Back in April, Ural Motorcycles said it was moving its manufacturing from Russia to Kazakhstan. A few months later, we’re told that job is almost done, with the parts pipeline to the US about to start working again.

Ural has been based in Russia since it was set up in the Stalin era, producing motorcycles for the World War II effort based on BMW plans (whether those plans were stolen, bought from Germany, or reverse-engineered is a longtime argument amongst vintage motorcycle fans). For decades, while the rest of the motorcycle world advanced quickly forward, Ural built crude-but-functional motorcycles, usually paired with a sidecar, powering both the Soviet military and Russian civilians. Under communist rule, a Ural with two-wheel-drive sidecar was a serious people-mover throughout the Soviet empire, especially in rural areas.

Now, 30 years since the Soviets lost their power in the Kremlin, Ural has modernized its lineup considerably, with features like ABS and electronic fuel injection. The bikes (and sidecars) mostly look the same, but are more practical for day-to-day living (and also legal under ever-restrictive EU regulations). But—with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine this past winter, followed by tight economic sanctions, Ural’s export-biased business was in big trouble. Although the company is very much a multi-national organization these days, with headquarters based in the US, the factory was still in Russia, and that meant an end to production, with supply of materials and components haulted.

So, Ural is moving to Kazakhstan, and that move is very nearly finished. Parts are already being shipped to the US, and more should be coming soon. In the months to come, Ural also expects to ship new motorcycles to the US starting in September, followed by Japan, Australia and Europe.

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The process of setting up our new assembly facility is very near completion (!) We are now in the last phase of the set up: bringing in the necessary pieces of assembly equipment and filling warehouse shelves with parts and components.

We’re moving some old (refurbished) assembly fixtures from Irbit, however most of the equipment, hand tools, work benches, test stands, compressors, quality control “tunnel” and other pieces are brand new.

The trial shipment of spare parts has successfully made its way from Kazakhstan to IMWA in Redmond. Factory is now putting together two large air shipments to fulfill backorders and warranties, and also gearing up to restore “normal” way of supplying parts to our distributors with the shipments of bikes.

We received the first two shipments of production parts from our Asian suppliers in Petropavlovsk last week. There are more production parts on their way to Kazakhstan from other Asian suppliers, as well as from Europe. We’re very close to completely restoring all incoming logistics.

Most importantly: the first truck with motorcycle assembly sets has arrived at IMZ-Kazakhstan from Irbit. We’re expecting the second shipment from Irbit to arrive in Kazakhstan next week. The team of workers from Irbit is going to Petropavlovsk to assist with the assembly of the first shipments of bikes in the next few days.

If everything goes well, we expect the first shipment of bikes from our new assembly shop to depart around July 25th. It will be heading to the US with ETA sometime early to mid-September. Following production orders are booked for Japan, Australia and Europe.

So, if you’ve been waiting for a new Ural, the wait is (hopefully) almost over.