Bicycle Museum of America facts for kids

The Bicycle Museum of America is a super cool museum located in New Bremen, Ohio, USA. It holds one of the largest private collections of bicycles anywhere in the world. Imagine seeing hundreds of bikes from different times and places!

How the Museum Started

The museum was created by Jim Dicke II. He's from a company called Crown Equipment Corporation, which makes big forklift trucks in New Bremen. Jim wanted to add a fun attraction to his town.

In 1997, Jim bought over 150 bicycles and other bike-related items. These came from the famous Schwinn Family Collection, which used to be in Chicago. Many more bikes have been added since then. But those original Schwinn family bikes are still a very important part of the museum.

The museum is supported by its owners. The small fee you pay to get in goes to a local charity. This means your visit helps the community!

What You Can See

The museum is packed with amazing bikes! You'll find antique bicycles from the 1800s. There are also "balloon tire" bikes from the 1940s and 1950s. And don't forget the cool banana seat bikes with high handlebars from the 1960s.

The museum has so many bikes that they can't show them all at once! They even hang bikes from the ceilings and put them on almost every wall. Because of this, the museum sometimes changes which bikes are on display. This means you might see something new each time you visit!

The collection also includes other bike-related items. You can see accessories, cycling jerseys, and tools from the last 140 years. There's even a display of hundreds of head badges. These are the cool metal logos from thousands of different bicycle makers over the years.

Old-School Bikes

The oldest bikes are on the first floor. You can see a copy of the very first bicycle! It was made by Karl von Drais in 1816. This early bike was made of wood and didn't even have pedals. You had to push it with your feet to make it move.

You'll also see several Penny-farthings. These are the bikes with one giant front wheel and a tiny back wheel. One of them is set up so you can even try sitting on it! There's also a unique "ice bike" from 1901. It has a sled runner in front and a spiked wheel in the back for riding on ice.

Check out an 1896 Columbia Model 40 bike that was changed for the military. It has a machine gun mounted on it! You can also see Ignaz Schwinn's special 1897 tandem bicycle. This bike was made for two riders, but it also had a seat in the middle for a young child.

Other cool old bikes include one that was ridden on a circus high wire. There's also a copy of the Wright brothers' 1896 St. Clair airfoil test bicycle. And don't miss the 1896 "Zimmy" bike. It's named after Arthur Augustus Zimmerman, a racing bicyclist famous for pedaling super fast!

Classic Bikes from the Past

The museum has an early 1900s Harley-Davidson bicycle with a sidecar. Imagine riding that! There's a yellow and blue 1949 Donald Duck bike. It was made by the Shelby Cycle Company and has a Donald Duck head on the front. Plus, its horn actually quacks!

You can also see a 1955 Huffy RadioBike. This bike has a real working radio built right into its frame! It even has dials for volume and tuning. And get ready for a dozen colorful 1960s banana-seat Sting Rays. These bikes were super popular back then!

Bikes from Famous People

The collection includes some really special bikes from movies and celebrities. You can see one of the modified 1953 Schwinn DX bikes from the 1985 movie Pee-wee's Big Adventure.

There are also four bicycles from actor Robin Williams' personal collection. These include a high-tech Zipp bike from 1992 and a white-with-polkadots La Carrera Futura 2000. You can also see an Elgin proto-type bike that used a shaft-drive, which was owned by Jesse James. And a mountain bike that belonged to baseball legend Mickey Mantle is on display too!

See also

• History of cycling
• Bike boom
• Bicycle collecting
• List of bicycle- and human-powered vehicle museums
• William Luelleman House, another museum in New Bremen, Ohio