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A disc brake, highway ’pegs and LED lighting on the sidecar? Adventure-ready for sure.
Meandering through beautiful country. Ural ownership means low-speed travel. Owners get to see a lot more and arrive relaxed.
Despite having a 1200GS in the shed, Greg Jansen of Rocky Creek Designs has a deep passion for three-wheeled adventure. In 2017 he packed up his Ural sidecar rig and hit the trail. The common denominator among Ural owners is how much they all seem to enjoy themselves.
Every time I get on the Ural CT sidecar, it just gets better.
In 2017 I joined a heap of other owners for an amazing three-day ride organized by Ural Australia. The route included a bit of on-road and a bit of off-road and was designed to test our machines.
Makes you wish you were there, doesn’t it?
Problem?
The ride kicked off in Glen Innes, NSW, on Friday with a welcome lunch and a very interesting address at the sight of the Standing Stones by a bloke wearing a dress. He claimed it was the national dress of Scotland…right.
It’s nice to see the girls getting involved.
This was followed up by a fun ride out to the wind-farm development in Glen Innes.
Saturday saw us heading for Grafton via the old Grafton-Glen Innes road, a fantastic stretch of dirt meandering through beautiful country alongside the Mann and Boyd rivers, and I had a bit of a chuckle along the way. Since first talking about buying a Ural I’d been constantly told they’re unreliable, and now I was on a ride with 25 of the Russian-built weapons. What could possibly go wrong?
As it turned out, there was some drama.
The trailer being towed by the support vehicle did a wheel bearing and had to be taken back to base. As for the 25 ‘unreliable’ Ural outfits, they were trouble-free. There wasn’t even a puncture.
To date I haven’t had a single problem with my Ural, except I can’t stop riding the damn thing, even when there’s work to be done.
A ‘Retro/M70’. The old-world look and feel of the Urals is a big part of their attraction.
Heading for Grafton via the old Grafton-Glen Innes road.
Scenic
Sunday saw us riding to Dorrigo and on to the new Ural HQ in Uralla, near Armidale. If you haven’t been along the Waterfall Way to Dorrigo, you must. It reminds me of NSW’s southern highlands: beautiful, rolling hills and a curvy, flowing road that’s fun to ride.
A great bunch of people. Ural owners always seem to be happy.
The feminine touch
What a wonderful weekend away. It was a great bunch of people, the roads were fantastic and the countryside was beautiful. One of the many pleasures of Ural ownership is you don’t – can’t – speed, so you get to see a lot more and arrive relaxed. Another very pleasing fact was in our group of 25 outfits, four where piloted by girls. It’s nice to see the girls getting involved, and a really nice change from the usual bunch of ugly old blokes.
No need for a laptop and specialised software to interpret this warning indicator.
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