The latest offering form Ural is the limited edition Yamal. Based on the Soviet-era copy of a post-war BMW, the Yamal, named after a Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker, comes with selectable two-wheel drive and sidecar.
The sidecar is double hulled and is equipped with an oar, presumably for when the road ends and the river begins. The oar comes printed with handy survival instructions including an admonition to save your dog first. And to paddle like heck.
Handy features for travelling to the remote places include dual fog lamps, spare tire and a 3M coating on the lower portion of the sidecar. Both rider and sidecar passenger get a windscreen to keep wind and locusts away from the face.
If you’ve chosen a machine with a sidecar bedecked with a menacing maw painted on the prow, blending in is not likely your aim. So the matte finish day-glo orange seems the only logical colour choice.
While most SUVs never see any off-road use and there are plenty of pick-up trucks that never carry a load, the Yamal attracts the type of rider to circumnavigate the globe and pay little attention to petrol or weather of poor condition. And they might find the oar to be more than decoration.
