new ural or new hack?

Here is a Champion for sale on C/L in Arizona. He just dropped the price by $500.

http://tucson.craigslist.org/mpo/5645646359.html

I just want to add my thoughts, I have owned 14 motorcycles, started out on BMWs, changed to Gold Wings when my local BMW dealer retired, and left me without a dealer within reasonable distance, tried a couple of other bikes that seemed to fit my needs at the time. My last four have been Gold Wings with sidecars, 3 1500s and a 1800. Now I have my first Ural rig. A Ural is not a good choice for everyone, it depends on riding style and desire. For instance, I lived in the Texas Hill Country for 15 years with 2 lane rural road speed limits of up to 75 MPH, and would have been run over. If I needed a reliable bike to ride to work every day, I wouldn't want to depend on a Ural. If I had a two week vacation and wanted to ride 500 mile days and see as much country as possible and had to be back to work at the end of the two weeks, Ural wouldn't be my choice. All that said, for my riding style now my 2013 Ural Patrol is perfect. I am 74 years old, retired and don't need to be anywhere in a hurry, live in Michigan with the 55 MPH speed limit and stay off the freeways, when I want to ride the Black Hills, or Blueridge Parkway, I trailer the rig and do day rides where I want to. As far as durability is concerned the guys on the Ural forum, say getting a used Ural that has been "well sorted" is the way to go. With mine the previous owner, had the engine rebuilt when the oil pump shaft broke, and the entire valve train components replaced when some part of it failed due to not being properly heat treated. They say that when the importer in Washington state, takes care of the problems covered by warrantee, the engine will be better than new, better bearings, better components, and better balance. Ural does need more maintenance than most modern bikes, carbs need to be balanced, valves adjusted, fluids in engine, trans, and final drive need to be changed, ujoints, and splines need to be greased. Wheels have spokes and need to be trued once in a while. On my 13 the front brake is a disk, rear bike and sidecar brakes are mechanical drum brakes and need adjustment. Up to 2014 when they went to fuel injection, and disk brakes all the way around, you won't find any computers, and all of the repair and maintenance was basic stuff, and fun to do, if you are into getting your hands dirty. To sum it up, for me, my Ural is the most "fun" bike I have ever had, it always draws questions and a crowd, most think that it is some antique bike. It helps that I have a great dealer close to me and that is a important part of your decision, unless you are capable of doing your own work on it. Parts always seem to be available, advice and help, and repair videos are on the Soviet Steeds forum, by the way it is a great forum for information you need to make your decision, lots of pro and con info. Good luck.

Some riders hate a particular brand of rig and never have a good word to say about them. Have heard negative words about ---------- (insert any brand you can think of here).

Then there are riders who love the brand that another hates. Life is too short to be bad mouthing a particular brand that others love. Just ride what you like, enjoy your experience and let others enjoy theirs.

At the national rally in Colorado there were rigs of all types, brands and configurations. But not one rig there could do everything great. Some excelled at interstate cruising, others for off-road exploring, still others for taking man's best friend for a ride in the country. Most important to me was, every rider there loved their rig and what it could do. Their rig did what they asked it to do. Nothing more, nothing less.

The USCA's strength is our helping and supporting each other, no matter what brand they ride.

I am a sidecar owner - have had both a Ural and "other". In 2011 we bought a 2006 Tourist that only had 4210 km on the odometer. From 2011 to 2016 we ran the odometer up to 15K km - other than regular maintenance the only things that needed fixing were a flat pusher tire, and an intermittent ignition wire under the gas tank. My wife and I rode it in parades, on PGR missions, and other fun stuff. Being an older model the top speed was listed as 65 mph - although I did have it up to 73 mph (per the GPS) once. It would happily run at 55 mph all day long, but at 60 or more it was pretty much maxed out and it was a handful to drive. But it was a fun ride - pull in to a parking lot filled with millions of dollars worth of Harleys and EVERYBODY wants to see the lowly Ural - it's a crowd gatherer! The only reason we don't still have it is the speed limitation - we wanted to be able to keep up with our riding friends and be more comfortable on the freeway so we sold the Ural and bought an older Goldwing - a 1994 GL1500SE with a California Sidecar, with 65K miles on the odometer. Now we can cruise down the interstate at a comfortable 70 mph with enough engine left for evasive action if needed - but with the sidecar we still draw a crowd in parking lots!

So on my way back from a work meeting in DC, I stopped by a bmw place. They put hannigan sidecars on their bmws and they finance them. Of course, these bmws are rather expensive. The 1200 gs feels like the right size and the upright position with the ability to stand does feel good. I tried the r nine t and that felt a bit small. It is nice that they are only an hour away from where I live. Any thoughts on the hannigan sidecars? The dual sport one looks okay, but not like one of the ural or dmc ones that look more rugged. I'm also very concerned with a bike that costs more than my car.

Near D.C.... was that Bob's BMW? If so, Bob is a sidecar driver and knows his stuff.

Yep, that was the place. They were very nice there and they do test rides, but the prices were pretty high. Well, that's bmw I guess. It also makes me wonder what my maintenance costs will be relative to a japanese company or triumph or ural?

Bob's BMW is a premium price for premium service sort of place but certainly worth it. If you go with a new BMW your maintenance will be higher compared to most others. If you go with a used BMW you may still pay a little more but not much. Excellent used BMW rigs are out there if you are patient. Remember, your maintenance will be higher on any sidecar rig than it is on a solo bike. Bearings wear faster, tires wear faster because of the loads that we place on them and for which they were not originally engineered.

It's been said here before... Buy a used rig, maybe even an old Goldwing rig, run it until you are confident that sidecars are your passion and then trade up. Shallow or not, you will be happy in the long run.

Bob's BMW is also set up as a dealer for our products and could put one of our sidecars on for you. We do have mounts of course for the GS having built over 1000 GS's We also have mounts for the N9T and others.
Jay G
DMC sidecars
866-638-1793
www.dmcsidecars.com

Al Olme - 7/14/2016 9:48 AM

... Excellent used BMW rigs are out there if you are patient....

and are willing to travel or ship. For example -R1200GS w/Hannigan Dual Sport sidecar: http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/csw/mcy/5613264126.html

very nice. that sidecar looks huge!

I am also looking at used rigs to test out the sidecar thing. I found 2 nearby -
1. 1994 1500 Goldwing w/ 105K miles & and Astro 2+2 sidecar asking $6200. Radio doesn't work & a couple other minor lights out.
2. 1984 Suzuki GS1100 w/ a 562 Velorex sidecar 35K miles asking $4000

Advice requested - Which is better suited for a total novice sidecar driver? I have several 100K on 2 wheels - 0 on 3 wheels. The Wing rig looks HUGE, but I worry about the age of the "Zuki.

in answer to the original post - I ruled out a Ural for 2 reasons - I think they want way too much for the old used ones. And the reliability factor. This is from 2012, but worth a read -
http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/why-you-should-not-buy-a-ural-motorcycle.794963/
I see a lot of Urals for sale with very low miles & I wonder - why? A 2005 w/ 68 miles on it? A 2006

I am also looking at used rigs to test out the sidecar thing. I found 2 nearby - what do ya'll think ?

1. 1994 1500 Goldwing w/ 105K miles & and Astro 2+2 sidecar asking $6200. Radio doesn't work & a couple other minor lights out.
2. 1984 Suzuki GS1100 w/ a 562 Velorex sidecar 35K miles asking $4000

Advice requested - Which is better suited for a total novice sidecar driver? I have several 100K on 2 wheels - 0 on 3 wheels. The Wing rig looks HUGE, but I worry about the age of the "Zuki.

in answer to the original post - I ruled out a Ural for 2 reasons - I think they want way too much for the old used ones. And the reliability factor. This is from 2012, but worth a read -

http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/why-you-should-not-buy-a-ural-motorcycle.794963/

I see a lot of Urals for sale with very low miles & I wonder - why? A 2005 w/ 68 miles on it? A 2006 w/ 1000 ? Something's not right. If they are so much fun and so reliable - why not 35K, 47K ?
I appreciate the input I got on my other post here - helped me make up my mind.

I would never consider putting a Velorex on an 1100 Suzuki. While I have never owned a Hannigan sidecar, I have owned several GL1500's with sidecars, they make a great sidecar bike.
Lots of posts on ADV rider on the Ural, in essence a Ural is a band new antique, While reliability is way up from where they started the are still not 100% reliable. They are a great bike if you understand what it is and that is what you want. What it is, is a great secondary roads "antique" that you do have to do more maintenance on then you would a modern bike, if you like tinkering and riding back roads it might be the bike for you. If on the other hand you want to put gas in it and ride across the country there are many far more suited bikes to do this on. One theory I have as to why there are so many used Ural rigs around is that they supply a complete ready to go sidecar bike that you can finance easily. I suspect that if you could not finance a Ural new that there would be far fewer on the road. When buying a new bike it is usually possible to finance a sidecar with it but most people do not know that.
Jay G
DMC sidecars
www.dmcsidecars.com
866-638-1793

redsimp - 7/19/2016 10:27 AM

I am also looking at used rigs to test out the sidecar thing. I found 2 nearby - what do ya'll think ?

1. 1994 1500 Goldwing w/ 105K miles & and Astro 2+2 sidecar asking $6200. Radio doesn't work & a couple other minor lights out.
2. 1984 Suzuki GS1100 w/ a 562 Velorex sidecar 35K miles asking $4000

Advice requested - Which is better suited for a total novice sidecar driver? I have several 100K on 2 wheels - 0 on 3 wheels. The Wing rig looks HUGE, but I worry about the age of the "Zuki.

.

Ask yourself what are you planing to do with your sidecar rig?
Suzuki not a lot different in size & weight from Goldwing without bags. Wing is lot more comfortable on the road but will be no good on the dirt.