Solvang, California: Awesome Solvang Vintage Motorcycle Museum

While in Solvang I went to the Solvang Vintage Motorcycle Museum and highly recommend you do the same if you have any interest at all in motorcycles.

I used to race motorcycles when I was younger, mostly motocross although I did get to race in a TT race and a road race. I loved the one time I went road racing but I didn’t have the money to keep racing.

I don’t have the skill either --not enough to go fast, you have to win-- but I prefer to blame the lack of $$$$. In any case, there is a world class motorcycle museum in Solvang with lots of old and in some cases, unusual bikes plus couple of very cool road racing motorcycles. I was told the owner is a former college Physics professor; this guy really knows his bikes, his engineering and his racing history. Truly a great collection.

1914 Indian “V” Twin. Indian was the largest motorcycle company in the US (world?) in 1914. When WWI broke out the US government bought all of their 1916 motorcycle production leaving the large Indian dealer network with nothing to sell. Harley Davidson took advantage of the situation and passed Indian as the largest manufacturer a few years later.

Hopefully you can read the story above about how the museum’s 1914 Indian was discovered….

1921 Mars 1000. Horizontally opposed twin cylinders but mounted in line with the frame rather than transversely like BMW made famous and still uses today. Check out the complete spare tire mounted on the rear – a testament to the poor quality of the roads at that time.

1933 Matchless – check out the double ‘fishtail’ exhaust pipe.

No kidding. I got to spend several hours at the museum while staying in Solvang. Of course, Mary Lynn went shopping so I could browse to my heart’s content. Darn – I missed going shopping with her for several hours – in & out of similar shops selling almost identical ‘trinkets & trash’ – really sorry I missed that.

Harley Davidson ruled dirt track racing in the 70’s at places like Ascot Park in Southern California. Not so much in road racing….

 

Road racing legend Giacomo (Jock-o-mo) Agostini signed the tank of this Yamaha TZ 700. Yamaha made a small number of production racers that anyone could buy.

A friend of mine bought and raced a TZ 350, which he was kind enough to let me do the test rides when we were ‘jetting’ the bike. We gave two six packs of beer to a bike-friendly cop and he would block off the end of a long, well lit straightaway out in the middle of no where. That’s the fastest I have ever gone on a motorcycle – roughly 130 mph. The bike would go faster but when the street lights started to look like a picket fence and you could see the end of the street I decided the ‘jetting’ test was done.

Yamaha’s TZ 700 is basically two TZ 350 motors stuck together. Giacomo won the Daytona 200 in 1974 on a Yamaha like the one in the museum.  Fast and loud is a real understatement for this motorcycle.

1957 Maico Typhoon. Maico dominated motocross however they were never very successful with street bikes – despite styling way ahead of other manufacturers. Note how the transmission cases ‘flow’ into the bodywork – pretty advanced for 1957. I think Honda took styling cues from this bike for the “Honda Dream” series of bikes it introduced in the 60’s.

Really cool 1932 Brough Superior. Check out the exhaust on this v-twin.

 

John Britten designed what is arguably the fastest 4 stroke motorcycle in the early 90’s, reported able to do wheel stands at 150 mph. Only 10 Brittens (+ a prototype) were built before John Britten died in 1995. His bikes made extensive use of Carbon fibre body work including the rims, front suspension fork, and the swingarm.

Other design highlight included a hand cast, 4 valves per head alloy engine; frame-less chassis with engine acting as a stressed member; radiator located under the riders seat; carbon fibre fasteners (joining body work together); engine data logging and the rear suspension shock located in front of the engine.

Supposedly the Britten 1000 in the museum was the only Britten that was never raced. In fact it was in its original packing case until 2004. The bike is an engineering marvel.

Actually, that was one of my main take-aways. Engineering marvels abound throughout the early 1900’s. Many of the designs introduced today that we think are so revolutionary were actually designed, implemented and sold to the public at the turn of the last century. Although almost all of the companies represented by the vintage motorcycles in this museum are long gone, the brilliant engineering and beautiful designs live on in special places like this.

There are only a few special motorcycle museums however the Solvang Vintage Motorcycle Museum is one of them. If you love motorcycles like I do, you need to add this place to your bucket list.

See Ya!

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