It's been nearly 18 months now of Ural ownership. The main engine break-in occurred late last fall. That meant we could start pushing the motor and ride on mountain roads. Yea!
But, the major milestone for me has been getting comfortable riding the rig and feeling
somewhat in control. Sure, the chair pulls the rig to the left with accelerating and pushes it to the right when braking. Those two nuances have become automatic muscle memory for me. No biggie.
My biggest fear has always been the fact the chair wants to come off the ground in right-hand corners. This is especially true when the chair is empty (no ballast). I have adapted the habit of moving my arse over towards the chair in right hand corners to help weight that side when corning. What I've not been comfortable with is how to steer the rig once (and if) the outside wheel becomes airborne.
I've been practicing it a lot lately! The good news is, I have now successfully steered the rig in a right hand corner at speed with oncoming traffic on several occasions! Granted, this was done internally by me lifting the chair and not done in a "pucker oh-shit the chair just came up moment." But, that's why I'm practicing. I want to develop the muscle memory should that ever happen.
Once the chair is up, you can steer it just like a motorcycle with counter steering. So, once the chair is up in a right hand corner and I want to continue going right, I just apply a little counter steering and the rig goes right! This also means I'm getting comfortable riding with the chair up. They say this is a quintessential skill of riding a hack.
While I'm not comfortable doing this all the time, I am beginning to get the hang of it.
Whoot!
This is what I'm talking about (expect it's a bit more difficult in right handers)
