Bicycle Museums in the US
 

I am not sure exactly which forum is best for this thread, so I guess the
General Cycling Discussion is fine for now.

Has anyone been to any Bicycle Museum here in the US? Just found
out that the one in western NY state is closed and may not re-open.

There is also one in western Ohio, with a collection that used to be housed
in Chicago(?).

I was just wondering if anyone has visited any, and what their experiences were.

Thanks in advance...

Only one I've been to is the one in Western NY, Orchard Park to be exact. Does not say anything on their web site about being closed.

3943 North Buffalo Road
Orchard Park, NY 14127-1841
(716) 662 - 3853

yeah, that used to be a pretty good bike museum we had here in chicago at navy pier, a place that attracts 6 million visitors a year. now the bike collection is in a museum in some no-name town in ohio that no one has ever heard of. i'll never understand that move. oh well.

Not sure about the current status, but antique bicycle equipment is displayed at the Three Oaks MI Historical Museum. Their bike museum used to be in a free-standing building (train station, converted), but judging from inactive Web links it seems to be closed as a separate entity. While not separate museums, it might be worthwhile to check artifacts in collections displayed at larger museums such as Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago).

The Museum of Mountain Bike Art and Technology is in Statesville, NC. I haven't been to it but it looks like a cool place to visit.

http://mombat.org/MOMBAT/

from Navy pier to some no-name town in Ohio sounds like maybe a 75% or more reduction in rent. it may be awful to lose it but it may have been necessary to move it rather than break it up.

isn't there one in Minn somewhere? or is Western 'sconsin?

I'm not sure of anything in the Twin Cities area, but there is one in Brainerd, with no idea about actual content:

Easy Riders Bicycle Museum
415 Washington Street
Brainerd, MN 56401
218-829-5516


This museum features about one hundred unique bicycles that date back to 1918, along with other items such as toys, sleds, skis, and snowshoes.

The "Deke Slayton Memorial Space and Bicycle Museum" in Sparta, Wisconsin.

Wow, I didn't know about the Ohio one. Now we're planning on going up there for their vintage bike show. I'm in southwest Ohio, and I had to look it up.

If you're around Burlington VT stop into the Old Spokes Home. It is a LBS but is kinda funky and it has a great collection of old/antique bikes upstairs for viewing, and lots of not so old ones for buying.

it also means a 75% or more reduction in the number of people who will see the collection. from what i have found out, it seems that rent wasn't the big reason in the move, the owner of the collection merely wanted to move it to his old hometown so that he could "put it on the map" so to speak. that's all fine and good, it just means that fewer people will see the collection now, but whatever, the owner is certainly free to do what he wants with his possessions, the move just didn't make a lot of sense to me on the surface.