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bigswifty wrote:

By the angle on that front wheel it looks he is about to lowside the thing.
That or he is only going about 5mph...

Now here is the motorcycle sidecar unit that the Ural can only wish it was. This is a WW2 BMW R75 with sidecar and ammo trailers. Think of the camping gear you could haul along. This baby had the more advanced overhead valve engine, with a snorkel intake that went up through the gas tank. The exhaust was a two-into-one that ran up high along the right hand side. The sidecar wheel was driven, not by the simple solid unit like the Ural, but by a true split differential, with several reverse speeds, I believe there were eight forward speeds. Tires were the same as issued on the Kubelwagen (German jeep). This was one tough piece of kit that could carry three soldiers, an MG-34 and all their ammo rapidly into battle. The Urals were reversed engineered copies of the early BMW R71 that was essentially a militarized civilian unit. The R75 was all military and wasn't shared with anyone.

now this is how you build a sidecar:

some passenger participation required

but if you're looking for slow, unmanuverable... and massively cool:

why does it even have the frontend on it?... as if you could actually steer with it. 7ft long, with a 100ft turning radius?

mysta2 wrote:now this is how you build a sidecar:

some passenger participation required

but if you're looking for slow, unmanuverable... and massively cool:

why does it even have the frontend on it?... as if you could actually steer with it. 7ft long, with a 100ft turning radius?

The Kettenkrad was steered with the conventional looking front wheel that was linked by cables to track brakes, thus giving it a more natural feel rather than pulling on levers as per a typical tracked vehicle. They are cool looking machines alright