Bicycle Museum of America facts for kids
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| Established | 1997 |
|---|---|
| Location | 7 West Monroe Street, New Bremen, Ohio 45869 |
| Type | Bicycle museum |
| Collections | Historic and celebrity bicycles |
| Collection size | 700 bikes (208 on display) and 10,000 other bicycle-related objects |
| Founder | Jim Dicke II |
The Bicycle Museum of America is a super cool place in New Bremen, Ohio, USA. It's a bicycle museum that shows off many different kinds of bikes. This museum has one of the biggest private collections of bicycles in the whole world!
Contents
History of the Museum
The museum was started by a person named Jim Dicke II. He also runs a big company in New Bremen called Crown Equipment Corporation, which makes forklift trucks. Jim Dicke wanted to create a fun attraction for his town.
In 1997, he bought over 150 bicycles and other cool bike items at an auction. These bikes came from the famous Schwinn Family Collection, which used to be at the Navy Pier in Chicago. Even though many more bikes have been added since then, these original Schwinn bikes are still a very important part of the museum's collection.
The museum gets its money from its owners. The small fee you pay to get in is given to a local charity. This means your visit helps the community!
What You Can See
The museum is in a three-story building downtown. It has so many bikes that it can't show them all at once! Bikes are hung from the ceilings and put on almost every wall. Because of this, the museum sometimes changes which bikes are on display.
You can see very old bicycles from the 1800s. There are also classic bikes from the 1940s and 1950s with "balloon tires." You'll also find fun bikes from the 1960s with banana seats and high handlebars.
Besides bikes, the museum has lots of other bike-related things. These include accessories, cycling jerseys, and tools from the last 140 years. There's even a display with hundreds of "head badges." These are the special logos found on the front of bikes from many different manufacturers over the years.
Old and Unique Bikes
The oldest bikes are on the first floor. You can see a copy of the very first type of bicycle, made by Karl von Drais in 1816. This early bike was made of wood and didn't have pedals; you pushed it with your feet!
The museum also has several Penny-farthings, which are the bikes with one very tall front wheel and a small back wheel. One of these is set up so you can try sitting on it! There's even a special "ice bike" from 1901. It has a sled runner in the front and a spiked wheel in the back for riding on ice.
You can also see an 1896 Columbia Model 40 bike that was changed for the military. It has a machine gun mounted on it and was used to carry supplies. Another unique bike is Ignaz Schwinn's custom tandem bicycle from 1897. It has a special seat between the two riders for a young child.
Other interesting bikes include one that was ridden on a circus high wire around 1900. There's also a copy of the Wright brothers' 1896 St. Clair airfoil test bicycle. Plus, you can see an 1896 "Zimmy" bike, named after Arthur Augustus Zimmerman, a famous racing bicyclist known for pedaling very fast.
Classic Bikes from the Past
The museum has a Harley-Davidson bicycle from the early 1900s that even has a sidecar! You can also spot a yellow and blue 1949 Donald Duck bike by the Shelby Cycle Company. It has a Donald Duck head on the front and a horn that quacks like a duck!
Another cool bike is a 1955 Huffy RadioBike. This bike has a working radio built right into its frame, with dials to control the volume and tune in stations. You'll also see about a dozen colorful Sting Rays from the 1960s, famous for their banana seats.
Bikes Owned by Famous People
The collection includes some bikes that belonged to celebrities or were used in movies. You can see one of the special 1953 Schwinn DX bikes from the 1985 movie Pee-wee's Big Adventure.
The museum also has four bicycles from the collection of the late actor and comedian Robin Williams. These include a high-tech Zipp bike from 1992 and a white La Carrera Futura 2000 with polka dots. You can also see a special Elgin prototype bike that was owned by Jesse James, and a mountain bike that belonged to the famous baseball player Mickey Mantle.
More to Explore
- History of cycling
- Bike boom
- Bicycle collecting
- List of bicycle- and human-powered vehicle museums
- William Luelleman House, another museum in New Bremen, Ohio
