Natasha, with apologies to Simon and Garfunkel

Cecilia, one of the great songs from Simon and Garfunkel and on my list of favorite tunes, kept running through my mind this past weekend as I worked on Natasha; my 1996 Ural Sportsman Sidecar Motorcycle.

Prefaced by my profound apologies to this great work by Simon and Garfunkel, I give you my version of this song, with a Russian Ural twist:

Tasha, you're falling apart
You're shaking my confidence daily
Oh, Natasha, I'm down on my knees
Working on faults that I find

Fixing stuff in the afternoon on Natasha
down in my garage
I got up to wash my hands
When I come back
something else is wrong on her

Tasha, you're faults are less now
I'm growing my confidence daily
Oh, Natasha, I'm down on my knees
finding out how to fix you some more

Jubilation, she runs fine again,
I fall on the floor and I'm laughing,
Jubilation, she runs fine again,
I get on the rig and I'm riding.

Today was a WWID day for me and Natasha. The supports/rack that held up the ammo box onto which the previous owner had mounted had issues while on a ride to the hardware store. One post's welds broke from the horizontal support, the other broke in two! Sigh.

I think it was the vibration back and forth that the rack permitted, coupled with the weight of the battery and ammo box. So really, can't blame it on the RPOC factor. No problem though, a bit of thinking and trying things out resulted in this:

I bent a flat piece of iron I had laying around, anchored the top end on frame support bolt on the motorcycle's frame and the lower end to the ammo box containing the battery.

The support post on the left, with the black tape is the one that broke in two, I placed the broken ends withing a pipe to prevent it from moving apart. It'll do until I find a way to weld it together again. The post on the right broke free of its welds from the frame supporting the sidecar. I used a exhaust pipe clamp to keep it firmly in contact with the support frame for now.

After all this, that battery box does not move at all! Heck, part of the process even involved a BFH, an apparently mandatory addition to any Ural owner's toolkit. (Big F*ing Hammer)

Got in a couple of rides in spite of the repairs needed, Natasha is running nicely still, we'll see tomorrow when I hope to get in a long ride with my #2 son.