Motorcycle Hall of Fame & Museum

Ace was traveling along Highway 70 near Columbus, OH when a sign on the side of the road caught his eye. It said, "Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum." He cut across to lanes and shot down the exit ramp to see what it was all about. The area is busy with many lanes and lots of traffic. He didn't see any signs pointing him in the direction of the museum but he figured he'd head the direction towards where he saw the sign and see what he could find. After several dead end U-turns he finally saw the sign for the AMA facility. He wound his way along the scenic driveway and parked in front of the dark brown, unassuming building. He paid the $10 admission and began his tour. The museum is moderately sized so they've selected samples of historic bikes. There are the expected early machines and to Ace's pleasure, there was plenty of Harley representation.

There were beautiful representations of other early innovators like this Henderson and one that Ace had never heard of; a Schickel.

There were some other timeless machines we all know as Indians. Is there any other motorcycle with such fluid styling? Every time Ace sees one of these beauties, it's difficult for him to understand why today's companies don't offer models with a nod to them with more artistic styling. 

There were other samples of mid-century beauties. It's not hard to look at the detail and attention to quality in these machines and know that progress doesn't always mean better. We're living in an era when speed takes precedence over quality. In Ace's opinion we're sacrificing too much in the way of rapid, assembly line production to satiate a consumptive society that is still hungover from being drunk on its own narcism. The bottom line is our favorite motorcycle companies prefer to make money more then enduring, majestic machines. Whether they should be to blame is debatable but we could influence them by being more demanding and discerning in handing them our hard earned dollars. 

Just look at these assets.

 

The museum had a monster machine on display from the Dakar Rally. It's amazing to see how these machines are set up to handle rough terrain at high speeds.

They had the Tenacious II, the fastest motorcycle in Australia holding the record at 297 mph.

How about this innovative bike? It's a hill climber built by Earl Bowlby from a 1967 BSA 650. Who wouldn't want to get on one of these just once and give it a try?

The most enjoyable display to Ace was for the one and only Evel Knievel. Evel embodies the spririt of motorcycling more then any one person. He was the MAN! No, he didn't represent the open road but he had the balls to throw caution to the wind and do what he wanted the way that he wanted. They had one of his bikes, and thought it didn't say so, Ace was sure that it was a replica since it didn't have a scratch on it. LOL! Even so, it was a beauty. Just read the saying on the tank and imagine sitting on the top of the ramp looking down and reading it as he psychs himself up. Then he gases the throttle and dumps the clutch...

In the end, Ace was glad to have stopped by and toured the museum. It wasn't a mega facility that everything seems to be these days, but maybe that's the point. A hall of fame should be about a select few that achieved an uncommon high level of accomplishment.


Motorcycle Hall of Fame
13515 Yarmouth Dr.
Pickerington, Ohio
www.motorcyclemuseum.org