Are you a sidecar fanatic? Do you collect signed photos of Roberta Bondar and Chris Hadfield? Do you poo-poo those who claim the moon landing tapes were a fraud, concocted by Stanley Kubrick? If so, the latest Ural special edition might be just the thing for you.
Those crazy Russians have named their latest special edition the Ural MIR; it’s supposed to be inspired by the Mir space station. The special paint job is supposed to invoke mental images of gleaming space ships (the colour is “Orbital White”), and there’s a solar panel included to maintain your battery’s charge and provide auxiliary power. You can switch the panel out for a luggage rack, if you’re more worried about cargo space).
Other touches include dual LED lamps fronting the sidecar, a custom tonneau cover that can double as a space blanket in an emergency (clever, what?), and an emergency wrench that has a QR code on the side. If you get in trouble, you can scan that code and you’ll be told how to fix your rig. Who needs Houston’s help? Not Russians, that’s for sure.
In a departure from the space theme, though, this is one bike that doesn’t need launch control (see what we did there?). It’s powered by the same old flat twin Ural has used forever, although we assume Ural has included EFI and the other upgrades their lineup saw last year.
Production will be very limited, with North America only getting a handful of these rigs, so if you want one, talk to your dealer now.
GALLERY
Check out all the pics that go with this story! Click on the main sized pic to transition to the next or just press play to show in a slideshow.
