I've been riding around on an '85 Dnepr MT-11 with sidecar. The thing is a rolling Soviet derelict but somehow it keeps on rolling. It's actually so funky that it's highly entertaining to ride (and show off). I don't really have the means to restore or maintain a truly classic vintage bike so this is probably the closest I'll get. The bike has only 4500 km on it (it's a long story). However, I have a line on an '05 Ural Patrol with 5k Km, which I've test ridden. The seller is asking Cdn $8000 (£4,925) although she says she'll take less. There's a problem with the front end which I think is easily fixable (probably too much torque on the steering tensioner nut.) With some negotiation I might get it for $7000 (£4,310). Should I buy it? I've been thinking hard to sort the complex pros and cons to the question. Here's what I've managed to put into words so far: -----YES: 1. Electric start, which the Dnepr doesn't have. Kick starting it hurts my lower back. I have been starting it cold in the mornings by rolling it down a grade and bumping it in 2nd. However, this method wouldn't work if there weren't good traction due to ice or snow on the road. 2. 2WD. The sidecar wheel is powered by a shaft from the rear hub. The Dnepr is only 1WD. The point here is that a strong La Nina is forecast, expected to bring us (in Vancouver, Canada) unusually cold and wet weather. We've already had a bit of snow and freezing daytime temperatures, unusual for November. If there's going to be a lot of snow this winter, worse than '08/'09 which was a "mild" La Nina, the 2WD would help a lot. 3. It's newer and runs better. By comparison it makes the Dnepr feel like something built at the Dzerzhinsky Tractor Factory in pre-WW2 Stalingrad. 4. My g/f won't ride pillion; that's why I got a hack rig. But the Dnepr motor is a cranky, inefficient 650cc and barely climbs steep hills with both of us on board. The Ural is an '05 with 750cc. 4a. She doesn't really like riding the hack in traffic, either. She'd rather be in a cage (where she feels safer). However, she is willing (in principle) to go off-pavement on trails and logging roads. All this means we'd have to trailer the rig to those locations, which means keeping the car (negating 6, below). 5. The Dnepr's top speed is about 45 mph, above which the motor threatens to detonate. The Ural should do about 65 mph max with a cruising speed of 60, which is all I want. 6. Insurance is about 1/2 that of a car. We could sell the car and get around with only the bike. BTW we're both retired, although not voluntarily -- that is to say, we were thrust, protesting and tantrum-throwing into it. -----MAYBE: 1. Do I really want to ride a motorcycle in winter? I went for a few miles today on the Dnepr to find out. It was about 2 degrees C (36 F) and it felt fucking awful cold, even at city speed (50 kph). And it wasn't even raining, which it does here a lot in winter. I'm really not looking forward to going out on cold, blustery winter nights in the pouring, driving rain to buy groceries. (However, I know a Brit around here who does precisely that. He's got a Honda 400 with a boxy sidehack he brought over from England and he's got electrically heated snowmobile hand muffs over the grips so he can ride bare handed in any kind of weather.) -----NO: 1. The Dnepr cost me half of the $7k that I might pay for the Ural. 2. I don't really need the Ural. I'd be more comfortable running errands in the car during the winter. The Dnepr is fine for most of the year. It's not worth dropping an extra $3500 just to handle short intervals of snow in winter. (Or is it?) 3. I might have a hard time selling the Dnepr to help finance the Ural. I've already got a small fleet of hack rigs; if I lined them up it would look like a scene from Operation Barbarossa. ----SUMMARY: The extra money would buy me 2WD, electric start, more displacement, newer technology, better build quality, more reliability, a lighter frame, windshields on both the bike and the hack, better support (the local dealer won't even look at a Dnepr), higher top speed, a leading link front end (ie, lighter and more nimble steering) (once it's fixed) and a bike that would likely be in rideable condition for a longer time. Hmmm, that seems like a lot more than mere marginal returns. Any opinions appreciated. SQ
First take a very close look at the front end for accident damage to the forks, it could just be something simple but OTOH...... Sounds like you have convinced yourself already. A boy can never have too many toys.
New Urals have become a lot more expensive in the UK of late. I believe this is in part due to new emission standards here. I had a Dnepr which was usually easy first-kick starting. The kickstart lever is bastard awkward to get at - although this was on an outfit with a lefthand chair, and the electric-start Urals were much easier. The compression on my Dnepr seemed very low, and I could just about start it by hand. 2WD is really only of use in snow or seriously boggy going, but it can be very effective in those conditions. Having it means you're tempted into conditions you really shouldn't be messing around with. If you can't make progress on a 1WD outfit with an off-road tyre, then you really need to examine your motivations there. The Dnepr /was/ built at the Dzerzhinsky Tractor Factory in pre-WW2 Stalingrad. Don't include your girlfriend's preferences in your calculations. I've gone through successions of increasingly plush lardy tourers to appease my (now ex-) wife. This way lies misery. Get what /you/ want. Speedwise for Dneprs: I could keep up with HGVs on the motorway, which run around the 55mph mark. It tended to be a bit thirsty at these extreme velocities, and burn a lot of oil, but never gave the impression that it was going to explode. Speedwise for Urals: https://groups.google.com/group/uk.rec.motorcycles/msg/68074be56b6e0602?hl=en You can be perfectly comfortable in winter conditions. Wear the proper kit. See references to Elefantentreffen on ukrm. You should also be able to cheaply obtain snowmobile suits. Unless you're having to fight a winter war, Urals and Dneprs are about having fun in the snow, not running errands. Don't sell the car. Your girlfriend will hate that. Use the car when it's shit and miserable, and the outfit when it's crisp and cloudless blue skies and brilliant sunshine and dazzling white snow. Generally the approach with these outfits is to have a proper offroad tyre on the spare wheel, and swap it to the rear when the going gets interesting. My feeling, overall, is that you don't need another outfit, nice though it is, and you shouldn't get rid of the car for domestic reasons. Your Dnepr should be really easy to start, though - it sounds like you should review your technique and possible serviceability issues.
sean_q wrote: /snip/ Sounds a bit dear to me. Look out for an old Panther - 600cc sloping single cylinder - will go for ever. Can you afford it? Reasonable point. Better point That's half the fun, isn't i? (Don't answer that question...) Thanks for the warning! My first proper bike was a 1941 G3 Matchless, on which I hung a Swallow chair. It would go anywhere 3-up, and often did. That was 350cc... Blindfold her? Earmuffs? Gag? I could get 65 - 70 mph out of the Matchbox... But if she won't travel in it? IMO you paid a hell of a lot too much for it then. A lot of people these days are fair-weather bikers, If you can afford to run the bike and the car, why not? 'Might' seems to me to be an understatement. Are you surprised? The short leading-link is a big plus. The grasstrack comlot boys used to cut-down Douglas forks in days of yore.
Bike prices are generally higher here than in the UK, but the economies are different. I've never seen one here. This is Harley and Metric country. Anything else, such as Brit classics are rare, and mostly Triumphs and the odd BSA and Norton such as the Commando. Sometimes I wish I could move to the UK. I'd go nuts with all the vintage bikes around. However, I've also heard that just about everything is heavily taxed, there's more red tape than here and the civil servants are Vogons. Also, I currently live at about the same latitude as the Isles of Scilly. Everywhere else in Britain is what we would call "up north". I may already have a buyer; someone I met at the Remembrance Day ceremony. The Dnepr got a lot of attention when I rode it past the parade line-up. SQ
