Changed my Battery!

[JustSomeRandomDude]

A few weeks ago, I went to the shop to run the Gear-up for a bit, and the battery was too weak to turn the engine. (It's damn rainy in Oregon, and I spent enough of my misspent youth riding in the near-constant rain to have had a belly full of it, so the Ural has spent out most of the winter in my shop.) I have this crazy idea engines that sit, suffer. Use is a good thing. I didn't want gasoline gelling in my fuel lines, etc. So I needed to get a fresh battery into the rig.

Called Raceway in Salem (awesome guys) and was assured that replacing a battery was no big deal. Watched the battery replacement vid from Ural Motorcyles in Redmond, WA (aka The Mothership), went and bought the necessary additional tools, and set about replacing the battery.

Some of you may be wondering why I'd even post about something so simple, and you'd be right to wonder, because it was indeed simple. The rest of you can sit back and enjoy ...

Firstly, I have not mastered getting the Ural up onto the center stand. I will not divulge the dark forces I used to relieve the load on the back tire in order to access the bolts securing the seat to the fender.

As a kid, I rarely had the right tools available for any given automotive or motorcycle job. What a difference the correct tools make! Using long 3/8 extensions and a u-joint, I was able, pretty quickly, to remove the Nylock nut and the bolts holding the seat to the fender. Found out I have a solid seat-mounting plate, which tells me my bike's from earlier in 2017 (I think). Found out it's easier for me to take the battery out through the side than through the top. Found out I'm a neat freak when it comes to routing and cable-tying the wiring. Found out I needed to re-tighten and re-assemble things a couple of times because of that neat freak business.

And the bike turned over, started, ran, and went on a short trip around town for fresh fuel and some pavement time.

I bought the Ural partly to learn to wrench on a machine at my own pace, do some learning, do some riding, and enjoy all of it. So far, so good. I'm really looking forward to (late) Spring, when the passes are thawed and the rain settles a bit, to putter around on the eastern side of the state and take in some of the vast, empty spaces at a fairly low speed.

Happy Uraling, all.

[Marine Corps Codu]

I am planning to ride the most Eastern part of the Oregon BDR early summer. If you would like to link up and ride it please let me know. No exact time for me as retirement lends itself to being quite flexible in planning!
And you are correct in the battery sliding out fairly easy (once all the unfastening, etc is complete)!

[JustSomeRandomDude]

I am planning to ride the most Eastern part of the Oregon BDR early summer. If you would like to link up and ride it please let me know.

I'd much enjoy that! What's BRD?
I've been thinking of a trip through the "Oregon Outback" to the Steens Mtn, maybe the Owyhee Country, maybe out around Fossil ... Late spring, early summer would work well for me, maybe "long weekend" jaunts where I could take the state in 3- or 4-day slices.

[Beaverislandbiker]

Wrenching your Ural will teach you patience.
And if you are not too anal it will teach you :
WWID,
also.

[JustSomeRandomDude]

Wrenching your Ural will teach you patience.

I'm not terribly apt, mechanically, but I've enjoyed puttering with motorcycles. It's satisfying to do some of one's own work. Makes me feel useful to myself. You probably understand.

[Waffl6]

You can use wood to get it on the center stand, under the rear tire. Reverse it onto it.

But if you want to be really lazy, get a scissor jack with a flat top and roll it onto that and then jack it up.

[JustSomeRandomDude]

But if you want to be really lazy, get a scissor jack with a flat top and roll it onto that and then jack it up.

Scissor jack and a spouse seem to do the trick ... Heh. I probably ought to never again let the battery drain that far again. Reversing onto a block sounds smart.
Do many of us have challenges getting their rigs onto center stands?

[Marine Corps Codu]

I am planning to ride the most Eastern part of the Oregon BDR early summer. If you would like to link up and ride it please let me know.

I'd much enjoy that! What's BRD?
I've been thinking of a trip through the "Oregon Outback" to the Steens Mtn, maybe the Owyhee Country, maybe out around Fossil ... Late spring, early summer would work well for me, maybe "long weekend" jaunts where I could take the state in 3- or 4-day slices.

Here is a link to the Oregon Backcountry Discovery Route (BDR): http://www.oohva.org/OBCDR/route5.html

I would like to do the eastern most route. Alvord Desert, Steens, etc.

[stagewex]

Good on you changing the battery and coming up with some way to do it for you.
What battery came out of the bike that died. 3-4 years is not very long battery life these days.

[cookiemech]

Scissor jack and a spouse seem to do the trick ... Heh. I probably ought to never again let the battery drain that far again. Reversing onto a block sounds smart.
Do many of us have challenges getting their rigs onto center stands?

Surely you have Battery Tender leads attached to your battery; otherwise, if you don't run it regularly (I mean every few days at least, for 20 miles or so), then you are asking for trouble unless you hook up a Battery Tender weekly (or so).

To answer your question, there is no way I could pull my rig onto its centerstand by myself, on level ground. In my garage I simply use a floor jack with a rubber pad under the rear dogleg, raise the pusher wheel, and deploy the centerstand with my hand. Extremely easy. If I had to do it on the road, I carry a little screw jack that would do the same thing. IMZ has a YouTube video where David shows several makeshift ways to do it on the road.

[RC20]

I converted the spare fuel can bracket into a holder for a screw jack. On the road its the method to get it up on CS if I have a flat.

At home I have a floor jack.

In Eastern Oregon be sure to hit the Madras Air Museum (Erickson) if they are open. It both amazing and you can crawl under the airplanes and here are NO do not touch signs ( as well as Chinese Ural ) - fantastic collection focusing more on WWII Aircraft but some other stuff.

There is another one up near Hood River, didn't find out about it until too late and did not tour so don't know what its like.

[Geno89074]

Great Work on the battery change...Did mine before thanksgiving.
Have a pigtail for the trickle charger on mine works great

you can also try using a couple short 2x4 or a 2x6 under the sidecar wheel then raise it up on the center stand
I just start the bike up and roll over them

[Pterodactyl]

I no longer use any nuts/bolts to secure the seats to our Gear Ups. I use the existing stud on the front only as a locating pin with no nut, and I installed a stud in one of the two bolt holes at the rear that pins the rear. With the front and rear “pinned” I secure the seat with a Rok Strap. The seat does not wiggle or shift when in use. I can have the seat off or on in around 20 seconds. I also put some protective film around the hole in the rear fender where the newly installed lug goes to limit scratching. Been doing this for two years with nary an issue. There is no reason for removing or installing the seat to be as cumbersome as it is.

[cptnapalm]

Scissor jack and a spouse seem to do the trick

I tried that, but my wife got mad when I tried to put her in the trunk.

[Joe123451979]

I am planning to ride the most Eastern part of the Oregon BDR early summer. If you would like to link up and ride it please let me know.

I'd much enjoy that! What's BRD?
I've been thinking of a trip through the "Oregon Outback" to the Steens Mtn, maybe the Owyhee Country, maybe out around Fossil ... Late spring, early summer would work well for me, maybe "long weekend" jaunts where I could take the state in 3- or 4-day slices.

Here is a link to the Oregon Backcountry Discovery Route (BDR): http://www.oohva.org/OBCDR/route5.html

I would like to do the eastern most route. Alvord Desert, Steens, etc.

I’ve never heard of any of this before can you tell me anything about route 6 or post a section of the route closer to the coos Bay Area i don’t want to buy a map to drive on somthing I’ve driven on for 20 or so years and have better maps of already.

I know the Elliot forest pretty well and am really curious which road they are sending people on and if they are utilizing some of the paved logging roads around camp creek area or burnt mountain area .