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Here is, quite possibly, the most Russian setup for a viral video we’ve ever seen. Unpronounceable town name? Check. Huge (and very real) brown bear? Check. Ural motorcycle with a sidecar? Check. Oddly-described “traveling circus” run by a biker club? Check.
A driver in Arkhangelsk, Russia was understandably shocked when he spotted a pair of bikers and their ursine companion—named “Tim,” according to the video description—cruising down a public road last week and pulled out his phone to record the scene. Even if Russian drivers have practically seen it all, his excited tone makes it clear this isn’t quite an everyday occurrence.
In the 50-second clip, you can see the bear sitting upright in the sidecar and calmly looking straight ahead as the trio makes its way through traffic. Yogi Tim even waves a few times, although its more trained trick than cross-species gesture of friendship, as one of the men appears to feed him a treat at the end of the video.
So is this a sitcom-worthy road trip, or a planned publicity stunt? A little of both. Tim and his human cohorts are members of a traveling circus show run by the local Polar Wolves bike club. This isn’t the first time they’ve popped up—videos emerged last month showing Tim clambering into the sidecar in the town of Syktyvkar, more than 12 hours away from where this clip was shot. No word on whether he rode the whole way there.
And, of course, we should remind everyone that bears, fuzzy faces and cute little ears and mysterious love of car interiors aside, are not your friends. They do not make good pets, in large part because they are wild animals that can kill with the same effort it takes you or I to squish an ant. Training bears is best left to professional… err… bikers?
