ONCE UPON A TIME ...

...The history of URAL ROIKKA (the name means GANG OF URALS) dates back to 1988. URAL motorcycles were a rare sight on the Finnish roads then, let alone a DNEPR. The ones on the road then were the last representatives of the bikes imported to Finland in the seventies. However, URAL M-63 had made an everlasting impression on the few enthusiasts of Russian motorcycles. This impression was most probably caused by the notorious unreliability of the seventies bikes. On the other hand the looks of the bike left nobody cold, some people even called it charming. During the years after importing stopped, the spares ran out and the whole URAL breed of bikes was sliding into oblivion.

One man, Mr. Teuvo Leppänen started looking for people fighting with URALs in 1988, some 15 people responded. The first contacts were letters, phone calls and meetings at bikers gatherings.

Winter of 1989 / 1990 saw the forming of the club URAL ROIKKA. Simultaneously the club newsletter started appearing. The membership grew slowly by 1993 some 100 comrades had joined the club. Early 1995 the membership rose to over 200 persons, 300 membe rs were in by the end of 1996. The club was officially registered in 1996, and today the membership is 468 persons.

The club members own some 500 URAL or DNEPR bikes. Totally there are almost 900 bikes registered in Finland, even some Chinese replicas with the name CHANGJIANG.

URAL ROIKKA annual meeting in -99 was 200 bikes strong, participants were from Finland, Russia and Germany.

If you are interested in our club and meetings, send Email to lauri.nurminen@elopak.fi or pekka@uralroikka.net