When most men ride a motorcycle at the age of 48, it is assumed they are experiencing a mid-life crisis – but not Brad Pitt.
The Hollywood actor is known for his love of the vehicles and has ridden some cool bikes in the past but the one he opted for yesterday was quite different.
Actor Brad Pitt and son Pax were seen walking out of Gelson’s Market grocery store and leaving on a Ural Tourist sidecar motorcycle ($11,599) on New Year’s Eve in California. 
Brad was wearing an all black outfit with a pair of IC! Berlin Mahroosa Sunglasses ($420).
The Vietnamese child looked particularly excited as his father got him ready for the ride and relaxed in the sidecar as Pitt cruised the streets.
Both Pitt and his son wore motorcycle helmets as they ran errands around Los Angeles. According to The Daily Mail, Pitt has been keen on motorcycle safety after an accident in 2009.
The actor had been weaving his bike through traffic in Los Angeles attempting to escape from photographers when he crashed.
Although it seems that Pitt’s motorcycle is a new acquisition, it likely wasn’t a gift from his wife Angeline Jolie.
The news source reports that the actress actually bought Pitt a waterfall and surrounding land for his combined birthday and Christmas present this year.
Ural Motorcycles experienced dramatic growth in 2011…
The Ride
If you’ve ever ridden modern European or Japanese bikes, throwing a leg over the Ural Patrol T may trigger a rude awakening. Though up-to-date components abound on this Russian ride, rough fit and finish details are signifiers of its Iron Age roots.
The boxer-style engine starts up with an innocuous exhaust note and a metallic timbre that has inspired some riders to slap on a cheeky sticker that reads “Loud Valves Save Lives.”
Many motorcyclists relish the opportunity to zip away from stoplights with telepathic ease, weave through dense urban traffic and slide knees from apex to apex.
If those are your intentions, the Ural is most certainly not your mount.
If, however, your motorcycling passions tend to favor leisurely strolls through the countryside and you’d like to share the experience with your significant other…
Wwe suggest clicking past the jump to read about our time with Ural’s latest sidecar motorcycle.
With a maximum recommended cruising speed of only 65 miles per hour, the Ural Patrol T is no rocket ship.
But the stability offered by its three-wheeled setup inspired confidence when we traveled over 100 miles out of Seattle on Interstate 5 and encountered deteriorating winter weather that sidelined big rigs, forced cars to don snow chains and resulted in near white-out conditions.
We didn’t miss the tire-spinning horsepower of modern motorcycles when we finally exited the highway at Mount Baker, aiming our Urals through snowdrifts and exploring the limits of low-speed traction.
Hearty German-made Heidenau rubber is available for Urals, and some winter-riding fanatics even equip their rigs with studded snow tires. But our stock, street-rated rubber didn’t leave us stranded when we reached for the two-wheel-drive lever that sits to the right of the rear axle.
Riding through snow is a strange sensation, one that throws everything you thought you knew about motorcycles out the window; despite our best attempts to insulate against cold, passing directly through the thick, fluffy stuff resulted in moisture entering our boots and soaking our gloves.
The Ural Patrol T’s charms lie not only in the obvious areas of its elementally nostalgic design or its head-turning looks, but also in its surprisingly capable offroad abilities.
