Motorcyclepedia II

A continuation of my last post, here's the link if you don't feel like scrolling down:
Motorcyclepedia

I will let you guys enjoy the beautiful motorcycles on display and if you happen to live nearby, definitely visit the museum.

I would love to take this Yamaha TZ250 to a track

1974 Yamaha TZ250

How about this 51 Velocette Grand Prix Racer?

Wiki

A few Indians

A Yankee motorcycle? I had never heard about this company

Wiki

A beautifully restored Henderson

Henderson produced 4-cylinder motorcycles from 1912 until 1931

Ace Motor Corporation produced motorcycles in Philadelphia between 1919 and 1924

Wiki

Bultaco was a Spanish manufacturer of two-stroke motorcycles from 1958 to 1983

1978 Harley Davidson MX250

My kind of motorcycle, an adventure motorcycle

Another adventure bike, with a single "pannier" in the front,

I'm kidding of course, still a beautiful Indian

Look at the black one in the back with white tires

Two more Indians

Wow, gotta love the pastel colors, these colors are coming back in cars

Two beautiful Indians with sidecars

I will end this post with this beautiful 1920 Indian

A bicycle with a Briggs & Stratton Type D Motor

Hey, they were able to do 100 miles per gallon

More to come......

Motorcyclepedia

Last June I visited the Motorcyclepedia Museum in Newburgh, New York with my friends from the Central Jersey Motorcycle Club.  The museum had opened back in April and this was our first visit to the museum.  The non-profit museum in the town of Newburgh is housed in a former Miron Home Center and has 2 floors covering about 85,000 square feet.  There are over 350 motorcycles on display and about 100 of them are Indians.  I was equally amazed by the quantity and the quality of the motorcycles on the various galleries.

My trusty Kawasaki Concours (Goldie)

We had a large group, about 20 riders, we met for breakfast and then made a beeline to the museum with no stops.  I didn't have a chance to take any photos along the trip.  Some of the club members that showed up for the ride.

From the outside it's hard to believe such a building houses so many valuable motorcycles and the sign hardly shows it, a little sign in front of the building.

Once you get inside, it's a whole different story, you are surrounded by all kinds of motorcycles that go back all the way to the 19th century, remember, we are in the 21st century, hard to believe.

I'm a big Google user but was always annoyed when viewing pictures because they would open one at a time.  With the advent of Google Plus, which I encourage everyone to join and friend me there, they have updated the way pictures are displayed, now you can see all the pictures in a post at the same time and in full size when you click on any photo.

I will be making various posts since I have so many pictures, there's no point in taking pictures if no one sees them so without further ado here is the first batch, enjoy.

Who doesn't remember "Easy Rider", the 1969 American road movie written by Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper?  There's a nice collection of choppers from various Hollywood movies.

The 60's and 70's were crazy, you gotta love the trikes from the era.  These pictures were taken with my old camera with a special fisheye adapter, excuse the distortion.

I had to have a little fun, this mini chopper that looks like it was made by the guys at OCC (Orange County Choppers) was the only motorcycle we could sit on, I took advantage of it.

My Favourite Five

My friend Roger and fellow blogger from Auckland, New Zealand, recently posted a challenge on his blog  “All Things Rogey!” for us to post the 5 favorites pictures of 2011.
The rules are:

Post your five favourite photos of 2011.  Tell us why you like them.  It could just be you like the pic or it could be more personal or of great meaning to you.  The only rule is that you have to have been the one who took them, and there must be at least one of you

I take a lot of pictures but I decided to post pictures that have a special meaning to me in 2011, not necessarily good pictures, just special.   It was difficult to select the 5 photos but here are mine and why they are special to me.
In order of occurrence.

This one is special because in 2011 I celebrated my 50th birthday.  It was super special because I was able to celebrate with high school friends I hadn't seen in 26 years. My friend Mario on the left also celebrated his birthday, 49th, 9 days before me. We left NY on a cruise to the Caribbean on his birthday and had my party 9 days later as we left the Caribbean on the return trip.  My wife surprised me with this special dinner in one of the gourmet restaurants on the ship, she even managed to get authorization to decorate the corner table in the restaurant.

This one is special because my son turned 21 and we were able to have our first beer together.  He is attending college and I'm sure it was not the first beer he had but at least it was the first beer I paid for and he was legally allowed to have it.

My beautiful daughter graduated middle school and is now in high school, I'm getting old...
She's an adorable young lady but still dad's girl.  To see her in the red gown accepting the diploma was very special.

My first adventure off-road on my new Yamaha Super Ténéré.  As you all know I waited a long time for this bike and I bought it exactly for these kind of roads.  It was only a short ride off-road to test the capabilities of the traction control and ABS but it was nevertheless special to me.  I just love this photo. I plan on going to Alaska with this bike and have lots of plans for the future.

Technically I took this picture since I was alone and put the camera on top of a wooden pole I saw on the side of the road.  Timer counts, doesn't it?  I just love this photo because it represents what I love most, the spirit of adventure, not knowing what's around the corner.  I'm always prepared to discover new things and places and I hope the future will allow me to do lots of adventures.  Now if I could convince my wife to get an adventure bike too, life would be perfect.

Wendover Will

Since I have been talking about giants signs on the road I am including one giant that probably not many people know.  His name is Wendover Will.
I came upon this giant in 2010 during my cross country trip.  I had left my brother at the BMW dealer in Salt Lake City and had done the 121 miles to Wendover by myself with a stop at the Bonneville Salt Flats International Speedway.  It was one of the highlights of my trip, the Salt Flats had been a dream visit since childhood when my dad had shown pictures of the famous Blue Bird land speed record cars.

After arriving in Wendover I crossed the state line in the center of town, Utah/Nevada and was immediately struck by the size of the cowboy in the center of West Wendover, the two towns are separated by the state line.

Info from Wikipedia:


Wendover Will was named after the town of Wendover and William Smith, who founded the Stateline Casino. The 63 foot (19 m)-tall sign was intended to draw travelers in from US Highways 40 and 50, later known as Interstate 80. The sign includes 1,184 feet (361 m) of neon tubing.


When the Stateline Casino changed ownership, the sign was donated to West Wendover. The town spent approximately $200,000 to restore the sign; the restoration was done by The Young Electric Sign Company. Wendover Will was moved to Wendover Boulevard in the town's center


Wendover Will was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the "World's Largest Mechanical Cowboy"

I had nothing else to do but wait for my brother to arrive.  I parked the bike in front of Wendover Will and walked to a nearby casino to get a drink and reprieve from the heat.
You can read the blog for that day here