Temperatures reached into the low 80’s and despite the clouds rolling through much of the day, it didn’t rain that I noticed, at least not during the day.
Day’s distance: 30 miles
Total trip distance: 8,383 miles
Today was a day “off”. While I put a few miles on the bike, it was only traveling to the Barber Vintage Motorcycle Museum and back to the motel, twice. 🙂
I arrived at the museum at about 10:30am.
The museum building is huge, with five floors, not including the basement level.
A large nicely-finished glass freight elevator is located in the center with a circular ramp traveling from the first floor to the fifth floor located around the elevator.
On Friday’s and Saturday’s, the museum offers a guided tour through the museum, including two areas that are off-limits to general museum visitors. It was scheduled to begin at 11am so I signed up for it. Our guide’s name was Jack and he has been associated with the Barber organization for nineteen years. With a background in engineering and as the owner of a 2015 R1200RT, we got along well !!
The tour started in the basement, where there is a restoration area …
and a race shop where bikes are prepped for racing …
as well as a warehousing area for about 500 motorcycles. Good thing there are high ceilings 🙂
From the basement, we went outside on the walkway over the track.
There was a California Superbike training session going on.
Besides housing the largest motorcycle collection in the world, the museum holds the largest Lotus collection in the world, although they are still waiting for certification before they can say that officially.
I spent hours walking around and took almost 400 photos. I had to return to the hotel to get a fresh camera battery at lunch time. Thankfully, the museum allows visitors to come in again if you have your receipt.
I put together a slide show of some of my favorite photos, below.
This was a fantastic museum, a must stop if you’re in the area. Everything on display was in excellent condition. There are three full time restoration experts on staff at the museum. It is obvious they know what they’re doing.