buying a ural in russia and riding home
 

Is it possible to buy a new Ural in Russia or the Stans and riding it back to Ireland. I know it's mad but I want to do something different next year!

The paperwork is a big problem:

1.the carnet de passage will stump you I fear.
2 Registering in Ireland may be impossible.

1.Look at http://sidetour.free.fr/e_index.php to see the problems they had doing something similar to what you propose. It really ruined things for them.

You would need, as far as I can imagine, a Russian carnet de passage. Eek. How's your Russian? Do you rally feel able to do all the Russian paperwork to take the bike out of Russia? Pay into a Russian bank, deal with Russian officials for weeks on end?

Perhaps Russia has a special vehicle export deal with the EU that I don't know about. You need to find this out beforehand.

2. Then you would have to formally import a Russian vehicle into Ireland. Not so hard maybe. But you will not be able to register it for the road: the sidecar is on the wrong side. It fails MOT in UK. I suspect that Ireland has similar rules. You need to find out beforehand.

(I am assuming you mean a Ural sidecar, not solo).

In UK some MOT stations don't know about this, and will register it anyway, and some will do it as a Trike, but both these dodges are, well, dodgy, and the Trike loophole has been noticed by the government in recent years so that they are tightening it.

You may end up only being able to ride up and down your driveway. But, as I say, getting it out of Russia will be a task in itself.

Sorry to be so negative. Understand that I am trying to save you from weeks of teeth gnashing on the Russian border.

Why not buy at home? Then everything is easy to put in place, and you can concentrate on having a good time. There is no need to make your life too hard. Owning a Ural has enough challenges on that score http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/smile.gif.

Buying a local Ural and riding it to and from the factory in Irbit is very doable, and I am sure they would be pleased to see you.

My advice: don't give up on the dream--just ammend it a bit.

Simon

As far as i'm concerned no Carnet needed in Russia.

What stops you registering Ural in Ireland?

I have read somewhere that Ural's imported in Europa are "export quality" and even these get some modifications by the importer before the sell them.
Why don't you make a deal with your local Ural importer that he does the paperwork for you.
It will cost you some money but save you a lot of problems. Just my 2 cents.

Jan Krijtenburg
http://www.krijtenburg.nl/

If the Ural alternative fails, you can ride a bike from Ireland say to Vladivostok and take the train back (TransSiberian railroad) so you do not backtrack... Probably the most simple, since you will have a bike you had time to customize for the trip.

Just my 2c. Good luck and keep us posted! :-)

Guys, don't forget - Ural don't means "quality". http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/smile.gif))
Anyway russian low let to buy bike and take it in other country. Why not?!

You need to be a highly qualified and resourceful engineer and toolmaker to own and ride a Ural. Many of the parts are made of marshmallow.
N.

I "Ural" would not buy! Though I and I love my country

As a past owner of a Ural sidecar my idea would to be to ride a reliable powerful bike out to the factory and have a proper sided sidecar mounted up at some local blacksmith shop and then ride the outfit home.

hello,

you can have a look at these french people trip website done around the world with an ural sidecar :

http://sidetour.free.fr/

and these other links (some other experiences) :

http://www.motoservices.com/sites/sidecars.htm

just do it, it can be real fun :-)