Six months on a 2021 Ural GEO Gear Up Sidecar Motorcycle! WOULD I BUY THIS?
![Six months on a 2021 Ural GEO Gear Up Sidecar Motorcycle! WOULD I BUY THIS? Six months on a 2021 Ural GEO Gear Up Sidecar Motorcycle! WOULD I BUY THIS?](/pic/six_months_on_a_2021_ural_geo_gear_up_sidecar_motorcycle_would_i_buy_this_/SFdCLTB4aWJfMlE_.jpeg)
- [Baldy] Wow, so look what showed up as if by stealth to my driveway. (bouncy music) Man, that's beautiful. Shiny! Oh my gosh! Do you have any idea how long I have it for? - [Man in black jacket] No. - [Baldy] Knobbies! These breaks on the back. Oh my gosh. Look at all this stuff.
It's so pretty. Wow the colors and everything else. Look at that exhaust. Hey, it's Baldy from ADV Rider, and I've owned a shiny black Ural for 16 years.
That I've loved because everyone who sees it lights up in a smile and a wave, whether they're a cop or a hard and bad-ass Harley rider on a custom bike. I don't know, with Bodie in the sidecar, am I as cool as Harrison Ford? (trilling music) (engine roaring) Bodie is a heck of a chick magnet. Even Batman came over to get himself photographed in my black Ural. I'm not making that up. I thought shiny black was the coolest of the looks, but once they gave me this to ride for a couple of months, I'm getting even more attention.
But how does it ride with the new Nitron shocks, and fuel injection, and disc brakes, and all of that. In this episode, I'll take you on some long rides all the way to the Mojave Desert, and camping, and to the dirt parks. True confession in 16 years, I never took my Ural to the dirt park, because I thought it was just too pretty. But I consider it my duty for this review and for you guys to take this one to the dirt, and put it through its paces. We'll also visit Mike Paull in Seattle who customizes the most delicious side cars, and in impulse bought a Ural GEO after owning four previous models.
And finally, we'll stop by Ural headquarters and interview Ilya the CEO in an electric Ural sidecar. I'll end the episode by answering the question, "Would I buy one?" "Would I upgrade from my beloved 2006?" So, first things first, how does it sound? Well, here's how the engine sounds in my 2006 carborated version. (engine roaring) And here's how it sounds with 2021 fuel injection.
(engine roaring) And here's how my stock exhaust sound from 2006. (engine roaring) And here's how the sexy new GPR exhaust sounds from 2021. (engine roaring) That sound out on the road was sufficiently sexy for me, throaty enough, but not too loud. Perfect. So it's definitely a beauty, everybody loves the way that it looks, but second thing second. What about that lame bench seat? Yeah, it's comfortable, but it doesn't look vintage enough, bad-ass enough.
Looking at my seat, that's 'cause I got the aftermarket seat, and I think I'd have to do the same if I buy this one. And of course, stopping at a picnic area with the dog in sidecar, man. All of the tourists came out with their camera phones. (dog panting) He's figured out how to take these glasses off with that bar. So I was curious about the nitron shocks, which they offer as an accessory on their website. Could they really give a notice of the better ride? (engine roaring) I mean, they still only got, like, three inches a travel, right? So I messed around with him in the driveway, just jumping up and down, they felt about the same.
But my wife's swears they're so much better, and I actually noticed that too. So we went over speed bumps (engine roaring) and bumps on the side of the road, and yeah, they feel nicer. (engine roaring) So armed with knobbies and great shocks, off to dirt park. What could go wrong, right? You better hang on.
- I'm watching those guys going over jumps and stuff and saying, "I'm tired when I'm doing jumps." (engine roaring) - [Baldy] Well, maybe little jumps. So with no fear, we charged up a hill that was slanted to the right. So my wife in the sidecar was downhill from me and downhill from her off the edge of the road was death. So as I'm giving it a gas, I didn't realize it was all about front-wheel traction. And I didn't know to stand up and lean forward to give the front wheel more traction.
So I just had to back off on the gas to keep the wheel from skidding to the right, so that we could creep up that hill. Hmm. (engine roaring) And then when we came back down another hill and it was slanted to the left, every time I put on the brakes, the bike wanted to slide off the hill to the left. It was... My heart rate was pretty high. (engine roaring) So after that experience, I was afraid I was gonna do a Jay Leno, like he did when he bought his Ural before he knew what he was doing.
(Jay laughing) (engine running) But with my wife in the sidecar. (engine roaring) (trilling music) - [Jay] Hey, hey, hey, hey! (glass breaking) Help! (intense music) (laud crashing) (Jay screaming) - [Rider] You okay, Jay? - So one of the great benefits of being involved in Adventure Rider is we have this huge community of expert riders including a sidecar sub forum. So I decided to go in there and meet some of the guys, and Mike Paull caught my attention as someone who really knew their stuff. So we decided to Zoom. And now, you're gonna be impressed with my backdrop.
(Mike laughing) How are you liking that? - I should have done the same. - So first off the Ural GEO is the same drivetrain and chassis and everything as the gear up from last year, right? - Yeah, I would say that aside from the extraordinarily difficult to replicate paint job and the holdout accessories- - Yeah. - The only other major difference is the upgraded suspension with the nitron shock absorbers.
- Yeah, so talk about the nitron shocks. - The fundamental problem is that the roles designed as a Rugged Off Road capable sidecar have relatively short suspension travel, three inches total. And I would say that it's lessen issue about comfort per se, and more the advantage of a much more controlled ride, flatter in terms. And able to absorb road irregularities without kind of hobby horsing or pogo sticking the shock of the suspension system. - And my previous Ural was a 2006, and I understand somewhere around 2018 or something, it went with stiffer (engine running) or more robust internal springs on the snowmen, the rubber shock absorbers on the sidecar. - Correct. - And so maybe that helped.
I mean, we didn't take big jumps or anything like that, but we got some error and it got pretty bumpy. We never bought 'em the shocks and everything seemed to be fine. My wife swears it was a smoother ride than in my black Ural. So with brimming confidence, I took this GEO.
I mean, it's got the shocks, it's got this brakes, it's got fuel injection, it's got knobbies. So, what have I got to lose? And I take it out there and sure enough everything's going great until we started go up a steep hill that was slanted to the right. - Under that condition, the front wheel is really unweighted especially if you accelerate. On an uphill climb, I think the important thing is to take it in the lowest... Well, take it in the lowest gear, number one.
I mean, you know? I hear guys they go, "When in doubt, power out." - Mike. - Okay, yeah. So the front-wheel is really unloaded? - Yeah.
- And you're accelerating, and the sidecar is dead weight, and it's also downhill. So yeah, I could easily see where the sidecar would... Or the whole rig would wanna either lift the front wheel, or it would start to slew to the right. - That's what it was doing.
- Neither one of which is ideal (indistinct) - [Baldy] That's what it was doing. - Instant death, in my opinion is doing a cross traverse slope, in the opposite situation where the sidecar is high and above you. It's so easy to flip a sidecar rig. - That's the way it was coming back down that hill. So my wife was high, I was low, and every time I would touch the brakes, it wanted to plunge off to the left.
- The sidecar is... If you're decelerating under that condition, the sidecar, especially where the passenger is sitting high. So the tip of her point has shifted dramatically toward the rider. So on a cross traverse slope where the sidecar is higher than you. If you were to hit the brakes hard enough, I could see where you could potentially flip the sidecar, so don't do that. With more weight, when you approach the tip over point it wants to flip you easy, right? I mean, that kind of make sense.
- Oh yeah, I guess that's true, yeah. - [Mike] Yeah. - [Baldy] So it looks like you're geared up for battle. - I am ready for an adventure today. - [Baldy] How far are we going? - Well, my boss told me to take the day off for a mental health day, (engine running) and to do something really fun.
So, I decided it would be fun if we took a trip through the mountains, and back home 120 miles round trip. - [Jay] Well, you certainly picked a amazing day to be out here. - It's gorgeous here! - [Baldy] So why do you like the sidecar? - Well, when you ride too up, I have to lean one side or the other if I really wanna see the scenery. But when it's too aside, I got the view of everything. - [Baldy] So does it bother you that I got the windscreen and you didn't? - [Toni] No, not really.
(engine roaring) (rain drizzling) - I didn't expect this much rain today, but one really good thing is that this trunk has a really good seal. Right here. - [Baldy] So at Boulder Creek (engine running) with everything still wet, we stopped by a generic gas station.
And without thinking about it, I just filled up with regular gas and off we went. As we were riding through tragically devastated neighborhoods due to the California wildfires, an engine light came on and the bike started surging and missing. And then it stalled on the side of the road.
- So, it's in the category, it can't hurt. (plane engine roaring) - [Mechanic] No, you're not gonna hurt it. - And that's where we got our friend to call his mechanic, and she said, "Oh, I don't know."
"Try it again." (Baldly laughing) Just connect the battery, reboot, restart. Anyway, it's running now.
It could've been the crazy rain, who knows? So what was your quote on Russian fuel injection? (Naked laughing) - "Oh, there's no hope" or something like, "God help you." If it's a fuel injection, "God help you." - So let's talk about the fuel injection for a minute.
- The throttle bodies themselves are manufactured by a Japanese manufacturer- - Keihin. - Keihin. And Keihin they've been around forever. They've supplied both carburetors, and fuel injection, throttle bodies to virtually every manufacturer in Japan obviously.
And a lot of other makes as well, yes. So that's a very, very good throttle body. - So I saw some YouTube videos about people upgrading their EFIs or Electronic Fuel Injection to the Keyon, the most recent Keyons that came out in 2019 on the Urals.
- [Robert] All right, first ride with the new EFI. (engine starting) I mean, this just fires up. Oh wow. (engine running) (Robert laughing) This is different.
Oh yeah, that's just... (engine roaring) That's like waking it up, right there. (waves crashing) - So we stopped here, took a quick look at the ocean, and I happened to glance over to the side and I said, "Oh my gosh, there's a dead elephant seal over there." But it wasn't dead, it moved.
And there's four of 'em, just lying on the beach. - [Baldy] And everybody's ignoring 'em. - [Toni] Yeah.
- [Baldy] They're rolling around, having a good time. - [Toni] Where gonna get something to eat. - I know a lot of motorcyclists who would like this place! All right, here we are. On top of the mountain, a hundred miles in, in the cold. How you doing? - Well, it's not as cold as it was earlier today when I was wet.
- [Baldy] Did you almost die? - Yes, I almost died. - [Baldy] So how comfortable is that Ural seat after a hundred miles? - It's really comfortable. - It's got nice shock absorbing how we did on rough roads. - We've been on some rough roads. The other interesting thing is there's a bar across the front, there's probably for some reason, unrelated. But it's a great foot rest. - Oh.
- Just stretched your feet out there, and instead of your feet being kind of flat or awkward, you can rest them on that bar across there. So, that's nice. - So, did you get the very first one? - [Grant] That's what they told me at the dealership, yeah. - Wow. - The commercial came out and I mean, we've all seen it, right? It's a pretty fun commercial.
- It's an awesome commercial, yeah. - [Narrator] But what color? (birds chirping) (man munching) - That's it! (laud snap) - Will factories do it? (engine roaring) (bell ringing) (energetic music) - Can you do it? (speaking in foreign language) They'll do it. (upbeat music) - Everybody waves as if it's a vintage automobile or something. Even the Harley guys wave. - Yeah.
I mean, they do on any sidecar, I think. - Yeah. - I had a 2015 Retro before I bought my GEO, and I bought it used, and it was kind of like the cheap way to get into a Ural. 'Cause I hadn't had one before, and hadn't ridden a hack or anything like that. And I bought it to take my dog, and he doesn't get to go, 'cause the wife rides in my hack all the time. (Grant laughing) When I first bought it, she was like, "I don't know why you're buying it, I'm never gonna ride in it." 'Cause she's kinda, she's not anti-motorcycle, but she's like, somewhat afraid, right? You know, some people are afraid of it.
- [Baldy] Yeah, yeah. - And the first time she rode in it, she's like, "Okay, I'll ride in it all the time now." - Yeah, do the new shocks make a difference for you? - Compared to the Retro, yeah.
- So where do you ride it? Do you take it on long trips or is it for around town? - [Grant] Mainly around town. We've done a few trips, just a couple hundred miles. You've ridden sidecars, right? You know, a couple hundred miles on a sidecar is a lot more... - [Baldy] It's a long way.
- [Grant] It's a lot more than a couple hundred miles on a regular motorcycle. (Grant laughing) - [Baldy] And your arms' working a lot, huh? - Yeah. - Speaking of people who compete for space in the sidecar, my friendly neighborhood grandkids.
They love to go speed bump jumping in the neighborhood while they hoot and holler, and charm all the neighbors. All right. What kind of adventure? - We're squished, but we're good. - [Baldy] You're squished, but you're good? - Yeah. - I'm gonna take off my gloves so I can hold the GoPro. (engine roaring) (children laughing) - [Baldy] So, what do you think of grandpa's new ride? - Nice! - [Baldy] You think I should buy one? - Awesome, yeah! - Here we are to pick up 9-year-old, Penny for an overnight camping in the mountains.
- Honey, I don't know where your stuff's gonna fit, you have to leave it behind. - I was thinking it would fit. Do it will? - Let's see if it tackles. (soft thudding) Oh yeah! More stuff? (Penny laughing) - You know you're bringing a girl on this trip, right? If you're bringing Mark, it would just like a bag of Pop-Tarts. It's such a weird to be like, yup.
Go ahead and take our kid without a seatbelt. (engine starting) - Bye! (engine roaring) - [Baldy] How comfortable was the Ural on back roads for three hours? - Meh! (Penny laughing) - [Baldy] Meh? - It was fine. (Penny laughing) - [Baldy] Did you get at all uncomfortable? - Sometimes I got cold. - [Baldy] Oh yeah.
All right, so what I wanna know is who's genius idea was sushi? - Mine! Yeah. - [Baldy] What else you got up your sleeve? - Dehydrated ice cream sandwich. (bird cooing) - What? Who's ever heard of that? - Pop-Tarts, oatmeal, cup of noodles, and snacks. It's already, like, 40 something degrees right now. So if we going in the wind down a mountain, it's gonna be really, really cold.
- [Baldy] Yeah, 42. (bouncy music) (engine running) (breaks squeaking) Was that what you expected? - Not what I expected but it's fun. - So is it pretty wild? - Yeah. (laughing) It's fun though.
- [Baldy] So Harley invited me to their first ride in the Pan America in the Mojave Desert, (eagle cooing) 400 miles south of my house. And I decided to go in style. I've never been much of a fan of murals on freeways, but this one did pretty well. I could keep it at 65, sometimes 70 when I needed to and I wasn't full open. Sometimes going up hills, it would slow down to 55, 60 maybe? The one thing that was scary was hell a high winds came up that knocked over some of the semi-trucks and they closed the road.
I was thinking, yeesh! I should sit this out, and I slowed way down. And I had my butt almost in the sidecar, because the winds were coming from the sidecar side. And I just had this eerie feeling, like it was gonna lift the chair and knocked me over, but it never did. - Welcome to my world. - [Baldy] Oh yeah. Oh, look at that.
Oh my gosh. (gate squeaking) Your world is nothing but toys. This isn't fair. - I've taken a passion, turned it into a boutique hobby business. - [Baldy] Yeah.
- With the sole purpose of doing one of the things that I love best, and yielding a little bit of profit. So I buy new tools, 'cause tools are everything. - That's so awesome. (Mike laughing) - What got me into sidecaring was actually a Ural. I own three of those, and then I wanted something with a little more power.
And to be fair back in the day, a little more reliability. - [Baldy] Yeah. - [Mike] Don't get me wrong.
I love them. (Mike laughing) - [Baldy] Yeah. - [Mike] I've owned five. (Mike laughing) And this is mine.
- [Baldy] Hey, that's some nice decoration you did there. - [Mike] You like that? - [Baldy] Yeah, I do. What'd you do to the headlight? - [Mike] That's an aftermarket kit for a Harley Davidson main light.
And then the two, whatever they call the sidelights. - [Baldy] Yeah. - [Mike] The driving lights that they have. And I wanted to do something a little different and an LED conversion. And this is what I do all day is- - [Baldy] Yeah. - [Mike] Play with stuff and modify it and sparkle things out, so.
- [Baldy] What's that handle down there for? - [Mike] The emergency parking brake that is now supplied on all of them is normally located up here on the handlebar. But it's not a lot of space up here, I want to have room to mount my phone, possibly a GPS. So I relocated it down there on the engine part. - [Baldy] Yeah, nice. How well is that brake hold? - It works surprisingly well. What's going on is they have a combination, a hydraulic and electromechanical caliper.
So the primary caliper is operated on a hydraulic line like you would expect. But this is a cable operated parking brake. As long as you keep it adjusted, which is just like adjusting the throttle in the old days. - Yeah. - With the screw?
- [Baldy] Mine may need adjusting, I noticed it drifts a little and on hills. - Well you can adjust it right there, take up slack right at that point. Or you can back it off here and do it right at the parking brake handle itself. (bell ringing) - Pretty cool. - Pretty simple.
- [Baldy] What else have you done? You put a black rack on the back here? - [Mike] Yeah, it helps me get on and off the bike. I'm an amputee. - Yeah. - It's nice to have a grab handle somewhere back there. - [Baldy] Is that how you got into sidecars? Is you became an amputee? - That's correct, yeah. - [Baldy] And you became an amputee in quite an accident in Russia? - There's a long story there- - Yeah.
- That would go into at some point. - [Baldy] Yeah. (Mike laughing) That's a good point. - Maybe over a beer or two. - [Baldy] Oh, okay. We'll do that. - Okay.
(Mike laughing) Mike, a little teary-eyed so. - [Baldy] Oh, that's okay. - [Mike] And another thing I do is just because I can, and I've got the stashes.
I'm slowly converting all the hardware over to stainless steel or high strength alloy. - [Baldy] Oh, wow. - One bolt at a time. I've done that- - Yeah.
- On my previous one. I think it's about three pounds of fasteners total. - [Baldy] Oh wow.
- By the time it's set and done. - Wow. - So you can see there's stainless steel on most of it now. - [Baldy] And you added a windshield for the passenger? - [Mike] Yes, that's right. (bell ringing) The deal doesn't come with one stock, but my wife is a avid sidecar and a navigator. - Yeah. So, and how did you make this? - [Mike] That's all on stock Ural parts.
- Oh, it is? - Yup. - [Baldy] So this is an accessory that you buy from Ural? - [Mike] Many the standard gear up, I believe. - Yeah. - And also the cT come with a windshield. The GEO for some reason, didn't. - [Baldy] I see.
- [Mike] In spite of it's astronomical price tag- - Uh-huh. - But that's okay. (Mike laughing) - Yeah. - [Mike] I know where to get parts. - [Baldy] It looks like you've done some things to be an amputee, and be able to pilot it.
- [Mike] Oh yeah, this is a great little product from my favorite Ural dealership, which is a Raceway Services down in Salem, Oregon. - Yeah. - [Mike] And this is what they call their twin stick shifter. So we've got a tank shifter which operates on a crossbar to linkage, and operates the standard transmission shift shaft. And then below it, they have a reversing lever. - Oh, I see.
- [Mike] So I don't have to use the pedal to reverse as well. - [Baldy] Oh, that's nice. - [Mike] Kind of just clean things up a little bit. - [Baldy] That's nice. But you still got the nitron shocks on there? - [Mike] I do.
I wanted to install a shocks that I've imported and dealer for. However, a change was made to what's called the "reaction arm" for the rear caliper. - Yeah. - Which interferes
with those shocks but not with the nitron. - Yeah. - So, I'm waiting for some modifications from France before I can install. - I see. And that exhaust? - [Mike] This is a GPR exhaust for off-road use only, okay? - Oh, okay. - [Mike] I've said the disclaimer. It's available as an accessory product on the gear up. It came as part of the GEO package, and I was able to work some magic with the people in Ural, and get the ceramic black coated exhaust system instead- - Oh yeah, nice. - Of the stainless steel, so.
- [Baldy] That's nice. So show me some stainless steel fasteners. - Well, we could just start at the front end.
I mean just all the fender, holders, headlights, I'm basically doing the small stuff first. You can see here all the accessory racks and stuff which I installed myself. All stainless steel fasteners and I just started the front end, and worked my way back. As a builder, one of the things that's always disappointed me about American sidecar builders is a client delivers a hundred percent metric motorcycle. - [Baldy] Yeah.
- And everything on the sidecar is basically inch SAE. - [Baldy] Yeah. - Which you know, tools are available for both. That's not a big deal, but out in the field when you have to repair something. - [Baldy] Yeah. - I think it's just, frankly, I think it's rude.
Metric fasteners are available. - [Baldy] Yeah. (Mike laughing) - I'm a one man shop- - Wow. - That I've got metric fasteners. - [Baldy] Whoa. (soft thudding)
You have got metric fasteners. (Baldy laughing) These are all stainless or? - [Mike] Those are all statements, yeah. - [Baldy] Once they get into the bigger ones, (metal clanging) especially for the sidecar chassis and rigging, (laud thudding) we switched over to a great 12.3 blue oxide alloy steal fasteners. Which is the highest commercially available 10-cell strength fastener. (metal clanging) I had three of the earlier carborated two-wheel drive gear ups.
And in 2020, I had a 2020 gear up. And shortly after going through and modifying it to my wants and desires, I saw the first commercial for the 2021 limited edition GEO. And I said, "Gotta have it." (upbeat music) (telephone ringing) (speaking in foreign language) - Svetlana says she could only do 20. - [Baldy] Why'd you gotta have it? - I just love the machines. They're very honest.
I kind of have a long and storied history with Ural. And now that I'm building sidecars, I can really appreciate them for what they are. They're a very cool machine. And I think they really captured the essence of the whole genre. - [Baldy] So what makes this one so much better than the 2020? - Oh, the paint job.
I mean, that's it. - [Baldy] Wow. Ural World Headquarters, let's see what we got in here.
Oh, no soliciting. I wonder if that includes me. Wow. So how did the company come up with the idea for Ural GEO? - Do you want the real story? - [Baldy] Yeah. (Madina laughing) - The real, real story? - [Baldy] The real, real story.
- Well, the guys always wanted to do the bike off-road, that they always wanted to have. - [Baldy] Uh-huh. - [Madina] They wanted to go all out and just build what they would ride. - [Baldy] Yeah.
- That's true. - Yeah. - But what color? (Madina laughing) That was really a question. You want the real story? - I do. - About six months before those sessions, I was walking in this store and I saw a completely different looking sneakers. And so one of those sessions, we sat down and we started... (Madina laughing)
Not these! We sat down and we were thinking outdoor, adventure, off road, it's gotta be camouflage. - Yeah. - But camouflage we already have, and it's kind of nothing new. And I thought, what about geometric camouflage? We didn't even think that we'll do a whole video production on it.
- [Baldy] Yeah. Oh, the video was genius. - The video was incredible. It was probably one of the best fun concepts that we've done. - Yeah, yeah. - There's quite a bit of background for, it's the ins and outs of the creative process. - Yeah, yeah. - It's bloody! (Madina laughing) - [Baldy] Yeah, yeah.
- The creative process you bring and then you break, and then you build again. - Yeah. - Ilya edit some of his magic to it. - [Baldy] Uh-huh. - And that's how we came up with these Svetlana line. - Yup, the Svetlana line is so good. It's so good. - That's Ilya's cover lines.
(Madina laughing) - Yeah, so good. I was gonna ask you how could a production company in America understand lines like that? - Well, you know how they understand the... They bring the script in, Ilya says, "It's shit!" (Baldy laughing) And that's where the process starts. So tell me about the development of the GEO. (Ilya sighs) - It was Madina's idea. (Ilya laughing) - [Baldy] Oh, it's Medina's idea? - Yes, she brought up the pictures she found nowhere.
It was a painting, and then we build the idea of a super adventure bike around this painting, basically. - [Baldy] She said when the promo video was made, which is genius. - Uh-huh. - That you looked at it and said, "Oh, that's shit."
- Yes. (Baldy laughing) - [Baldy] And you had an idea for some humor to go in it. - Yeah.
The crazy version is really hard, is they have to come up with couple of scripts, and I didn't like it. I told them I don't like it. They got pissed. - Yeah.
- And then we just went for a walk with Madina and I said like we're missing... It's not that I'm against her, we need something which will explain why we did the bike the way it is. - [Baldy] And then the idea you came up with was? - That was the true story. (Ilya laughing) Because it's a very complicated paint scheme. Very, very complicated.
It takes many, many hours to make it, and the factory agreed to do it, but they said, "Guys we need to limit it, because we can't spend hours, and hours, and hours on this bike. - So. - [Ilya] So this is how Svetlana came to play in this video. - [Baldy] So Svetlana is a real character in the factory? - Yes, Svetlana does all this complicated paint schemes- - Yeah. - Because it's four layer paint. Every layer is masked, painted, masked, painted.
So she does masking by hand. - [Baldy] Wow. - So her name is Svetlana. - [Baldy] But it's a shame you're only making 20 of 'em. Couldn't you sell more? - Uh-huh. They could have...
- [Baldy] But Svetlana would say no? - Svetlana said no. (both laughing) We got like hundred something requests hour after we launch it. - [Baldy] Oh really? Wow. - Yeah. They were sold like phew. - [Baldy] When you go to Russia, can't you say, "Hey Svetlana, we got hundreds of requests." "Maybe we should do some more."
- I'll talk to her. (both laughing) I'll see her next Thursday. - [Baldy] And here we are, CEO of Ural in an electric sidecar.
Where else do you get to see this? - Probably nowhere. - [Baldy] So, but you're not producing the electric ones, right? - No, it's quite a no. - [Baldy] But is it a never say never thing? Because... - I would say never, yes. - [Baldy] Someday, maybe we get electric ones, 'cause I really liked this. I thought I would like gas a lot, but it's so quiet.
And you can talk back and forth, and no clutch, no gears. My family would love this. - Well actually I have a list of, it's probably 2000 people maybe more like a wait list. - Oh, really? - Yes, really. - [Baldy] Interesting. - When the amount that we build is a prototype, we posted the wait list so people could provide their names. - [Baldy] Wow.
- I haven't looked at it recently, but last time it was probably a little bit more than 2000. - [Baldy] Wow, that's crazy. - But, this is not near as the Ural GEO. - [Baldy] Yeah, it's more expensive to produce. - Yes. - So after almost six months, a trucker came and picked up my beloved press loner.
(birds chirping) And I can't believe how much I miss it. I asked Ilya, "What's the demographic of Ural Owner?" And he said... - The major thing is that it's a little bit off-center person. (Ilya laughing) - I see. Like me. - Like you or Mike, or all other customers.
- Hi Mike! As Madina gave me the shop tour, I asked why she'd stuck with Ural for more than 20 years. She didn't have a microphone on, but I think you can make out what you she says. - Well, when you ask why I kept going, this is why. It makes people happy. - And that why I missed the GEO, because it made so many people happy.
The neighbors, a couple of houses down had a party the other night. And at the end of the party, they said, "Hey, let's all go over to Chris's house and see his motorcycle." And so old ladies piled into the sidecar and on the back, and we went to the part of the neighborhood with the speed bumps, and we jumped 'em, and they laughed and hollered. So the big question, "Would I buy one?" "Would I upgrade from my beloved 2006?" And I think you know the answer, it's absolutely as long as my wife, the "Countess of Cash" says it doesn't pinch the bank account too much. But unfortunately they're sold out.
So I sent an email to Medina saying, "What happens to used press bikes?" "Do they ever get sold used?" Thanks for watching that whole long saga. If you made it this far, (elated music) you must be, what would Ilya say? - You have to be off-centered. - A little bit crazy. - Yes. - I hope you'll give it a like and subscribe, and join our forum. Let's hear what you have to say, comment on YouTube.
Thanks so much for watching.
2021-06-22 03:37