10 - 07 - 2006

Ural mountains – Ekatarinburg – Irbit

I take my time to shower and have breakfast and go on my way. No stress. I am in Asia now. But you couldn’t tell that by any other means than the line on the map. As far as I can tell this is still Russia.

The Ural mountains gradually disappear behind me and I am already at the city limits of Ekatarinburg. I stop at a ‘kafe’ to get something to drink. A biker from Ekatarinburg starts a conversation. It is slow, but we communicate. He makes a couple of phone calls. The book I bought is paying off. It is a book containing ‘useful words and expressions’ as the cover so nicely states. It is however intended for use by Russian speakers. This allows the biker to look up the Russian word he is trying to convey. I am instructed to wait 30 minutes to half an hour. (well, that’s the way Stan Laurel would say it) Another biker shows up, he speaks a bit of English and he is to be my escort. He will guide me around the city to the main road to Irbit. Traffic is bad, but we make it OK. It is not easy for a solo rider to escort a combination. Normally solo bikes zing through traffic, but me and my Ural just have to sit and wait for the traffic to advance like cars and trucks. I can tell he would like to move faster, but he is patient and helpful and makes sure I am OK and that no cars break our ‘convoy’. Once on the road to Irbit, I thank him and we say goodbye. What a great country and what incredibly nice people.

A couple of kilometres further I finally snap and am fed up with this stalling, sputtering problem that still persists even after the loose connection I fixed. I put my brains to work and realize it has to be ignition related. I decide to re-set the electronic ignition. Not really solved. I clean the spark plugs. Not solved. New sparkplugs. Not solved. Hang on, my brain finally says, check the synchronisation. The engine quits once I remove the right sparkplug cable from the spark plug. Great. This could be it. I resync the carbs and finally get it right. Finally, because I haven’t really done this a lot and I find it a bit difficult to do it right. Explaining synchronisation will take me too long here, but this is required if you have more than one carburetor. I immediately notice the engine runs differently … much better actually.

One more thing though, but this is for my fellow club members from VMCUD. Before I started synchronizing I noticed that with the cover of the ignition removed there is a spark from the start of the sparkplug cable (left cylinder) to the ground pin next to it. Normally you short these two points to kill the ignition in the appropriate cylinder to check synchronisation. This spark means that there is no spark in the sparkplug connected to the cable. After the synchronisation this spark still occurred but only a couple of times. I have no clue as to why this spark should happen there. What could be the reason for that? I have no clue. But it makes sense: because of this spark, no spark in the sparkplug and no power from this cylinder. That is what caused the sputtering and stalling. Now I just need to know if this spark there is normal or if something is wrong and needs to be repaired.

Anyway, I arrive in Irbit a bit later than I was hoping and find a hotel. Irbit is a city that once was. There are a lot of nice old brick houses with beautiful plasterwork and beautiful old log houses, but you need a lot of imagination to see the beauty as neglect and time have taken their toll. The streets are dirty and have seen better days and I can’t help but feel a bit sorry. Irbit is the Mecca for the Ural rider. I was expecting something else. It was kind of a shock. Some reconstruction was underway, but it will take a lot more work to make the town interesting for visitors. Nevertheless, a brand new hotel has been constructed. I stayed there as it appeared to be the only one in town. It had a lot of rooms and seemed like it was finished the day before. Very luxurious. I have no clue however why it was built. I think I was the only guest. And beside the Ural factory I have no clue as to why Irbit would be interesting. I did a lot of laundry that evening and went to bed a bit late.