Nat'l Motorcycle Museum

[Chris216]

Just got back from a 4 day ride up to Iowa to the National Motorcycle Museum. We figured with the museum closing in Sept it would be a good trip.
I rode up to St Louis to a buddies house, and we headed up to Anamosa Iowa. I rode my RS and my buddy rode his 82 Honda CB1100F. Trip went pretty smooth except for about 50 miles of rain and the fact his 1100F was only getting 23 MPG   (Kehin 33 mm CR's and Yosh pipe and ?) made for a lot of gas stops  . The museum was good to see, a lot of different stuff.

   

Everyone needs a Roadog
   

Nice board track racing exhibit
   

Hill Climb
   

Definitely worth the trip if you get a chance before they close.

Chris

[Grumpy Goat]

Nice pics. 

Wow ... at 23 mpg he should get a different bike.    That's worse than many cars.

[Duckbubbles]

I hear that it is closing.  Such a shame.  I wonder if it is the location?
Good thing the Roadog is on concrete!

Frank

[Lee]

I hear that it is closing.  Such a shame.  I wonder if it is the location?
Good thing the Roadog is on concrete! 

Frank

When we were there a couple years ago there were maybe two other paying customers.
Not many people knew about the place.

From their website

“We have struggled for several years to cover wages and utilities partly due to low visitation.” The Museum is one of about six motorcycle museums in America operated as a non-profit and was established in Iowa by J&P Cycles founders John and Jill Parham.Apr 27, 2023"

[Chris216]

There were a fair amount of visitors there when we went, but it was a Saturday and it looked like a Harley group ride was forming up in the parking lot.
Chris

[Lee]

Mecum will handle the auction September 6-9.
https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorcycle...ast%20time.

[Lee]

Mecum will handle the auction September 6-9.
https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorcycle...ast%20time.

There was a little error in the article when it said the bikes have been in the current building for 22 years.

John had the museum downtown for 9 or 10 year before moving the collection in 2010 to the old Walmart building on the highway.

[Grumpy Goat]

From their website

“We have struggled for several years to cover wages and utilities partly due to low visitation.”

The fact that low visitation was the only "part" mentioned as a cause, suggests it is the most significant. One can speculate about the reason for the low visitation.

I wonder what would be the result of a 5 Why's (or similar) root cause analysis of low visitation to motorcycle museums. Maybe it would suggest that of the people who are presently interested in motorcycling in the US, that demographic interested in the history and development of the sport to where we are today, is fading away. Also, in this country motorcycles are not, in general, used for transportation but rather a weekend leisure activity. Costs tend to discourage less economically advantaged people from getting into the sport, and increasing complexity of the machinery discourages DIYers, not to mention the interest and patience of the current younger generation in learning to do even simple maintenance themselves.

Then there are the displays in these museums themselves - unless they are kept fresh with newer historical pieces, and professionally done displays, the visitors will more and more tend to see the collections as "old junk" ... and in some cases maybe they are - who has the time to go there and sift the wheat from the chaff in a museum. People want eye-catching displays professionally laid out in such a way that the story is effectively told.

Many other factors that could be considered as causative, but the bottom line is that these establishments will all sadly fade away unless kept fresh, and where they are being run by enthusiasts as non-profits that will always be a challenge. A case in point would be something like the Barber Museum which from what I understand is on a stronger existential footing.

Maybe this is just my view of these museums ... just my 2 cents.

[Lee]

 Maybe it would suggest that of the people who are presently interested in motorcycling in the US, that demographic interested in the history and development of the sport to where we are today, is fading away. 

No big surprise, we both like motorcycles 
But, I enjoy car and aviation museums more than motorcycle museums.

Going to a Mecum auction is like going to a museum. If you don't want to walk, you can sit there and watch them roll by