Well hate to burst a lot of people's bubbles here but a long time friend of mine searched all over the country and finally was shot a good deal on a new Ural three years ago. He lives and worked at that time for the Harley factory in Wisc. And no he did not work the line... he was one of the engineers who designed the engines for the last 25 years, so he knows a thing or two about how things are made.
He got on the airline and flew to
Logan, the local dealer here in Phoenix. Made a deal on the bike and the owner said "put 500 miles on it right now and bring it back and we will do the first service free"....
Two days later Tom came back and Logan smiled, handed him the keys to his personal Ural to get around on, and said "it will be done tomorrow mid day!" He then took Tom out to dinner and a ball game.
Tom then hopped on the bike and over a week or so rode the bike 1900 miles to Wisc... all without a hiccup but then he did keep it under 60 or so and said he had an excellent time taking back roads almost the entire trip. He said it was an adventure, not a race.
Its been three years now and aside from several tire changes (he really rides the thing a lot) and a battery that went bad this last fall, he has not done a thing to the bike other than usual maintenance. Anyone on Facebook... look up "Tom Berry" and you will see him and the bike on his profile. Or look up Jim or myself...
And for all of you saying its a piece of Russian junk... well it has the same front brake that many of our Porsche's have, a BREMBO disk. Newer ones have the ignition off of a Ducati and the 2014 versions have fuel injection and so on... they have been steadily improving them and making them more reliable.
Joe A
PS you want to really hot rod a Ural? Find an older BMW engine and stuff it into the frame. It fits but takes some adaption but there are several guys around the country who do this. Then you can ride the bike 80 mph for days and keep smiling. You want to keep the Ural gearbox because of the reverse gear.