Bike Is Volga But Not Common -- Bellevue Firm To Sell Vintage Russian Motorcycles In U.S.

Last January, an exhausted Bob Gerend stepped off a Russian train that had taken him 24 hours east from Moscow, deep into the Ural Mountains and finally to the frozen Siberian town of Irbit.

What the Bellevue businessman saw soon revved him up.

Everywhere, people rode motorcycles. In the deep snow, they rode motorcycles. In the countryside, he soon saw the same motorcycles - with their ubiquitous sidecars and even one gear in reverse - used as farm vehicles. And people even coaxed them through the thick Russian forests on deeply pitted tracks that passed for roads.

They were all Ural motorcycles, and Gerend believes he can sell them in the United States. The first shipment of the big Russian bikes arrived at the Port of Tacoma earlier this month. Gerend is having emissions tests run in California this week.

He also has more than 500 orders.

"I sensed that in the motorcycle business, if an American customer can get something for the right price that looks as if it came out of the 1950s or World War II, you got something," Gerend says.

Ural motorcycles really did come out of World War II. Their design is based on German military cycles captured in Sweden by the Russians. Gerend compares the updated ride to that of a 1960s BMW.

Gerend originally traveled to Russia to investigate a potato-dehydration venture. Now, eight months later, he and partner Thomas Lynott hope to earn a niche in the big-bike market without

resorting to big-bike prices. They are advertising the 649-cc Ural Imz, with sidecar, at $5,995. That's about one-third the new price of the comparable American package - made by Harley-Davidson Inc.

Gerend acknowledges the Ural is no Harley. Russian workmanship indeed is as inconsistent as rumored, he says, and the Ural's top speed is just 60 mph. But he is selling an export model of the Ural - with more horsepower, for example - and is upgrading even that.

He also is knitting a "strategic alliance" between Harley and Ural. Ural managers have visited Harley factories in the U.S., and Harley has agreed to assist the Russians with manufacturing expertise. Gerend also is applying for a $20 million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to overhaul the main factory in Irbit, which is now privatized.

The motorcycles are part of an accelerating flow of Russian imports into the Pacific Northwest. The Port of Tacoma counted 12,000 tons of Russian trade moving across its docks in 1992, says Chris Phillips, port spokesman.

Most of that traffic still moves from the U.S. to Russia. In the past year, however, the Russians have begun exporting more regularly. The Far Eastern Shipping Co. now dispatches one vessel per month to Tacoma from its base in Vladivostok.

So far, Russian cargos have included specialty wood products, aluminum and now motorcycles. Initial Ural shipments are scheduled to be 12 motorcycles per month. "Although the motorcycles represent a small volume," Phillips says, "it's at least a legitimate commercial shipment coming the other way."

The 55-year-old Gerend, a former Boeing manager and property-developer who now runs a venture capital firm in Bellevue, is also a biker from way back. He has owned more than 40 cycles and now owns 11. He turned to 10 other biker-execs for $250,000 to help finance the startup of Ural America Inc. Among other things, he is using the dollars to buy spare parts for the machines.

One of the investors is Herb Bridge, big-motorcycle enthusiast and co-owner of Ben Bridge jewelers. Bridge, who owns a Harley and a Honda Gold Wing, is convinced the Russian bikes will appeal to the hip-to-be-square Harley crowd, which enjoys vintage-style machines.

"This is a brand new antique," Bridge says of the Ural.

Gerend hopes the product will someday inspire the sort of cultish following enjoyed by the Harley line. He already has produced black Ural T-shirts and jackets - a la Harley. And he cleverly describes the sort of customer he envisions for the heavy iron he calls the "pickup truck of Russia."

"If you want to hammer down on the freeway all the way across the country, this bike is not for you," Gerend says. "This is for people who want to ride on the Forest Service roads, or off-road, or for people who want to commute around town."