NMS Visits The Largest Motorcycle Collection IN THE WORLD!

NMS driver Brian Nixon with a 2002 Ghezzi and Brian Super Twin 1100!
Ghezzi and Brian are two Italian motorcycle fans that build custom bikes that use Moto Guzzi engines. 

We were at Barber Motorsports Park outside of Birmingham Alabama to drive on their track for a weekend, and also had time to visit the Barber Vintage Motorsport Museum on site. A few quick facts: 

-This is the largest motorcycle collection in the WORLD. It's not "big," it's BIG!!!!!

-While it's a gigantic facility and display area, they only display about 1,000 at a time from the collection of nearly 2,000. Trust me, there's WAY more stuff on display than I can post!

-Also includes awesome cars to see! Look for Part 2 for some cool cars. 

So, Barber has motorcycles: a LOT of motorcycles. We looked at motorcycles and some cool cars for HOUR. Days later, and I am still on Motorcycle-Overload! Let's just say that it's the largest motorcycle museum in the world, and that gives you some idea of how many bikes they have. Here's just a few motorcycle highlights that caught my eye. Hey, they also offer a military discount, so thanks!

1976 BMW R 90S. No two of these were painted the same!

1982 Hesketh V 1000. Lord Hesketh was the man behind the Hesketh F1 team in the 1970s that brought future world champion James Hunt into F1 too. As a motorcycle fan, Lord Hesketh wanted to also build a great superbike. They produced 170 bikes, but they received terrible reviews and the motorcycle company folded. 

1966 BMW R60/Steib. Touring BMW bike with the Steib sidecar.

1997 Ducati Senna. This is a special version of the Ducati 916 that was sold to raise funds for the Ayrton Senna charity, started by the Formula 1 driver in Brazil. 

1924 Moto Guzzi Normale. This is the first model designed and built by Carlo Guzzi.
My math isn't the greatest, so I'm guessing that this cool looking motorcycle is over 100 years old! 

2011 EBR 1190RS. This is serial number 00001, the first sport bike from EBR, the new company from Eric Buell. The carbon fiber ducts caught my attention. Built in the USA. 

2014 Motus MSTR. Production #001, built in Birmingham.

Nice display on real dirt with real tire tracks!

More motorcycles!

1970's Chevy Drag Bike. Built for exhibition, no radiator so they just added coolant for each run. 

One cool thing about this museum, and all of the entire track, grounds, and 800+ acres is that if you look around you'll see art, sculptures, and some oddball things everywhere. Like here, up above the elevator shaft in the museum is the body of a Porsche racing car. Not visible, but on top of the elevator car is an F4 race car. 

1943 BMW R75 3x2. This BMW with Steib sidecar and machine gun is painted with the Afrika Korps palm tree logo. 16,500 of these were built. 

1912 Wall Wallcycar (Wall Cycle Car.) Oh you think the new 3 wheelers are modern and cool? Here's one is 113 years old! Also of interest, the Mr. Wall that started the company was financed by his brother-in-law, a certain Mr. Arthur Conan Doyle who wrote the Sherlock Holmes stories. 

1955 Vincent Amanda Water Scooter. Why is it in a motorcycle museum? 
Glad you asked!
The famous Vincent motorcycle folks expanded their business into lawn mower engines and other applications, so they came up with this water scooter so long ago that it's before I was born! It wasn't enough to keep the company open, and the early versions of fiber glass didn't turn out so well either, but these guys were WAY ahead of their time!