Jeff Yarington of Saint Motor Company aimed to make a sleekest and sexiest custom Ural motorcycle ever. We think he might just did it! As almost with every Ural, this particular one is full of neat stories, further adding to the value of owning these bikes.It was purchased new in Moscow 17 years ago and it had 250km before it was shipped back to US. With all the spare parts already purchased by the owner (new carbs, tires and pistons) the whole bike was resembled, and fired up in 3rd or 4th kick. Then it starter smoking.
This is what Jeff says about it:
This bike was purchased in Russia new by a gentleman from Virginia that was stationed there at the time. He rode it in Moscow a bit & then had it shipping back to his father in the US, then later shipped up to Va to a friends farm that rode the kids around in the side at the farm. The bike had 250 Kilometers on it when I bought it from him. It had never sat outside & cleaned to almost new condition, with the exception of hard wires & bad switch or two.
When I arrived home with the bike, I put a battery in, flicked to battery kill switch & it disregarded, replaced that, opened carbs to see they were gunked up badly from bowls being left full before stored last few years. The old owner had bought new carbs, new tires & new loaded pistons new when he bought the bike in Russia to have spare parts…..nice. I put on the other carbs, checked oil, looked cylinders to make sure they were clean, & it fired up on 3erd or 4th kick.. It ran for a minute, then started to smoke. I rode it around a couple miles, it rode great. When I got back I noticed the lever on the right side of bike, realized this bike had been a sidecar bike & it struck me that this thing has reverse! I was grinning ear to ear.
I did some research, asked about the issue with smoke, got a lot of good suggestions for Ural smart people crank case vent, oil drain back hole from head, rings, valve seals, all the normal stuff that makes sense. I had the cylinder off & every thing look new, still had honing marks in cylinder, everything checked out perfect. Then one savior on Jockey Journal wrote all excited, “I just remembered what I was trying to, I know whats wrong with the Ural. Some of the new ones back then had wrist pins that were to tight in the rods, they need to be a light tap in the pistons, but finger slide thru rod.”
If not, the piston cant freely pivot & each stoke will rock the piston in the cylinder & them having oil rings above the pin & the extra oil ring below the pin, & being a flat twin, when piston gots out & in & tilting a hair in, & hair out instead of freely pivoting, itll scoop oil into the cylinder a hair, as well as out.
I tore it down again, right side was fine, free moment on rod, tore down left side Bingo! The piston required a bit of effort to rock it on the rod. The piston had light marks on the skirts so it made perfect sense. I emory clothed the wrist pin forever until I had a slide fit into the rod, reassembled.
Smoking problem diagnosed & fixed 16 years after it was new
***I Raked the front end a bit, moved the upper mounts on rear shock forward to lower bike & get swingarm to be level to ground, unbolted the rear frame section at rear fender, & made a new rear tube section, then made the sheet metal for seat & tail welding it all solid. So to put it on center stand is esy, you can grab under tail & pull back, it’s rear frame around all edges & strong as a rock..
***I replaced the gas tank with a sleeker old Yamaha tank, then cut out the tunnel & deepened it so tank would sit perfectly level to seat.
***I welded up the riser holes up front ends upper tree, made the individual handlebars & welded them to the tree & smoothed. I added a bit nicer lever sets & throttle, & obviously removed all the crap from the front end & all wiring from bike.
***I removed the large sidecar lug from frame & smoothed any un needed brackets
***I Removed the Transmission & cut off the lower air cleaner housing that was cast in it, then ground, filed & sanded & scuffed aluminum so it looks like it was supposed to be like that. It leaves the whole center section of bike open, I wanted this bike to look super minimal, beautiful motor, large wheels & a seat.
***I was stuck on the idea that I wanted to have downdraft carb so they could go up, & have velocity stacks that would be up beside the tank, & then after a few try at various exhaust setups, my friend matt told me to try them out to the side, I did & it grew on me that night, so that is what I did. There is a small restricted welded into pipe so motor will have a bit of the back pressure it needs since it is a low rpm motor.
The carb manifolds I made, & velocity stacks I made. The Carbs are 80’s Weber downdraft carbs that were used to replace the solex carbs on 1100 VW motors that were rated at 36 hp.
***I made the seat & hand molded the thick leather to the foam underneath I then branded it with a star, (like star in fire til red, then psshhh on seat
***I made a new reverse lever just a hair longer & threaded to old solid brass handle to it, and added the copper sleeve to the kick lever.
***I made new electrical harness using the stock regulator/rectifier & electronic ignition box, the regulator is up in tank tunnel, the ignition module is viewable on left side of bike, it’s a nice looking finned heat sink & I wanted to to show.
Electrics
There is one switch to turn bike ON, which also lights up a green indicator on front ends stem, dead center.The is a Old style headlight switch, pull it out once, low beams, pull it out a second click for high beams, at which point a blue indicator in the top of headlight lights up.
That’s it, 2 switches, period.
Replacement parts
Are readily available from a number of places in US & many in other countries that are cheap & fast to get. I was dumbfounded when I search parts for Urals on ebay, pistons $40, jugs $80, compete hub, spoked to rim, $80 new….silly almost. I really fell in love with the simplicity of these bikes as I worked on it.Pictures tell 1000 words. The Black baby pictured is the bike as it was when I brought it home. I love the seat on the rear fender with hold onto strap.
Source: Saint Motor Company and eBay
Tags: 1994, custom, for sale, Jeff, Racer, Saint Motor Company, sidecar, URAL, Yarington
Is it still a kickstart?
This was nice to come across, thank you.
Dennis, yes, still a kick start, and still has reverse.
Hey. I’m from Ukraine, so forgive me in advance for my English. Very inspired by your motorcycle. I want to do something like that. Could you share the experience, what you should pay attention, you could have any drawings?