Read the Story   Photos   Uraling Across America

In the spirit of ‘try everything once’ I decided that I had been rather remiss in my motorcycling life in having reached the creaking old age of thirty-six without having ridden a sidecar outfit. So last summer when a friend offered me a quick razz around a campsite in Spain on their Ural outfit, I leapt aboard with much excitement. Within two minutes I was hooked and once I’d sampled the delights of reverse gear, I was a fanatic in waiting.

The Start

The Ural sidecar outfit has acquired something of a cult following over the years, especially amongst overlanders, and following my initiation in Spain, it occurred to me that it would be perfect for a back-roads exploration of the USA. Their vintage good looks, solid build (they make their motorcycles like they make their lady shot-putters) and rugged 2-wheel drive capability is the very embodiment of ‘Good Old-Fashioned Adventure’ and the thought of rumbling from coast to coast along America’s two-lane highways, dirt roads and desert trails in one of these outfits seemed like the most fun a couple could have on three wheels.

The Ural story is an odd one, as you might expect from a state-owned Russian bike manufacturer. At the start of World War 2 the Russians reckoned they needed to update their army motorcycles which were renowned for falling to bits and it was agreed that the best bike for the job was the BMW R71. The only problem was that they were manufactured by the enemy themselves – so a shopping spree to the Beemer factory was not going to happen. Instead, in true Soviet fashion, a number of these bikes were covertly smuggled into Russia where the crafty Ruskies copied every detail of the design (albeit in a clunky Eastern Bloc style) and created their very own version of the R71. And so the Ural motorcycle was born. But their popularity spread beyond the Red Army and by the 1960s they were being built entirely for civilian use and even now they are still used all over Russia.

Chair in the Air!

But before we go any further, let’s get up to speed with some sidecar terminology, for it’s not just the riding technique to master, there’s a whole load of lingo too. For a start, you don’t ride a sidecar outfit, you drive it. The car itself is the ‘chair’ and the whole caboodle is the rig, or hack. And the Urals have even spawned their very own phraseology, of most importance being the mysterious acronym, WWID. This is the Uralist’s mantra that stands for ‘What Would Ivan Do?’ - the head-scratching question that all Ural drivers ask themselves when faced with a roadside breakdown. In case you’re wondering, Ivan doesn’t actually exist, except in metaphysical form as the all-knowing Russian everyman, master of all things Ural. And then there’s UDF, but more about that later...

Fortunately, the good folk at Ural USA responded enthusiastically to my vision of a three-wheeled traverse of America and arranged for us to collect a 750cc, 2WD ‘Patrol’ model from Velocity Motorcycles, their dealer in Richmond, Virginia and all-round super vintage bike shop. We arrived to find the outfit ready and waiting, like something from Where Eagles Dare in its army-green livery complete with camouflage sidecar cover. As we gave it the once-over, I couldn’t help noticing some serious scrapes to the paintwork which, it was revealed, had occurred during the test ride when an enthusiastic member of staff had flipped the outfit while taking a corner, resulting in a dislocated shoulder for the passenger and some hasty last-minute repairs! Yikes.