I’m planning to head up to the Kalamazoo Air Zoo Saturday, they are hosting a Ford TriMotor and you can go for a flight on it!

Anything bike related in the area worth checking out? Car museums?

no idea about car or bike stuff, sorry. Just wanted to say that I visited the Air Zoo in 2023 and really enjoyed it! Plenty of interesting stuff, and the second building holds the really interesting nerdy stuff. The restoration work is very cool!

Have fun on the Tri-motor!

Steve in Peoria

The Tri motor had a long history at Island Airlines in Port Clinton Ohio ending in 1985. I was never on it, but the island area is quite fascinating. I see they had rides on the museum plane a week ago, and it looks very cool. Have fun on your expedition.

The Kal-Haven bike trail is nice. The Kal stands for Kalamazoo and the Haven stands for South Haven. The trial goes 34 miles between these 2 cities. It has a crushed limestone surface instead of being paved but my road bikes didn't mind.

The Gilmore Car Museum in nearby to Kalamazoo Hickory Corners is North America’s largest auto museum with over 400 vehicles on display and over 190,000 square feet of exhibit space. The Museum’s 90-acre Historic Campus features numerous vintage structures including a restored and fully-functioning 1941 Silk City Diner, a recreated 1930s Shell Station, six onsite Partner Museums, and so much more! That is obviously a cut and paste from their website.

We love the Kalamazoo Air Zoo! I've spent many an afternoon there.

The Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners is great. Lots of cool cars on display in vintage barns and in replica dealerships. There are a few turn of the (previous) century bicycles on display, too. This weekend is their annual Vintage Motorcycle Weekend, as well.

Just for the benefit of those unfamiliar with the Ford Tri-motor, and because I've got photos handy, here are a couple....





It's certainly within the category of "C&V", and is distantly related to two bike shop guys in Dayton, Ohio, but is otherwise not really On Topic.

Steve in Peoria

steelbikeguy Why didn’t I think about posting a pic.


thanks for doing it

I’ve been wanting to go for years and decided this the year, and I going to try and take a short trip every weekend through the end of the year

The airplane must have really made an impression because our local Ford dealer is named Tri Motors Ford. They were founded around the same time the airplane was introduced.

The only new car I have ever purchased was from that dealer in 1986.

Between me, my wife, and my kids, we have bought so many cars there that I asked about getting a a punch card to get my next one free.

This place is fabulous. Unfortunately the Ford Tri Motor may be grounded for weather.

Hopefully not for long. It's already stopped raining here.

OMG!! That was AMAZING!!! What an incredible museum! The folks in Southern Michigan are so lucky to have a such a fabulous place. I spent about 4 hours drifting around and still onlt scratched the surface. You could easily spend a dew days covering all the displays and information available. Then I found out the restoration area is sort of a display area in itself! No one was working but you can see stuff that's being worked on and tools.

Suddenly I heard a plane overhead and just knew it had to be the Tri Motor so I headed over and got in line for my ride. It was unbelievable!! The aircraft was beautiful, all that wood fancy light fixtures, exposed control cables! It wasn't nearly as noisy as I thought it might be. It's just indescribable!!

I wanted to do a vintage look but not just wear black so I chose dress and paired it with the black sweater and gloves so it wouldn't look too summery.

The "Tin Goose" awaits!!


Since I was the last to show I stupidly let everyone else board first, including this very excited cute 9ish year old girl. Still not sure if it was a fortunate or unfortunate that I got to sit by the engine, but it was still a great experience!


The Pilot turned to talk to the gentleman in front of me and said something about a pic so while he was taking a pic I grabbed one or two also

I'm glad to hear, and jealous, that you got to ride in the Tri Motor. Great pics, too!

I rode on the Island Air tri-motor as a kid, and then again when one was visiting the area a couple years ago. As with most childhood memories, the plane was smaller than I remembered. It's hard to believe that flying on such a slow and low airplane was much faster than driving across the country.

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Great song! I'd swear that's Caesar Romero on the piano and Fred McMurray with the saxophone! I feel very cheated that we don't have fabulous nightclubs like this anymore.