The Ural has an interesting system of heat management. If you run it too hot, the gasket for the oil filter housing fails, and oil drips on the exhaust crossover. The oil smoke is your indicator that you are about to dump the oil from your overheated engine and seize the bastard up forever. You have <unknown time> to shut it down before catastrophic failure. Russian technology at its finest.
This trip was the first time I learned about that. These bikes don’t like running hard in high heat. I’ve had the issue express a few more times over the years that I’ve had it. Overtime you develop in an innate sense of what the machine can handle, and you always carry oil and a spare gasket.
Owning a Ural is not for everyone, and no one should own one who isn’t mentally prepared to dig in from time to time and get some oil on them. It’s gonna happen one way or another, might as well accept it.
R e z i n 
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