If you’ve seen a sidecar motorcycle in recent years, it’s likely a Ural. The Russian manufacturer has experienced a recent rebirth thanks in part to the growing global interest in adventure, and #adventuremobiles, and the fact that hardly anyone else is making them these days. Either way, the rugged, 2WD sidecar motorcycles are very much in fact capable of finding, and handling some serious terrain.
Though experience tells us riding a sidecar motorcycle is more akin to driving a Willys Jeep with no power steering than a legit motorcycle, it’s still a wild, and fun-as-heck experience nonetheless. And the allure is hard to ignore, especially with the Baikal, a new, limited-edition model inspired by the world’s largest and oldest lake. Or, more specifically, the act of riding across its frozen surface in the dead of winter in what is called The Ice Run.
Each winter Lake Baikal—a 400+ mile long, 5,315 feet deep lake that holds 20% of the world’s fresh water—freezes over, providing some 12,000 square miles of solid fee-thick ice. And each winter, madman sidecar motorcycle enthusiasts gather for weeks at a time in an attempt at traversing its surface, battling an average temperate of -6° degrees (that feels more like -40°F with wind chill) and shifting snow drifts in the process. This new Ural is designed as the ultimate companion to such an effort.
The Baikal edition features a sidecar-mounted high carbon steel hatchet from Gerber, custom VSSL x Ural flask for storing vodka, UCO Titan stormproof matches, a spare wheel, a weatherproof Braven speaker, and topographic design details with matching orange interior accents. With just 45 units to be built, the specialized Bakail sidecar motorcycle is one not to sleep on… you know, that is, if ice riding is your thing.
