source, if not the main driver for a lot of customer unhappiness.
I got used to the the bike fairly quickly after that and began to increase speed, which facilitated doing dumb things like hitting right hand decreasing radius turns a bit too hot. Comfort can breed complacancy. Past that stage, and I felt OK with taking my wife on short rides. She really enjoyed the experience because she sat on a comfortable seat, had a windshield, and could see the road ahead instead of DOT on my helmet. I began to think of her as the Ballast Babe, because a passenger helps keep the car on the ground. Frankly, we had fun on the machine riding it around town and slowly ventured out as our trust in it grew. We had a particularly good ride down to Mt. St Helens on the back side through Randle, WA up to Windy Ridge as an example. And when the snow fell, we went out playing to "evaluate the two wheel drive". That works.
By this time I had done a couple of the required service routines and found working on the bike to be relatively easy in an old school way. Nothing on a Ural is difficult, like it would be on a modern BMW, for example. The scary part was not knowing if I had done stuff right, but the bike did fine. Being a dealership we would have to be good coaches - tech nights, or do the service work for our customers. Either way we would have an important and necessary role in building customer comfort.
There were a couple of problems that cropped up requiring a dealer to fix under warranty. The work was done no problem, but the dealerships I could go to are 3 or more hours away - massively inconvenient for me and current owners in our area. I did feel a bit let down and isolated by the distance to my dealer however and I thought we had another good reason to take the line on.
In a year, I learned to ride the bike well. Resolved most of the "little things" like loose connections and faulty relays and had the bike fully run in. I decided to take a week long ride, in January no less, to see how I might get on with the machine as a rig to take me to Inuvik and other places. Man was it cold! The 770 Watt alternator carried my Gerbing gear with no problem and my GPS found a happy spot on the handle bars. All my stuff fit in the side car - tent, sleeping bag, stove, etc. and I took off. Initially, I was thankful for the clear sunny skies then I wished for rain which often has temperatures in the high 40's. 36 degrees is a bit much, but I made it down the Oregon coast, camping, and drinking hot coffee at almost every Starbucks I located. The bike started easily when it was cold in the morning after having been out in the cold all night - I assumed it was its Siberian heritage - and it ran without a flutter getting me 30 mpg at 55 to 60 mph.
There were a couple of times I wished it had more power, like a redneck pickup episode, or simply to get somewhere faster but overall it was just fine as it was. Actually it was more than just fine. I had a ton of fun riding at the speed limit for a change. I didn't have to worry about an encounter with a LEO, except in town, so I didn't miss my radar detector - instead I listened to my iPod. The brakes worked superbly - overall a cool bike experience. I concluded we could sell these bikes, take care of the customer, and feel good about it.
I would, for the interested, describe the Patrol this way: think of a 1966 or so VW bug when it comes to "performance", but it has better brakes and digital ignition. A Ural sidecar rig is slow, but so is any motorcycle trying to push a heavy non streamlined side car with its added drag through the atmosphere. Any more powerful motorcycle will be unable to achieve its prior performance after having a sidecar attached - it is physics.
No, there is no performance upgrade worth attempting or spending money on. Of course, one can put a Porsche motor in a VW bug, but it ceases to be a VW bug at that point - and you could put an R100 engine/transmission into a Ural, but it would no longer be a Ural. The vehicle loses its charm in either case. If one needs the "performance" then just go buy the Porsche or the BMW to begin with. That a 40 hp bike does as well as the Ural, which weighs 700+ lbs, is positively remarkable in my opinion. Requiring more from it to be happy, indicates the owner bought the wrong machine.
Of course, being slow has its dangerous side e.g. single digit IQ motorists who made an end run around Darwin's evolutionary theory; but that just means one keeps off the freeway unless necessary and roams back roads where one can run at the speed limit. Big hills will slow you down - as was so for 1960s VW cars. It is important to note, that I have had encounters with the motoring public on very fast motorcycles. It isn't the bike - its the exposure we allow ourselves and I learned with the Ural that I can pull over and let the cretin past just as easily as I do on a motorcycle.
A Ural is easy to work on and maintain, and as maintenance intervals are more frequent than a modern motorcycle you get a lot of practice. Those who lament the passing of old and simple bikes from the world's inventory now have nothing to complain about - they can buy a Ural to tinker with - and quit complaining about 21st century products they don't know how to work on.
After all this, the owners of our shop decided against going multiline and I eventually sold the Ural to a really neat Ural knowledgeable guy in Spokane who would really use it. It was a bitter sweet experience to see it go. The machine had grown on me.
But things change, and here it is November 2009 and we have signed on with Ural to sell their motorcycles. It is a good decision in my opinion. The changes Ural incoprorated into the product since my 2007 are quite remarkable and I can't wait to get my hands on one of these improved machines. I ride what we sell.
More later.