Messing around in the margins

Riding solo is hard. At least, if your motorcycle is actually intended for sidecar use. Due to the geometry of the front fork, which is tuned to sidecar riding, such a thing actually only wants to go straight or fall over. This makes a test drive so exciting that you really don't have time to pay attention to the things you want to pay attention to.

The ex-Eastern Bloc members of IMZ (Russian) and KMZ (Ukrainian) have by now made a pleasant group of friends. There too, the 'if he does it, it's a good one' factor has now been overruled by appreciation for originality.

But in their home countries they were machines that were kept running in all poverty and with all available resources. In large parts of that region this is still the case.

In former Eastern Bloc countries, too, the boxers have been discovered in peaceful areas as 'my grandfather's motorcycle'. So serious restorations are being carried out. And by local standards, prices have risen considerably. But countless Urals (IMZ) and Dneprs (KMZ) were made. And many of those ex-plotters (is a powered sidecar wheel handy? Yes, indeed! You can pull a plough with a 2WD Ural or Dnepr!) are still sleeping or slumbering in barns and yards.

Long story short: in Ukraine, there is war. War is only beneficial for a very limited group of people. At best, it doesn’t bother you much. After that, war becomes a nuisance. War generates scarcity.

And what do you do when there is scarcity? Then you try to earn something by selling stuff.

After almost thirty years of tricycle riding I have quite a few contacts in the region. I have heard little from the Russian contacts in recent years. But a lot is offered from Ukraine, often with 'delivery Polish border' as a clause. That border story is important. Because up to two meters from the Polish border the infamous Ukrainian (and Russian) corruption prevails.

What is offered online in Ukraine varies from hopeless to endearing or just good and beautiful. Usually the papers are missing. That can be challenging for export, which is also why there is often the 'delivery just over the Polish border' approach. But there is a lot to find, and everything is possible. A few contacts in the region are very useful. If you don't have them (yet), you can search in Ukraine for:

More information
production motorcycle clip
of
More information
Prodazh klasychnyh mototsykliv

The machine in the pictures is an example of such a local free-range animal. The chassis is almost pure Ural (except for the tank - which has two petrol taps by the way). Year of manufacture??? The engine is a KMZ 750 cc side valve of once nominally 23 hp. That kind of blocks were made until the second half of the sixties. The gearbox is from Ural, so without semi-automatic clutch. The wiring and button shop are probably 'home made'. The coil was bought to grow.

The headlight looks military, the bracket around the headlight must have had some use. The rear light is from a Jawa.

The exhaust system seems to be welded by itself. But at the factory many employees were so drunk during working hours that the whole thing could also be original. The medal with St. Christopher (protector of travelers) shows a Christian slant.

All in all, this happily barking mongrel is now well established and is eager for the next test drive on three wheels.

KMZ stands for Kiev Motor Vehicle Tracking System – Motorcycle Factory Kiev, or Kyiv, or however you want to spell it.