Upon the date 01:51 AM 8/14/01 -0400, Chad Fernandez said something like:
>Wow, I'd love to take a look at his bike. Urals are sold in America
>now, but ours are slightly different. They start out as parts from
>Russia and Ural America, or whatever it's called, builds the bikes using
>the Russian parts along with parts from other sources, in order to make
>a more reliable bike. They're supposed to be pretty sweet rides, from
>what I read on the web. Those side car wheels are powered too :-)
This machine is not a sidecar model. It is one of three prototypes made in
1995 exported to a dealer around Munich to check out whether there was a
market. (No, there wasn't!) The machine was intended to be a utility
vehicle for use on construction sites to carry small loads. Other uses
could be imagined I suppose. I believe Hans mentioned it was presently sold
in Russia for the same purpose but in a decidedly updated form. The machine
Hans has uses a rear axle and leaf springs from a small, common Russian
passenger car called "Moskova" or something like that (IIRC!). The
driveshaft out of the Ural gearbox goes through an amidships mounted
gearbox which connects to the rear axle through another driveshaft. The
middle gearbox evidently matches the gearing of the rearend to the
motorcycle gearbox output speed. The cargo box is roughly 4 ft wide x 5 ft
long x ~1.5 ft deep. It has a 2.5 ft wide x ~1.5 ft tall door with simple,
rather light duty (and poorly welded) hinges on the back of the box. This
cargo box affair is mounted upon a boxed frame shackled onto the leaf
springs. There is a canvas/vinyl toneau cover which covers the box and a
sturdy aluminum frame mounted to the four corners of the box upon 8 inch
tall x ~1/2" diameter threaded rod standoffs. The tent is bolted to this frame.
Anyway, the box already has several classic computer items within it and is
ready to be filled to the top with more (to get this danged thread back
towards topic ;-)
I didn't see it myself, but there was a Ural with sidecar for sale at our
large antique car fleamarket in Dunkirk, NY back in May. The guys who saw
Hans' machine Saturday run that flea market and therefore had an
approximate idea what they were looking at.
>
>I'm not even sure if they call them Urals in Russia. I read the history
>of it all at one time, but I don't recall everything now. They had some
>three letter name too.
Here's a URL (for the URaL ;-) that may be of interest for the history
mavens out there:
http://www.ural.com/history/index.htm The site is framed
and the main page is:
http://www.ural.com/home_frame.htm It's the US site
for Ural.
Yes, they do call them Ural in Russia. For those who can read Russian,
here's the URL:
http://www.ural.ru/
>
>Chad Fernandez
>Michigan, USA
>
>Christian Fandt wrote:
>> So now he's got
>> communication when that Russian-made three-wheel cycle breaks down out at
>> the head of nowhere ;-) We got the rear door hinge welded properly by one
>> of my friends after it broke during the sea trip over. Hans figures the
>> welder in the Ural factory had too much vodka that day.
Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian
Jamestown, NY USA cfandt_at_netsync.net
Member of Antique Wireless Association
URL:
http://www.antiquewireless.org/
Received on Tue Aug 14 2001 - 20:55:33 BST