Restoration of a classic

[Deggers]

From the restorer :

"I remember how as a child, my grandfather had a Ural motorcycle with a sidecar. The bike seemed so huge and powerful to me, as it rumbled through the village. We would ride to the river. He fished, and I sat in the Ural, thinking that when I grow up, I will definitely own one myself.

This is the 1969 Ural M63, which has stood motionless for many years."  

Cheers, Deggers

Edited January 1, 2021 by Deggers

[SuzanneH]

That is beautiful, I love the colour too.

My dad never had a side car but I used to ride on a cushion on the pannier behind dad but only over Charville fields ( don’t tell anyone) to the motorbike-scrambles in the late 50s there. 
I loved those scrambles, the smell of the two stroke and the best races were those with side cars the passenger leaning out as far as they could. I always promised myself I would do that one day, but I never did.

Edited January 1, 2021 by SuzanneH

[Deggers]

1 hour ago, SuzanneH said:

I loved those scrambles, the smell of the two stroke and the best races were those with side cars . . .

Hi Sue. Great stuff isn't it.

Dad recently unearthed an old box of Kodak slides from the attic, and amongst them we discovered these. My uncle used to race sidecars at scrambling events in the '60s, and his sisters (then teenagers, one of which my mum, pictured below) would often tag along to watch him compete. 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's mum, sat in the back of . . . possibly a Morris flatbed?

Cheers, Deggers

[SuzanneH]

3 minutes ago, Deggers said:

Hi Sue. Great stuff isn't it.

Dad recently unearthed an old box of Kodak slides from the attic, and amongst them we discovered these. My uncle used to race sidecars at scrambling events in the '60s, and his sisters (then teenagers, one of which my mum, pictured below) would often tag along to watch him compete. 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's mum, sat in the back of . . . possibly a Morris flatbed?

Cheers, Deggers

Great photos Deggers, such great memories too.

[stillp]

Great pictures Deggers, but Mum doesn't look very cheerful!

Pete

[Deggers]

The '60s pout, Pete. Very fashionable, apparently 

Knowing Mum, it's because she'd much rather have been sat on the back of one of the bikes! 

 

[iain]

Great photos Deggars, out of interest what did you use to copy the slides......I have a mountain to do for my mother :-)

Iain

[Deggers]

Hi Iain, I used the 'ION Film2 SD'. It scans to a memory card, and has a manual feed for slides and negatives. Cheap and cheerful, but gets the job done for about £40.

I bought it simply because I wanted to make a few scans to send to other members of the family. For that, it's perfectly fine and the results are pretty good at that price. But if you're looking to make a high definition digital archive of the family album, you'll probably need to dig a bit deeper. Scanners, like all tech, vary hugely in price depending on what you're looking to achieve, with regards image resolution. (Also, be sure to check if a scanner might crop the frame size of certain formats, or if it's unable to fit the slightly larger plastic framed slides.)

Here's a recent Top 10 list of various models, with their pros and cons.  Wiki.com_scanners

Hope that helps, 

Cheers, Deggers

Edited January 1, 2021 by Deggers

[iain]

Thanks Deggars, I bought the Veho it was very poor...it went back! 
I’ll try again

Cheers

Iain

[stillp]

18 hours ago, Deggers said:

The '60s pout, Pete. Very fashionable, apparently 

Knowing Mum, it's because she'd much rather have been sat on the back of one of the bikes! 

 

[MilesA]

Brilliant find (again!) Deggers.

Some fascinating 'alchemy' to my inexperienced mind. Anyone know what was going on with the batteries and the wheel?

Miles

[Alfrom]

My sole memory of proper motorcycles was my Dad's AJS 350 plus sidecar on  day trip from Deal near Dover to London Zoo.  I was on the pillion with Mum and younger brother  in the sidecar.  It was dark before we set off back home and I was held in place by the belt of Dad's trench coat - good job too,  as I fell asleep on the way back.

unsurprisingly, M never liked the sidecar but appreciated the fact that it was better than having two boys fighting each other and out of reach for clipping around the ears.  Life got a lot more civilised when the combo was replaced n the mid 1950s by a 1946 Hillman Minx.

[Deggers]

On 1/3/2021 at 12:45 PM, MilesA said:

Anyone know what was going on with the batteries and the wheel?

I'd been wondering the same thing, Miles.

After a hunt through some of the (25,000) comments under the original YouTube video, someone had thankfully asked "what was the battery and acid part?"

To which, this reply from the restorer : "Applying a zinc layer to a part using electrolysis. The coating has better adhesion in comparison with the electroplating method and, moreover, the advantage of point processing, which allows processing large parts. Otherwise, they would have to be completely immersed in an acid-zinc bath."

Cheers, Deggers

[MilesA]

Thanks Deggers. That certainly wasn't on my school curriculum!

Miles

[Peter Cobbold]

In the 30s my father rode an ex-Tommy Spann AJS that he fitted with a sidecar as my grandfather deemed it otherwise too dangerous for my mother. Apparently when the throttle cable snapped she was given the end wrapped around a pencil and instructed to pull and push by hand signals. They thus progressed from the Peak District back to Wilmslow. He clearly had not learned about H&S from an earlier experience when he got his belt-drive Rudge stuck in a tramline and threw it under a horse-drawn milk float. Needless to say, 30 years later I was not allowed anywhere near two-wheels. With such paternal genes I doubt I'd be here...........

Peter

[Steves_TR6]

Great Photos!

my passion for bikes was a mid life crisis, hence the need to have a few to make up for lost time !

steve

Edited January 4, 2021 by Steves_TR6