Ural

Information about the company Ural
Founded	1941
Headquarters	Irbit, Russia
Official website	www.uralmoto.ru

IMZ Ural is a Russian manufacturer of heavy motorcycles with sidecars. The abbreviation IMZ stands for Russian “Irbitskiy Mototsikletniy Zavod”, in English it would be translated this way: “Motorcycle Factory of Irbit”. Irbit is the old town in Russia nearby the Ural mountains.

Ural was originated in 1941, immediately after Soviet Union had witnessed what was happened during German Blitzkrieg in polish territories. Soviet Union needed a military vehicle, which could perfectly stand in the attacks of tanks and infantry, which would be a great support for Soviet ground forces. So, the Soviet engineers designed Dnepr M-72, the work on which started from detailed exploration of German BMW R71.

Soon the Motorcycle Branch of Moscow industry manufactured hundreds of M-72. As the Soviet politicians were afraid that the motorcycle factory would be bombed by the rising German army, they decided to remove the motorcycle plant in the far Ural region. And already in October 1942, a huge batch of M-72 was directed to the war front. Throughout the 4 years of Second World War IMZ Ural produced around 10 000 sidecar motorcycles.

In 1950, as IMZ Ural was essentially expanded, it produced 30 000 motorcycles.

Thus, few years later, began a full non-military manufacture of Ural bikes. In 1957 the production lines of M-72 were sold to China.

A new history of the brand began when it transformed into an open-end jsc “Uralmoto”. In 2000 “Uralmoto” was reorganized and the shares of the government were redistributed to investors.

Nowadays “Uralmoto” JSC exports its production to many countries of Western Europe, also to Egypt, Iran, South America and South Africa. Since the time of its foundation in 1941, brand Ural sold more than 3 million units.