78 | september | october 2017Bike mechanic Talib Tayawe and
Ahmed Khaled Ahmed, an off-duty
policeman and fellow rider who lost an
eye in an explosion, agreed to help us. We
needed a mechanic who could repair the
bike if it broke down along the way and
an officer of the law to flash his ID in case
we ran into any trouble at checkpoints.
Talib was especially excited to help
us in our motorcycle mission. He’d had
his share of run-ins with the Islamic
State. Shortly after they wrested control
of the city, the extremists took over the
building that once housed his business,
forcing him to relocate to a makeshift,
corrugated steel shack up the road.
“[Islamic State fighters] used to come
to my old place and tell me that if I didn’t
work on their bikes they were going to
arrest me,” he said.
Both relished the opportunity to be the
first ones to put the resurrected Ural to
the test, laughing and hollering in delight
as they sped away from the destruction
and mayhem that’s been the one constant
in the upended lives of Mosul residents.
We followed them in Sangar’s SUV eagerly
awaiting our turn to ride.
Once outside of Mosul, in the nearby
predominantly Christian town of
Hamdaniya, our caravan stopped for
refreshments and test rides from each
of the bike’s new owners. Both novices
to sidecar riding, Nish and I took turns
at the helm, learning basics like steering
without the vehicle leaning , a counter-
intuitive move for motorcyclists.
The town’s streets were empty except
for the occasional Iraqi Army vehicle. Most
are lined with homes scorched by fires
and pockmarked with bullets holes. Iraqi
Christians targeted by the Islamic State
were either killed, fled to nearby refugee
camps, or moved in with relatives outside
the terror group’s sphere of control.
In the near-ghost-town-like streets
of Hamdaniya, Nish and I practiced
riding the bike without fear of other
vehicles interrupting our tutorial. It’s
a good thing too. We learned imme-
diately that the Ural had a ghastly
low-speed shimmy that made the
handlebars shake violently unless you
gunned the throttle.Evidence of their presence remained.
The fighters used the home as a fighting
position and as such the building
took its share of fire from Iraqi forces.
This was a common practice of the
Islamic State during the siege of Mosul.
Residents fled the city only to have
gunmen sleep in their beds.
While the Islamic State was using the
home, an incoming mortar hit one of the
walls, showering the bike with large chunks
of concrete that crushed the gas tank.
That wasn’t its only defect. The brake
and clutch cables were either rotted or
missing, and all three tires were flat. But
the bike’s engine was intact and with
little prompting turned over, though
hacking and wheezing.
We turned to local bike mechanic and
Ural enthusiast Firas Assadi to get the bike
rolling again. In the blazing midday heat,
his nephews pushed it several blocks to
Firas’ small shop. He then went to work,
replacing the carburetors, cables, gas tank,
ignition, and numerous other repairs all in
a matter of hours with none of the ameni-
ties available in Western bike shops.
Firas’ skill comes from decades of
experience with the Ural, this one in
particular. “I know this bike well,” he
said noting his friendship with the
previous owner. “I’ve been riding it for
years.” His father and grandfather were
also Ural riders. After completing a top-
down repair job, he demonstrated his
skill with the bike by performing a side-
wheelie down the length of the street
much to everyone’s amazement.
With the bike up and running, we
turned to two more locals for help getting
it out of Mosul. Nish and I decided that
the sight of two obvious foreigners riding
such a conspicuous bike through the
streets was asking for trouble.
Even though the Islamic State had
been forced from this part of the city,
the threat from “sleeper cells” remained
high, prompting our decision to keep a
low profile. Battles were still raging less
than a mile from us. We could hear long
bursts of fire from helicopter gunships
and thunderous artillery in the nearby
old city, where the last terrorist holdouts
still hadn’t surrendered.MCY1017_MOSUL.indd 78 7/25/17 2:04 PM