Allstate Motorcycle STREAMLINERS presented by J&P Cycles Exhibit

Opened June 4, 2016 during Vintage Rally 2016 at the National Motorcycle Museum, Anamosa, Iowa

Vintage Rally 2016; Did You Miss It?

The sixth annual Vintage Rally at the National Motorcycle Museum was a supreme mix of people and motorcycles. It’s a once a year event in the east central Iowa town of Anamosa, and showcases one of America’s finest and most diverse motorcycle museums.

Vintage Rally also treated visitors to the first showing of two new Museum exhibits. This year the special exhibit theme is Land Speed Record competition, and Allstate Motorcycle STREAMLINERS presented by J&P Cycles is the exhibition. About 18 bikes and memorabilia tell the story of LSR competition even back into the 1930s. They have the famous Cal Rayborn/Denis Manning Harley-Davidson streamliner that set a record of 265 miles per hour in 1970. And there are various open bikes, some Vincents that prowled the salt but also an outrageous stretched Henderson frame with a Plymouth flathead six that ran 160+ at Bonneville in the mid-1930’s.

But outside on the Museum grounds was Vintage Rally 2016 with a bike show that offered somewhat rare bikes, but also the typical, the finely restored, some superb original unrestored machines and a few really nice race bikes. A swap meet included everything from sculpture created from bike parts to rare antique motorcycle parts, books, magazines and vintage apparel, along with some tent displays including a professional pin-striping demo.

Back inside the Museum where it was cool and comfortable, and we are surrounded by over 450 bikes and thousands of pieces of memorabilia, three authors spoke on motorcycle history in special presentations. One on the experience of land speed record racing two Vincents, another on the history of the Henderson motorcycle brand, a third lead a conversation on the history of land speed record racing. You were even invited to bring lunch into the presentation hall and listen to a panel discussion on motorcycle collecting giving even the experienced some new insights.

Vintage Rally was fun, had all sorts of great things and people to hang out with, but in keeping with a museum’s mission, was truly educational as well. You should have been at Vintage Rally 2016, but if you were not, maybe these photos will explain why you should mark your calendar for next year’s event, Saturday June 3, 2017.

Vintage Rally Bike Show “Best in Show” award went to Russ Bees for his accurately 1955 Nimbus Model C, a smooth running four cylinder bike from Denmark.

Bikes Show participants relax after after placing their motorcycles on the grid, giving them a final polishing before 10 highly qualified judges did their work.

Don Rosene, dealer, British bike collector, Anchorage, Alaska, and Mike Crone, Triumph collector, Orlando, Florida, served as Bike Show judges and here scrutinize a fine Triumph dirt track racer.

With seven experts holding a wide range of knowledge and interests, and home bases as far away as Alaska, California and Florida, visitors learned about purchase, restoration, care, documentation and more, all related to Motorcycle Collecting, the panel discussion at Vintage Rally.

Visitors to Vintage Rally 2016 were the first to view the new Allstate Motorcycle STREAMLINERS exhibit presented b J&P Cycles. Among the interesting land speed record machines is Monster, a heavily reinforced Henderson chassis, Plymouth flathead six-powered, machine. Monster ran at Bonneville in the mid-1930’s and hit over 160 miles per hour.

Exhibition Curator, and author, John Stein refers to the Cal Rayborn/Denis Manning Harley-Davidson streamliner as perhaps the most important land speed record motorcycle extant. Harley Sportster powered, the combined skills of Manning and Rayborn pushed the ultimate record for two-wheeled machines to just over 265 miles per hour in 1970. Thanks to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum and Hall of Fame for loaning it from their collection.

Motor Maids, Sammie Weisner, Pennsylvania, Glennadine Gouldman and Ellen Taylor, Virginia, traveled long distance to Vintage Rally. They brought along apparel and other great objects representing the life of famed Motor Maid, Helen Kiss Main. Loaning these objects for display, they helped Museum staff get them safely into showcases.

The Vintage Rally Swap Meet, largest in the event’s history, offered parts for a wide range of old bikes, petroleana, even sculpture and fine art made with motorcycle parts. While many bikes in the Museum have interesting stock and custom pin-striping, visitors were also treated to artists demonstrating their pin-striping techniques on site.

Nearly 20,000 visitors journey to the National Motorcycle Museum each year. When you come by make sure you add a pin to the map recognizing your home town.

If it were not for the vision and hard work of John and Jill Parham, founders of the original J&P Cycles, now constant “volunteers” to the Museum, there would be no National Motorcycle Museum. Wishing for the National Motorcycle Museum and Hall of Fame, originally in Sturgis, South Dakota, to succeed financially, to flourish and help tell the story of American Motorcycling, Parham brought the Museum to Anamosa, Iowa and injected it with his spirit, energy and ingenuity.

Air show? Traveling all the way from Minneapolis, aviation historians Denny Eggert and Bill Miller have been responsible for the preservation of the rare 1911 STECO Aerohydroplane, now in the Museum’s collection, though not yet on display. They thrilled the crowd when they fired up the Steco’s engine on a test stand. Fundraising work continues to get the one-of-a-kind airplane stabilized and installed in the National Motorcycle Museum.

Tom “Santa Claus” Anderson became quite animated as he brought his decades of passion for Land Speed Record racing onto the floor of the Museum and into the new Allstate Motorcycle STREAMLINERSexhibit presented by J&P Cycles. Tom is an official “coach” for novice LSR participants at Bonneville, helping them get the most out of their experience racing on the Salt Flats.

Vintage Rally is an event for motorcyclists of any brand or country of origin interest, but some go to extremes when expressing their allegiance.

Each year visitors to Vintage Rally are treated to the dedication of a new major exhibition. Son of ‘Big Sid’ Biberman, English professor Matthew Biberman, explains his novice year on the salt with two Vincents. “Imagine working in the hot sun, 120 degree temperatures, and trying to keep two old Vincents running well.”

Ron Kingsley brought two fine original condition BSA’s to the Bike Show. The BSA Bantam, with its fine rooster transfer still intact on the fuel tank, won the Hagerty Insurance “Best Preserved British Bike” award. Kingsley is loaning both bikes to the Museum for display, honoring his late father Dick, a certified BSA mechanic who passed away in the last year.

Over 45 Bike Show awards were presented. Judges selected one American, one British, one European and one Japanese bike to receive the Hagerty Motorcycle Insurance Preservation Award. To qualify, motorcycles have to be correct, unrestored, original, with the exception of tires, grips, footpeg rubbers, perhaps control cables; paint, plating and upholstery factory original.

National Motorcycle Museum Information:

The National Motorcycle Museum is open seven days a week, year around. Museum members are admitted free. Becoming a member is quick and easy on the Museum website.

Museum admission is only $10.00 except during special events. Children 12 and under are admitted free when accompanied by an adult.

The National Motorcycle Museum is a non-profit 501 (c)(3) corporation.

For more information, email the Museum at museum@nationalmcmuseum.org or
call 319 462 3925.

Plan your visit to the National Motorcycle Museum on the web at www.nationalmcmuseum.org

Thanks for taking a few minutes to review this news release. We hope it helps you bring the news of motorcycling to your readers.

Again, feel free to contact me for additional photos, quotes or any form of information you may need in your work. We also invite you to visit any time, take in the National Motorcycle Museum “live” in Anamosa, Iowa.

Sincerely,

Mark Mederski

Special Projects Director

614 551 0960

mmederski@nationalmcmuseum.org

www.nationalmcmuseum.org

Copyright 2016, National Motorcycle Museum. All mentioned brands are the property of their respective manufacturers.