GEAR PATROL JUST RELEASED THE FILM.
If you have ever even considered buying, commandeering, or being a passenger in a motorcycle sidecar, watch this first.
“Taming a Russian Sidecar on the Idyllic Trails of Camp Wandawega”
Piloting a Ural, on the other hand, is not relaxing. Not at all. Every movement is engaging both mentally and physically. Two-wheeled beasts demand focus as well, but all behave the same way. Some are faster, louder, better than others, but they’re always predictable. Urals buck that convention. Crack the throttle, and the Siberian sled yaws to the right. Not unlike torque steer in an overpowered front-drive car, you’re immediately called into corrective action. This effect is mirrored as soon as you roll off the throttle and amplified under braking, feeling as if the ass end just broke loose. The whole ordeal is a workout, and that’s just to travel in a straight line. Cornering is a whole other story.
Where turning on a motorcycle involves push-steering to initiate a lean, corners with a sidecar rely on directing the front wheel. You manipulate the bars far more rigorously and turn them into the apex. That itself takes getting used to, but with an extra 200+ pounds hanging off your right side, there’s even more to consider. Left turns are a breeze — you can chuck the bike into a left bend much faster than you’d think — but hanging a right can get scary, fast. Commit too quickly or turn too abruptly, and that sidecar will seek unfindable balance, somewhere above your helmet. It will try to kill you.
The inherent danger to the enterprise creates a riding experience unlike anything else. Even the most powerful street-legal superbikes don’t emote the same adrenalized glee — they’re easy to ride fast, sure. But to master a Ural, you have to understand an art form — one that rewards as well as it punishes. The Ural is exhausting and exhilarating, and, riding around the roads and trails surroundingCamp Wandawega, this Siberian-built sled brings together old and new in raucous collision. It’s demanding, tricky, and — on sleepy, lakeside summer days — infinitely enthralling.
THE BIKE, THE OPTIONS & THE PRICE, RIGHT HERE.