Solvang Vintage Motorcycle Museum

Solvang Vintage Motorcycle Museum

SOLVANG VINTAGE MOTORCYCLE MUSEUM
Solvang is a beautiful little town in Southern California, in the hills above Santa Barbara. The town was established long ago by Danish immigrants, and they styled the town to look like a little Dutch village, complete with classic windmill. In the hills above Santa Barbara, Solvang is in the middle of wine and horse country, with sprawling country estates with white rail fences. It’s incredible riding country, I’ve ridden them many times myself. And in the middle of In downtown Solvang, is this incredible Vintage Motorcycle Museum.

VISIT THE MUSEUM YOURSELF
The Solvang Museum is a private collection, and isn’t always open regular hours, so it’s a good idea to go to their website and/or call them to make sure they’ll be open. The museum owner rotates bikes in and out of the collection about once a month, so that every time you go, you’ll see some bikes you hadn’t seen before. Here’s their website address: www.motosolvang.com. This eclectic collection of bikes includes a little of everything, from ancient relics to exotic racers to game-changing production bikes. One could get lost for several hours in this museum.

ABOVE: This classic early 50’s Indian Chief is indicative of the kinds of production bikes on display. They help reference the history of those times.
BELOW: It’s hard to tell, but this engine is a working miniature. It’s an all-aluminum, hand-built (out of billet) V12 with 2 magnetos and 6 carburetors. It’s only about a foot long, but it actually runs!

ABOVE & BELOW: The Solvang Museum has a lot of race bikes of various types. And all of them run. The museum owner starts them from time to time. If you’re lucky, you get to watch (bring earplugs!).

ABOVE & BELOW: If you’re lucky, the owner will roll a couple of rare race bikes outside and start them up. This would be a great time for those earplugs!