Pine Lake: The Blog: Motorcyclepedia Museum I: The Collection, Top Floor

Last week my Sweetie and I drove 30 miles from her home to Newburgh, New York, where we visited the Motorcyclepedia Museum. It was not her idea, but she was kind enough to oblige me.

I'd never been to a vehicle museum before. I'm not sure just what I was expecting, but whatever I was expecting, I got more. It was amazing.

The facility is huge-- 85,000 square feet! A lower floors is the same size as the ground floor. More than 650 motorcycles are on display.

Hill Climbers

One of the collections is hill climbers from the early Twentieth century, most from the 1920s. Old Black Joe, pictured above, was an outlaw bike-- entered by an individual rather than a motorcycle manufacturer. Note the low bars, large rear sprocket, and tire chains.

Unlike the other collections, the dirt bikes were unrestored. Some were in godawful shape.

I suspect most of the old hill climbers in existence were in the room.

Board Track Racers

One of the earliest uses of motorcycles was as pacers for bicycles at popular board tracks. The first time two motorcycle pacers were on a track at the same time probably marked the advent of motorcycle racing. Above at two motorcycles racing in 1911.

Note the apparatus at the rear with a bicycle in situ.

Choppers

There were more than 50 choppers, some of historical importance. Quite a few were replicas, but some were originals.The trike pictured above was a project of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth. If you're old like me, maybe you remember the Revell plastic model kits of Roth's creations.

Here's a replica of the chopper Dennis Hopper rode in Easy Rider.

Indian Larry

Larry DeSmedt, or Indian Larry (1949-2004), was a stunt rider and builder of choppers. Several of his bikes were featured.

Sadly, I'm not able to tell which of my photos of choppers are his, so here's an image of an Indian Larry bike from the web.

Kaizen

Early Japanese bikes have become known as Kaizen, and there was a collection of about 50 on loan. I owned several of the bikes shown, including the two-stroke Yamaha 305cc Big Bear Scrambler pictured above. Mine was blue, too. I think it's a most handsome bike.

My first bike was also on display-- a Honda Cub 50. Mine, unlike the one pictured, was sky blue.

The Cub was the "You Meet the Nicest People" Honda. It would cruise at 30 mph and get nearly 200 miles per gallon.

I always wanted a Hodaka Ace 200 two-stroke like the one in the foreground below. It's an off-road bike and I want one solely because of the cool chrome gas tank.

Indian Collection

I was absolutely overwhelmed by the collection of Indian motorcycles-- there was at least one from every year of production from 1901 through 1953, and many duplicates.

It was fascinating to watch the evolution from motorized bicycles with 1.75 hp single-cylinder motors. By the 1920s the Indians were looking like motorcycles...