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By: Jeanette Tran - Feb 22, 2010 Click on images to enlarge 
There are not too many motorcycle museums out there in the United States, and I am fortunate enough to live in a state where one is located. In the small quaint Dutch city of Solvang, CA, approximately 1 hour north of Santa Barbara is the location of a privately owned motorcycle museum. It is an odd combination, and you would never really think to associate a motorcycle museum with the little Dutch town, but if you are craving some pancakes, and also have an urge to view some vintage motorcycles, Solvang is the place to be. As mentioned on their website, (www.motosolvang.com) the museum is owned by Virgil Elings, who has been collecting these motorcycles for 2 decades. The museum currently holds 90 motorcycles, which tend to change often since the museum rotates the collection from time to time. The museum is only open on weekends, but if you are stopping by on a weekday, make sure to contact them ahead of time, and they will be more than happy to open the doors for you. I had arranged to have a mid week visit, and they were more than happy to put me on their schedule. Despite the fact that I hit some LA traffic on my way up, the museum worker was willing to work around my arrive time to open up the museum for me. Upon arriving at the museum, the doors were already open, and two other people were already wandering about browsing the collection of bikes. After paying the admission fee of $10 per person - I too, was milling about the collection of vintage motorcycles. The space was quite small to be fitting 90 motorcycles, and I felt as if everything was just crammed in there and lined up along the walls with just barely enough walk way to allow two people to walk through side by side. When I stopped to take a picture, I found myself looking over my shoulder to ensure that I did not kick a motorcycle on accident behind me. Unfortunately the space was quite limited so even if I did back up as far as I could, the image I captured of each motorcycle had parts of the neighboring bikes protruding into the image. Small framed images were set either on the wall behind the motorcycles, or next to the bike explaining the bike’s significance and/or history of the bike. The ranged significantly, from 1914 Indians with white Good Year tires, alcohol run Jawa’s, to even a 2nd year model of a Honda Goldwing is currently housed in this museum. Despite my lack of knowledge for vintage motorcycles, moving around the room from one bike to the next was quite an eye opening and enjoyable experience. It is not what I would call a typical museum since I found it more to be like I was walking through someone’s garage (which I think that kind of what it really was) but I definitely think it is a nice place to visit for all motorcycle fans. So if you happen to be riding through Southern California, make sure you stop by Solvang to enjoy a morning worth of good motorcycle viewing, and don’t forget to have some delicious pancakes and pasties while you are there too.
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