July 8 - 9, 2015
July
8th
The ride to Birmingham was
pretty uneventful and easy, still hot and humid, not too bad. Maybe we are
getting acclimated?
We had an appointment at the
Big #1 Motorsport shop in Birmingham to have Judith’s rear tire renewed. We
arrived there about 12:30 and all was good. The tire I ordered was there and
they were ready to put it on right away.
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The inside was much nicer than the outside appearance |
We were a little hungry and
there was a Waffle House a short walk away, so while the tire work was going on we had lunch. This was a pretty old Waffle House,
so it had extra character. Shortly before we finished eating there was a shift
change. Now, I have never seen a shift change at a WH and it was pretty
interesting. Lot’s of talking and stories being told by the off-going shift and
the on-coming shift… lot’s of good WH talk stuff.
We sat at the counter,
because that’s where all the action is happening – watching the cooking and
listening to the back and forth between the Grill Operator (fry cook) and the Sales
Person (waitress) and the dish washer.
Sitting at the counter one
stool over was a gentleman that, well I think he was a gangster. He was on his
cell phone the entire time he was eating and the side of the conversation I heard
was colorful to say the least - lot's of "MoF'r" and "Ya know what I'm say'n?"
So, back to Big #1 and
picking up Judith’s bike. They were finished before we finished our lunch. We
took a look around the show room, which was kind of cool. They have been a BMW
dealer for two months, but had a reasonable inventory of BMW bikes. More interesting
was the fact that they have been a Polaris dealer for many years. Polaris is a
name lots of people do not know, but they are a very large and successful water-sports and motorsports company. They have been in the personal water craft, quad and dual quad business for
years and even longer in the snowmobile business. A few years ago they became
involved in the motorcycle side with the Victory motorcycle and about two or
three years ago revived the famous old American Indian brand. They had a good
inventory of Indians, which I was happy to see because I have not seen one in
the flesh.
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Indian Scout |
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Indian Chief |
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And you can get a Papoose as well |
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No shortage of Indian Accessories |
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You can pull your Polaris personal water craft with your Polaris Quad |
Off we went to our hotel
that was right down the road from Barber Motorsports.
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This 1965 Triumph Bonneville was in the lobby of the hotel |
Only problem was that
there is very little in the area, so we had to take a ride up the Interstate a
few miles to get some fortifications. We found a Walmart and this was, yet
again, the source for dinner.
July 9th
Barber Motorsports Museum
opens at 10:00. We were there at 10:10. Being a weekday there was not a crowd,
so it was easy going.
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Barber Motorsports Museum is a modern purpose built facility with three odd guys on unicycles in front |
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Not sure I fully understand these guys |
For those of you who are not
familiar with the Barber Motorsports Museum, please let me fill you in by
simply stealing from our good friend – Wikipedia:
Barber Vintage Motorsports
Museum
George Barber had a serious
interest in vintage motorcycles and recognized that there was no museum that
reflects the history of motorcycles around the world.
He wanted to preserve motorcycle history in the United States in a way that
represents an international aspect and to supply an example of motorcycles that
until then could only have been seen in books and magazines. The Barber Vintage
Motorsports Museum began in 1988 as Barber's private collection. However, in
1994 it officially opened to the public in Birmingham, Alabama. The Museum was
relocated to the Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds, Alabama in 2003.
The museum has over 1450
vintage and modern motorcycles and racing cars. It is considered the largest
motorcycle museum in the world,
as well as the largest collection of Lotus race cars. The motorcycle collection
includes bikes dating from 1904 to present production. About half of the 1200
motorcycles on display at any given time, from 16 countries that represent over
140 different marques from as far away as Australia, New Zealand, and Sweden.
This place is mind blowing
if you are interested in motorcycles and /or sports cars. It’s huge and the
displays are very effectively laid out. There are six floors built around a
central massive elevator with a circular walkway. Each floor is wide open in reality, but you get a
feeling that you are strolling through a park and turning a corner to discover
something new. There are towers of motorcycles stacked from the first floor to
the fifth floor. Each of the displays allows you to come right up to the bike
(better not touch however) to have a close inspection. The bikes are grouped in a logical manner, but then they often use contrast and comparison in a
subtle way – older and newer, brand-to-brand, color-to-color and so forth. It
is an amazing place, with over 600 motorcycles on display, plus many racing
cars. And, there are several hundred more motorcycles and cars in the
collection not on display
I took more than 450 pictures
and need to sort and edit them. I will post them later, but here is a small
sampling.
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I had told Judith that the place is big, but I don't think she was ready for how big |
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Looking down from the fourth floor |
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A motorcycle tree |
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What would a proper motorcycle museum be without a Wizzer |
|
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This could be ordered from the Sears Catalog back around 1915 |
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Detail of the beautiful paint work |
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A rare French motorcycle |
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George Barber started out originally collecting Lotus Racing cars |
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The Lotus collection is extensive |
After our 6 ½ hours
walkabout at Barber we needed to get fortifications, so that meant another ride into
Birmingham. We found a very California like mall with a chic shops and a Whole
Foods. Take home from Whole Paycheck was our dining for the evening
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