You've got to hand it to the US importers of Ural motorcycles. They do a
nice line in ad copy
Likening their Yamal combination to the Russian icebreakers that bravely barge through Arctic floes, they tell us that it has "a double hull like the boat" with a '"weather proofed bottom and lower portion of the sidecar body." By the end of the ad, the copywriter has convinced himself that the Yamal is "sea-going." Look, it's even got its own oar.
Up the creek without ... no, hang on a minute
Having spent the best part of a day riding one of these things for a magazine shoot a very long time ago, your correspondent wouldn't disagree with the description of the Ural combo as "heavy, rugged, and focused intently on its mission" - assuming of course that your mission is to sink immediately to the bottom of a Siberian lake. We'd pay good money to be in the public gallery for the first insurance claim focusing on its seaworthiness.
According to the importers, the Ural Yamal can be spotted anywhere. In the opinion of many, that 'anywhere' should be a scrapyard. The one we rode was fatally attracted to walls. By lunchtime, we had worked out that crashing into solid objects was what it was best at, so we spent the rest of the day doing that deliberately rather than accidentally. To give it its due, it did soldier gamely on, which was slightly annoying as it was cold and we all wanted to get home for us teas.
Based on its real-world abilities, the Yamal is quite literally a limited edition. Based on the $14k+ sticker hopefully attached to its toothy flanks, investors will certainly have rarity on their side.
URAL YAMAL
Price: c. $14,000
Why you should: It's got an oar, you won't be able to kill it
Why you shouldn't: You won't be able to kill it, it was a relic before it even left the factory
See the original ad here.