The Motorcycle

On May 15th I picked up a Ural Gear Up (in Europe they call this model “Ranger”) from Hari Schwaighofer, the European distributor of Ural Motorcycles.

Besides being involved in the sales and marketing side of the Ural business, Hari is involved with the factory in outsourcing. He helps find, establish and maintain relationship with suppliers of components throughout Europe, such as Brembo disc brakes, Ducati Ignition, Domino Controls, and Herzog gears for the engine and transmission. Even the new Italian toolkits that are on todays Urals all come from European suppliers through Ural Motorcycles GmBh before they go to the factory.

Yes, this is a whole different bike than the one I rode in 1995, when I was test riding an almost purely Russian version for the American market. (The book is entertaining, though!)

Route

My route takes me through the European Alps (Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France). I'll stop by to see my friend Alis Agostini of Moto Guzzi in Lake Como.

It'll be difficult to zip through France so quickly, since I really love visiting that country, but my focus is Spain and Morocco, so I'll take the autoroute through the South of France and scoot around in the Pyrenees for a while. Then, I'll take the short, 45-minute ferry ride to Morocco to begin my Moroccan adventure.