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ByTheLake
10-18-2014, 04:24 PM
Today I picked up the 7th bike in the fleet, much to my spouse's displeasure. It's a KMZ Dnepr MT-11, and while it's about 20 years old, it had only 23 kilometers on the clock (around 14 miles). (Dnepr is pronounced 'nyepper', and be sure to roll the 'r')

The KMZ plant in Kiev, Ukraine, was a sister plant to the IMZ plant in Irbit, Russia, where the Ural motorcycles are made. This bike is essentially a descendant of the 1938 BMW R71. The tooling, plans and 5 example BMW R71s were provided to the Soviet Union as a small part of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov%E2%80%93Ribbentrop_Pact), essentially a non-aggression pact between Hitler's Germany and Stalin's USSR. Stalin's army used these machines during WW2.

These bikes were churned out for decades, but the KMZ plant in Ukraine has since closed. A few bikes made their way to the US in kit form, which is how this bike arrived.

Details:

649cc Boxer Twin Engine
Dry Clutch
4-speed transmission with reverse
Shaft drive


I've already doubled the mileage on it by simply taking it for a spin to my sister's house in the woods. My mother wants a ride in the sidecar tomorrow.

It will need some work. The electrical system is a mess, but these bikes are known for odd wiring schemes. A warning light comes on stating that the battery is discharging, but I'm sensing that it's a false positive, so I need to track that down. There's not much of a wiring harness - instead, wires just run all over the place. I'll have to clean that up, too.

http://www.forths.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/rsDSC06070.jpg

http://www.forths.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/rsDSC06073.jpg

Larzfromarz
10-19-2014, 03:45 PM
BTL that's cool...the hack action is getting more attractive....
if you do the facebook thing here is a page I admin on;
https://www.facebook.com/groups/sidecarheaven/

Smithers
10-27-2014, 05:55 AM
Descendent or copy? :) a friend of mine has a Ural and we laugh about the heritage of the machine but heck... they are strong and easy to work on no matter how you look at it. Looks like someone made a point of making a lot of things black on there. That's one of the best looking sidecars I've seen. You could slap some BMW badges on it and no one would notice.

ByTheLake
10-27-2014, 04:57 PM
Descendent or copy? :) a friend of mine has a Ural and we laugh about the heritage of the machine but heck... they are strong and easy to work on no matter how you look at it. Looks like someone made a point of making a lot of things black on there. That's one of the best looking sidecars I've seen. You could slap some BMW badges on it and no one would notice.The black paint is factory applied, probably with brushes and rollers, given the exquisite texture. Every time I talk about doing a tear-down and professional paint job on this rig, my friends and family tell me that they prefer the rough look, since it looks older.

The steel rims are heavy, with hand-welded seams. As a result, it took 13 weights to balance the front wheel today. Good thing this bike tops out around 55 mph.

http://www.forths.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/20141027_123018rs.jpg