The National Motorcycle Museum web site dangled the carrot: “An extensive collection of vintage motorcycles, thousands of photographs, posters, postcards and pieces of motorcycle memorabilia, plus a fabulous collection of antique toys and other surprises await you in Iowa.”
Well, having already travelled halfway around the world from Australia and clocking up a few thousand miles on our Harley-Davidson Press Fleet bikes while riding a somewhat circuitous route from Long Beach to Sturgis, the extra eight hundred or so miles to Anamosa, Iowa didn’t seem too daunting to your intrepid Bikernet correspondents.
Especially for a couple of sun-bronzed Aussie bikers accustomed to doing it tough, used to living on kangaroo and Tasmanian Devil road kill, washed down by billy-boiled tea. After all, here in the good ol’ USA we’d have the luxury of paved roads all the way, no kangaroos or emus to dodge, plus Starbucks and McDonalds for refreshments and belly fuel. Unaccustomed luxury indeed!
A late breakfast in Sturgis on the Monday after the rally saw us hitting the road but with a few places to visit along the way including Jesse Jurens Independent Cycle in Rapid City where Jeff Ulvestead gave us a factory tour.
Then it was on to Brian Klock’s Klock Werks in Mitchell, South Dakota and Dakota Digital’s plant in Sioux Falls. But those are stories for another place and time.
Several days and several hundred Corona’s, Buds and MGDs later (all consumed after the bikes had been locked up for the night) we rolled into the sleepy little town of Anamosa, a town of some 6000 souls and 2.2 square miles.
Just as the Sturgis Rally and Races has put that Black Hills town on the map world wide, motorcycles have done it for Anamosa too. Since 1979 Anamosa has been the birthplace and home of J&P Cycles which sells aftermarket motorcycle parts and accessories through catalogs, the internet, and its Anamosa retail showroom.Of course, being also the home to the National Motorcycle Museum which features many vintage motorcycles including the (claimed) only original Captain America bike from the movie Easy Rider, has also helped it gain world wide awareness.
We struck the museum on a quiet mid-week day and had it virtually to ourselves during the several hours we spent there tip-toeing around with reverent attitudes akin to pilgrims visiting a saint’s tomb. And why not? To us, these are hallowed objects and the museum something of a shrine to much of biker history.
From the 1904 Rambler or the 1905 Indian, both in bicycle type frames with the camel-back gas tank mounted on the rear fender through the decades to the Vesco Streamliner and beyond the museum is stacked to the rafters with hundreds of exhibits which would take days to take in properly.
Owned by John Parham, the ‘J’ of J&P Cycles, the museum pays tribute to his ability to collect a range of bikes with core relevance to today’s biker, be he a member of Gen-Y, Gen-X or aging baby boomers like ourselves. In fact I don’t think that there was a biking boomer who wasn’t influenced, motivated or in some way inspired by the movie Easy Rider, so to be able to stand next to the alleged surviving movie bike is pretty special indeed.
And how about the opportunity to have a close inspection of Steve McQueen’s favorite Indian and even to sit gently and reverently upon it; for which special permission was sought and probably only granted due to our substantial charm and silver-tongued pleading, plus the fact that we’d travelled half-way around the world to visit the museum. Oh, and the fact that we are professional biker journos after all. Of course an extra and substantial donation didn’t go astray either.
There are bikes from many countries housed in the museum, American bikes, British bikes, Italian bikes, German bikes, bikes from other European countries – in fact bikes from all over the world and from all eras including the steam powered motorcycle you see here.
And there is a recreation of the original wooden shed that allegedly was the birthplace of the Harley-Davidson Motor Company. The shed is decked out with lathes and other tools from the era plus a 1910 Harley-Davidson single in unrestored condition. Cool indeed.
There are hundreds of engines on display from the various makes, models and eras as well as many other motorcycle parts.
Shown below is a mint Brough Superior, the bike favored by Lawrence of Arabia who named each of his Broughs ‘George’. He was killed on a Brough when he hit a cyclist near his home. The Brough Superior was so well respected that Rolls Royce allowed the company to refer to their motorcycles as “The Rolls Royce of Motorcycles”.
Arguably the most desirable motorcycle in the world for many years, the inimitable Vincent ruled the roads with its 50 degree V-Twin engine outperforming any thing else in its day.
Vincent produced the most legendary motorcycle of its time, the Black Lightning, which was advertised as “The World’s Fastest Standard Motorcycle – This is a fact, not a slogan!” And it was a fact as in1948, Indian Motorcycle dealer, Rollie Free, riding the very first Vincent-HRD Black Lightning built and wearing just a bathing suit, raised the motorcycle speed record to 150.313 mph (241.905 km/h) on Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats. And we know how tough record setting on the salt is, don’t we Bandit?
The museum contains a magnificent collection of Indians in various states of restoration, most of which Indian aficionados would sell their soul to the devil in order to possess some of them.
Yes folks, whatever combination of reasons caused the ‘Iron Redskin’ to burn its way into our collective biker consciousness there is no doubt that a special frisson of excitement is felt when in the presence of old Springfield iron. And you know, all museums have a sort of spooky feel about them when you think about the stories all that old iron could tell if it could speak. Stories of out riding the local cops to escape speeding tickets, stories of adventurous rides over mountain ranges on unmade roads, stories of camping out under a million stars and of course stories of pretty women. Of course, by now with your correspondents several weeks and half a world away from their own loves, even the female models in the museum seemed to come to life, exuding a come-hither warmth that could not be denied …
Err … moving right along it was impossible not to be moved also by the many mint bikes on display, bikes that soar right out of the pages of motorcycle history books to sit there in all their metal and paint glory as they would have appeared in a bygone age.
Bikes that the young bucks of the day would have shown off to their fair maidens as part of the age old mating ritual.
Bikes that had their fifteen minutes of fame.
Bikes which helped make men famous.
Bikes which were the custom kings of their day.
Ah, yes will future bikers laugh out load at our contemporary tastes?
Well, probably not. At least not like we laugh at these overloaded, trinket covered, over-blinged kitsch-to-death rides from our vantage viewpoint.
Eventually motorcycle sensory overload overtook us.
It was time to leave this incredible archive of motorcycle history and head back to California via Kansas City where we visited the ProCharger factory. But that too, is another story for another day.
Right now there were roads to ride …
… and at the end of a long day on the road, there are always attractive young ladies to pull beers and serve hot food to deserving bikers. Your Bikernet correspondents whole heartedly endorse a visit to the National Motor Museum. Go there, take in the vintage atmosphere, soak up the incredible iron that’s on display. Touch a part of your history. You’ll always be glad you did.
