Once the courageous rider has picked up speed he is mainly busy riding a straight line while the bike wants to go anywhere else. Unlike on a simple motorcycle, you don't steer a sidecar bike by shifting your body weight a little bit to the left or to the right. Instead you operate the handlebar very much like a steering wheel of a car. Sounds strange? Feels strange!
When having reached terminal velocity (which, on a URAL, might take a little while) the next challenge awaits literally around the corner. Due to its assymetrical construction a URAL tends to develop a mind of its own as soon as you're passing a bend. If you're passing a right bend too fast, the sidecar will inevitably go up in the air, forcing the bike to the left and most of the time straight off the road into the ditch. If you 're passing a left bend too fast, you will probably wish it would have been a right bend, because the bike will capsize, which is even more uncomfortable...
But the story doesn't end here. Let's say you want to shed speed and you want to do so rather fast, because this old lady in front of you doesn't give a damn about who has the right of way. You will notice pretty soon that while the bike begins the process of stopping, the sidecar continues rather unimpressed to move forward. The result: The sidecar is overtaking you, forcing the whole construction to the left of the road, where - at least in Europe - the oncoming traffic is happily awaiting you...
What about the reliability of a URAL?
70 years of building experience, 340 kilograms of solid russian steel, zero plastic, more than 3 million machines built and still counting - what the heck can happen, one might think? Well, if you ride a modern day URAL, probably not more than on any other bike. These days URALs are built with state of the art parts and assembled on production lines living up to the latest standards, designed to compete on an international market.
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