This is the story of how a dying Soviet-era industry and an aging biker population in the United States met and found happiness together on the streets and highways of America.
Think of it as Easy Rider, the golden years. It started as a matter of survival for the Irbit Motor Works, which for decades had churned out its signature Ural motorcycle with sidecar attachment, but which discovered that its business was sputtering into the Post-Communist sunset like so many other Soviet enterprises.
Irbit found salvation in an unlikely niche market: older American riders seeking utility, not thrills or spills. Suddenly the sidecar, a seemingly anachronistic product evoking a World War II newsreel, had a new life among the late middle-aged.
The company shifted its sales strategy overseas in the 1990s and today, despite its deep roots in Russia as the purveyor to the Red Army, it sends 60% of its output to the United States. For the target male consumer, the born-to-run ideal of a motorcycle mama on the back has given way to a spouse or girlfriend riding alongside, holding the dog or the groceries.
Irbit and its dealerships say older bikers represent their core market, but the bike-sidecar combination has also begun to catch on with a younger generation of riders, couples who find its retro look appealing. ?In the Soviet Union, our motorcycle was a workhorse,? said Vladimir N. Kurmachev, Irbit?s factory director. ?Now it is an expensive toy.?
David Reich, 65, a retired carpenter in Salem, Ore., bought a white Ural Patrol from a dealership there last year. ?It?s something my wife and I can both enjoy,? he said in a telephone interview. They considered buying two bikes, he said, but decided on the sidecar so his wife, Jeanne, would not have to get a motorcycle license. Also, they could chat while touring. ?I am having a ball!? Jeanne Reich wrote in an e-mail. ?I enjoy cruising along a few inches off the road with nothing to do but take in the view.?
Peter terHorst, the spokesman for the American Motorcyclist Association, said the average age of its 230,000 members was 48. As people?s strength and coordination wane, he said, ?you see them transitioning to the sidecar.?
?Older couples say it?s just not comfortable to double up,? Kurmachev said during a tour of the shop floor, where sidecars are polished, painted and installed standard on nearly every bike.