The Skinny
- What: The Buddy Stubbs Motorcycle Museum, 13850 North Cave Creek Road, Phoenix, Arizona 85022. Telephone 602-497-1996. Open 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturdays only. Admission is free.
- How To Get There: From the east or the west, take Interstate Highway 10 to Arizona State Route 51 north, take a left on East Cactus Road, and then a right on North Cave Creek Road.
- Best Kept Secret: All the Buddy Stubbs Museum motorcycles are functional; if fuel and oil were added to any, the bikes would start and run.
- Don’t Miss: Riding in Arizona; as mentioned above, it is a motorcycling paradise. For a great lunch, try The Tamale Factory just up the road from the Museum. Their chile relleno tamale is magnificent.
- Avoid: Dehydration. Bring lots of water for your ride to Phoenix, especially during the summer months.
- More Info: Pick up a copy of Motorcyclist Extraordinaire: Buddy Stubbs, by Tyler Tayrien, published in 2020.
- More Photos: The ExhaustNotes blog and www.BuddyStubbsHD.com
The Buddy Stubbs Motorcycle Museum, Phoenix, Arizona
Buddy Stubbs grew up in the motorcycle business. Buddy’s father, Carl Stubbs, owned the Harley-Davidson dealership in Decatur, Illinois, where 10-year-old Buddy first learned to ride on a Harley 125. Buddy moved to California as a young man and raced motorcycles for Harley dealers. He raced in the Ascot TT, he won the Daytona 100-mile race in 1963, and he raced offroad, including the 2003 Baja 1000. Buddy also did stunt work in motion pictures and the Then Came Bronson television series. He taught Robert Blake how to ride for the Electra Glide in Blue movie. The movie’s namesake (i.e., the blue Electra Glide) resides in the Buddy Stubbs Museum. Buddy raced Harleys, BSAs, and Triumphs, and at age 70, in 2010, he rode a 1915 Excelsior in the cross country Motorcycle Cannonball. Using no chase vehicle, he carried the parts he thought he might need in a sidecar. Buddy participated in many AMA-sanctioned races over the years, and has been an AMA member since 1944. In 2016, he was inducted into the Sturgis Motorcycle Hall of Fame.
Buddy always wanted to own a motorcycle dealership. After visiting Texas Triumph dealers, and on the way back to California, he worked at the Phoenix Harley-Davidson dealership for a while. That dealership was for sale, but with no takers and looking like it might close, Buddy took a call from none other than Walter C. Davidson. Davidson asked Buddy to manage the shop until it could be sold. Buddy did so, and when no buyers were found, 26-year-old Buddy bought the business in 1966. By any measure, the Buddy Stubbs Harley-Davidson dealership is extremely successful, with Buddy’s faith in Harley-Davidson exemplified by his free lifetime power train warranty. Buddy Stubbs Harley-Davidson is a major supporter of Arizona Bike Week, with a party at the dealership that attracts thousands. Buddy Stubbs H-D is a contributor to children’s charities, including the Prescott Children’s Camp Courage Burn Center, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and others.
The Buddy Stubbs Museum is one of the largest motorcycle museums in the Southwest, with 3,000+ square feet and more than 130 motorcycles representing 37 brands and 12 countries. The oldest motorcycles are a 1903 Peugeot and a replica 1903 Harley. The exhibits are not limited to vintage Harleys. There are rare motorcycles from AJS, BMW, BSA, Triumph, Indian, and more. Every motorcycle has a story. There’s the previously-mentioned Electra Glide in Blue movie bike, the 1915 Excelsior sidecar rig Buddy rode across America, the spare Triumph Thunderbird kept on the set during the filming of The Wild One, and even the unrestored 1913 Indian Buddy rode between his older location and the current modern showroom when the new showroom was being built. Buddy and Evel Knievel were good friends; two of the motorcycles on display are Knievel motorcycles, and there’s a replica of the Triumph used for Knievel’s famous Caesars Palace jump.
Although Greater Phoenix area traffic can be intimidating, Arizona motorcycling is spectacular. We previously wrote about several of our favorite Arizona destinations in these pages, including:
- Sedona
- Kitt Peak National Observatory
- Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument
- Grand Canyon National Park
- Petrified Forest National Park
- the Franklin Auto Museum
- the Pima Air and Space Museum
- Oatman
It is all grand riding, and most of it can be done year-round.
