THE BARBER CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE MUSEUM AND MOTORSPORTS PARK

May 5, 2007.  I met my travelin' buddy Texas Chuck in Leakey, Texas for the start of a long awaited trip to the Barber Vintage Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham, Alabama.  We spent the 5th riding around the Hill Country before returning to Junction, TX where Chuck's ST Owners Club was holding a gathering.  He'd ridden down from Wichita Falls with some of them on Friday.  Sunday moring we pulled out of Junction with the intent of making it about half way to Birmingham.  We ended up in Eldorado, Arkansas for the night.  The next day was fairly short and we arrived at our destination about 3:15.  Tuesday morning found us at the Barber Mueseum at 9:15.  But it didn't open until 10:00 so there was nothing left to do but ride around the area.  I'm not sure what I expected the Birmingham area to be like, cotton fields and wide open spaces I guess but I was pleasantly surprised at the hills and trees.  Actually quite stimulating!  But we were back at the door at 10:00, first in (and we would be last out.)  The museum is impossible to adequately discribe but I'll try.  Trying to capture it with a camera is like trying to capture the immensity of the Grand Canyon.  It simply cannot be done.  There are five levels plus the basement (off limits except on rare occasions) where restorations are done.  The levels are roughly broken down into years with the top floor a medley of bikes with no real theme.  The other levels are broken down by periods of time, pre 1960, post 1960, etc.  And then there are special displays of designers, racers, manufacturers, etc.  There is one display devoted to Indian, another to Lotus cars (with virtually every significant model on display including two replicas of the first two Lotus cars), another to Harley Davidson, and others.  Barber is a car guy so much of one floor is devoted to cars.  But they are race cars and superb examples of Grand Prix, Indy, NASCAR, etc.  If I use 'etc' too much, I appologize but there are just too many examples to name every one!  And now to the photos.  I was pleased to find four examples of bikes I've owned:  the Cushman Highlander, Yamaha DT 250, Honda SL 350, and FJ 1100.  Unfortunately I'm not a very good photographer and too many of my pictures turned out blurry.  I'd like to think I was just shaking with excitement but in truth it may be old age.

For me this is what started it all:  my first two wheeled motor vehicle.  Hardly a motorcycle, and with an incredible 4.8 horsepower, barely a scooter, a 1958 Cushman Highlander Model 711 'tube'.  They only made these for three months at the factory in Lincoln, Nebraska before adding a fiberglass body.  They were still a Model 711 but they made a lot more of them with the body.  I don't know if the frame and engine, gas tank placement, etc. stayed the same but I'd guess it did.  Mr. Barber apparently likes Cushmans as there were at least a half dozen of them in the museum, mostly Eagles.  I recall that a kid in my class in high school had an Eagle at the same time I had my Highlander.  How I did envy him!  And it was a Super Eagle with twice pipes!  But at our 40th class reunion, he was limping around on a cane and I rode there from Texas on my BMW RT.  So much for high school envy.  (If you are at all interested in Cushman's, here is a super web page by a true fanatiic:)                                               www.hobbytech.com.

This is a terrible picture but the bike was so cool I just had to include it:  A Honda SL350.  I don't recall what year this one is but mine was a 1971, bought new in Durango, Colorado.  I rode it all over the Durango and Silverton area including Engineer Pass into Lake City.  I crashed it hard in the hills outside Gunnison, Colorado and learned how expensive the speedo was to replace.  It was not a dirt bike but nobody told me that!  Nor did they tell me 25 some years later that I shouldn't ride a BMW R100GSPD over Black Bear Pass from Silverton to Telluride.

Yamaha DT250, a very capable dual sport bike for its time.  In '83 or '84 I bought a very used and fairly abused DT for my daughter to learn to ride on.  It was a too big, and very unpredictable to start and keep running, so we traded it on an XR100.  She rode the wheels off that one!  Last year in Gunnison while I was on the Colorado 500, Morrill Griffith asked me what I did with the DT.  I had to think a bit but then recalled that I traded it to HIM.  He doesn't believe me but I'm sure that is where it went.  He is collecting them now I guess and wanted one of these.  Maybe he should talk to George Barber......

More to come later!