Ural Adventure Ride 2018

Adventure Rider Issue #32

• It’s what we do – adventure motorbike magazine
• BMW GS Safari Enduro = adventure motorbikes, news, reviews, publication
• BMW F850GS Rallye X
• Strap Yourself In
• The Dempster
• TomTom Rider 450
• Read Between The Lines
• Locked Gates – motorbike magazine, australian motorcycle publication
• Ural Adventure Ride 2018
• Sri Lanka – adventure motorbike tour, motorcycle magazine
• The Best Job In The World = australian motorbike magazine
• Wet Arses
• Yamaha Tracer 900
• Congregation 2018
• We Didn’t Have PLBs In Those Days
• Sahara To Sunraysia = australian motorbike riding tours news event magazine
• Managing Risk with Miles Davis
• Thinking Big? Start Small with Andy Strapz
• A Precautionary Tale from Karen Ramsay
• Checkout
• Fit out – australian adventure motorbike riding

Australia’s biggest, most starry-eyed Ural enthusiast, Rocky Creek Designs’ Greg Jansen, loaded up his winch and hit the trails with the sidecar adventure crew.

What a ride it was.

This year the ‘Master Of Routes’, Comrade Jon Taylor, laid out a perfect trip that included a little bitumen and then a bucket load of off-roading. Everyone was smiling from the time they left till the time it ended.

“If you asked some, the creek was ‘easily over a metre deep’.”

Warned

During the rider briefing at Walcha, Comrade Jon told everyone they’d spend most of the day above 1000 metres on forestry roads which included a couple of deepish creek crossings and a few steepish hills.

The emphasis was on the ‘ish’. Then, in a hushed tone, the Comrade mentioned to the attentive throng, “Much of the track is clay, and as you can see, it’s raining and it’s going to get wetter!”

‘Damn.’ I thought. ‘Why is everyone looking so happy? Haven’t they ridden a bike on wet clay before?’

Bellbrook made a nice stop for morning tea.

Hill start

Mount up was called. Everyone put on wet-weather gear and, as we pulled away, it stopped raining!

Forty-one kilometres down the Oxley Highway we turned left onto the good stuff and removed our wet-weather gear.

Of course it started raining…

Funny. That’s never happened before.

The road surface was great, with no dust, long sweeping corners and beautiful countryside. On into the forests we went and came face to face with our first ‘steepish’ hill and, yes, it was raining.

And the hill was clay.

Momentum was the name of the game, and after a couple of false starts every-one congregated at the top and stories abounded of how, “I just rode up this slick hill and it was incredibly steep.”

Several ‘steepish’ hills were to follow, and by the last one there were no false starts.

Of course, by that stage, the hills were said to be ‘near-on vertical’.

The road surface was great, with no dust, long sweeping corners and beautiful countryside.

Fa’ crying out loud

Our next challenge was a ‘deepish’ creek crossing.

It had a rocky entry, rocky bottom, and slippery exit. If you asked some, the creek was ‘easily over a metre deep’. Yes indeed.

The crowd on the far bank swelled as each crossed over, as did the number of cameras. Who was going to be the first to fail? Alas, all got through without an issue, and in fact, one show-off even pulled a wheelie on the exit. A sidecar wheelie involves lofting the front wheel, bulging the eyes and forming a, “Ph…!” with your lips and screaming something, followed by telling everyone, “I did that on purpose, you know!”

Compared to two wheels Urals aren’t fast. They’re military vehicles designed in 1939 to drag men and equipment around the battlefield.

Any Port

After all that excitement, Comrade Jon guided everyone to the lunch stop, a quaint shelter with open fire and tables and chairs. Out of the sidecars came refrigerated Eskys full of food and cold drinks. Delicious home-baked cookies were handed around, wet-weather gear was removed…and it started raining again.

After an hour, wet-weather gear was dragged back on, everyone departed, and it stopped raining.

The ride back to the Oxley was just as good as the morning’s ride – up and down hills through beautiful rainforests and over creeks. All this riding was on lovely, wet, slippery roads…the kind of roads that strike fear into the hearts of many adventure riders who wish they were anywhere but there. The last five kilometres flashed past in a feast of fast, sweeping, cambered roads and joined the Oxley again for a sedate ride into Port Macquarie and the overnight stop.

Off the track

The following morning everyone rode on to the Hibbard Ferry for the crossing to ‘The Other Side’. The Comrade’s briefing was…well…brief. Riders were promised a little bit of bitumen followed by a big bit of gravel and a largish, steepish uphill climb, and that the road was clay. Of course it’d been pouring all night.

It can’t be said a cheer went up, but there were some very happy smiling faces.

We went straight onto dirt and, after a fast run – Ural ‘fast’ that is – arrived in Kempsey for fuel.

One thing about riding a Ural is when you hit an 80 zone, you can look down at your speedo and find you’re doing 75kph. You need to speed up to the 80kph limit! Compared to two wheels Urals aren’t fast.

They’re military vehicles designed in 1939 to drag men and equipment around the battlefield.

Most Ural riders will sit between 80kph and 100kph whether on the black top or gravel. Once you understand how to handle them they’re huge fun on the gravel and are exceptionally capable off-road adventure bikes. Have a partner, son, daughter, or maybe the family pet who you want to share your adventure ride with? It’s just so easy in a sidecar.

Yes, you need to have your wits about you all the time, but I find riding a ‘hack’ relaxing and more exciting than a two-wheeler. For some strange reason I feel a lot safer on a hack and no longer worry about riding into deep sand or slippery clay on a 230kg, fully loaded adventure bike. Maybe I’m getting old and slowing down a little. I still enjoy riding my two-wheelers, but given a choice of two or three wheels I’ll take three any day of the week.

But I digress, back to the adventure.

For the second year in a row there were no breakdowns or problems with any of the bikes.

Their fault

Bellbrook made a nice stop for morning tea and the refrigerated Eskys spewed forth tea with cake, home-baked biscuits and other delights. They’re very civilised, these Ural people, and don’t they know how to survive in style in the wild?

After tea the ride saw us travelling on some excellent roads, racing through beautiful countryside following the Macleay River. It was there we had our first unscheduled stop. A puncture in a German-made tyre…those damn Germans!

At the lunch stop the spare was taken off the boot lid of the offending bike and the wheel replaced, all in 10 minutes.

For the second year in a row there were no breakdowns or problems with any of the bikes except the puncture, and that mishap was blamed on the Germans.

Talking excitedly about the trip up the hill.

So inclined

Puncture fixed, bellies full and ears ringing from heroic tales of the previous day’s ride we departed for the ‘largish, steepish uphill climb’.

As we departed a gentleman in a Kombi made sure he got out in front of us. Don’t you just love that? We let him go. Someone made mention of where his car was manufactured and everyone glared suspiciously at the punctured tyre.

When we did take off we ended up on what has to be one of the most excitingrides I’ve been on. We slipped, slid, laughed and smiled our way up the hill.

It was epic! We regrouped at the top in the pouring rain with everyone smiling, laughing and talking excitedly about their trip up the hill. It was an amazing ride and one that I would never have attempted on two wheels…okay, maybe the first 100 metres. I can’t wait to go back and do it all again, no matter what the conditions.

Riders were promised a largish, steepish uphill climb, and that the road was clay.

Try it

For the record, Mr Kombi struggled along, finally succumbed to the conditions and had to turn around and return to the bottom…don’t push in front of bikes. Karma will get you!

From there we rode on to Armidale and then to Ural HQ in Uralla, and sadly the end of this year’s Ural Adventure Ride.

That evening we enjoyed an excellent meal at the Uralla top pub and people told huge lies about how they nearly came to grief on the ride and how if it weren’t for their skill in riding a sidecar they would probably not be here to tell the story.

It’s all true you know.

I, and I’m pretty sure all the others on the trip, are already looking forward to next year’s ride. Twenty-one outfits left on the adventure and 21 returned without incident. Given the conditions the bikes performed exceptionally and for the second year in a row there were no breakdowns.

If you think this is something you might enjoy give Clare and Mat a ring at Ural Australia on (02) 6778 4673. They have Ural test rides, and I promise you’ll have a blast.