Ural

This plug-in sidecar motorcycle comes as a major surprise.

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

Is there anything cooler than a motorcycle with a sidecar? No. The answer is no.

Ural has a motorcycle ready for Darth Vader with its new Dark Force special edition. The limited bike wears a blacked-out design and packs a light saber on the side.

These Russian bikers take their Urals white-water rafting and completely submerge the cycles to get across a raging river in an incredibly impressive feat.

Ural is taking its already very capable Gear Up motorcycle and making it even more capable for the woods with the new Sportsman Package. With additional body protection and lighting available, the bike should be ready for any trail.

The individualist aspect of motorcycle culture is a well-known thing. Bikers pride themselves on being different, whether they're on the back of a Suzuki or a Harley-Davidson. Ural riders are particularly unique.

I would soon find out that nothing – not mud, not snow and not even a rushing stream of mountaintop runoff acting as a de facto roadblock to vehicles with lesser capabilities – would stand in the way of the 2014 Ural Gear Up making its way to the top of Snoqualmie Pass outside the suburbs of Seattle.

Russian motorcycle maker Ural is known for its adventurous, old-school, go-anywhere bikes, and it is releasing a new limited-edition model to celebrate the original adventurer – the American cowboy. On sale next month, Ural teamed up with Oregon-based blanket and clothier Pendleton Woolen Mills to create the 2013 Ural Gaucho Rambler Limited Edition.

Occasionally, we come across a technology that has just kind of been forgotten about. Take this Ural motorcycle. It runs on a substance called wood gas, which is the byproduct of incomplete combustion of carbon products like wood, hence it's name. The fuel goes through a process called gasification in a wood-gas generator to produce combustible hydrogen and carbon monoxide. So basically, you're burning wood to produce fuel.

If you've been following our friendly neighborhood blog for the last few years, you already know how fond we are of the Ural brand of motorcycles and sidecars. Sharing a life-and-limb endangering moment aboard one and having it deliver you home safely tends to bond man and machine in a way otherwise impossible...

The Midwest was hit by an intense snow storm earlier this week, and while the conditions may have been more appropriate for a snowmobile than most cars, at least one person found it acceptable weather in which to ride a motorcycle. Granted, this wasn't your typical motorcycle. Instead, it was a two-passenger, two-wheel-drive Ural being ridden along the snow-covered Interstate 65 in Indianapolis.

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.

We're in love with the Ural line. The bare-bones bikes have a rugged, no-fuss appeal, but they're also pricey. There's good reason for that: most of Ural's products are hand-built by master craftsmen. Take the video below as proof. Visitors to the Irbit, Russia facility responsible for constructing the bikes recently got to see just what goes into stitching a sidecar together. There are no robots swinging panels around or making precision welds. Just one guy, some metalworking equipment, and a l

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

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

Ural Patrol T and Red October - Click above for high-res image gallery

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

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