Ural moves motorcycle production to Kazakhstan

Ural Motorcycles is almost finished a massive move, setting up manufacturing in Kazakhstan and preparing to resume production for worldwide markets.

Back in May, Ural’s US-based leadership announced the company’s production was on hold, for obvious reasons. Due to economic sanctions against Russia because of the invasion of Ukraine, Ural was unable to acquire necessary components from outside the country. The answer was obvious: Starting building the iconic sidecar rigs in a country that was unaffected by those sanctions. That is why Ural is now starting production in the nation of Kazakhstan, wedged in between Russia and China.

“The process of setting up our new assembly facility is very near completion (!) We are now in the last phase of the set up: bringing in the necessary pieces of assembly equipment and filling warehouse shelves with parts and components,” says an entry on Ural’s website blog.

We’re moving some old (refurbished) assembly fixtures from Irbit, however most of the equipment, hand tools, work benches, test stands, compressors, quality control “tunnel” and other pieces are brand new.

Cool—new tooling will almost certainly result in better-quality motorcycles, once early production issues are sorted out. Ural has modernized its lineup a lot in recent years, but there was still room for quality control improvement.

Ural says it plans to ship new sidecar setups to the US this fall, followed by the rest of the world. Does that mean we can expect Gear-Ups, Patrols, etc., in Canada in September, same as the American market? Hard to say. But it does sound as if parts supply should be running in coming months, even if you might have to wait until next riding season to get your hands on a new Ural. Find more details at imz-ural.com.