I love getting emails from readers. One that I get often is along the following lines:

“how's your ural been, do you have breakdowns? I have been thinking about buying a new one but worried about dropping 14K on a bike that has a dodgy reputation and I don’t personally have anybody around here to ask.”

Now that I’ve owned my 2009 Ural Patrol for 24 months and put on 14,000km, here are my thoughts.
Every vehicle has breakdowns. I think Ural's bad rap started with the low quality machines in the 90s and early 2000s. Every year they improve. The new ones are an amazing improvement over pre-2007. Here is a summary of Ural changes 2003 to 2011.

My Patrol needs more TLC than my other bikes due to the shorter maintenance intervals, but the maintenance has been generally easier than my other bikes. What would I improve? Add fuel injection and tubeless car tires. 10mph more top speed wouldn’t hurt either; it isn’t an interstate cruiser. It is more of a street-legal ATV. I like to call it my Russian lawn tractor.

Be prepared to be social when on/near the Ural; it attracts attention which is commonly referred to as UDF (Ural Delay Factor). Buying a gallon of gas or a loaf of bread can easily take an extra five to ten minutes as you answer questions like “what is it”, “a Ural, who makes that”, “how old is it”, “where did you get it”, etc.

Ural is a small company that sells about 650 motorcycles in the USA a year. They built 1,100 in 2011 for the whole world. Urals are made in Russia which means when parts are out of stock they have to come on a boat which takes about a month. I have owned my Ural since purchased new two years ago. I bought it as seen in the crate above. The dealer assembled it. I have had some problems with my Ural. It has never left me on the side of the road, and it has always gotten me home. Many of the issues I experienced were can be traced back to the dealer I bought it from.

I mistook them for knowledgeable people, but I was very wrong and paid for it. They started importing Urals in the late 90s, but before I bought mine they lost their good Ural mechanic. Their normal mechanics caused many problems (see list below) due to their inexperience with Urals and sidecars. The original dealer generally made my first year of ownership very incredibly painful.

I have since found a competent sidecar/old bike mechanic to augment my abilities and provide warranty support and parts. My Ural experience during my second year of ownership has improved. I've also purchased the extended warranty to bring the regular two years out to three years.

Original Purchase Dealer caused problems (covered under warranty):
My fault:
Manufacturer failures (covered under warranty):
Failures I did not explore warranty replacement since not worth riding 50 miles one way:
Ideas of regular Ural maintenance:
Answers to common questions: The Fun:

I would buy one again because it is fun and similar features (leading link forks, 2wd, and reverse) cannot be had for similar money ($13,000). I sold my car to buy my Patrol in 2009. It allows me to ride year round in Minnesota. A Ural isn't for everyone, but for my riding needs, it works great.
[null, null, {"document_url": "http://www.everydayriding.org/2011/11/review-my-2009-ural-patrol.html", "unformatted_src": "http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5243/5207568598_ea00d53918.jpg", "src": "http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5243/5207568598_ea00d53918.jpg", "formatted_filename": "ea d", "alt_text": "Snowy Thanksgiving Day Ride 2010 with the Ural", "rendered_width": 500, "rendered_height": 333}, null, {"document_url": "http://www.everydayriding.org/2011/11/review-my-2009-ural-patrol.html", "unformatted_src": "http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2627/4141381333_49b37be46c.jpg", "src": "http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2627/4141381333_49b37be46c.jpg", "formatted_filename": "b be c", "alt_text": "My new 2009 Ural Patrol still in crate", "rendered_width": 500, "rendered_height": 375}, null, {"document_url": "http://www.everydayriding.org/2011/11/review-my-2009-ural-patrol.html", "unformatted_src": "http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6175/6181004587_bc1581ff3d.jpg", "src": "http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6175/6181004587_bc1581ff3d.jpg", "formatted_filename": "bc ff d", "alt_text": "tail in the air", "rendered_width": 500, "rendered_height": 273}, null, {"document_url": "http://www.everydayriding.org/2011/11/review-my-2009-ural-patrol.html", "unformatted_src": "http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4062/4614913492_e3569c2231.jpg", "src": "http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4062/4614913492_e3569c2231.jpg", "formatted_filename": "e c", "alt_text": "Ural after playing in the mud in Carlos Avery", "rendered_width": 500, "rendered_height": 333}, null, null, {"document_url": "http://www.everydayriding.org/2011/11/review-my-2009-ural-patrol.html", "unformatted_src": "http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GKH1AztXZaA/TnOWjqZQz7I/AAAAAAAAKq8/DtuC4GET4-M/s1600/twitter.png", "src": "http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GKH1AztXZaA/TnOWjqZQz7I/AAAAAAAAKq8/DtuC4GET4-M/s1600/twitter.png", "formatted_filename": "twitter", "alt_text": "twitter"}, {"document_url": "http://www.everydayriding.org/2011/11/review-my-2009-ural-patrol.html", "unformatted_src": "http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4TV-083iwXo/TnOWizZnESI/AAAAAAAAKq0/nJs4HRu7nIE/s1600/facebook.png", "src": "http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4TV-083iwXo/TnOWizZnESI/AAAAAAAAKq0/nJs4HRu7nIE/s1600/facebook.png", "formatted_filename": "facebook"}, {"document_url": "http://www.everydayriding.org/2011/11/review-my-2009-ural-patrol.html", "unformatted_src": "http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TPkpT5EUhOE/TnOXJ1wdLaI/AAAAAAAAKrE/_Iz1bspMUkg/s1600/youtube.png", "src": "http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TPkpT5EUhOE/TnOXJ1wdLaI/AAAAAAAAKrE/_Iz1bspMUkg/s1600/youtube.png", "formatted_filename": "youtube", "alt_text": "youtube"}, {"document_url": "http://www.everydayriding.org/2011/11/review-my-2009-ural-patrol.html", "unformatted_src": "http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6dgRaKEI6ik/TnOXURKW4cI/AAAAAAAAKrI/48vFTaULP_4/s1600/flickr.png", "src": "http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6dgRaKEI6ik/TnOXURKW4cI/AAAAAAAAKrI/48vFTaULP_4/s1600/flickr.png", "formatted_filename": "flickr", "alt_text": "flickr"}, {"document_url": "http://www.everydayriding.org/2011/11/review-my-2009-ural-patrol.html", "unformatted_src": "http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CLvy62Y4128/TnOXIhoifmI/AAAAAAAAKrA/b_kiuGv-YM0/s1600/vimeo.png", "src": "http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CLvy62Y4128/TnOXIhoifmI/AAAAAAAAKrA/b_kiuGv-YM0/s1600/vimeo.png", "formatted_filename": "vimeo", "alt_text": "vimeo"}, null, null, null, null, null]