Don's Ural

[dhgeyer]

I've seen several of them around here. There's a dealership somewhere down in Mass. not too far away. People that have them swear by them, and they certainly do turn heads. They basically make BMW's that BMW doesn't make anymore, with some additions/modifications. Most of them are sidecar rigs like the one pictured, although they do make a kind of silly looking pseudo cruiser for the US market.

The Beemer I have is very high tech, and in a lot of ways, that's good. Better mileage and performance, and less pollution. But there's something to be said also for being able to fix most problems with a good tool kit on the road. The new Beemers have diagnostic plugs just like cars now. Everything is controlled electronically. I actually bought a unit that plugs into the bike's diagnostic/control port, and connects to my laptop via a USB cable, along with the accompanying software. I can read and clear fault codes for all the electronic modules. And the throttle bodies even have step motors to compensate for being out of sync at idle. If you really want to get a good throttle body sync, you have to park the step motors. The unit/software I bought will do that too. So I can add my laptop computer to the list of tools needed to do a simple tune up! Not like the old Beemers. Or the Urals!