Post by tone on Sept 18, 2014 1:34:24 GMT 10
G'day Ural Comrades,
The Off Centre Rally happened to coincide with my holidays so it was a given that I was taking the Ural for a cruise up there. And a cruise it was, I was going with John Cecil a long time mate that has done a fair bit of outback stuff as well. His BMW K1100 outfit he built was made for what Australia's outback can dish out plus more. We left Bendigo and after a few days got to Burra to meet up with John Sargant from Adelaide on his very modified BMW K1100. And so from there it was on to the Kimberley via the Oodnadatta Track but because of rain we turned off at just north of William creek to Coober Pedy. And spent days on the boring Stuart Hwy. Arriving at Leigh Creek I ordered some tyres from Ural Australia to be picked up in Alice Springs, because I didn't have enough time to fit the new ones I had at home before I left. I have to thank Claire she was very helpful in sending them, but because of a train derailment I had to wait a few more days in Alice to pick them up. We turned off at Dunmarra Nth off Tennant Creek to head to Timber Creek via Top Springs. Top Springs has only one fuel type pub known as the Wanda Inn. Things we're going to smoothly and after checking the bikes one morning, John from Bendigo noticed a small crack around the flange of the rear wheel stub axle. Nothing to do but to weld it up, we asked the guy at Top Springs but we were told, well we didn't get to use his workshop. So under a big tree on the side of the place we pulled out the offending part and using 3 batteries and jumper leads, using a pair of vice grips as the rod holder, we welded it up.
Having been in the Kimberley quite a few times, this time the "Road" up to Drysdale Station from the Gibb River turn off was the worst I seen it, defiantly foot apart and foot deep corrugations. Not real fun on the Ural at any speed, so took to riding with the sidecar wheel in the scrub on the side of the said road. Riding out was a wee bit different when I hit something hiding in the grass, which I didn't notice until back in Kununurra. Worked out ok though, pressed the "dint' out with John's hydraulic jack, lucky I had steel rims.
The OCR at Drysdale was another success with $2500 being raised for the RFDS, one of the highest bidders was Olly. Olly And Kaz rode their Ural Tourist from Mandurah Sth of Perth to Drysdale in three days, a amassing feat. On the way out of Ellenbrae we met Olly again and found that he had a broken rear rack, so with some branches and wire we fixed it up, it lasted him back home, we got a text later telling us that the "stick welding" had lasted the distance, good one Olly.
The John's on the BM's and my Ural went down the west coast, through Perths big storm, onto Esperance up to Norseman then across the Nullaboring dropping into the Ural Flinders Rangers Rally on the way through to home.
On the trip we were checking our fuel consumption and I found that the Ural was averaging 14.5 km's/ltr or around 45mpg around the same as the BMW's, so a bit of a lets see who gets the best consumption went on. Although the Urals consumption of fuel was good, we were traveling around 85 to 90 kph. I feel it could be down to my modified air box combined with the two into one exhaust system I'd developed for it. The Urals are so choked up and have lots of potential.
So what went wrong with the Ural, well apart from a weeping final drive seal and the rear tire change in Alice, another one was put on the sidecar. At 27000 discovered a loose Universal, so I bought the K5-A701 universal from Broome Bearings and installed it at the Sandfire roadhouse, they let me use their vice in the workshop so long as I donated to the RFDS, a lesson that Top Springs could learn from.
Going into Esperance the Ural backfired when ever I backed off, checking it out I found that it had a split inlet rubber. Not having a spare I put some Sikaflex and a strip of old tube with a hose clamp on it. This worked ok for the day but found it was slipping off as the fuel was attacking the Sikaflex. So used some tape that is like heat shrink, this worked fantastic until Norseman, where I ordered a new rubber from Western Australian Ural dealer John at Classic MC at Wangara. He posted it to Balladonia but we got there before it so I had it posted onto Eucla where it was put on in about 10mins. So thats about it for 13500 kms now just put in a seal in the final drive, give it a wash and oil change and ready for the next outing.
The Off Centre Rally happened to coincide with my holidays so it was a given that I was taking the Ural for a cruise up there. And a cruise it was, I was going with John Cecil a long time mate that has done a fair bit of outback stuff as well. His BMW K1100 outfit he built was made for what Australia's outback can dish out plus more. We left Bendigo and after a few days got to Burra to meet up with John Sargant from Adelaide on his very modified BMW K1100. And so from there it was on to the Kimberley via the Oodnadatta Track but because of rain we turned off at just north of William creek to Coober Pedy. And spent days on the boring Stuart Hwy. Arriving at Leigh Creek I ordered some tyres from Ural Australia to be picked up in Alice Springs, because I didn't have enough time to fit the new ones I had at home before I left. I have to thank Claire she was very helpful in sending them, but because of a train derailment I had to wait a few more days in Alice to pick them up. We turned off at Dunmarra Nth off Tennant Creek to head to Timber Creek via Top Springs. Top Springs has only one fuel type pub known as the Wanda Inn. Things we're going to smoothly and after checking the bikes one morning, John from Bendigo noticed a small crack around the flange of the rear wheel stub axle. Nothing to do but to weld it up, we asked the guy at Top Springs but we were told, well we didn't get to use his workshop. So under a big tree on the side of the place we pulled out the offending part and using 3 batteries and jumper leads, using a pair of vice grips as the rod holder, we welded it up.
Having been in the Kimberley quite a few times, this time the "Road" up to Drysdale Station from the Gibb River turn off was the worst I seen it, defiantly foot apart and foot deep corrugations. Not real fun on the Ural at any speed, so took to riding with the sidecar wheel in the scrub on the side of the said road. Riding out was a wee bit different when I hit something hiding in the grass, which I didn't notice until back in Kununurra. Worked out ok though, pressed the "dint' out with John's hydraulic jack, lucky I had steel rims.
The OCR at Drysdale was another success with $2500 being raised for the RFDS, one of the highest bidders was Olly. Olly And Kaz rode their Ural Tourist from Mandurah Sth of Perth to Drysdale in three days, a amassing feat. On the way out of Ellenbrae we met Olly again and found that he had a broken rear rack, so with some branches and wire we fixed it up, it lasted him back home, we got a text later telling us that the "stick welding" had lasted the distance, good one Olly.
The John's on the BM's and my Ural went down the west coast, through Perths big storm, onto Esperance up to Norseman then across the Nullaboring dropping into the Ural Flinders Rangers Rally on the way through to home.
On the trip we were checking our fuel consumption and I found that the Ural was averaging 14.5 km's/ltr or around 45mpg around the same as the BMW's, so a bit of a lets see who gets the best consumption went on. Although the Urals consumption of fuel was good, we were traveling around 85 to 90 kph. I feel it could be down to my modified air box combined with the two into one exhaust system I'd developed for it. The Urals are so choked up and have lots of potential.
So what went wrong with the Ural, well apart from a weeping final drive seal and the rear tire change in Alice, another one was put on the sidecar. At 27000 discovered a loose Universal, so I bought the K5-A701 universal from Broome Bearings and installed it at the Sandfire roadhouse, they let me use their vice in the workshop so long as I donated to the RFDS, a lesson that Top Springs could learn from.
Going into Esperance the Ural backfired when ever I backed off, checking it out I found that it had a split inlet rubber. Not having a spare I put some Sikaflex and a strip of old tube with a hose clamp on it. This worked ok for the day but found it was slipping off as the fuel was attacking the Sikaflex. So used some tape that is like heat shrink, this worked fantastic until Norseman, where I ordered a new rubber from Western Australian Ural dealer John at Classic MC at Wangara. He posted it to Balladonia but we got there before it so I had it posted onto Eucla where it was put on in about 10mins. So thats about it for 13500 kms now just put in a seal in the final drive, give it a wash and oil change and ready for the next outing.
