yamafitter
Reigning NERDS Granite Lane Gold Medalist
There are currently 1455 complete motorcycles in the collection of which about 700 are kept on display. The secondary storage area is for incomplete bikes that are mostly used to salvage parts. I paid the extra for the guided tour that included the basement shops. On the south side of the basement is the main restoration area which is divided into the car side and the motorcycle side. Today they had a '64 Ferrari F1 done up in USA colours...
In 1964 Enzo Ferrari and Bernie Ecclestone were having a falling out and Ferrari was going to pull out of Formula 1. John Surtess pointed out that that he was leading the World Championship at the time so Enzo decided to lease the Ferrari to Ferrari to Ferrari USA rather than be the official entry which explains the blue & white livery instead of the traditional Ferrari red.
On the other side of the restoration area was a replica of one of the early Harleys....
What makes it a replica is that not all the parts were original when the museum got the bike but they had received permission from Harley Davidson to make up the proper decals since the bike was for display in the collection.
On the back wall in the hallway between the shops is a board that was brought over from the old museum that is signed by a number of racers and other dignitaries that have been to the museum over the years...
One of the signature near the center bottom that stood out for me was Jeff Smith, former World MX Champion for BSA and also worked for Can-Am Motorcycles. Jeff rode for the Canadian ISDT team and I had met Jeff at the 1980 ISDT in France when I went over as a manager for one of our club teams that year.
We did go into the storage area where the bikes that are not currently on display are stored. This Vincent had just recently been rotated out of the display area....
There was a very interesting modified V12 Kawaski in the storage area....
Apparently there is a chap over in Great Britain that has done conversions by mating on extra cylinders. In this case he took two 6 cylinder Kawis and mated them up to make a V12 as if the Kawi 6 cylinder was not crazy enough. I could not even imagine what this thing would sound like.
In the one shop they had a computer controller water cutter for making up everything from wheel rotors to decals. Across the floor was the main machine shop. The museum has an agreement with Hass Automation (of Hass Racing fame) for Hass Automation to use the shop as a showroom and training facility in exchange for the use of the equipment. In this shop the museum can machine just about any part they cannot find for a restoration.
The basement also has a number of cars on display including this Bonneville Streamliner...
One of George Barber's recent additions to his collection is outboard motors which are displayed in the basement around the outside of the main area...
The other new addition to the museum are these life size plastic model kits...
If you had plastic car models as a kid you probably remember having these snap out kits just not quite in this size.
The museum were also prepping a few bikes to the shipped out to a concourse coming up in the near future. This Vincent Black Lightning was certainly looking very pretty...
In 1964 Enzo Ferrari and Bernie Ecclestone were having a falling out and Ferrari was going to pull out of Formula 1. John Surtess pointed out that that he was leading the World Championship at the time so Enzo decided to lease the Ferrari to Ferrari to Ferrari USA rather than be the official entry which explains the blue & white livery instead of the traditional Ferrari red.
On the other side of the restoration area was a replica of one of the early Harleys....
What makes it a replica is that not all the parts were original when the museum got the bike but they had received permission from Harley Davidson to make up the proper decals since the bike was for display in the collection.
On the back wall in the hallway between the shops is a board that was brought over from the old museum that is signed by a number of racers and other dignitaries that have been to the museum over the years...
One of the signature near the center bottom that stood out for me was Jeff Smith, former World MX Champion for BSA and also worked for Can-Am Motorcycles. Jeff rode for the Canadian ISDT team and I had met Jeff at the 1980 ISDT in France when I went over as a manager for one of our club teams that year.
We did go into the storage area where the bikes that are not currently on display are stored. This Vincent had just recently been rotated out of the display area....
There was a very interesting modified V12 Kawaski in the storage area....
Apparently there is a chap over in Great Britain that has done conversions by mating on extra cylinders. In this case he took two 6 cylinder Kawis and mated them up to make a V12 as if the Kawi 6 cylinder was not crazy enough. I could not even imagine what this thing would sound like.
In the one shop they had a computer controller water cutter for making up everything from wheel rotors to decals. Across the floor was the main machine shop. The museum has an agreement with Hass Automation (of Hass Racing fame) for Hass Automation to use the shop as a showroom and training facility in exchange for the use of the equipment. In this shop the museum can machine just about any part they cannot find for a restoration.
The basement also has a number of cars on display including this Bonneville Streamliner...
One of George Barber's recent additions to his collection is outboard motors which are displayed in the basement around the outside of the main area...
The other new addition to the museum are these life size plastic model kits...
If you had plastic car models as a kid you probably remember having these snap out kits just not quite in this size.
The museum were also prepping a few bikes to the shipped out to a concourse coming up in the near future. This Vincent Black Lightning was certainly looking very pretty...
