FAQ

Well, if we are to call any motorcycle with a boxer engine “a copy of BMW”, then the answer is - “yes”. Otherwise, modern Urals are a copy of BMW to about the same degree as SpaceX’s Falcon-9 is a copy of V-2.

M-72, the first model of Ural sidecar motorcycle, built for Red Army during WW2 almost 85 years ago, was indeed a reverse engineered copy of the pre-war BMW R71. Notably, Soviets weren’t the only ones who copied BMW design for its military motorcycles. For instance, Harley-Davidson’s XA, manufactured during the war, also featured engine and drivetrain based on the side-valve boxer twin design used by BMW. After all, can one blame American and Soviet engineers for copying Germans to gain military advantage in a deadly fight with Nazis?

Although our motorcycle still bears some resemblance of the original BMW look, especially when it comes to the shape of the sidecar tub, the modern Urals have very little in common with its distant predecessor. The engine architecture and design, the suspension, the 2wd system, the fuel injection and other modern features – are the result of continuous development of this legendary machine by Ural engineers to meet the ever-changing customers' lifestyles and preferences and environmental and safety regulations. 

We all know that the products we use in our daily life can be developed in one country, tested in another, assembled in the third, not to mention the key components are made in the fourth, or the fifth. This makes it very challenging to answer the question where any product is actually made. It’s even more complicated for Ural, as the country where it was born – the Soviet Union – no longer exists.

Since 2006 Ural headquarters are located in Redmond, WA.  

Redmond HQ, among other things, leads Ural engineering and development efforts powered by the team of engineers, located in the US, Taiwan, Italy and Russia.

The original factory in Irbit still produces frames and body parts, while majority of the components (over 75% by value), including almost all components of the powertrain, suspension, brakes, electrical and electronic systems are coming from about fifteen other countries, from Taiwan to Italy, Japan, US, Germany, Spain, China and so on.

All new Ural motorcycles are assembled at the factory in Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan, where Ural moved its assembly operations after the beginning of the war in Ukraine.

The main market for Ural is in the United States, where close to half of our bikes are sold annually. Overall, Ural is present in over 40 countries on five continents.

As you can see, although since 2022 all Urals rightfully bear the VIN plate stating “Made in Kazakhstan”, where hundreds of parts are pieced together into complete motorcycles, the full answer to the question “where Urals are made” is more complex.

Thus if somebody asks you where’s your Ural made, you can answer that Ural is internationally recognized motorcycle brand of Russian (Soviet, Siberian, Eastern European – choose one) origins, headquartered in the US and currently assembled in Kazakhstan.

Ural is a privately owned and not a part of a bigger corporation or conglomerate. We’re a very small company by industry standards and manufacture and sell anywhere between 800 and 1,200 units a year worldwide.

Almost every bike we build is made exclusively to specific order from the end customer or dealer. For this reason our motorcycles are more expensive to make compared to mass produced bikes. On a flip side, as a small independent manufacturer, we can bring things to the table that bigger players can’t.

The distance between us and our customers is very short. We know many of you personally, some of you - for many years. We listen to your feedback and take it seriously.  Your ideas and suggestions help us improve our motorcycle; some of them have found their way into the design of the newer bikes.

We can let you customize your bikes in almost any way you want. For instance, you can choose from over 90 available colors and color combinations, and even order your bike in your very own color or paint scheme.

And the most unique thing about owning a Ural is that you get one of the most unusual and rare machines that can be seen on the roads today.  Expect a lot of smiles and thumbs up, and be prepared to experience UDF – the Ural Delay Factor – whenever you park for a short break or at the fuel pump. 

Are you travelling solo or with a passenger? Are you going to install rider or sidecar windshields or both?  How tall and heavy are you and your co-pilot? How much luggage are you going to take with you? Will you be travelling mostly through plains or in mountains? How hot will be the weather?

The reason for these questions is that Ural performance varies greatly depending on the conditions, configuration of the bike and your riding preferences. There are several factors that contribute to this. For starters, as a downside of its rugged chassis design and full metal sidecar body, Ural is a heavy machine, weighting 730 lbs. dry plus up to 600 lbs. of additional permitted load. Ural’s 41hp engine is air cooled, and therefore its output can be affected when the ambient temperature is high. The most important factor, though, is the addition of a sidecar, which dramatically changes the aerodynamics of the whole setup. The drag of Ural is 4 to 5 times higher than that of a car and double of what is common for two-wheel motorcycles. The addition of windshields makes things more challenging, same as the presence of a tall passenger in the sidecar, or a load of your belongings on top of the spare wheel luggage rack.

What can you realistically expect? If you’re going on a long-distance trip with the passenger, and your bike is fully loaded and has all possible wind protection installed – plan for a comfortable ride at 60-65 mph. If you’re travelling solo and light – your speed will be obviously higher (some say in low 80s if conditions are favorable). For something in between, as stated in our Owners’ Manual, 70mph is a comfortable cruising speed.

When Ural first appeared in America in 1994, it immediately gained a lot of attention and quickly found an enthusiastic group of fans. In terms of reliability, however, it was a reputational disaster. The horror stories from that period are still circulating over the Internet and in social media, and you’ve probably heard one or two such stories yourself. The bike was built rough, factory quality control at the time almost didn’t exist, and it’s 650cc engine couldn’t handle American roads - period. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Ural America, the first importer of Urals in the US, was one of the world’s pioneers of customer-oriented web forums – so Ural owners could help each other identify problems and find solutions.

It took a change of ownership, moving of the headquarters to the US and years of painstaking work of company’s managers, engineers and line workers to bring the build quality of Ural to where it is now. We left no stone unturned - there’s literally not a single part on a nowadays bikes that hasn’t been redesigned or replaced with the better quality one. This process wasn’t always smooth, but it was consistent and the list of changes that Ural had made over the years is impressive.

So, are modern day Urals reliable? The answer is yes, they are reliable machines, with two important considerations.

First, Ural is primarily designed and tuned for off-road use while also being very capable of long distance travels, provided that routine maintenance, rate of speed and the load are adjusted accordingly based on the conditions. In other words, if used within its design envelope and your skill level, Ural will serve you well and reliably for many years. Please refer to the Owner’s Manual and videos on our official YouTube channel for more information.

Second, Ural does require more frequent maintenance compared to majority of the modern bikes. However, unlike for the majority of the modern bikes, the regular service on Ural is quite straightforward and doesn’t require a lot of time or advanced mechanical skills. You can even do it yourself. There’s a number of videos on our YouTube channel explaining basic service procedures.

Riding a sidecar motorcycle is not difficult. It’s different – to the point that the correct way of saying “to ride a sidecar” is actually “to drive a sidecar”. Learning to drive a Ural does require practice, and, counterintuitively, the more experience with two-wheeled motorcycles you have, the more practice we advise getting before hitting the road on a sidecar.

Watch this fun video by our friends from Good Spark Garage to get a better idea of what is so special about driving a sidecar outfit, or look up some other videos on YouTube.

As a side note: don’t be discouraged by those who describe their first experience with sidecar as terrifying – it’s no more terrifying than it was when you tried to ride your bicycle without training wheels for the first time. After gaining some experience, you'll appreciate the added stability of the third wheel and have more fun than any other vehicle you’ve ever driven!  

On-demand 2wd is one the most distinctive features of Ural motorcycles, along with the reverse gear. As a matter of fact, Ural is the only sidecar manufacturer in the world that offers it standard on all bikes. This partially answers the question “why do I need it” – because nobody else has it :)

When two-wheel drive is engaged by the flip of the lever, the special mechanism connects the final drive hub with the sidecar wheel via CV shaft. As a result, the torque transfers from the rear wheel of the motorcycle to the sidecar wheel. This increases bike traction and gives it unparalleled off-road performance. You have probably already seen that in many videos available on YouTube, including this one.

Ural’s two-wheel drive system doesn’t have a differential, so both the bike’s rear wheel and the sidecar wheel turn at the same rate. This means that the two-wheel drive system should only be used on soft or broken surfaces—gravel, sand, dirt, snow, etc.

What do you need it for? Frankly speaking, same as for AWD system on many modern cars and trucks, for 95% of your riding you won’t need it. It’s for these 5% of the situations, when the absence of extra traction would prevent you from going a little bit further - to check what’s around the bend on that forestry road, on the other side of this creek, or on top of that hill. This is not to mention driving in the snow – the favorite seasonal treat of every Ural owner.      

Ural maintains a large parts warehouse in Redmond, WA. Parts and accessories are coming to Redmond from our assembly factory in Kazakhstan or directly from the factory’s vendors in other countries, and distributed in the US via network of dealers and service centers. Redmond warehouse also serves as a centralized parts hub for Ural distributors in other markets, including Canada, Japan, Australia, China, and even some EU countries.

Ural parts catalog is available on our website. The most popular accessories, service parts and more can be purchased directly from Ural's online store. 

As in case with top speed, Ural fuel economy depends on many factors, including road and weather conditions, bike configuration, your riding habits and such. With this in mind, the estimated fuel economy of Ural motorcycles is 31-37 mpg, which translates into 155-185 miles of the estimated range on one full fuel tank. Please note that Ural recommends 91 Octane unleaded fuel for maximum performance. 

Maximum additional payload for Ural motorcycle is approximately 600 lbs. Considering the weight of the driver, it gives you +/- 400 lbs of cargo capacity if you’re travelling solo, or +/- 200 lbs if you’re travelling with someone in the sidecar. Please read Owner’s Manual for tips on loading and load equalization (pages 3-6 to 3-10). There’s also an excellent video on the loading best practice on our YouTube channel.     

You can of course build a sidecar motorcycle by yourself, or order it from some custom sidecar builder, using pretty much any two-wheel motorcycle as a donor bike. There are several factors to consider though.

It can be expensive. A used two-wheeled bike in good condition probably won’t cost you a fortune. When, however, you add the cost of the sidecar, that would have to be custom built or purchased from a specialized shop in the US or overseas, the costs of modifications to the frame of the donor bike to attach the sidecar (in some cases you will have to purchase a specially designed sub-frame), the costs of other modifications to the bike, that are required to achieve decent handling and braking characteristics, not to mention the costs of painting the sidecar in matching color, your final bill may bite you.

Your build likely won’t have manufacturer warranty. All new Urals come with 2-years unlimited mileage warranty. In case of custom built sidecar, the manufacturer warranty of your donor bike will likely be voided, and unless your custom builder provides you with their own warranty coverage, you will be left on your own.

Finally, your custom sidecar likely won’t have features that are standard on Ural, such as 2wd, reverse gear, leading link front end and a handful of other items.  

If after reading this your mind is still set on building your own sidecar bike – well, go for it, and welcome to the wonderful world of sidecars!  

Yes! You can order your own custom Ural straight from the factory. The list of factory custom options includes custom paint and/or custom paint scheme, undercoating and innercoating of body parts, paint accents, and selected factory-made accessories, such as extra luggage racks and protections. Not only do we offer over 90 different colors and paint schemes to choose from, but you can also order the bike in your very own color – there’s a famous story about one of our customers in Japan, who ordered his bike in the color of his grandpa’s Suzuki tractor and even sent a small body part of this particular tractor to the factory so they can match the color!

When your bike arrives at the dealership, you can finish upgrading your bike with the stuff from the extensive list of accessories and options offered by Ural through its dealers or directly from Ural online shop.

It takes between 90 and 150 days from the time of placing the order before your Ural is delivered to your dealership.