Ural manufactures several 2 wheel drive sidecar models, and we’ve seen a few 2 wheel drive motorcycles, including this recent KTM conversion, but the sidecar rig you see here takes it to the next level and drives all three. Pretty it isn’t, functional and capable it is, especially for the muddy off road Russian countryside where it lives.

The Russians seem to be pretty serious about their Urals. Though the Ural was cloned from an early BMW design, the BMWs you see out and about, especially the GS models that look like they’re ready for anything, are more often clean and sparkling posers, while these Urals are mucking about in the backwoods. The Russians take whatever tools they have available and cobble something together, like this sidecar outfit, and head out to the muddiest out of the way road they can find and see if it works.

This outfit just shouts crude. Nothing is done for appearance, it’s all function, but after watching several videos, you won’t notice the looks, all you’ll see is how it motors through impossible roads and you’ll appreciate what the builder did.

There doesn’t seem to be any photos of this rig, just the video.

I’m not sure where the Ural ends and the homemade begins, but there’s a LOT of homemade here. Rough welds on square tubes, wooden planks for the sidecar, and driveshafts rigged up to the front wheel and third wheel.

BMW could produce something like this, but it would be impeccably engineered and finished and cost at least $50,000. It would be offered with $900 multi-pocketed jackets and $700 off road boots, maybe a BMW logo jerry can for the extra fuel necessary for those off road adventures planned for the future. Ural could do it, too, though it would cost less. Or, you can forget the factory and just do like this guy and start cutting and welding.

I kinda like this. It’s not something I want to do and certainly not a road I would want to ride on, but I can appreciate what this rig is capable of and what the owner built. Interesting.

Thanks for the tip, Nicolas.

Videos below: