Ural in Media

Trek shows off Russian motorcycle

REDMOND -- The sun was shining on Sergey Sinelnik when he set out on 2,300 miles from Chugiak, Ala., to Redmond.

But when he hit the Canadian border, the 29-year-old Russian says, nature took a dislike to him. The snow and fog were so bad that Sinelnik and his Ural Wolf motorcycle went down in the ice of the Alaska-Canadian Highway.

No matter. In the 22,000 miles he has traveled the world so far, Sinelnik has braved freeze, scorch and even famine, all to prove that the Ural -- a Russian-made motorcycle that goes back 63 years to Stalin's rule-- is the best, most reliable road hog in the world.

For Sinelnik, a Russian renaissance man who takes on adventures for fun and makes art for a living, it's more than marketing -- it's a matter of Russian pride. Though he is sponsored in part by the motorcycle's maker, Irbit MotorWorks, a former state-run factory 1,300 miles east of Moscow in the Ural Mountains, Sinelnik and twin brother Alexander started the trip on their own in July 2002.

Traveling the world on a Ural was just the next thing to do. Sinelnik, who grew up in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, says he got the idea in 2001 on a yacht trip he and Alexander made of Europe.

Last year, the brothers rode a Ural Wolf 5,600 miles from Moscow to Vladivostok, a far eastern port. They followed with a trip to the Rock of Gibraltar and a tour of Africa that took them 8,900 miles through Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, the Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya.

The Sahara crossing alone was 435 miles of roadless sand simmering at 122 degrees. But Sinelnik said the Sahara wasn't that much of a problem. Famine in Ethiopia was.

``In Russia, we had some bad roads, but in any village you could buy food,'' Sinelnik said through an interpreter. ``In Ethiopia, there were no roads and no food.''

Sinelnik, who started the North American leg of his trip Oct. 15 with friend Timur Ibatullin, stopped last Tuesday at Redmond-based Irbit MotorWorks of America -- the company's first factory-owned distributorship, which replaced a previous Preston-based distributor in January.

Given Russia's difficult economy, the story of Irbit MotorWorks' resurrection is heroic in itself.

In 2000, three businessmen with their own streak of Russian pride -- Ilya Khait, Dmitry Lebedinsky and Vladimir Yudin, a record-holding motorcycle champion -- took out bank loans and bought Irbit MotorWorks with a dream that they could turn out motorcycles for the world market.

At the time of the sale, the company was bankrupt and its factory -- which ran in part on crusty, Soviet-era machinery -- had been closed six months.

The partners reopened the plant in 2000, hiring just 1,400 of the 10,000 people who once worked there. In the past two years, said general manager and partner Khait, the factory has turned out 1,500 bikes a year, selling 850 in 2001 and 1,300 in 2002.

Khait says Irbit has yet to turn a profit -- but so far the partners are cashing in on the retro style of what is now five models of Urals. Three continue a tradition that makes Urals unique: They are the only mass-production bikes built with a wheel drive for a sidecar.

Like many products made in Soviet times, the first Urals that rolled off the production line in 1942 were a direct copy of Germany's BMW R71, which the Russians had secretly ordered through Sweden and tore apart to ``re-engineer.'' The Russians then used the bikes to fight off the Nazi invasion of World War II.

That history and the World War II look helps sell the large bikes, which cost up to $10,000 with a sidecar.

``We were young and crazy,'' Khait jokes of buying the factory.

The three partners and Sinelnik, however, believe in the bikes and their Russian ruggedness. In a sense, that makes Sinelnik's trip more a show of Russian grit than a promotion of Ural motorcycles.

Sinelnik said he was delighted to find Americans -- whom he pictured being too caught up in their own business -- welcoming and inquisitive about his journey. But he laughs at the idea that anyone would think the trip extraordinary or call him a hero.

``When you ride in a foreign country on a bike made in your own, it makes you feel better,'' Sinelnik said, adding that he shares the sentiment of d'Artagnan, Alexander Dumas' fourth musketeer:

``Life is boring without feats and adventure,'' Sinelnik said.

Irbit MotorWorks comes to Redmond

REDMOND -- When the going gets tough, the tough make their own deal.

That's what Gary Kelsey did with Russia's Ural-brand motorcycles.

Last year, Kelsey, a former employee of the distributor that first imported the Russian-made riders back in 1993 -- Classic Motorcycles & Sidecars of Preston -- approached the makers of Ural bikes to suggest they open their own U.S. distributorship.

The Russian owners agreed, canceled their contract with Classic Motorcycles, and went into business with Kelsey, opening Redmond's new Irbit MotorWorks of America in January.

Kelsey credits his former employer for being the first to introduce the Urals on a commercial scale, but said the company wasn't doing enough to promote the bikes.

The retro-looking Urals, which were first produced in Russia during World War II, are the only motorcycles in the world with a factory-built wheel drive for a sidecar.

Three Ural models still come with sidecars for around $10,000.

Since 2000, the owners of Irbit MotorWorks, which is named for the Russian city in the Ural Mountains where the factory is located, have also introduced two solo models without sidecars.

In the past two years, sales of the motorcycles have grown from 850 to 1,300 bikes worldwide. Kelsey hopes to boost that with the new U.S. distributorship, which now has 28 dealers.

The uniqueness of the Ural bikes is a key selling point, Kelsey said. ``There really is no competition,'' he said.

``Irbit is the only company that makes the sidecar-motorcycle combination,'' Kelsey said. ``The closest (competitor) would be Harley-Davidson because they do produce a sidecar.''