OT--'Urban Warfare' Motorcycles on Sale in Baghdad

[kpoling]

'Urban Warfare' Motorcycles on Sale in Baghdad
- Reuters to My Yahoo!


By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Feeling unsafe driving a car in occupied Iraq (news - web sites)?



Then try one of 1,497 Russian 650cc Ural motorcycles on sale now and easily adapted for urban warfare at the local welder for a little extra cost.


The once-feared Saddam Fedayeen militia and the Jerusalem Army paramilitary force ordered the Urals just before the U.S. invasion of Iraq as part of a defensive strategy that relied on high mobility but was scarcely implemented.


By the time they arrived, say officials at the state-owned General Vehicle Company, Saddam had been overthrown and the rugged combination motorcycles with sidecars had to be sold off.


"I reckon we'll see demand from Sadr city," said a salesman, referring to a Shi'ite Muslim Baghdad slum area where U.S. troops have fought deadly clashes with Iraqis.


"Weld on extra plates and a machinegun mount like the Fedayeen used to and it's ready," he said -- an ironic comment but poignant, perhaps, for U.S. forces facing an increasingly inventive guerrilla foe.


The Urals, available in any color you want as long as it is camouflage gray, are meant to appeal to the Iraqi wary of being caught in Baghdad's worsening traffic jams.


The longer you are on the road, the greater the chance of being caught up in a chance suicide attack or roadside bomb. Skirt the lines of cars and thread through the lanes in your combination and your prospects of a safe journey are better.


IDEAL FOR BAGHDAD


Ural delivered 503 machines out of a 2,000 order under the oil-for-food program before the war. One batch of the rugged off-road bikes saw action in the war, and the state company is working on marketing new arrivals, the official added.


The machines, touted as the AK-47 of motorcycles by aficionados, feature an overhead valve horizontally opposed twin cylinder engine based on pre-World War II BMW design, and drum brakes, as opposed to disks that give more stopping power.


At 4.9 million dinars ($3,500), the Urals may be beyond the pocket of the average Iraqi. But their basic nature, their military potential and ruggedness and agility could suit the more affluent customer balking at Baghdad roads.


"We're trying to persuade the interior ministry to buy them. It won't be a problem if they don't. Several have been sold to the public already. People feel safer and more mobile in them," a company official said.


Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s Iraq preferred to import new cars from countries it considered allies, such as Russia. The state company's warehouses are filled with Russian Volga saloons. Malaysian Protons are on the way.


Business has fallen as the state's monopoly on imports collapsed, but the Urals in particular still arouse public interest.


Among the prospective clients is one U.S. officer. "I hope they don't sell them with machineguns," the officer said. "One can buy anything in this country."

[aap1966]

650cc modified Ural Vs Apache.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm....
I'll put $20 on the Apache

[JonyRR]

yeah, that heat signature should ensure being tracked at 3000meters+
maybe we can get a ural supercross going, using rubble-strewn streets instead of dirt; do a 'running man' kinda thingie; the survivor of the obstacle course gets to live...

[kpoling]

Notice the machine gun mount on the front of the car!