Thanks for your fantastic article, tons of interesting information!!!
I’ve been riding motorcycles all my life, from age 14 up until today age 64. It’s in my blood, I’ve riden/owned a variety of makes from Harley to Honda to Triumph as well as many off brands.Finally I have found a Dnepr, at a reasonable price that I plan on making my retirement ride.They are not real popular here in Saskatchewan Canada, so I’m discovering parts are few and expensive. Picked it up last fall, and have started replacing, repairing parts as I find them, but what I really need is information.
Example: I can’t find wheel bearings, I don’t have any type of shop manual, and with out parts numbers local shops and suppliers are of no help. However I will persist, this is probably the last bike project I will take on, and I still have the excitement that I had as a teenager, to complete it. After all, my grandkids are looking forward to sit in the sidecar on the way to the ice cream shop next summer.
Have a great day !!!
B-Cozz
Welcome to the “road to nowhere”
Greetings Kelly Harder. Greetings to Canada 🙂 My late father was born in Nova Scotia!
Firstly, welcome! There is so much to say but here’s the short version. Dnepr (and older Urals) wheel bearings are adjustable taper roller bearings which handle side-loads with a sidecar much better than plain bearings. Perhaps yours might just need a clean and then re-adjustment?
Secondly, please send me an email to cossackpower@gmail.com with the word CANADA in the title line, and I will email you a stack of owners, parts, repair manuals and supplements. Almost all the manuals are in English. Do you know what model/year your Dnepr is? Can you please email me some clear photos of your bike from a few different angles so I can see what model you have. Do you have a Gmail (Google) account? It’s free. Some of the manuals are rather large files but I can share them with you thru Google Drive (cloud), You could even print them out for your workshop. I have a large folder with clear plastic sleeves, perfect for oily hands 🙂
The standard adjustable taper roller wheel bearings are part number 7204 (204) Inner diameter 20mm: Outer diameter 47mm; Width 14mm. There are a few tools needed: a c-spanner, a two-pronged wrench, a mandrel and a drift for reinstalling, but you’ll see all this in the manuals. I’ve seen it done on the roadside with a large screwdriver and a hammer, tap tap tap tap.
If you think in inches it’s time to go metric!
Finally, there is a Canadian owners group CURD (Canadian Ural/Dnepr Riders Group, weblink: https://www.curdforum.net/ *bunch of cheeseheads 🙂 on their former website I was member 007. Ignore the free download button, it’s an ad/scam
Looking forward to your reply Kelly Harder. Sincerely, JD
note: I already sent a e-mail to Kelly with bearing details, no worries, you can’t get too much info 😉 Also info for manuals and so on, but photos and questions I would like to see on the blog ! John