The Spirit of the Dnepr motorcycles lives on in people’s hearts!
2 thoughts on “the Spirit of Dnepr lives on”
JD
Hi again Odin, I was just reading thru stuff here and came across your message (again) and thought I’d say hello again, I have been fascinated by the history of Soviet motorcycles since 1969 when I got my first taste of these bikes. I live in Australia, a looong way from Siberia. These Urals were mostly sold here as solo bikes, and quickly gained a terrible reputation, most seemed to fail due to piston seizure in our hot weather, cast-iron cylinder barrels you could fry an egg on, and even worse, most were fitted with sidecar ratio final drive, and blew up simply trying to do the speed limit, 100-120 km/h!
A few heavy sidecars made it in to Oz, fitted with the earlier, and very heavy, half-leaf-springs suspended under the rear of the sidecar body. Again, it was just more weight to lug around.
Then came a batch of 1972 KM3 “Dnepr” K-650, followed by the 1973 MT-9 “Roadster”, sold as solos with 3.89 final drives. Finally, a game-changer! My bike had K-301 carburetors (yes complete with the “Curse of the little piece of twisted wire” that clips the throttle halves together. After losing a few jets I asked my mum for some nail polish, bright pink, it was cheaper than LOKTITE and secured the jets and lock nuts. After that it ran for 30 years like a good lawnmower, the usual oil changes, bar some generator and distributor cap rotor brushes. I liked to keep it as original as possible, I used Avon road-runner 4.10 x 19 tyres and the original soviet-made inner tubes. A few cable repairs to stainless rope at a marine chandler all went well. Very well. finally 2nd oversize pistons and rings, and swingarm and rear shock absorber rubbers.
Getting used to riding a long wheelbase solo motorcycle took some getting used to, but the bike saved my life on more than one occasion. I’m still here! Ride Safe Mr Odin. Cheers. from JD in the Land of Oz.
Hi, my name is Odinn and I am from Iceland but I live in Denmark. I have 2 M72 motorcycles that I am bringing to live again and as far as I can see this site has all the information that I am missing or only have in russian that I unfortunally cant read. Can i have password for the b-cozz.com site password protected articles an manuals? I’m mostly looking for information regarding the M72 motorcycles but in the long run I am interesstet in the history and other types also. Thanks and have a nice day. Best regards. Odinn
Hi again Odin, I was just reading thru stuff here and came across your message (again) and thought I’d say hello again, I have been fascinated by the history of Soviet motorcycles since 1969 when I got my first taste of these bikes. I live in Australia, a looong way from Siberia. These Urals were mostly sold here as solo bikes, and quickly gained a terrible reputation, most seemed to fail due to piston seizure in our hot weather, cast-iron cylinder barrels you could fry an egg on, and even worse, most were fitted with sidecar ratio final drive, and blew up simply trying to do the speed limit, 100-120 km/h!
A few heavy sidecars made it in to Oz, fitted with the earlier, and very heavy, half-leaf-springs suspended under the rear of the sidecar body. Again, it was just more weight to lug around.
Then came a batch of 1972 KM3 “Dnepr” K-650, followed by the 1973 MT-9 “Roadster”, sold as solos with 3.89 final drives. Finally, a game-changer! My bike had K-301 carburetors (yes complete with the “Curse of the little piece of twisted wire” that clips the throttle halves together. After losing a few jets I asked my mum for some nail polish, bright pink, it was cheaper than LOKTITE and secured the jets and lock nuts. After that it ran for 30 years like a good lawnmower, the usual oil changes, bar some generator and distributor cap rotor brushes. I liked to keep it as original as possible, I used Avon road-runner 4.10 x 19 tyres and the original soviet-made inner tubes. A few cable repairs to stainless rope at a marine chandler all went well. Very well. finally 2nd oversize pistons and rings, and swingarm and rear shock absorber rubbers.
Getting used to riding a long wheelbase solo motorcycle took some getting used to, but the bike saved my life on more than one occasion. I’m still here! Ride Safe Mr Odin. Cheers. from JD in the Land of Oz.
Hi, my name is Odinn and I am from Iceland but I live in Denmark. I have 2 M72 motorcycles that I am bringing to live again and as far as I can see this site has all the information that I am missing or only have in russian that I unfortunally cant read. Can i have password for the b-cozz.com site password protected articles an manuals? I’m mostly looking for information regarding the M72 motorcycles but in the long run I am interesstet in the history and other types also. Thanks and have a nice day. Best regards. Odinn