Monday, December 24, 2012

Ural to the Rescue

Ural to the Rescue

My friend John, seen above, started having car trouble the other day on his way to work. He managed to limp it over to my house, and into the garage. His alternator appeared to be failing. Fortunately, I have a well stocked garage from working on my own bikes and occasionally my wife’s car. In the warm, well-lit space, he was able to remove the alternator. The next problem was to find out who had one.

He said he’d call a mutual friend to give him a ride. I offered up the Ural as an alternative to waiting. Ural to the rescue! He’s about my size, so he fit in my older riding gear. My wife’s old helmet fit him perfectly as well. John rides a VFR and has been riding since he was a kid. His coldest riding day on the VFR was 11F. He almost broke that today with the Ural, but it was only 13F.

We piled into the Ural and rode over to Napa to get a new alternator and have them test the suspected bad one. One we walked in, they asked if we were riding snow mobiles. I have no idea why people in the middle of the city think folks are riding snow mobiles in winter. There isn’t any snow on the roads. They confirmed the alternator was bad, and during the test we could smell a slight burning smell.

About to leave Napa, we got UDF’d, Ural delay factor, by the guy walking in the background of the photo. All the usual questions: “what is it”, “where’s it from”, “where’d ya get it”, “how old is it”, “No really, how old is it”, etc, etc. Nice to see John getting the full Ural experience.

On the way home, he experienced one of my favorite Ural experiences. A woman out jogging with her dogs gave a huge way and a big smile. We waved back in unison.

John enjoyed his ride in the Ural. He said it was just like riding in a car. With the new alternator back in place, his Jeep was working great. It was a fun way to help a friend.

10 comments:

  1. Chris:

    it's always nice to help a friend. You just never know when you may need help yourself.

    Having access to your garage would be good, if only it were closer . . .

    Merry Christmas to you and V

    bob
    Riding the Wet Coast
    My Flickr // My YouTube

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    1. helping a friend and riding at the same time. good stuff :)

      ps: you could always move. lol.
      pps: merry xmas and happy new year to you.

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  2. Helping a friend and being UDF'ed while doing so, good stuff.

    dom

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  3. Did he use heated gear? Holly crap, that's cold.

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    1. he only started using heated gear last year himself. I offered him my spare heated coat. he turned it down. I was wearing mine, but it wasn't on. not quite cold enough for the speeds we were going.

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  4. Nice save......so when is John buying a Ural?

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    Replies
    1. lol. i dont think he's crazy enough to buy a ural.

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  5. Good story, but where is the snow in the picture? After all, it's the end of December....

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    1. in the 10ft snow bank behind me. we had 16 inches then it melted to about 6-8 and now we just got another 2 last night.

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