Modern Vespa

I realize that Ural sidecar motorcycles are a good sized step from Vespas, but I also know that several of us have or do own Urals and many of us have an interest in them. With that in mind, I share this note I received concerning the future of Ural Motorcycles. As many know, the last 2 years have seen large changes for Ural as they moved their production facility from Russia to Kazakhstan and are now shipping new bikes from there. It sounds like more changes are on the horizon. The note below is from Ilya Khait, the President of Ural Motorcycles -

Dear Friends,

Hans Christian Andersen, famous Danish author of fairy tales once wrote "When we get to the end of the story, we shall know more than we do now..."

Our story is far from the end, but what do we know now, two years after the war broke out and we realized that the only way to continue is to leave our birthplace behind?

Well, we definitely know more now than we did then.

We know now that nothing is going to be the same, that the old ways of doing things are no more, and that we need to reimagine and rebuild the company pretty much from scratch.

That Kazakhstan is not the final destination but only a stop. That we will be losing friends, partners and even team members along the way. That the reality can be even more complicated than the most pessimistic forecasts.

That nobody is going to give us a break just because we're are nice, and that every day and every minute we have to continue to come up with the proof that the world is a better place with Ural in it.

And that, as always, it all depends on us.

What we can also tell you now, two years later, is that we continue doing our absolute best, and have absolutely no plans to quit.

Yes, it's difficult, yes, we make mistakes sometimes, but Ural is here, all key people are here, bikes and parts have been built and shipped, and new development is in the works.

With spring finally sprung, let's get out and enjoy the life and the thrill of the road ahead. Let's multiply the adventure by sharing it with friends or family members.

Please remember, that your smiles and stories are what give us the strengths and motivation to move forward. This is what we work for and we promise to keep it this way!


Ilya and the Team at Ural

The fact that they can build and ship them with the hell they've been thru is nothing short of fantastic. I don't own one, but coming from BMW Airheads, including one with a side car, I always wanted a Ural with a hack. Hope they can keep going. An acquaintance is working on making his electric.

Wife and I had a (2) wheel drive Ural Gear up 750. It was a great machine and tons of fun. Had we not moved and not had to down size all the MCs, 4 wheelers, UTVs, Scooters, I would have kept it. It was a new old scool, easy to work on fun to ride, unstickable in the mud, and my wife loved it. It easily became an instant hit anywhere we went or parked. We always had to talk,tell,explain to people that came up to us. When we lived close to Gruene tx,( a little tourist trap town )we stopped there almost every weekend after longer rides. There were always 10-40 MCs or more there. I tried to park close to this one guy that had a custom very expensive chopper. He stood by his chop waiting for anyone to comment so he could talk, etc.- that is untill we parked close by, then we would gain all the attention. I parked close the guy many weekends. He got so pissed when he seen us coming he would tear out of there. Wasn't trying to hurt his feeling or gain all the attention- it just happened !!!.

Everybody who has ever owned a Ural knows about the UDL (Ural Delay Factor). Any time you stop for any reason, you are immediately surrounded by onlookers and discussions which can easily go on for hours. And besides that, my 85 year old mother liked to ride in mine.

Why, what is/was going on?

The Ural factory was the Irbit Motorcyle Factory (IMZ) in the Ural Mountains of Russia. When the invasion of the Ukraine occurred, it was immediately obvious they would need to close down (most of their market is in western Europe, Canada, and the US), or develop a plan B real fast. Their plan B was a crash move to Kazakhstan. Ilya's note implies that there will be another move.

(and that is not to mention that the other previous site for building Russian sidecar motorcycles was the KMZ in Kiev which built the Dniepr)

Got it. My initial thoughts were, the Ural mountains aren't anywhere near Ukraine. Wtf?

Turns out that this isn't a bomb-might-fall-through-the-roof danger, but rather a financial one. The sanctions placed on products coming out of Russia as a result of the war, would have crippled or completely ruined Ural's ability to sell to a global market. So they needed to make them somewhere else for their financial safety rather than their physical safety.

I think that is a big part of what is happening, yes. My guess is also that they are no longer numero uno with the Russian Government following transporting all their fabrication equipment and stock of materials outside of Russia in order to maintain their relationship with Western customers and businesses. There may well be some concern about the physical safety of those involved in this transition. Kazakhstan isn't very far from Russian and the 2 governments maintain a close relationship. A bit more physical and political distance may also be part of the plan.

In 2022 I attended the Adventure bike festival in the UK . The Sidecar guys were there giving sidecar rides "off road" in Ural outfits. The bikes , which are quite expensive here in the uk were soo capable off road. They demoed both two and single wheel drive outfits.

Ural certainly have come on from the crude BMW copies I saw in the 1970's .

It's likely not the sanctions placed on products coming out of Russia that spurred the move. Lots of small Russian manufacturing companies suddenly came up with the same idea, right around the same time. Almost overnight, exports from Kazakhstan to Russia have, miraculously, more than doubled, as have imports of dual use products from the West to KAZ. But what can a company that makes motor vehicles possibly import from the West and export to Russia?

That raises a question or two.
If someone tries to pack up and move all the heavy machinery required to manufacture motorcycles out of RU, they would likely run into obstacles. The whole door closes, window opens adage comes to mind, but not in a good way. The RU MOD is highly unlikely to allow anyone to pack up and move an entire factory that makes what is essentially a military vehicle. And unless they were able to pack and move the entire factory during a long weekend when the FSB was closed, the MOD and FSB both signed off on the move. Why? There are plenty of other things that machinery can make besides old German military motorcycles. How does it benefit RU more for this factory to be in KAZ instead of RU?
And from a purely financial standpoint, if you were going to move your entire motorcycle factory out of RU, there are a number of countries better suited to move it to than KAZ.

I look forward to seeing the potassium framed bike. From a distance. On a sunny day.
Or from a very large distance, on a rainy night.

I wonder how Harbinger is getting on with his Ural.

I believe Ilya Khait's note pretty much says that. And perhaps, as you implied, Kazakhstan was the one place Ural Motorcycles could get the necessary approvals for that initial move. It sounds like they believe they have more options now. I suppose we wait and see what happens next.

I learned a thing or two more than the article I read provided me.
Thanks Dooglas and Motovista