A celebration of all that’s great on two wheels
By David Dewhurst
The heart of American motorcycling is hidden inconspicuously down a twisting leafy lane a short drive from the Columbus, Ohio airport. Few people would ever venture into these bucolic backwoods of Pickerington, Ohio, if it weren’t for the nondescript building next to the American Motorcyclist Association’s austere office block. But thousands every year do make the trip to see one of the coolest bike collections in the country.
The AMA Hall of Fame is the place where America’s motorcycling royalty is celebrated. Whether it’s industry leaders, riders, or the machines that took them to greatness, the AMA Hall of Fame enshrines the best of the best of our two-wheeled sport.
Famous names like Malcolm Smith, Freddie Spencer, Kenny Roberts, and Jay Springsteen are inscribed on a curved wall just off the museum’s lobby. The wall lists almost five hundred of the sport’s greatest participants.
While some will sit and quietly remember the heroes of our sport, it is the varied collection of machinery that brings many to the Hall of Fame. It is not a massive collection like the Barber Museum or Honda’s Collection Hall at Twin Ring Motegi, but the Hall of Fame’s intimate displays offer a wide selection of bikes arranged in themed groups. The counterclockwise tour of the building starts just to the right of the entrance with a section dedicated to significant moments in motorcycle engineering. Pictures of Soichiro Honda and Pops Yoshimurahang on the wall above an early Honda road racer set next to Craig Vetter’s Mystery Ship concept and a design mockup of Indian’s FTR750 flat track racer.
Wander around a dividing wall and you’ll enter a section celebrating America’s flat track history. Pride of place goes to an immaculately restored 1914 Harley-Davidson which is surrounded by Ronnie Rall’s 1969 BSA A65, Bart Markel’s 1970 Harley Davidson XR750, and Doug Chandler’s 750 Honda. Like everything else at the museum, this is not a large selection of bikes, but their significance and the descriptions of their history make the display seem much bigger.
Walk two more steps through the sunlit hall, and flat track bikes give way to the fairings of road racers. Next to Wayne Rainey’s 1983 Kawasaki GPZ750 Superbike and Nicky Haden’s 1999 Honda CBR600 you’ll find Don Emde’s Daytona-winning 350 Yamaha and Gary Nixon’s TD-1 250 Yamaha. It’s a lot of history crammed into a small corner of the museum.
The off-road section of the Hall of Fame feels more expansive than the others, with large groupings of bikesrising high above the floor. Malcolm Smith’s Husqvarna anchors the period with bikes from almost every off-road manufacturer on display. Jimmy Ellis’ 1975 Can-Am rubs handlebars with Donny Schmit’s 1990 World Championship-winning RM250 Suzuki and Mike Kierdrowski’s 1993 Kawasaki.
Across the room are tributes to enduro riders Rodney Smith, Terry Cunningham, and Randy Hawkins with various Suzuki, Husqvarna, and KTM machines that took home deep-woods trophies. For those with a deeper interest in sand rather than trees, there is Scott Harden’s mighty KTM just as it finished the Paris Dakar event.
Around the corner, machines give way to a celebration of some of the people who helped make the sport so great. Nancy Davidson and Mary McGee are honored next to male counterparts like Vaughn Beals, Norm McDonald, Phil Schilling, and George Barber. It’s a reminder that motorcycle greats are not always the ones holding giant trophies.
But that is what separates the AMA museum from all the others, large and small. It is a perfect blend of all that makes our sport so inspiring. It brings together the riders, the engineers, the dreamers, and the businesspeople who have helped keep the sport growing for so many years. Add in some seriously significant machinery, and you have the perfect reason to drive down the bucolic road in Pickerington, Ohio.
AMA members are admitted for free, while non-members pay only $10. There is no better deal in Ohio, or for that matter, in the whole of motorcycling.
AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame
13515 Yarmouth Drive
Pickerington, Ohio 43147
(614) 856-2222
info@motorcyclemuseum.org
