In July I had the privilege to be invited by the
CEO of the Irbit Motor Works, Ilya Khait, to visit the factory during
one of his regular two week stopovers there overseeing production and
design progress. This was a chance not to be missed after four years of
importing the Urals to Australia.
Irbit is an old trading town, where the Asian
traders met the European traders. During the winter trading meet, the
population rose from around 5,000 to 40,000. When the Trans Siberian
rail was built and it bypassed the town, Irbit lost a lot of its
significance. WW2 brought a surge of investment with construction of
wartime factories way out east where the German bombers were out of
range.
The Ural motorcycle factory played a part in Russia
defeating the Germans and it went on to reach a production peak of
around 13,000 bikes annually in late 70’s early 80’s. The factory has
now celebrated 70 years of production.
We flew into Yekaterinburg, the 3rd
largest Russian city located half way along the Trans Siberian rail and
site of the assassination of the Czar and his family in the Revolution.
We stayed in the “Ural Hotel” an unusual looking architectural piece
from the communist era and set out for Irbit next day. It was a 180km
drive and we travelled through flat areas of forest and cropped
farmland.
The first impression of Irbit was of a town which
had been left behind as industry and jobs moved elsewhere. It must have
been quite impressive with its wartime factories in full production and
its relevance prior to the railway taking business elsewhere.
The Irbit Motor Works was a 10 hectare collection
of buildings for manufacture and administration of practically every
component used in the bikes. Now it is a 2 hectare factory with concrete
buildings showing signs of decay which is no doubt hastened by the
ravages of a winter freeze. The upkeep of these buildings to our western
standards would be prohibitive given the proceeds from an annual
turnover of 1200 bikes.
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Original front entrance to the factory - no longer in use
Vladimir, Jon and Ilya in front of factory
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Ilya and his factory manager Vladimir gave me an unrestricted tour of
the factory and then time to go back and watch closely any of the many
processes that are still done in the factory. I asked about what I could
look at and talk about in their factory, Ilya replied, “there are no
secrets here”. This visit was to reveal the reality of producing Ural
motorcycles for sale in the more sophisticated economies of the world – a
remarkable achievement by some hard working and clever people.
The machine rooms were huge, with over 800 machines still used out of
more than 900 the factory owns. There is no production chain and
automation like you see in modern car factories. Many of the machines
make just one part at a time and require an operator in attendance,
while others process maybe 8 pieces before reloading and the operator is
in charge of several machines at once. Transporting parts around the
factory is done manually and then once they are collected together, with
a forklift. There are less than 150 employees now to produce 1200 bikes
where it was once some 5,000 to produce 13,000 bikes a year.
There are many thousands of parts that go to make up each sidecar
motorcycle and many of them require multiple processes to produce,
including casting, drilling, milling, finishing painting etc before
assembly. The Russian workers were all beavering away doing this with
skills many of them have used for twenty or thirty years in this
factory. They are mostly proud of their product, and largely unaware of
the lifestyle the end users enjoy in countries like the USA.
An example of the hand-building process - engine studs being screwed in
The machines are mostly from the 60’s I think and the bikes and sidecars
are from the same era. It is like a retro factory with retro machines
producing retro bikes! Many of my customers say to me “why don’t they
put disc brakes all round?”, “Can’t they fit a fuel injection system to
improve fuel economy?”, “Surely the brake linkage should be better
adjusted when they assemble the bike”, and so on! The answer lies in the
fact that probably every other motor vehicle factory from that age is
dead and gone. With an annual production of 1200 this factory defies
gravity. We are extraordinarily lucky to be able to still purchase one
of these virtually hand built unique motorcycles and enjoy a reliable
ride on the highways alongside products of our highly regulated motor
vehicle industry!
The economics are no doubt razer sharp. The dedication of the team in
IMWA is the stuff of legends. This is a passion for them as they
survived the 2008 GFC and the daily struggle to manage the factory
production and their worldwide marketing and product support. Ilya alone
has a huge responsibility as he tries to continually refine the
components chosen for the production, search for new and better
technology and spend time at Irbit to oversee the production. Keeping
the old machines running efficiently is a task not easily fulfilled and
the cost of new replacement machines is beyond the scope of the present
output.
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Ilya tells me the present machinery if pensioned tomorrow
would only recover scrap value per tonne versus up to a million dollars
for each replacement state of the art machine! The alternative is to
source more components elsewhere in the world and this progresses as
fast as it can given the constraints of available cash and research
time. Every motorcycle part is related to the parts surrounding it and a
smart fix for one part can disrupt the surrounding bits without
further research and trials!
This Ural outfit is on display in the Irbit Museum - this is in the
Guiness Book of World Records for running non-stop for 25,000kms.
As I watched one person assemble a complete motor in quite a short
time I marvelled that one man could do so many different processes
quickly and accurately and maintain concentration. Maybe it is a measure
of the simplicity of these engines.
Ilya puts in the hours, the focus and dedication of the top corporate
high flyers, but his world is not about first class accommodation, first
class travel and big salaries. As we headed out of Yekaterinburg to
Irbit where town shuts down after 8pm, he buys some biscuits and cheese
from the supermarket and a bottle or two of potable water so when he
leaves the factory at 11pm he can get a feed in his room before turning
in for the night. Back in Seattle Madina manages IMWA in Ilya’s absence
while raising their two bright young lego lovers who may well be the
engineers who can take Urals further into the future.
There is little glamour in the Ural factory, but you can see that I have
come away from the Ural factory with great admiration for the people
who keep it operating and with gratitude that they produce such a great
piece of machinery for us despite the odds!
A few more photos from around the Ural factory
This was a prototype quad bike model, unfortunately it was never released.
This is the very first Ural model ever released - copied from the German BMW during the war.
This is a stack of gearbox casings waiting for the next step in the assembly line.
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In
June, 2013 we had some Russian Ural riders join us on an outback
adventure ride over 2 weeks. Very sadly, on the last day of the ride we
lost one of the Russian riders, Igor Rumyantsev. He was an integral part of
the Ural organisation and his input in recent years has contributed
to the continuing expansion of Ural around the world. We extend our
deepest sympathy to his family and friends, especially his son Ivan,
who was travelling with him and us. The camaraderie we shared with Igor
will ensure his memory lives on in all of us.
