Topic: Is this normal for riding? A newbie question.

[GroovieGhoulie]

Ok, I have a question or two being a newbie.

One:

Whenever I ride up to about 55, it's very comfortable, but over that, it seems like I'm going to get sucked off the bike from the wind resistance.  After 65 or so, I need to bend my arms and duck down like I'm making a top speed run, (even though I'm not), then I don't feel like I'm about to get blown off the bike.  It just feels like I'm about to totally lose control when I sit in the "proper" position.  Is this normal?

Two:

After a 10-mile run at highway speeds, I stopped at a light to turn left. As I stopped, the engine flamed out. Took a bit to get it going and away I went. It seems that when it's been run hard for a while, then it's asked to idla, it doesn't want to idle. If I keep blipping the throttle, it's fine, but it dies if it tries to hold a steady idle.  I've done a search and this seems to indicate a lean condition.  I cleaned all the jets today (some were real gunky), and it ran better, but some posts referred to an adjustable "needle valve" with 5 different settings for richer and leaner.  Where do I find this needle?  Also what about adjusting airscrews?  Some people said stuff about them making a difference in lean/rich mixture.

[TwoTired]

Which model Ural are you driving?  And, how is it modified from stock?

[Bodi]

The needle is visible if you look into the carb opening and open the throttle. The adjustment is by moving a tiny circlip on the needle itself, there are 5 grooves on most needles to allow up and down adjustment. This requires disassembly of the carb linkages (unless you have a very early model with the quad cable nightmare) and will mean synchronising the carbs afterwards... not an easy job in other words. Unless you've got an aftermarket exhaust or modified intake- like pod filters - you shouldn't need to mess with the needle setting.
First step is to make sure the carbs are clean, floats set to the correct height, valve lash set to spec and camchain adjusted, and the spark timing set properly with clean gapped plugs. A dry/wet compression check to see how the rings and valves are is a good idea too. An engine with problems won't run right, chasing other trouble with carb adjustment is a frustrating waste of time!
If it will idle OK then synch the carbs, otherwise get it idling OK then synch the carbs; they must be synchronised to get a decent stable idle, and out-of-synch carbs may be your only problem.
The "airscrew" adjusts the idle/low throttle mixture (some carbs have real airscrews that lean the mixture when turned out CCW, others have fuel metering screws that richen the mix when turned CCW). Original carbs after some year (1974?) have a black plastic knob thing that only allows about 3/4 turn of adjustment to keep the engine lean at idle and satisfy EPA rules; this cap just pulls off to reveal the "real" adjuster (and gets tossed in the trash). The setting here is always referenced as turns from all the way in; turn one gently in until it stops (do not force, that will ruin the thing) while counting the turns. Set all 4 the same number of turns out. Then make very small adjustments in or out - 1/8 turn at a time is good - and go for the highest RPM idle you can get. If you didn't synch the carbs before this adjustment then do it again after synching.