Are Ural Motorcycles Really 'Copies' Of BMW Bikes?

Mainstream motorcycle enthusiasts may not know who Ural Motorcycles is, but adventure riders, history buffs, and those who love sidecars know them very well. Ural makes the Gear Up, one of our 16 best retro-style motorcycles on the market. They've been around for over three quarters of a century now, and unless you're a true fan, would never even know to ask if their bikes are copies of BMWs.

While the question may seem straightforward, getting to the answer is like peeling an onion — it has some layers. So, sit back because you're about to hear a tale of a fateful moment in history that started when Hitler invaded Poland in September 1939. Following the Nazi blitzkrieg that began World War II, the Soviet Union quickly realized they needed a nimble, versatile vehicle capable of traversing the rudimentary roads and blasted countryside along the Eastern Front.

According to Ural, the People's Commissariat of Defense of the Soviet Union met and decided upon a sidecar motorcycle as the vehicle that would best suit the Red Army's needs. Ironically, a close match already existed — BMW's R71, the forerunner to the R75, one of WWII's most famous bikes. Time was of the essence as Nazi forces continued to push forward, so instead of reinventing the wheel, the Soviets clandestinely purchased five of the German-made bikes through the long-standing neutral country of Sweden. Well, that's one version of the story anyway. Another, and if we're being honest isn't nearly as packed with as much intrigue, has a more geopolitical (i.e., lackluster) slant.

Days before Hitler launched his campaign to take over the world, he and USSR's Stalin signed a non-aggression treaty. This ensured that neither country would attack the other (alone or with another country), while keeping an open line of communication between the two countries should they need to resolve any differences that might sprout up.

Given the existence of this pact, it's very likely the Soviets could have just bought the five R71s directly from the Germans without all the cloak-and-dagger subterfuge, but it certainly doesn't make for as good a story. However, Stalin was shrewd enough to know that it was possible that all good things could come to an end with Hitler, and the Soviets might need to rely solely on themselves to produce this new vehicle and its replacement parts.

Whatever the true story, once the People's Commissariat of Defense of the Soviet Union received the bikes, they turned them over to a group of mechanics and engineers who tore them down to the nuts, bolts, and frames and set about reverse-engineering BMW's design. Molds and dies were then created, and the first Ural M-72 military sidecar motorcycle rolled off the production floor in August 1941.

Interestingly, one of the five original BMWs was apparently at one time on display at the original Ural factory in Irbit, Russia. This was before Ural was forced to move its factory to Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan, in August 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine.

So, are Ural Motorcycles just copies of BMW bikes? The way Ural puts it, if calling every motorcycle that happens to use a boxer engine a copy then the answer has to be yes. However, they point out that during the war Harley-Davidson borrowed BMW's drivetrain and side-valve boxer twin designs and applied it to their own XA model. Ural also claims that calling the modern bikes they build today copies of BMWs is akin to calling one of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets a copy of the old World War II V-2 rockets.

Yes, Ural's bikes are "descended" from the old M-72, which was indeed a copy of BMW's R71, but today's design-specific sidecar motorcycle (the only one of its kind on the market no less) has distanced itself so much from that early model as to be incomparable. They do admit however there is still a cosmetic similarity to the R71's sidecar tub shape.

The highly advanced bikes Ural kicks out today in their factory in Kazakhstan are packed with the latest innovations and technology made through continuous development, which they apply to everything from the engine's architecture and design to the fuel injection, suspension, and 2WD system. 

As the old saying goes (which is often incorrectly attributed to Oscar Wilde), "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness." And there's nothing wrong with trying to be great while (to quote another famous saying) "standing on the shoulders of giants."

[Featured image by Vyacheslav Bukharov via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 4.0]