Join Motorcycle Classics’ Richard Backus at the grand opening of the new National Motorcycle Museum and inaugural National Motorcycle Museum Vintage Rally in Anamosa, Iowa, June 3-5, 2011.

This premier event will feature the official dedication of the museum’s new, 36,000-square-foot digs, and the launch of “Motorcycles at Work,” a special exhibit focusing on motorcycles in police, military, courier and commercial duties. That’s in addition to the 300-plus vintage bikes on display in the new museum, which includes iconic greats like Captain America, the Harley chopper that Peter Fonda rode to stardom in Easy Rider opposite Dennis Hopper on the Billy Bike.

Additionally, museum special projects director Mark Mederski and the museum’s crew have sketched out a motorcycle-immersed weekend featuring a vintage bike show, a vintage motorcycle swap meet and a Sunday morning ride and lunch.

Motorcycle Classics is sponsoring the vintage bike show awards and the Sunday morning ride, and stick around Sunday afternoon for the Midwest Hillclimbers 62nd Annual Motorcycle Hill Climb and Swap Meet, just down the road from the museum. The event will include a special vintage hill climb class sponsored by the museum and J&P Cycles with a $500 cash purse.

This is an important weekend, celebrating a significant new chapter in the 22-year-old museum’s existence. We expect to see more than a few familiar faces, including racing veterans and well-known industry insiders, so make plans now to join us for this special celebration. Here's a video describing the features and exhibits in the new museum:

  
Corsa Moto Classica vintage bike show at the 2008 AHRMA Willow Springs races. 

The American Motorcycle Association has chosen April as Get Out And Ride month, and is encouraging motorcyclists to get out on their bikes, put on some miles and share their adventures. If you’re anywhere close to Los Angeles, what better destination and adventure than a trip to Willow Springs Raceway for rounds 5 and 6 of AHRMA’s CPL Systems National Historic Cup Roadrace Series.

The Willow Springs event will also feature a swap meet and vintage bike show, a perfect excuse to fire up your favorite for a weekend of motorcycling fun. The racing at AHRMA (American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association) events is always fantastic, with vintage racers pushing their trusty classic Moto Guzzis, Triumphs, Harleys and Ducatis around the track in a fun and competitive bid for a bit of glory.

You can support the vintage race scene and the AMA’s on-going Get Out and Ride month by making the trek to Willow Springs. Take your camera, take some pics, jot down your impressions, and when you’re done, write it all up and send it off to the AMA. They’ll share your story with the AMA’s 200,000-plus members, and you might even win a prize. We don’t know what kind of prize, but it’ll probably be something pretty cool! It’s all for fun, and more importantly it helps to raise awareness of motorcycling and motorcyclists’ rights. You’ll be supporting vintage racing and the entire motorcycling community all at once. Follow the links highlighted above to learn more; but most importantly, jump on your bike and head to the races! – Richard Backus 

Join Motorcycle Classics at the 2nd Annual Road America Vintage Motorcycle Classic, June 10-12, 2011, at Road America race track in Elkhart Lake, Wis. Last year’s inaugural event drew an estimated 5,000 classic bike fans and a huge field of AHRMA racers for two days of vintage racing, a swap meet and the inaugural Motorcycle Classics Road America Ride & Show.

The track — often referred to as “America’s National Park of Speed” — has legendary status; the four-mile road circuit has been drawing world-class racing since it was built in 1955, following five years of high-speed racing on area public roads. Sixty classic bikes joined Motorcycle Classics for our 2010 show, and fully half of those hit the road with us for a 40-mile ride through the surrounding Wisconsin countryside. Road America is smack in the middle of Wisconsin’s famed Kettle Moraine, a glacially formed geological oddity defined by sudden depressions and hidden valleys — the scenery is breathtaking and the roads are spectacular.

Registration for the Motorcycle Classics Ride & Show starts at 8 a.m. on Saturday, June 11, so make sure to get there early. The ride leaves at noon, and while we’re encouraging everyone to ride, you don’t have to ride to show. Judging starts at 4 p.m., with our awards ceremony starting at 5 p.m. Two trophies – Best Rider and Best of Show – will be given in each of five classes including European, British, Japanese, American and Custom, plus we’ll award a trophy for People’s Choice. The entry fee is $25 and includes a 1-year subscription to Motorcycle Classics and a Motorcycle Classics T-shirt. Additional bikes are $5. 

So join us for our second Ride & Show on Saturday, June 11, and get ready for great vintage racing as AHRMA racers compete in rounds seven and eight of the CPL Systems National Historic Cup Roadrace Series, the National Vintage MX Series, the Race Tech National Post-Vintage Motocross Series, the Speed & Sport National Vintage Trials Series and the Penton Owners Group National Cross Country Series. See you there! – Richard Backus 

Motorcyclepedia, the official host museum to the Antique Motorcycle Foundation, is opening to the public for the first time on April 16. Located at 250 Lake St. in Newburgh, N.Y., Motorcyclepedia is a project of Edward and Gerald Doering through the Gerald A. Doering Foundation.  The 85,000-square-foot facility will display more than 300 motorcycles dating from 1897, plus memorabilia, parts, and a large collection of magazines, technical books and catalogs, videos, posters, and movies. With its four-story sign, pictured here, visitors will find the museum easy to locate.  

The museum’s grand-opening exhibits include the “Indian Motorcycle Timeline,” with examples of Springfield Indians for every year from 1902 to 1953; “American Racer,” highlighting early American competition machines; “Chopper City,” displaying examples of the American styling trend that started in the 1960s; plus displays focusing on military and police motorcycles, the manufacturing process, Harley-Davidson, scooters, and even a functional Wall of Death that doubles as a theater for movies and educational programs. The museum also houses the most-recent exhibit of the Antique Motorcycle Foundation, “Fast from the Past: The Competition Motorcycles of Yesteryear,” a collection of 35 machines showing the evolution of racing.

It is the mission of the Gerald A. Doering Foundation to develop, further, and encourage history, safety, and tradition in connection with motorcycles, motorcycle development, motorcycle riding, repair, design, and fabrication, primarily through educational materials, events, programs, historic, and other exhibits, training courses, seminars, lectures, and gatherings.

The Antique Motorcycle Foundation is a charitable, non-profit organization created to tell the story of antique motorcycling so that the role and influence of two-wheeled transportation in our history and technological development can be better understood and appreciated by the public at large.

Motorcyclepedia will be open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for children 12 and under. -- From the Antique Motorcycle Foundation website  

A little background: The Antique Motorcycle Foundation was created in 2007 during a restructuring of the Antique Motorcycle Club of America. It is an autonomous, non-profit organization. A major purpose of the foundation is to share the story of the motorcycle with the public at large, educating the public on the role and history of motorcycles in culture and technology. The foundation has created motorcycle exhibits at the Antique Automobile Club of America's museum in Hershey, Pa., which is affiliated with the Smithsonian. The new Motorcyclepedia museum in Newburgh will become the permanent home of the foundation's museum exhibits. -- Richard Backus