Uraling in Alaska - Day 34: The Loaner Rig

I got to Anchorage URAL, Mickey's shop, around 11:00AM.  Mickey was ready for me and after we talked for a bit, he took possesion of Valencia to try and diagnose the slight clutch dragging issue starting today and hopefully finishing it up by tomorrow evening (Monday).

Since he knew I was traveling, he generously made available to me the use of his "demo bike", a 2012 URAL GearUP Sidecar Rig.  The GearUP model is similar to the Patrol but comes with extras such as a spare gas can, shovel and a spotlight on the hack.

Mickey also made an offer of a new GOBI URAL but I elected to go with the "broken in" loaner instead.

Mickey told me: "Go anywhere, take it for a road trip!"  I bet you wouldn't think a dealer would tell you that about a loaner rig eh?  There's a back story to this particular rig, someday I might tell it, assuming I've permission from Mickey".  Suffice to say, no restrictions, she's fully insured and he said to have fun with it!

I left Mickey's shop shortly before Noon and met up with Bob and Sharon at the Twin Dragons Chinese Restaurant to partake of their Mother's Day "All you can eat" Mongolian BBQ and Buffet.  Sorry, no food porn shots, but it was delicious!

 Here's the Loaner Rig at the Chinese Restaurant.

The color scheme is "Forest Fog" but the big fairing/windshield

is from an older motorcycle, which is why the colors don't match.

 Note the spotlight on the hack, that's one of the "extras" a 

GearUP model comes with....

 Mickey has installed aftermarket pipes on his GearUP, and I noticed

most of the customer bikes in his shop had the same thing too!

 I am really lusting after this storage case module created by Mickey.

It's a waterproof plastic gun case, similar to Pelican cases but you

can roll it forwards and backwards to suit your body size and also

to move it out of the way to dismount or allow more freedom of movement

when riding on rough terrain!

 My own cruise control now only holds for a few secs, this model holds

for much longer!

 A nice little dashboard that Mickey crafted/bolted onto the old

metal fairing.

 Here's the loaner rig, parked near Bob's place, where I saw the 

young moose below munching in this other person's front yard!

I was perhaps 60-70 feet from this specimen, he was keeping as

wary an eye on me as I was on him!

The ride back to Wasilla from Anchorage was uneventful, the loaner rig did beautifully though with the aftermarket pipes it is much louder than the stock pipes on Valencia!  I think I'll be wearing my ear plugs with this loaner rig while I have the use of it!  She pulled pretty much as strongly as Valencia did on the hills, though I thought the PowerArc ignition on Valencia made things smoother under those conditions.

I was reminded how much wind protection one is afforded when using the big fairing!  Now I am thinking perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad thing to have a large fairing on Valencia.  But first, I must find out if the cargo box rack system made by Mickey is affordable!  With it in the fully forward position, it functions also as a backrest!

I'll be riding this rig about more I am sure, with notes to follow, but initial impressions on it are very favorable!  My thanks to Mickey for this loaner rig, it's not standard URAL policy to provide loaner rigs to riders so the extra ten miles he's going out of his way to provide great support and service are appreciated.

Normally, I'd be dreading the time my rig is away from me, but with this loaner, the pain is less!

Again also, my thanks to Jason Rae, VP of Operations/Product Support at URAL for the extra effort he's gone to to ensure ready parts are in place for the work/diagnosis that is planned for Valencia, my 2011 Rig.