LOL. You pessimist 8-) Peace... Sridhar On Mon, 13 Aug 2001, Sellam Ismail wrote:

Upon the date 07:38 AM 8/14/01 -0700, Sellam Ismail said something like: Exactly. You should see the rig. -Chris -- -- Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian Jamestown, NY USA cfandt(a)netsync.net Member of Antique Wireless Association URL: http://www.antiquewireless.org/

On Tue, 14 Aug 2001, Sellam Ismail wrote: Not to worry. If he's willing to take it slowly, he shouldn't have any problem. Remember the <1960 VW bus? Those made it over the rockies. Several times, I drove US40 (which became I70 in the east and I80 west of Salt Lake). The VW bus had 36hp (probably less than Hans' vehicle), and much more body weight (unless he has badly overdone the collecting). 'Course the last time that I drove it, it was with a 1960 bus with 1600cc engine (type 3 converted); it burned a valve in Colorado, and blew oil cooler seal in Nevada. To reduce the mountain driving on the way back, he could go back by way of US66 (or whatever it's called now) That'll get him as far as St. Louis with very little mountains; there he can pick up US40 (I70) to take him back to Baltimore. (Actually, I70 diverts down towards Washington, but US40 went straight through Baltimore.) In the old days (60s and 70s), when most of the city was condemned, US40 in Baltimore was lined with demolition fences made of all of the doors of the buildings being torn down, with periodic marble doorsteps sticking out. Historical? trivia: Coming into Baltimore from the south (on the parkway, long after passing GSFC and NSA), just as you reached Baltimore, there was a big clock tower. What did that clock have instead of numbers? -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com

Upon the date 01:51 AM 8/14/01 -0400, Chad Fernandez said something like: This machine is not a sidecar model. It is one of three prototypes made in 1995 exported to a dealer around Munich to check out whether there was a market. (No, there wasn't!) The machine was intended to be a utility vehicle for use on construction sites to carry small loads. Other uses could be imagined I suppose. I believe Hans mentioned it was presently sold in Russia for the same purpose but in a decidedly updated form. The machine Hans has uses a rear axle and leaf springs from a small, common Russian passenger car called "Moskova" or something like that (IIRC!). The driveshaft out of the Ural gearbox goes through an amidships mounted gearbox which connects to the rear axle through another driveshaft. The middle gearbox evidently matches the gearing of the rearend to the motorcycle gearbox output speed. The cargo box is roughly 4 ft wide x 5 ft long x ~1.5 ft deep. It has a 2.5 ft wide x ~1.5 ft tall door with simple, rather light duty (and poorly welded) hinges on the back of the box. This cargo box affair is mounted upon a boxed frame shackled onto the leaf springs. There is a canvas/vinyl toneau cover which covers the box and a sturdy aluminum frame mounted to the four corners of the box upon 8 inch tall x ~1/2" diameter threaded rod standoffs. The tent is bolted to this frame. Anyway, the box already has several classic computer items within it and is ready to be filled to the top with more (to get this danged thread back towards topic ;-) I didn't see it myself, but there was a Ural with sidecar for sale at our large antique car fleamarket in Dunkirk, NY back in May. The guys who saw Hans' machine Saturday run that flea market and therefore had an approximate idea what they were looking at. Here's a URL (for the URaL ;-) that may be of interest for the history mavens out there: http://www.ural.com/history/index.htm The site is framed and the main page is: http://www.ural.com/home_frame.htm It's the US site for Ural. Yes, they do call them Ural in Russia. For those who can read Russian, here's the URL: http://www.ural.ru/ Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian Jamestown, NY USA cfandt(a)netsync.net Member of Antique Wireless Association URL: http://www.antiquewireless.org/