Got a note from the Ural folks the other day who are pretty proud of their new M70 Anniversary Edition and thought we would like to hear what it’s all about. It all started back in 1941 when the Soviets were facing a German assault on Moscow. At the same time, they were hurriedly setting up a factory in the town of Irbit on the eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains. Their intention was to build a copy of the BMW R71 sidecar rig, a motorcycle the Germans were using to great effect. Hey, if it worked for the Germans, they figured it would work for the Russians, too. In February 1942, the first M72s were sent into battle. After the war, the factory continued production and here we are, 70 years later, with Urals still rolling out the door. The new Ural M70 is dedicated to those original M72s built 70 years ago.
The Ural M70 is based on the Ural Retro model and comes in both solo and sidecar versions. Though not a copy of the M72, it is painted in olive drab, the sidecar has a machine gun mount (hey, you never know) and the tonneau cover is made of canvas similar to what was found on the M72. There’s a spare wheel on the sidecar, a shovel mounted on the side and the tank has an insignia of the original factory badge. A tractor style seat and luggage rack complete the appearance.
But this is a modern motorcycle, too, with Marzochhi forks, Sachs shocks and Brembo front disc brake, not something you would find in WWII equipment. A longer wheelbase and lower sitting sidecar makes this, according to the factory, the fastest and best handling Ural.
The total Anniversary Edition production run is 30 sidecar and only 10 solo motorcycles. MSRP is $14,200 for the sidecar model and $9,150 for M70-solo.
These look so rugged and ready for anything, it might be fun to take one out looking for adventure in the great outdoors. Although the recommended top speed of 65 would limit any extended highway work, that’s not what they’re intended for anyway. It’s more Indiana Jones than Indiana interstate. Pretty cool.
Link: Ural
B50 Jim says
The Soviets didn’t have much to be proud of, but they could be justly proud of this. Reliability has been a problem until recent years — those cast-iron gears didn’t hold up very well — but someone at Ural finally figured out they were building motorcycles and not farm equipment. With the lockout sidecar-side drive wheel, it will go anywhere most riders want to, albeit slowly. Love the Red-Army paint job; it only needs a big red star front and rear to complete the look.
Interesting that there was a time when a rider interested in a Ural would have some ‘splainin’ to do to the FBI, even though he couldn’t buy one. Now we have trade agreements with those old ex-Soviets. How times change.
Carolynne says
I am not sure where you are so I am not sure what unit of measurement you are using. When you say top speed of 65 would that be mph? Couldn’t be kph that seems really slow
Tin Man 2 says
My brother had a 1999 Ural rig and even then it did more than 70MPH. I think the 65MPH is just a recomended safe speed with a Side Hack like this. His rig clattered pretty loud but never had any serious issues in the time he rode it.
Carolynne says
Did you ever ride it Tinman 2? What was the ride like?
Tin Man 2 says
Carolyn, Yes I rode the Ural, I restore old bikes and ride Harleys so I felt right at home. The older Urals ride like the Antiques they are, nothing like a modern bike, but then again no side hack rides anything like a modern bike in my expierence. Ive heard that the New Urals are a vast improvement but Ive never rode one. The old side hack rig my brother had was fun around town or on country roads but IMHO not suited to the Interstate Highways.
Yali_t says
No side hack rides anything like any two-wheeled bike, period.
Carolynne says
Yeah, it kind of seems like one of those things you see that is really cool to look at, and fun for a quick ride but it wouldnt be something you would or at least I would buy. I think at the war museum in Ottawa they have something like this in thier display, I am going to have to go take another look
Fred M. says
The new Urals are vastly improved and the solo models are more than capable of highway use, with a top speed quoted at 90mph and a recommended cruising speed of 70mph. I’m not suggesting that the Ural’s are high-performance highway touring machines that are in the Kawasaki Concours 14 class, but they are fine for highway riding. I commute on my Ural Solo sT, 70 miles per day, mostly on 55mph highways. I’m not so sure that I’d be comfortable with a sidecar version on the highway, though.
“…the [Ural Solo] ST has a breadth of ability utterly absent from modern motorcycles. It’s competent on the highway, at home on back roads where it can comfortably cruise or be ridden relatively fast and is surprisingly capable on gravel or dirt despite the road-biased tires… the Ural ST is a motorcycle, plain and simple.â€- Hell For Leather Magazine, Aug ’09
Unlike older Urals, modern Urals source brakes from Brembo, forks from Marzocchi, shocks from Sachs, alternators from Denso, and electronic ignitions from Ducati. About six years ago, they hired a firm which standardized their bearings and seals to industry standard parts and redesigned many components to improve reliability. They come with a 2 year, unlimited mileage warranty. So it’s definitely not the old-school Ural reliability.
Yali_t says
Instead of visiting museum, check out new Ural here:
http://www.nor-sport.com/fr/index.spy
Dirk Winebarger says
I hate to say it, but my 06 gear-up is hard pressed to hit 70mph when it is moderately loaded. On a cold day, it will barely do 60.
Bill R. says
i’m very intrigued by these bikes. but i must have missed what significantly distinguishes this from their other bikes.
btw: the retro model is my favorite.
but if you have ural’s ear please advise them to drop the goofy model names (ie. gear up?) and the cheesy logo of said model designations (ie. tourist, all the tank badging- return to classic emblem), and for god sakes better web design.
assuming reliability is good this would be a nice bike for the snow belt.
Rob says
So how much BMW is in the Ural? Is there a possibility of engine swaps, head swaps, pistons, anything…?
Yali_t says
Almost nothing, actually. Urals are not a BMW clones, contrary public believes. Separate parts and assemblies are not interchangeable, although it is possible to implant BMW airhead engine into Ural frame. But then you can implant almost any engine into almost any frame …
Fred M. says
I own a 2010 Ural Solo sT.
The original Urals were clones of the BMW R71, a flat-head, side-valve boxer twin from 1939. The Ural factory purchased five of those bikes and one still remains at the factory on display.
Although the Ural has undergone evolution since then, even to this day, there are many BMW parts that can be used in a modern Ural. For example, the steering head bearing interchanges with a BMW #31412. The final drive needle bearing is the same between the BMW and Ural. The tool kit for an early airhead BMW will fit just about everything on a Ural, including the steering head nuts (36mm & 41mm).
There really is not a lot of advantage to swapping in BMW parts. The modern Urals are reliable and make about as much power as they can given the heat dissipation needs. They are competitive with the 883cc Sportster and Moto Guzzi Breva 750 as far as HP/cc. If you significantly increase power, you start breaking things. The transmission and final drive were just not made to handle more horsepower than the bike has.
Yali_t says
Bearings, seals, nuts and blots are standardized parts and can be found on ANY motorcycle. At the same time, original BMW parts can’t be fitted on Ural and vise versa. By the way, prior to 2006-2007 Ural utilized non-standard seals and home-built fasteners, which was a real PIA.
Fred M. says
Yali_t:
Ural and BMW both made many bikes since the 1940s, but most of the parts from a BMW R71 and a Ural M72 are interchangeable. The Ural M72 is a clone of the BMW R71. I can provide citations if you want to dispute that point.
The current M70 in this article can trace its lineage back to the M72 and, in fact, still shares some parts with that bike (and the BMW from which it was copied).
The current Urals can’t use many engine parts from BMWs, and the current BMWs can’t use many engine parts from earlier BMWs, but that does not mean that those parts which do interchange do so by random chance.
It’s not just random chance that ’85 and later BMWs and current Urals share the same head bearings, 41mm triple tree cap nuts, and 36mm adjuster nuts. Show me other bikes that share these. Also not random chance is that rockers from a BMW R60 fit a Ural 650cc engine. Ural started out by cloning BMW and they continued to duplicate features added to later BMWs.
todd says
The Ural Patrol has the “Earl’s” leading link forks which are better suited to side car duty than these telescopics from the Retro. This also uses the Retro’s less utilitarian fuel tank for better or worse.
I saw a Jialing at the International Motorcycle show this year (in an aftermarket vendor’s booth). That ultimately led me to find the new Jialing JH600b, China’s PLA military combination. Apparently they are built fairly well…
http://www.jialingmotor.com/pid93380/600CC+Special+Vehicle.htm
-todd
Hooligan says
Ural offer factory off road trips/tours out into the Steppes. Where you go mud plugging and camping. A friend of mine did one, said it was fantastic fun.
Cuba has some fantastic old Soviet bikes. Saw a Ural with half a pickup truck bed on the side instead of a sidecar. The MZ’s and CZ’s are everywhere, including some really nice personalized/customized ones, but the ubiquitous Chinese twist and goes have made serious inroads. Especially in Havana.
However the Police have Yamaha Virago 500’s, they only need to out run Ladas. Spotted a couple of stretch Ladas once. Ha Ha.
Tom says
A little historical note: Ural manufactured just under 10,000 of the originals during WWII, and BMW knocked out about that same quantity of R75s for the Wehrmacht.
In the USA, Indian built some 33,000 bikes for the war effort, and the company that cannot be named made ~90,000 military spec motorcycles – one-third of which were sent to the Soviet Union!
The war was won by brave men on the battlefield – and also by skilled American craftsmen, Rosie the Riveter, old men that didn’t retire and guys too old for service working double shifts, MAKING STUFF back home.
Nicolas says
I really could see the use for this thing, like taking my dog with me for a spin and/or some sort of “adventure” ride or weekend cruise. Plus the cool factor is really high.
But $14k is a bit steep considering what you get for it … post WWII design(yeah, marzochi/brembo, right), the manufacturing tooling/equipments/facilities that have been amortized 70 times by now, and coming from a “low cost” labor country …. I wonder how much margin is applied by the importer and dealers on these cool machines.
Yali_t says
Actually, M70 (Retro) drive train was designed from the scratch just a few years ago (eight, to be exact).
As for the production costs – Wes Siler, editor of hellforleathermagazine.com, just returned the Ural factory last week. Look for his report – it will explain everything.
Fred M. says
No, it was not “designed from scratch just a few years ago.” The 750cc engine was released over a decade ago. It used the same K68 carb (with jetting changes), the same “hand grenade” alternator, and shared many other parts with the 650cc engine. Ever wonder why so many gaskets interchange between the two engines? It’s the same final drive that they’ve used for years. The transmission is basically unchanged save for incremental improvements and ratio changes.
During 2006, Ural hired HC Concepts to re-evaluate their bikes’ overall design. HC Concepts redesigned many of the internal gears, when to standard bearings and seals in the engine, gearbox and final drive. Again, not a design from scratch.
Yali_t says
Fred M., I said “M70 (Retro) drive train was designed from the scratch”, and I stand by that. Power train (engine, gearbox, final drive) is the same on all current Urlas, with the exception of a few little details.
Anyway, saying that Ural is a clone of BMW, is as stupid, as saying that Saturn V was a clone of V-2.
Fred M. says
I know that all current Urals use the same drivetrain (remember, I own a 2010 Ural and have done extensive wrenching on it).
What I obviously failed to convey was that that the M70 drive train was not “designed from the scratch” only a few years ago. The 750cc drivetrain used in this M70 shares numerous major, non-generic components with the 650cc Urals sold since the 1950s.
Here are just a few examples:
Oil Sump: IMZ-8.101-01131
Engine Front Cover: IMZ-8.103-01166-10
Camshaft: IMZ-8.123-01401
Tappet: IMZ-8.101-01046-01
Clutch plate, driven: 62-03013
Driving plate, intermediate: IMZ-8.105-03117
Clutch springs: 72-03115-16
Gear Shift Foot Pedal Shaft: IMZ-8.104-04037
Final Drive Pinion Gear: 72-05202-01
The Ural factory has been struggling financially for well over a decade. They were bought out of bankruptcy for $2 million by three Russians in 2002. Ural has not had the capital to fund a major undertaking like designing a new engine, transmission, and final drive.
I never claimed that the M70 Ural was a clone of a BMW. But your comments would lead people to believe that there is no lineage back to BMW and that any parts interchangeability between a BMW boxer and a modern Ural is just random chance, which is simply untrue.
Nicolas says
For that same price you can get a brand spanking new off the showroom BMW R1200R, which is one of the last available flat-twin descendant of the venerable original bike that the Ural is built from : That’s what I’m calling a “redesign of the drive train”.
You can have a sympathetic and fun WWII bike built in Russia (with italian brakes/suspension and a couple of redesigned gears in the tranny) or a state-of-the-art engineering marvel built up to German standards.
I’m not criticizing the Ural, it’s certainly a very desirable and fun vehicle, I’m just saying that the asking price is STEEP, and I’d be curious to know what’s the distributor/dealers margin on it.
Fred M. says
I think that you misread the price. The solo model, of which they are building ten, has an MSRP of $9,150. I would not call $9K a “STEEP” price for an exclusive bike like that. Where can you buy a brand new R1200R for under $10K? They list at almost $13K.
Even the M70 with sidecar is only $14,200, and they will only build 30 of those. Obviously you’re not comparing the R1200R to that, since the R1200R has no sidecar.
The BMW R1200R is fine transportation, but it’s a rather boring bike. You’re not going to get crowds of people asking you about your R1200R. People in cars are not going to smile, wave, and give you thumbs-up gestures. People are not going to pull out their cell phones to take pictures of it.
I’m good with my Ural having Italian Brembo brakes and German Sachs shocks. You’ll find many Ducati’s sporting that same combination of manufacturers for their brakes and shocks.
Nicolas says
Fred, I was not talking about the boring or the side part of the vehicle, but about the bike itself and the related level of technical advancement, following the “redesign of the powertrain”. Sure a side is so complex of a piece of equipment to cost $5000 by itself … really ? 1 wheel a basic metal frame/body, 5 grands ?
In the same register of cool yet outdated and original motorized 2wheeler, I could cite the 1976 Mobylette that is sitting in my garage next to the boring modern bikes, this thingy draws crowd and thumbs up, but it’s not worth $14k either, rather $500 to $1000,
Now if you value the attention of the crowd to your person and/or vehicle @ $5k, well I can’t argue with that, it’s rather your personal choice.
I understand from your post that you do own an Ural, so let me congratulate you, it’s a super cool vehicle.
Fred M. says
Nicolas, there’s a version of the Ural M70 without a sidecar. It is described in the article. You had no valid reason to start your Ural/BMW comparison with the sidecar version. But we both know why you did it: The Ural M70 Solo (no sidecar) costs about $9K. The BMW R1200R costs about $13K. Yes, for 140% of the price of the limited production (10 units) Ural M70 Solo, you can get a more advanced, mass produced, generically styled BMW. The Ural M70 is looking more attractive all the time.
The guy buying a Ural, Royal Enfield, Ace Cycle Car, Harley Sportster, or Genuine Stella scooter (Vespa PX150 clone), isn’t buying the vehicle for its “level of technical sophistication.” Just the opposite, in fact. The appeal of the Ural is that it is primitive, rugged, and can be fixed in the middle of nowhere with baling wire and duct tape. Buyers like the styling and olive drab paint scheme which pays tribute to the Russian M72 motorcycles of WWII.
You either don’t know what sidecars cost or you were hoping other readers would not know. Harley was selling sidecars for around $8K (they stopped in 2011). Liberty Sidecars sells an unpainted sidecar for $5500, so figure at least $8K by the time you finish it, get the options, and get it mounted to a motorcycle. So, for $5K, you’re getting a heck of a deal from Ural for a sidecar with a driven rear wheel that’s suitable for off-road excursions. And unlike the aftermarket add-ons, no warranty worries from Ural.
Thanks for calling my Ural a “super cool vehicle.” Maybe we can go on a cross-country trip sometime, with me on my Ural and you on your Mobylette moped.
Mike T says
Urals have been sold in Australia for decades, the current distributor works out of Western Australia. I lived in that state 2 years ago and a local lad got hold of a similar model to the limited edition above, only in “desert camo” which is one of the optional paint jobs. Not cheap, it was around $22,500 AUD, and even given the ridiculous price disparity between US and Australian retail prices, much more modern European and Japanese bikes could be had for this kind of money (albeit, without sidecar and “stand out from the crowd” points).
Mike T says
The only significant detail in which the limited model showcased above differs from models available here is the drive to the sidecar wheel- I’m not sure this feature is legal in all Australian states and given that an ordinary sidecar outfit is already north of AUD20,000, I doubt many would be sold in any case. The olive drab paint job is available here, as is the machine gun mount and shovel, the only other thing missing is the WWII factory logo.
Kai says
I saw a series of photos – people speeding along muddy forest tracks and also of jumping off sand-dunes. Ever since, I look at a Ural and think of adventure and wild places. It’s history only adds to the ‘cool’. It really is something else. And I gather the parts are cheap and it’s easy to repair too.
I also read the article in Hell for Leather, but wasn’t so impressed. It was pretty negative about the Ural set-up in general e.g. “Back when communism was paying the bills, an individual worker specialized in a specific process on a specific machine, learning it intimately. Great if you’re trying to create jobs, not so much if you’re trying to operate a profitable company in 2011”. Which is funny because that kind of specialisation is a key concept of modern and efficient production, taught at every institution simply because it is so effective.
But that’s the interesting thing, when people talk about the Urals – they’re not just motorcycles…