Sidecar Motorcycle

So you can see what's beyond that next ridge ... or just take a selfie.

Lithium battery technology company Alternet Systems announced Tuesday the formation of a new company that will build an electric motorcycle based on the classic 1938 BMW R71 motorcycle with sidecar used by German troops during World War II and by Steve McQueen to outrun them in the 1963 film "The Great Escape."

As far as we're aware, there isn't another motorcycle in the world – especially one with a sidecar and two-wheel drive – that comes straight from the factory with a wooden oar. As in, for paddling. Which is why the flat-orange-painted Ural Yamal Limited Edition is so great.

Ural, the Russian motorcycle company that specializes in sidecars, has never been known for groundbreaking designs that blaze a trail through electronic gadgetry or super lightweight composites on the way to the most technologically advanced motorcycles possible.

2010 Ural Patrol T – Click above for high-res image gallery

Stars and Stripes. Peanut butter and jelly. Harley-Davidson and sidecars. Okay, fine – one of those pairings is not like the others, but H-D does have a long history of adding a third outrigger wheel to its line of heavyweight motorcycles, starting back in 1914. That's over now.

2010 Ural Patrol T – click above for high-res image gallery

2009 Ural T sidecar motorcycle – Click above for high-res image gallery

Vespa-based sidecar - Click above for high-res image gallery

Ural T sidecar motorcycle - Click above for a high-res image gallery