The Ural Has Returned

I dropped my 2009 Ural Patrol off at St. Croix Ural on September 4th. They called me last night to tell me it was ready, and I was able to get it today.

They fixed the loose connections in the speedo that were causing the dash lights not to work. They also repaired the two broken wheels.

The spokes had come loose prematurely (~200 miles) and damaged the hubs. Both the two hubs and all of the spokes were replaced under the warranty.

Initially, St. Croix Ural didn’t want to replace the wheels under the warranty, even though this was the same problem I had experienced earlier this summer (which was covered). After entirely too much arguing, they agreed to call Ural. Ural, of course, covered the repair.

St. Croix Ural said they ordered the parts on 9/9/2010 and that Ural had them in stock. The parts (new hubs and spokes) didn’t arrive until 9/28/2010. The dealer said that Ural didn’t ship the parts when they ordered them and waited an extra week. Weird.

They relaced the two wheels and put them on the bike. They also said they checked the alignment which was “in spec” to them. Riding out of the parking lot it did feel a bit better than before, but it still pulls to the right.

St. Croix Ural still has no explanation for the cause of the problem. I’m tired of dealing with them. I will be visiting Kevin of Scrambler Cycle soon and hopefully get it sorted correctly.

For a Ural dealer, there aren’t many Urals around… not even a sidecar in sight. Just one sitting out front for sale.

No Ural sign visible either…

I hope today will be my last visit to New Richmond, WI.

We got going a bit late and were stuck in bad traffic, so I was unable to get photos of the beautiful fall colors along the St. Croix River (hopefully this weekend!).

I’m quite glad to have my Ural back. I need to start getting ready for winter!

Wheels, Tires, and Birds

On the way to work yesterday I was very happy to be wearing all of my gear. I was especially grateful for my full face helmet! A bird and I crossed paths and this photo is the result:

 

I didn’t realize what it was at first, and thought it was just a giant bug. I raised my hand to wipe it away and then saw the white drip and realized what had happened. EWWW!! Damn birds! I closed my mouth vent, but it was too late. It dripped into that too. YUCK! I got to work and immediately started cleaning. I took the visor off and used a lot of soap. Very nasty. It cleaned off easily as it was still wet and drippy. I shudder to think of this experience without the visor. Although quite rare for a moving motorcycle to be hit by a moving bird’s crap, this should be high on the list of reasons for a full face helmet (besides the whole crashing thing).

My poor Ural is trapped at St. Croix Ural 56 miles away. I brought it in last week to get the wheels repaired since the spokes have been having so many problems. They tried to fight me and did not want to fix them under the warranty. After I wasted two days arguing with St. Croix, IMZ Ural approved the replacement under warranty as I knew they would. The dealer has no idea why it keeps happening, and continues to try to extort money out of me. This will be my last interaction with them, as I am working to build a new relationship with a Ural service center 94 miles away. He had a couple ideas on the cause of the problem. When I suggested that to St. Croix, they said they’d charge me $80 to test. As politely as possible, I told them where to go with that idea. New wheels for the Ural are on order. They are expected to arrive in one to two weeks. Grr.

This weekend, I will be attending the 7th Annual East Central Iowa Sidecar rally in Anamosa, IA hosted by the National Motorcycle Museum. I’m hoping it will be fun. Looking at previous years photos, there should be a few dozen sidecars. I am really bummed I can’t take my Ural, but I am looking forward to all the sidecars outside and the bikes in the museum.

Thanks to a good deal from Lloyd, I picked up another set of Dunlop Q2 tires for the SV. Since I don’t have the Ural back, I was forced to get them with the SV650. The rack made it really easy to carry the tires home securely.

The last set went over 5,500 miles, and most of those miles were two up with full luggage. Considering that, I think they did quite well. Mine are VERY worn.

Old on the left and new on the right. Click on the photo to enlarge. I tried to line up the tread pattern to make comparison easier.

Before I got rid of my old rear tire, I had some fun with it first. :) More on that later.

St. Croix Harley Open House

 

I am still having trouble with the spokes on my Ural. A couple months ago, I had the pusher (rear motorcycle) wheel replaced under the warranty because a number of spokes became loose and broke destroying the wheel. When we attempted the Trans Wisconsin Adventure Trail we encountered many more problems with spokes causing us to abort and come home early. I was able to get the spokes tightened back up, but couldn’t get the wheels completely true again.

The clouds were quite impressive today. If you squint, you can see me on my Ural.

 

I swapped wheels around and limped it back to the dealer this morning. They are going to take a look at it and fix it up by Tuesday (hopefully under warranty). The speedo light has also gone dark. I’m thinking likely a loose wire. It has a warranty, so they can fix it.

 

Once we arrived at the dealer, we saw lots of bikes and tons of people.

   

Apparently, they were having their open house today to celebrate the release of the new 2011 lineup from Harley Davidson. I felt lucky to have brought the T2i, so we both took turns snapping away.

  

 

 

I quickly found a new 2010 Ural Patrol in white.

I think it looks pretty sharp. No big changes from 2009 to 2010 except replacing some chrome with stainless steel. There are some small engine tweaks too.

 

This custom also caught my eye, and reminded me of Gary’s red bike.

There was also a 2008 Ural Retro.

 

I took too many pictures of the retro, but I liked how the sky and grass were reflecting in the black paint.

 

The blue in the middle of this one is from the sidecar reflecting the sky through the area above the air box.

and a Harley with what looks like a Cozy sidecar

 

and a Harley trike

This guy wanted his picture taken with his bike

My Ural left at the dealer again.

Ural Returned – Good as New

I received a call from the dealer last night that my Ural Patrol would be ready this morning at 9am. I was lucky enough to find a friend available to pick me up and drive the hour to get the bike.

We arrived just as they opened a few minutes before 9am. They were nice enough to have it running and waiting, so by the time I finished putting on all my gear (ATGATT!), it was warmed up and ready to go.

As you can see, they spent some time cleaning it which I really appreciate. When the temps were –10F to 0F I didn’t have a method to clean it myself. They spent two and a half days with my Ural and couldn’t reproduce the problems I had experienced. They took it on a couple test rides in various situations with no trouble. The second thing they did after cleaning it, was to check the spark plugs and replace them. Perhaps that was the problem?

I am VERY happy that they did not charge me for any of their time. They transported it, cleaned it, and worked on it at no cost to me. Yay for a warranty and good customer service! The bike is running as good as the day I bought it. Very happy!

Ural Trailered Away – January 12

After talking with the local Ural dealer this morning, they were worried I was only running on one cylinder. I know I was on Friday morning before I changed the plugs, but not sure about now. They didn’t want to take the risk, and suggested I have it trailered back to the shop.

They offered to pick it up for free as long as I rode it home. I’ll need to figure out how to get there, but I can ride it in any weather. Despite all the recent drama with it, I was a bit sad to see it loaded up. I am quite looking forward to the ride home on a fully functional Ural!

As you can see, I played with picnik a bit on the photo below. I added a vignette filter and a rounded frame.

I’ll be waiting by the phone for the diagnosis… and the repair bill. I ordered a twinmax today, so I can sync/balance the carbs on my SV. It will also come in handy with the Ural.

First Ural Service – December 11

My first 500km service was scheduled for today. I had talked to the dealer Thursday to get some advice on how to ride the bike out there since I could barely keep it running. Changing the spark plugs didn’t help.

I left the house around 7:30am to hopefully arrive at 9am at the dealer in New Richmond, WI about 50 miles away. I took the slow scenic route to avoid cars and to stay warmer by not having to deal with so much wind. The temp when I left the house was –10F which is now my new record for cold! –10F is cold riding.

After talking with the dealer last night, we decided the bike was running lean because the temps were too cold and the air more dense. They suggested running with the enricheners on all the time when the temps were around 0F. This solved the popping and stalling while I was moving, but created a new problem: it stalled when I stopped moving. It wouldn’t have been such a big deal, except the battery was defective and not taking a charge, so I’ve been kick starting it. Kicking a stalled bike in traffic is not fun.

The ride to the dealer was amazing. The sky was clear blue and the sun was shining bright. Everything except the road was covered in snow. I especially enjoyed riding past the many bodies of water we have in Minnesota. Most were frozen over, but some had some open water in the middle that had steam/fog coming off it. Looked amazing in the sun.

I tried to take some photos, but my camera was frozen. Apparently it was designed to work below zero. I will need to find a way to store it inside my coat, so it will stay warm enough to work.

It took me about an hour to get to Stillwater, MN along the St. Croix River. My toes were pretty cold, so I stopped at the local Cafe for some hot tea and oatmeal. They couldn’t believe I was out riding.

When I took off my glasses, I noticed I had about 1/8” of ice on the left lense. I have to ride with my visor about 60% open so my glasses and visor don’t ice/fog up. I’ve tried antifog stuff, but it just ices over. The Arai solution is to buy the pinlock visor system. I’ve also looked at Snowmobile helmets, but they have very soft flexible shields that aren’t DOT approved. They seem like a rock would go right through them.

The rest of the ride to the dealer was great with rolling hills and more beautiful blue sky. The service manager was pretty shocked when I walked in all dressed up.

They did the 500km service and changed all the fluids. They found the battery was completely defective, an exhaust leak (new gaskets), and the clutch needed work. All was done under the warranty. I also had the carbs richened up to run better in the cold tems.

All in all, I was there about four hours. I was again very impressed with the high level of customer service and professionalism at St. Croix Ural aka St. Croix HD. Everyone I interacted with was extremely friendly and helpful.

The ride home was again amazing and beautiful. I did have some excitement when I prematurely ran out of gas after 110km and had to go on the reserve tank. Running with the enricheners uses a lot of fuel!

The bike seems to be back in good running order and by the time I got home, there was a brief heatwave: 18F!

A great day of riding.

My new Ural

I woke up early today and got a ride out to the local Ural dealer in Wisconsin (St. Croix Ural). It’s about an hour from my house located NE of Somerset. I was interested in the 2008 Patrol below. It was the demo model and was discounted over $1100 from new.

After we arrived, the owner Dell came out showed me how it worked and let us take a ride around the parking lot. The sidecar controls are similar to a motorcycle, but the handling is completely different. I practiced many figure eights and general turns and shifting. Once I was comfortable, we took off down the road. It was great fun, but I need a lot more practice.

I was really impressed they let me ride the motorcycle first. Nearly every other motorcycle dealer I’ve visited in the area will not let you ride the bikes except for “demo days” which are usually once or twice a year. If you missed it, tough luck!

While we waiting for the paperwork to get sorted I started reading the Ural owners manual. It’s the best owner’s manual for a bike I’ve ever seen. The Ural also comes with a book on how to operate a sidecar which I also started reading.

After waiting a couple of hours, Dell let us know that their bank would not provide a loan for a new ‘08. Dell then offered to sell me a 2009 Ural Patrol for the same price he had quoted me on the ‘08. He even said he would deliver it in a few days for free since it was still in a crate. The pic of my new Patrol is below:

In addition to the Patrol, I negotiated and got the windshield and leg fairings free. Dell assured me this bike would take anything a Minnesota winter could dish out, and with the upgraded alternator it can run all my heated gear. It also comes with a two year unlimited mile warranty. The unlimited part sounds like a challenge to me.

2009 Ural Patrol

This is my 2009 Ural Patrol which I purchased brand new in November 2009. It is my winter motorcycle as I do not own a car.

Click here for a review of my Ural.

Click here for posts about my Ural.

Click here for IMZ Ural USA

My Patrol Accessories and Modifications

• Heavy Duty MSR Tubes - 4.00/4.50-19 or 110/90-19 with a TR6
• Hippo Hands
• Sylvania Silverstar H6024 Headlight
  
• Ural Fairing and Windshield
• Leg Guards
• Delaware Dave’s Trunk Lock
• Holopaw 2WD Ural Trailer Hitch

In the Trunk

• 12v 18Ah auxiliary battery in for heated gear backup
• ural tool roll plus:
• metric socket set
• vice grips
• needle nose pliers
• work gloves
• voltmeter
• IR thermometer
• medium size bottle jack
• blanket
• raingear
• spare spark plugs
• spare oil filter
• spare oil
• bike lock