Earlier this year, I had the extremely interesting experience of spending time with the Ural Neo Prototype in person. While it's true that I regularly check out motorbikes and other powersports vehicle launches as part of my job, I can count on one finger the number of times that I've gotten to ride a pre-production prototype.
Suffice it to say, since I'm not now and have not previously been anyone's factory test rider, it's a pretty rare occurrence.
But given my experiences thus far, there were a great many things that intrigued me about what Ural was trying to do. Neo is a major step in a different direction for the company, and while it's easy for naysayers who don't understand the truly unique challenges the company was facing to criticize, it's a lot harder to do when you begin to wrap your mind around the broader picture.
You see, from the very beginning, Ural has truly never been like any other motorcycle company. So it's a mistake to consider it, as well as the decisions it makes, in the same way you would with any other motorcycle company. It's not now and has never been a volume-seller; it's also not, strictly speaking, a boutique fashion brand. The people who love Urals (and from what I could see, that's an absolute prerequisite to work there, too) really and truly love Urals, almost beyond reason.
It's that kind of passion that makes motorcycling, and really anything (in my mind, at least), so amazing. Which is why, when Ural's director, Ilya Khait, posted a letter on its website, clarifying a lot of things, from what's happening with the production pause for export machines and parts in its Legacy line, to why the company felt compelled to move forward with the Ural Neo project when it did, I knew I had to write about what's going on.
So what's it say? When I visited the new IMZ-Ural office in Washington earlier in 2025, I heard much of this information straight from the source. For those unfamiliar with IMZ-Ural, up until war broke out between Russia and Ukraine in 2022, the company had been making most of its machines at the Irbit facility, which is located in Russia.
But as you'd imagine, war changes a lot of things very quickly, and not all of them are necessarily in the areas where weapons are drawn and violent battles are taking place. And so, as quickly as it could realistically do so, Ural moved its final vehicle assembly to neighboring Kazakhstan, so that it could still produce and export its sidecars to the world.
While this decision made a lot of sense in the short term, it has unfortunately not worked out to be a viable long-term solution. Or, in Khait's words, "This allowed us to continue building bikes. However, operating between two countries - one under sanctions and another with almost no infrastructure for a business like ours - proved to be extremely complicated. By late 2024, it was clear that this setup couldn’t last: we were losing money with every bike we built."
Ural is very much a business founded on and fueled by passion; but it is still a business, and it does need to continue to make money in order to survive. No one's getting rich off of it, but we all collectively live in the world we live in, and there are certain realities in which we all must function.
So, that's why the company stresses that this Legacy vehicle and parts production for export markets is being put on pause. Domestic production is continuing, but it's difficult on multiple levels. If and when it can find a way to feasibly move forward, it will.
Keeping Ural Alive Is Key
Khait knew he and Ural needed to do something (and fast) to change course. Luckily, because the company isn't a massive corporation, they were able to act relatively swiftly to change course. One of the very interesting things to note about Khait, for those unfamiliar, is that he comes from an engineering background, not a boardroom background. He's been steeped in the mechanical intricacies of Urals for decades; it's in his blood.
And so, with the weight and gravity of all that history, he worked to plot a reasonable path forward: The Ural Neo project. The company didn't want to end up like so many beloved names of the past, simply stamped on any old nonsense that could be cheaply and easily pumped out and then discarded in a landfill somewhere (Polaroid, I'm looking at you. Wearables and cheap home theater products, really?)
Neo was designed to attract new riders to Ural, point blank. Riders who might not previously have considered a Ural, either because it was too intimidating, too expensive, they didn't like the classic styling, or for any number of reasons. At the same time, it wasn't intended to be a replacement; rather, it was intended to be a diversification. A supplement. An additional product line, if you will.
If motorcycle companies can't attract new riders, it's a problem. If motorcycling, as an industry, can't attract new riders, it's a problem. You see my point.
The point, then, of the Ural Neo project, is to keep Ural alive, and if it's successful, to help it grow and change and solidify for the future. Because the thing is, you can't grow by only looking back fondly at the past. At some point, whether you like it or not, you have to move forward. You have to evolve, or else get relegated to the wayside as a relic of another time. Clearly that's not something that Ural wants, and it's probably not something that Ural fans want, either.
At the same time, change is hard. Understanding why it's happening in your mind isn't the same as grasping it internally; I mean, isn't that why therapy is a thing?
From where I stand, having actually ridden the Ural Neo prototype, I think it's an interesting and worthwhile direction, and I want to see what happens when riders are able to experience it for themselves, and don't only have to listen to the few of us who've ridden it so far.
Maybe the circumstances weren't ideal; but then again, while war might be an extreme example, are they ever? It's how you deal with unforeseen circumstances that tells you who you are.
Do you back down, or do you reassess and find a new way forward? If you're the latter type of person, then perhaps you'll give the Ural Neo a try when you have the chance. Assuming all goes according to plan, the company says it's working on a demo tour roughly between February and April of 2026. As we all know in these wild times, though, plans (like tariffs, apparently) can change. Stay tuned, as RideApart will do our best to keep you updated.
