Radio Horizontal

Late Night Final! Rally Special Edition! Read all about it!

Well, of course, Olga Petrovna’s samovar girls came good. Skilled as they are in cold war disinformation techniques, they had extracted from their colleagues the identity of those mysterious visitors before you could say ‘waterboard’. They were of course our old friends from the Independent Republic of Uralmania who had come to issue a personalized invitation to their wonderful annual rally just east of Oslo. You can read all about that in this issue and many other horizontastic events in what may be one of the most fun-packed social calendars in the history of motorcycling.

To thank for this we have Horizontal HQ’s very highly esteemed SovRallCom: three fun-loving guys who have been working painstaking triple shifts for weeks to sort through the thousands of applicants for inclusion in this prestigious bulletin.

In keeping with our club’s cosmopolitan image we have introduced a glamorous new Terra Nova International Rallies section. So, if you don’t fancy Uttoxeter—what about Toledo?

What are you waiting for? Get out there and have fun!

Ural Factory Now Building Motorcycles Shock!

From our North America Correspondent (Horizontal Publications (Wall Street) Inc received the following wire from IMZ-Ural (American importers) on 20 January 2010 at 14.49 Horizontal Mean Time. )

“It is not for the first time that we have to address various rumours and speculations that spread across the Net like a wildfire, changing along the way to a degree that it makes it virtually impossible to determine the original source, form or meaning. Can't say we are fans of conspiracy theories, but sometimes it feels like somebody somewhere out there is always looking for and cooking something...spicy. Anyway. For the record - we are fully and entirely for the freedom of information, speech, press, etc., it's just that sometimes we feel an overwhelming urge to hold those spreading lies responsible. Alas that's rarely possible.

Yesterday, on various online forums and web-boards, processed through Russian-English auto translators, there appeared a supposedly "interview" with supposedly "factory director" who supposedly said that the factory has multi-million dollar tax debt and will close March 1st.

Now the official clarification, from the horse's mouth:

1. PK IMZ has tax debt. As of November 1, 2009 the amount was 10.5 mln rubles ($350K). This debt accumulated at the end of 2008-beginning of 2009, during the peak of the crisis when the factory stopped building bikes due to the drop in demand.

2. As of today, January 20, 2010 PK IMZ tax debt is 7.9 mln rubles ($280K). IMZ is negotiating with the regional government authorities on obtaining a payment plan for this remaining amount. The reason and purpose for negotiations is to keep the lined up reserve for more useful projects including R&D rather than paying out the tax debt at once.

3. Today, January 20, the newly elected Governor of Sverdlovsk region is paying a visit to the factory and during the meeting with factory management they will be discussing this question. Another issue that will be discussed with the Governor - is providing the factory with a way to import foreign components under temporary importation terms. This would allow the factory not having to pay enormous import duties and taxes for goods that upon assembly of motorcycles immediately get exported. Unfortunately, current customs regulation is not manufacturer friendly (duty runs up to 15-20% on imported components, non-refundable) which forces IMZ management to look at and consider options of moving the assembly outside of Russia.

In conclusion - the factory is working and very busy, motorcycles are being built every day to catch up with the demand that's again running ahead of supply. If everything continues as well, this year we plan to get back to the production level of CY 2008.

Hip Hip Hooooorrrrraaaaaayyyyyy!!!!!!!!!

Where There Be Dragons

Editor goes to Rally Shock!

Okay, it’s ‘fess up time. In the first thirty years of my motorcycling life I only ever attended one rally. I went to the second one, a CoC do, after I had bought my first Ural. I found the participants so delightfully eccentric that I have been to several more since. And the Dragon Rally was the latest.

We went as a combo foursome. Leaving on a dripping wet Pennine morning we raced down to a rather more clement Derbyshire, cleaved through a temperate Cheshire, got lost round a sultry Wrexham, and were diverted through a sunny north Wales. A fine and exhilarating ride but my three layers of thermal wear and four layers of gloving were perhaps de trop.

Our hostel in Betwys-y-Coed offered an unsmiling welcome, one room key for seven of us, and a ‘fully-cooked breakfast’ which left the pedants amongst us wondering what a half-cooked one might have been like. Undeterred, we were setting up our tents on site by midday next day. Bright blue skies and brilliant sunshine, a fine site, spectacular scenery: you really couldn’t have asked for more.

Entrance to the top half of the site was very muddy and steep and while it is not in my nature to score points you should have seen those big trail bikes making a mess of getting up there. It is, of course, a truth universally acknowledged that Urals are made for this. And indeed all those I saw (and there were quite a few) skipped up and down like spring lambs and were in my unprejudiced view the envy of all.

An afternoon visit to a sunny Conway led to overconfidence. I set off for home in only thin trousers. Twenty minutes later, the sun having dropped, I felt as though my legs had been cut off at the thighs.

There were 1200 at the rally, of whom perhaps some 300 were in the marquee to watch the band that evening. So a good 900 or so were gathered round campfires swapping tales so tall you could see them rising into a black, brilliant starlit night.

Congratulating myself on my initiation into hard-core winter rallying I chatted that evening to fellow Co C member, Andy, who attended last year’s Crystal Rally, a Norwegian winter rally. If I heard him alright, the temperature there got down to minus 18. And he went on a Honda C70. So I have some way to go yet before I can claim to be a veteran. Overnight the temperature dropped below freezing but with a bottle of malt, two sleeping bags and a hat I was a warm as, well, a half-cooked breakfast certainly. My passenger, who had no experience of motorcycles or rallies but was a Glastonbury veteran kept on referring charmingly to the Dragon as “the festival”. And very festive it was, too. Next year is the 50th so expect something special. I might even go myself.

Peter.

Spotlight on Uralmania

Every year our Scandinavian cousins declare for one weekend only the Independent Republic of Uralmania. For a precious 48 hours we are masters of our own universe! They even have their own currency, I am told. Last year it was held at Finnskogen, east of Oslo. Photos of past rallies on: www.boxersmia.no Too far to go perhaps for just the rally but Scandinavia is a big place and surely you need a good holiday this year….?

www.russianbike.co.uk

Just a quick heads up that we seem to getting a lot more people joining due to a link being added to your Cossack Owners Club site. So if you haven't been over in a while I would suggest you pop back to take a look. We also have a new events section that’s nearly working for you to post any rallies/etc. So hopefully see you there. Cheers