IMZ-100 “Ural” - one of the rarest and most powerful Soviet motorcycles

Motorcycles with sidecars have always been popular in the USSR, especially in rural areas. There they were used as the budget equivalent of cars. Among them, the Ural and Dnepr stood out. These “strollers” were distinguished by good maneuverability and reliability, subject to regular maintenance. And their carrying capacity amazed the townspeople. What they didn’t load into the “cradle”! They even brought cobblestones from the fields. Yes, and they hooked logs from the forest to the boxer motorcycles - they managed. They also used “Urals” and “Dneprs” in the traffic police. The reason for their popularity is the shortage of cars. There weren’t enough of them for everyone, but a mobile traffic cop is a completely different matter.


Especially for the State Automobile Inspectorate in 1962, the Irbit Motor Plant began to develop a unique “Ural”. This is a full-fledged “liter” model with a 1 cm040 engine. They called this miracle of technology IMZ M-3. The engine remained boxer, but it produced 100 hp. Thanks to these characteristics, the bike was supposed to accelerate to 50 km/h in a single version, without a sidecar. These indicators were achieved in 150. But no money was allocated for mass production of the model. They were collected in the amount of 1965 copies by hand, mostly based on enthusiasm. The motorcycles were sent to serve in the Moscow traffic police, and this was the end of the model’s history. But at least one copy of the IMZ-25 “Ural” still survives. They will talk about it on the channel “Ivan Zenkevich PRO cars”.