7 Top-Rated Motorcycle Museums To Visit In The US – Jalopnik

In 2023, America misplaced the National Motorcycle Museum — a nationwide icon and primary attraction in Anamosa, Iowa — to monetary points. It was based by John Parham in 1989 and contained a group of over 500 bikes, lots of which have been bought by way of Mecum Auctions simply days after the museum closed. That’s no remoted case, as there have been many heartbreaking car museum closures from throughout the nation. While any good public sale home can discover new houses for uncommon and collectible bikes, it will probably’t tie collectively an exhibit that paperwork bike historical past in a significant or relatable means.

Luckily, the seven museums on this article are nonetheless round to do precisely that. These are the top-rated bike museums within the nation, together with well-known venues just like the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame and lesser-known ones just like the Solvang Vintage Motorcycle Museum. Each one is open to guests and received picked for the energy of its assortment, in addition to a wonderful TripAdvisor ranking (none ranked under 4.4 out of 5 stars on the time of writing). Plus, only for good measure, the checklist additionally incorporates two runners up: a short lived exhibit at The Peterson and a small museum hidden inside a Mississippi Honda/Yamaha supplier. For a real bike fanatic, each museum within the checklist is definitely worth the go to.

Founded in 2001, the Motorcycle Museum & Hall of Fame in Sturgis, South Dakota, exists to honor and protect bike historical past — in addition to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Held for the primary time In 1938 from August 12 to 14, the then-called Black Hills Classic featured simply 9 racers and attracted 175 folks. Today, the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally often attracts crowds of over 500,000 guests and is acknowledged as the biggest bike rally on the earth. (It’s additionally fairly beautiful to see the Sturgis Bike Rally from above.)

Naturally, the rally takes middle stage at this museum with the “Spirit of the Rally” exhibit, that includes photographs from Michael Lichter that date again to 1979. The museum additionally has an Antiques Room with classic bikes and a customs room with bikes that includes one-off builds/paint jobs. Meanwhile, McGraw’s Cycle Shop recreates a Twenties workshop, full with period-specific instruments and a 1913 Harley Davidson. Finally, the Hall of Fame pays tribute to the individuals who outline bike tradition. Recent inductees embody the three founders of Easyriders journal and Mary McGee — the primary U.S. girl to earn a highway racing license from the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme.

The Sturgis Motorcycle Museum & Hall of Fame (rated 4.4/5 on TripAdvisor)is situated at 999 Main Street, Sturgis, South Dakota. It opens every day from 9 a.m. to five p.m. beginning on Memorial Day, then 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. from Labor Day. After October 18, the museum opens solely Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $16 for adults, $15 for seniors, $14 for navy, $5 for youths 9 to fifteen, and free for youths 8 and below. 

The AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame is constructed round folks, that includes almost 500 inductees together with racers, engineers, and business pioneers. Its historical past dates again to 1982, when the American Motorcyclist Association created its Heritage Foundation non-profit charity. Eight years later, in August 1990, the museum received its begin in Westerville, Ohio, earlier than transferring to its present location at Pickerington in 1999.

Occupying a 26,000 square-foot facility, the museum at present homes its Hall of Fame Class of 2025 exhibit, which honors its six newest inductees. They are featured alongside a bronze Glory Days sculpture and a brand new exhibit on Jerry Young, who turned the AMA’s First National Tracks Champion in 1972 utilizing his closely modified 1967 Triumph Mountain Cub. Of course, new names are added to the Hall of Fame yearly, and the 2026 Class will possible ultimately achieve displays of their very own.

The AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame (rated 4.5/5) is at 13515 Yarmouth Drive, Pickerington, Ohio. It’s open year-round from 9 a.m. to five p.m. however closes on Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day. Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors, $3 for college kids 12 to 17, whereas youngsters 11 and below and energetic AMA members get in free. Groups of 10 or extra ought to name forward, as ought to any guests with particular wants.

Prior to the Chicago Motorcycle Show of 1919, Harley-Davidson started setting apart one bike from its manufacturing line yearly. Since 2008 (89 years later), that historic assortment obtained a public dwelling in Milwaukee’s Menomonee Valley at The Harley-Davidson Museum. Known as “The Archives,” your entire assortment options greater than 450 bikes, however the museum would not finish there. It encompasses a vivid assortment of everlasting shows, together with the Tank Wall — a whole wall decked out with Harley-Davidson tanks from way back to 1903 — and a Harley-Davidson that managed to remain principally intact after being topic to a tsunami.

Of course, board observe racers and hill climbers (iconic machines consultant of turn-of the-century American motorcycle racing) additionally get their share of the highlight by way of the museum’s Clubs & Competition exhibit. And for anybody wanting extra, there’s all the time The Vault; a group of bikes solely accessible by way of the Beyond The Gate or VIP Tour packages. There are additionally particular limited-time displays like Survivors: A Rare WWII-Era Collection; Ezy Ryders, a five-year exploration of Black bike tradition in New York City; and Creating A Legend, which options engine sketches, clay fashions, and uncommon prototypes.

The Harley-Davidson Museum (rated 4.6/5) is at 400 W. Canal St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and is open every day from 10 a.m. to five p.m. — although hours could differ throughout holidays. Adult tickets value $24 on-line; seniors, college students, and U.S. navy with ID pay $20, whereas youngsters 5 to 17 pay $8. Children below 5 get in free. Groups of 10 or extra ought to reserve upfront.

If you are in Los Angeles and a lover of classic bikes, the Solvang Vintage Motorcycle Museum is certainly definitely worth the 2.5-hour drive. Located in what was once the Solvang Designer Outlet Center, the bikes displayed listed here are owned by Virgil Elings, a physics graduate from MIT and a former school member from the University of California at Santa Barbara. The fashions he collected present his appreciation for highway racing and motocross, with just a few hallmarks that even die-hard fans would kill to see.

The 100+ bike assortment encompasses a 1963 Honda CR 93 (one among Honda’s rarest bikes), a Harley-Davidson XR-750 (created in response to complaints from the British), and varied European and British machines from makers like Ducati, Moto Guzzi, BMW, and extra. Plus, the museum constantly rotates its show bikes, that means that any checklist of its highlights serves as an outline — however not a assure of what you will discover on show once you really go to.

The Solvang Vintage Motorcycle Museum (rated 4.7/5) is at 320 Alisal Road, Solvang, California. It’s open on solely Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $10 per particular person, money solely, and children 10 and below get in free so long as they’re accompanied by a guardian.

George Barber received 63 races driving Porsches within the Sixties earlier than he started accumulating basic vehicles and motorbikes in 1988. His museum opened in Birmingham’s Southside in 1995, and in 1998, the museum lent 21 bikes to the Guggenheim’s “The Art of the Motorcycle” exhibition. Finally, in 2003, the museum relocated to its present dwelling: the purpose-built Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama, full with a 2.38-mile racetrack. In March 2014, it was topped the world’s largest bike museum by Guinness World Records

Today, greater than 1,000 bikes are on show on the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum at anyone time; the total assortment consists of over 1,800 bikes representing greater than a century of manufacturing. Among them are three uncommon Indians: the 1905 Camelback, 1941 841, and 1914 Hendee Special — all of which represent a few of the rarest Indian bikes on the earth. Other highlights embody one among 4 1954 AJS E95 “Porcupine” Grand Prix racers. Car followers have lots to see, too, together with the profitable Ferrari F-158 from the 1964 Formula 1 world championship.

The Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum (rated 4.8/5) is at 6030 Barber Motorsports Parkway in Birmingham, Alabama. It opens Monday by Saturday at 10 a.m. and Sunday at midday, closing at 6 p.m. from April by September and 5 p.m. from October by March. Admission prices $25 for adults, $20 for navy guests, and $10 for youngsters aged 4 to 12. Major occasion weekends require an extra ticket to enter the park.

Dale Walksler, born 1952, discovered himself invested in bikes at an early age — even making his personal on the age of 15. During the primary half of the Nineteen Seventies, he opened his two first bike retailers. And by the point he was 22, Dale bought his personal Harley-Davidson dealership in Mt Vernon. His dealership housed the earliest iteration of his museum which, in 2002, moved to its present location: a 38,000-square-foot shed in Maggie Valley, North Carolina. While Dale handed away to most cancers in 2021 at 68 years outdated, his work lives on by his now-iconic museum, Wheels Through Time, which is run by his son, Matt.

Wheels Through Time could be finest outlined by its slogan “the museum that runs,” which refers to how the museum apparently retains most of its displayed bikes operational. The museum additionally boasts a number of displays — together with Board Track America, which paperwork American board observe racing and options bikes like a 1916 Big Valve Excelsior, a 1912 Model SR Thor, and a 1914 Harley-Davidson Model A. Its strangest exhibit, nevertheless, is a 1916 Traub that discovered behind a bricked-up wall in Chicago circa 1970.

Wheels Through Time (rated 4.8/5) is at 62 Vintage Lane, Maggie Valley, North Carolina and opens 10 a.m. to five p.m., from Thursday to Monday “for the 2026 season” because it describes on its web site. Admission prices are $15 for adults, $12 for seniors, and $7 for youths. Considering its seasonal openings, it could be finest to name the museum forward of time to verify its opening dates.

No checklist of motorbike museums might be full with out mentioning Jerry Doering’s Motorcyclepedia Museum in Newburgh, New York. Founded in 2011, it is one of many newer museums on this checklist, however do not let that idiot you — its founder had a critical assortment on his palms. The late Jerry Doering purchased his first Indian Scout in 1944 with the assistance of his father, and that enthusiasm was ultimately shared along with his personal son, Ted. And after years of collective accumulating, the 2 based the Motorcyclepedia Museum in 2011.

The assortment they constructed over almost a century is now on show within the 85,000-square-foot museum. One of the standout exhibitions there may be the Indian Timeline, which shows 52 years of Indian bikes ranging from the flip of the twentieth century. Other highlights embody reside performances in a Wall of Death, a 1964 Harley-Davidson ridden by a police officer in JFK’s motorcade, and the Triumph ridden by Steve McQueen in “The Great Escape.”

The Motorcyclepedia Museum (rated 4.9/5) is at 250 Lake St., Newburgh, New York. It’s open Thursday from 4 p.m. to eight p.m. and Friday by Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $15 for adults 17 and up, or $8 on Thursdays; youngsters 16 and below get in free.

Two extra museums deserve your consideration that do not strictly meet the rating standards, together with one which made our checklist of the ten top-rated automobile museums to go to within the US. The first is “The American Motorcycle” exhibit at present on on the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. Though it isn’t a everlasting museum, this assortment is certain to please with its gaze past Harley-Davidson and Indian to a number of the different 300-odd firms constructing bikes within the U.S. between 1900 and the Thirties. The exhibition apparently options over 25 uncommon bikes from the interval, together with an 1898 Cleveland Tricycle, a 1904 Thomas Auto-Bi, and a 1905 Nelk inbuilt Palo Alto. The exhibition runs till March 7, 2027 on the second flooring of the Petersen, and entry is included with common museum tickets.

Second comes Lake Hill Motors. Search for it on-line and you will find nothing greater than a easy roadside Honda and Yamaha supplier in. However, tucked away contained in the store is what some fans take into account one among America’s finest hidden bike displays. Its assortment consists of roughly 150 uncommon bikes belonging to retailer proprietor Duane McLemore. On show are, in keeping with guests, a 1901 Steffey, a 1996 Ducati 955 SP, and two Sandcast 1969 Honda CB750s. The museum is often open throughout store hours (8 a.m. to five p.m. Monday to Friday and till 3 p.m. on Saturdays), however take into account calling the shop previous to visiting simply to ensure.