My mother gave me an assignment. Get your dad out of the house for at least three or four hours while I set up for his suprise party (Happy 75th).
What could I possibly do to take up that amount of time? The museum at Wright-Patterson AFB would take a lot longer than that to go through, and most other things we'd be interested in doing would take less time.
Hey, what about a small museum I heard about a while ago, the Bicycle Museum of America. It is only about an hour's drive to New Bremen Ohio, where it is located. I managed to convince my dad that a couple of quality hours was just what we needed, so off we went.
The museum was easy to find, the exit on the intersate being well marked with signs for it. It is located right in the middle of New Bremen, next to the bed of the old Miami-Erie canal. There is parking on both sides of the building.
We went in and were greeted by a docent who collected our fees ($3.00 Adult, $2.00 Senior), explained a bit about the layout and suggested we watch a short movie first. The movie was a recording of an riding demonstration of a hi-wheeler organization, maybe the Wheelmen? Lots of cool bikes of all varieties. Makes me want an ordinary (I'll have to add it to the list).
They said we were welcome to take photos, so I snapped a few.
| Dad in downtown New Bremen. |
| Front of the building on Monroe St. |
| Just your basic way cool ordinary. |
| Military Bike. I was hoping to see a Spaulding, but there wasn't one on display. They did have a Swiss Army bike from 1943 as well as a BSA folding paratroop bike. |
| A strange vertical drive system. |
| I loved this. Front rack, ordinary style. Just the place to put your bedroll. |
| Dual headlights. Going through here I got the feeling that absolutly everything has been tried before. |
| Another example, the split saddle. I'm sure the wacky strap steel frame is the next big thing. |
| The Raquet Bike. |
| Front Suspension. The museum has several nice Victor Bicycles. |
| After the ordinaries, this might have been my favorite in the museum. I just really liked the wicker on the sidecar. |
| Big Ring. |
| Gary Boulanger's Gaansari St. Clair. Kind of cool to see the new with the old. |
| Another St. Clair, by the Wright Brothers, and the inspiration for Gary's bike above. |
| There were some neat small wheeled bikes too, like this interesting Huffy. |
| Another Huffy, with a strong resemblance to a Raleigh Twenty. |
| One more take on a small wheeled folder. |
| I thought this was a pretty stylin' bike too. |
| All in all a great trip. My dad wasn't too bored at the museum, I got to hear some neat stories from when he was younger, and the party later was a big suprise (sorry dad). |
If you find yourself in western Ohio, this museum is well worth your time to visit.