Calling all easy riders and dirt bikers! Drop your kickstands and come see some of the most exciting and revolutionary motorcycle collections unveiled at the newly designed Motorcycle Hall of Fall Museum.

 

For nearly two decades the American Motorcycle Museum has preserved the history of motorcycling and those who have contributed to riding and racing. This past July, the museum opened with a new, expanded design.

 

“We realized last year that we had reached a critical mass,” says Grant Parsons, managing editor of AMA Magazine. “We totally redid everything and created something that is really, really cool.”

 

The redesign began in December of 2009. The newly designed museum features two levels of impressive exhibition areas with one-of-a-kind motorcycles, leather riding gear and rare photographs. Each area is dedicated to a specific topic, like design and engineering or dirt track racing, along with the hall of fame and a special exhibit, the 30-Year Ride, dedicated to the Honda motorcycle plant in Marysville.

 

“It features Honda’s Ohio-made motorcycles. The Marysville plant started as a motorcycle plant,” he says, adding, “the first Honda product ever manufactured in the United States was, in fact, a motorcycle. We have that actual first motorcycle.”

 

The Honda associates gave over three pallets of items to the museum on loan to display in the exhibit with the different motorcycles manufactured at the plant over the years.

 

“What is unique about it, from a motorcycling standpoint, is a lot of people are aware that they made motorcycles there, but for over 30 years they made all kind of machines. They started with a small dirt bike, they were given the small ‘easy bike’ as a test, and two years later they were making a six-cylinder bike,” says Parsons.

 

The museum features several very unique motorcycles including Gottlieb Daimler’s Reitwagen (riding car) made by a group of Ohio farmers in 1885 from a blueprint. The wooden vehicle has a gasoline motor that still runs.

 

“This is what some people would consider the first motorcycle. It actually still works, it doesn’t run fast, but it still runs,” says Parsons. “One of the things we really pride ourselves on is that these are the motorcycles that people used. They are not models or replicas; they are the ones they used. It is not like it, it is the bike.”

 

Another bike on display is the Tenacious II, built by AMA Motorcycling Hall of Famer Denis Manning that reached 297 mph in 2001 at Lake Gairdner in Australia. He now owns the record for the fastest motorcycle south of the equator. He redesigned the bike to create Manning’s No. 7 streamliner that set the current world land-speed record at 367.382 mph in 2009.

 

The museum also boasts a few pieces of movie memorabilia including the original 1971 Husqvarna 400 Cross motorcycle used by Malcolm Smith in the movie On Any Sunday.

 

“It was a movie that really touched a lot of people and ignited motorcycling,” says Parsons.

 

Also on display is the Terminator 2 movie stunt bike, a Honda XR500 that was crafted to appear to be a Kawasaki police bike. It was the bike that crashed through the plate glass window during the movie.

 

The museum also features a circular display that includes the name of each AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame r (over 300 in total) that have made significant contributions to motorcycling.

 

Parsons comments that the visitors to the museum have responded very positively to the redesign and the exhibits. “We designed it in such a way that we can rotate exhibits in and out. Our hope is to keep it fresh because we want people to think there will always be something new there,” he adds.

 

The museum is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week. It’s closed on Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. The standard adult admission is $10 per person, with a $5 discount for AMA members. It is located at 13515 Yarmouth Dr. For more information contact the museum at (614) 856-2222 or .

 

Pattie Stechschulte is editor of Pickerington Magazine.

 

 

Founded in 1924, the American Motorcycling Association (AMA), the world's largest motorcycling organization, works not only to protect the future of motorcycling, but also promote the “motorcycle lifestyle.” In order to recognize members for their accomplishments and dedication to the motorcycle industry, the hall of fame was founded in 1990 to tell the stories and preserve the history of motorcycling. At the same time, the AMA opened a small museum to display donated motorcycles, memorabilia and items on loan from hall of fame members.