old style, schmold style

[Guest Nogbad]

I think that was a single.  It was in either Siberia or Mongolia, can't remember which.  Neither of them are Russia....  8-)))

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In the interest of completeness I have checked the bike on my DVD of the Long Way Round, and identified it positively as a current model Russian IZH Planeta 5 350cc single.

[Frenchbob]

In the interest of completeness I have checked the bike on my DVD of the Long Way Round, and identified it positively as a current model Russian IZH Planeta 5 350cc single.

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That's the one. I had three Bantams when young, foolish and hopelessly optimistic, but none of them ever pulled that trick. Mind you, I had to buy an MZ to find a two stroke within my price range [£0 - £50] that ran. Now there's a proper bike!

[Guest Nogbad]

That's the one. I had three Bantams when young, foolish and hopelessly optimistic, but none of them ever pulled that trick. Mind you, I had to buy an MZ to find a two stroke within my price range [£0 - £50] that ran. Now there's a proper bike!

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I kept my 2 stroke MZ TS250 as my only permanent bike for 14 years of marriage to a rabidly anti bike woman. The perfect pauper's bike. Refused to die, and if it did go wrong it was fixable with petty cash that she couldn't trace!

[John in Leeds]

Loads of these in Turkey

[Frenchbob]

Loads of these in Turkey

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That bloke with the VW is going to get a shock, then, when yer man starts his Planeta.

[Frenchbob]

I kept my 2 stroke MZ TS250 as my only permanent bike for 14 years of marriage to a rabidly anti bike woman. The perfect pauper's bike. Refused to die, and if it did go wrong it was fixable with petty cash that she couldn't trace!

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MZ to MG: a short step for man....etc

 

Your MZ experience uncannily mirrors mine, Nogbad! Mine did eventually succumb to its big end, though [common failing] and I found another, good motor for £20. Cost of new big end: £90 for the conrod and bearing.

[Skeeve]

Ural. Wot is it with this ancient, slow, heavy and fugly tractor that fascinates over in the US? It isnt even for sale over here cause no one wants it (you probably couldnt get it through the registration process either), and us her in Norway have common borders with Russia and could probably drive it home from the factory, thats how close it is.... We suffered badly with all these rapidly-deteriorating russian/eastern fiat-clones in the seventies and want no more of the eastern build quality.

Fascination for vintage bikes I understand, and I love old bikes too, but to buy this little runt of a bike new and then throw even more money at it? Is it a hillbilly thing (did I just hear the sound of shotguns being loaded  ). And whats the connection that makes Urals so apparantly frequent among MG-owners? Have I unawarely been caught in some strange and sinister cult here?

Someone even said in this forum that he wished his Ural had a MG engine. Well, thats one dangerous machine for you if it had.

 

I'll take any other nicely developed 5-10 years old modern bike any day, or a 60s Beemer.

 

Gentlemen. Take aim. You'll find me in my bomb shelter. With a nice cup of cappucino.

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WRT: "ride it home from the factory" - You probably could, if you could get a URAL over there, but AFAIK, you can't because the URAL is built solely to the Ural USA specs for this market. Seriously, the guys here who set up to import these unadulterated pieces of Soviet cr@p initially, & then stuck with it while educating the newly freed Russkies as to the nature of free market capitalism ["No, nobody will buy your Soviet-era turds now that they no longer have to do so; you simply must empty the swarf out of the cases before bolting them together..."]

 

WRT: "slow, ugly old tractor" - The USA has shown a fondness for old, slow, ugly vehicles, as long as they get the job done & don't require toolsets much more complicated than a pair of adjustable spanners ["Crescent wrenches," for those of you edjucated enough to know their proper name! ] and a 3# sledge. Come to think of it, this is another case of "Americans & Russians having more in common than they think..." ;D

 

As far as "what makes Urals appealing to Guzzi owners" - What other bike can you think of that makes a Guzzi look like the pinnacle of high performance, yet has the redeeming feature that you can ride it in the snow, all at a bargain price? Read Carl Allison's post: he said it all better than I!

 

But the real key here is that the new Urals are far & away improved over the Russian home market lot that you're probably thinking of/familiar with, simply because the U.S. importer has worked so diligently at bringing the factory up to speed. They may even [/i]just[/i] manage to get the old lumps smoothed & polished enough to convince me to buy a rig before the EPA shuts them down for excessive smog output, but it's a closely run race. I do know that they have one redeeming quality (even in the straight-up, non-sidehack version) that is sorely lacking in almost all modern Bikes, except the rumoured Guzzi CA "classique": a loooong, level, bench saddle for riding two up. These seats all seem to have worked in the 60s & 70s, then appear to have gone the way of the passenger pigeon [which is an odd choice of phrase, since almost all the 'birds' prefer them over their modern replacements for passengering duties! ]

 

Ride on!