Welcome to the May issue of Irbit Informer!
There is lots of news to share and we'd like to start with the announcement of our spring/summer Demo Tour. The second leg schedule can be found on our new website. Whether you ride a sidecar already or have always been intrigued by the idea, our factory demo events is the easiest way to find out first hand what Urals are all about. Large print disclaimer: these events are highly contagious, you may catch the Ural bug, that may stay with you forever! :-)
We are first stopping in Oregon (Portland and Salem on May 9th and 10th). We will be putting up the booth and doing demo rides at the Overland Expo in Arizona, at Americade in New York and at the Motorcycle Vintage Days in Ohio. There are still a few stops we are confirming so please check in frequently for updates:
Come out, meet David, our Demo man, our friendly dealers and other Ural super owners!
URAL IN THE PRESS
We have a couple of big hits in June motorcycle press. Give us thumbs up for landing the cover of the Cycleworld magazine!
This is a big one for us - read the Characters feature about the bikes that move your soul in the June issue and there is a neat video review not to miss by Mark Hoyer, CW editor-in-chief.
"Juggernaut" is the word that summed up the review of the 2014 Gear Up by Rider magazine. You can find this review in their June issue.
Now that we are on the topic of press, a little bird told us that the Rolling Stone mag is preparing cool cars/motorcycles section for their next issue with a Ural mentioning there - let's see if that one pops up on bookstore shelves end of this month. Its already feels ...cool! :-)
URAL AROUND THE WORLD
Company-wide news
Our US dealers produced a very solid April retail sales result, which makes us very happy (naturally) and we want to take this opportunity to thank you and welcome all of you to the Family!
Down Under
Ural Australia received their first 2014 shipment just a couple of weeks ago, Jon and his crew have been delivering the long-awaited bikes what seemed like round the clock. Our Aussie friends are out there playing with the bikes, camping and having good times:
Canada
Ural Canada is finally coming out of the Big Winter Freeze (aka snowmobile season), but even then no freeze can hold our northern neighbors from riding Urals, even if it means going to a Polar Plunge party:
Our Ural Canada crew is expecting the all new EFI bike arrivals this June - so be sure to book a test ride at your friendly dealer in Canada, here's the list of places to contact.
Asia Invasion
Ural China is also getting their first shipments in June.
Ural Japan finally just passed the 2014 certification and completed the EFI training, their first shipments arriving in July (photo of the Ural Japan tech chief below).
And we just signed up a distributor in Philippines...
If you are thinking about that exotic vacation but can't live with the idea of parting with your Ural even for a few days, visit Asia - Urals will be there and you'll have the best of the both worlds. :-)
URAL ADVENTURES
From Irbit to Prague
Our European friends are taking an mega-extreme adventure with bad roads, bad weather and bad gasoline. Here's their story: Exactly 10 years ago a group of Ural fans around Czech Ural guru Pavel Kucera went on a pilgrimage to Irbit, only to pick up brand new Urals there and drive them back to Europe on adventurous routes. Now, 10 years later, a group of Czech and Slovak friends are doing it again, driving brand new 2014's this time from the Irbit factory home. They started out from knee-deep (actually more like waist-deep) snow in Irbit that began to melt as they moved west...
Water test!
You can read up their blog here, the adventure is still on!
Conquering Moab
Meanwhile, in Utah, a good crowd of Urals got together and went to conquer Moab Desert.... photos courtesy of Dom Chang of Redlegsrides.com
Sometimes we humans tend to overdo, thankfully no one was hurt and the bike remained more or less intact,
except for destroyed clutch lever...so then Mr. Cob came up with WWID (What Would Ivan Do) solution. He rigged up a broken clutch lever fix (click the photo to start the video). Dave came up with this fix using some large washers, tire irons, wire ties, some duct tape and a vise grip pliers.
This worked well enough to get the rig to a place where we could load it on a trailer, take it back to camp and fix it properly.
Your Don't Have To Go Far To Find Adventure
If you are not in to heavy off-roading you can still enjoy riding on asphalt... here's a great Orange shot we snatched from one of our Bay Area group members on Facebook, Bao T Iam:
Spring is here and it's time to enjoy the warmth and the longer days whether on or off-road!
Upcoming Rally at Ural of New England
One of the biggest get-togethers in the NorthEast is at the Ural of New England - this year's spring event is scheduled for Saturday, May 17th from 9am to 5pm. Come out, have great food, meet nice folks and have fun!
