Bilge Keel Dave

Picture?

Gene is more of a Ural guy. I've bought Ural parts that are interchangeable with Dnepr's parts, from Gene, like handlebar risers, but most parts are not the same.

The chrome plated Dnepr rims were made for export and are true and round, they were made by a Russian aerospace company, not by KMZ. They are called Export Rims.

Just buy the highest amp hour battery that will fit in the battery box.

The Dnepr MT-16 drive is just a simple differential, no free wheel, no lock up, it is a full time two wheel drive. There are two sun gears, one on the differential that is located in the bike's final drive, the other is on the sidecar. The cardan shaft from the differential to the sidecar turns twice the wheel speed in reverse direction from the wheels, This is to reduce the torque through the cardan shaft and universal joints, so that they will not be damaged when the sidecar wheel slams onto the ground after flying the chair, it is a very robust system. A locker system is available for the MT-16 drive, there is even a boss cast into the top of the differential housing for the locker lever. Oldtimer Garage in Poland sells the kit for Dneprs.

How is Becky doing?

How is Becky?

Best wishes to Becky for a quick recovery.

My Dnepr MT-16 has the spin on oil filter. Though registered as a 2000 model, papers I found in the trunk indicate that it was built in 1998. Ramco offered a spin-on oil filter kit for older engines, it included a new crankshaft as well as the aluminum casting with the oil filter holder. In 2007, when KMZ stopped building Dneprs, they were not manufacturing any new parts, everything was assembled from parts in inventory, they even bought back an order of about fifty new motorcycles that they had sold to a company in Romania. They had offered those Romanian bikes to RAMCO, but Lloyd Lounsbury, RAMCO's owner, researched the Romanian bikes and found that they had been stored outside for years and were in poor shape, so he said no to that deal. KMZ told Lloyd that they had lost the tooling for the toaster tank so they couldn't sell him any new gas tanks. I visited the KMZ factory in 2003, it was enormous, a small walled city inside the city of Kiev. Only a portion of the factory was dedicated to making motorcycles, they refurbished tanks and other tracked vehicles there also. The property was worth more than the business that was there, so it was sold off.

I've been checking the site out every day since it went down, I'm, glad it's back.

I'm retired and live out in the boondocks, so I don't go anywhere anyway. I just renewed the tags on the Dnepr, I may take it for a ride today just to mix things up.

RAMCO installed an E-Start kit, I didn't get one. It was a Factory kit.

RAMCO had both spin on oil filter models and non-spin on oil filter models. They all came from the Dnepr factory in Kiev. I chose one with the factory supplied spin on oil filter. There was a Dnepr factory made kit to retrofit the spin on oil filter available, it included a new crankshaft, but many were manufactured at the factory in Kiev with the spin on oil filter already installed. I visited the Dnepr factory in 2003, the bikes coming off the line all had the spin on oil filters.

My MT-16 has that same factory spin on oil filter, it was built in 1998. I bought it new.

Slime is water soluble, wash it out with soap and water.