Solvang Museum

[oldjapanesebikes]

During a quick visit to the LA region of California (a Valentine's bribe for SWMBO'd - I'm hoping she won't notice a few things I plan to sneak into the garage in the next week or so ) we visited the Solvang Vintage Motorcycle Museum owned by Virgil Elings. Well worth a visit if you are out that way as it is an amazing collection - on the web site is a photo gallery of some of the bikes on display. Some are replicas (the 1956 Moto Guzzi 500cc V8 for example) but many others are exceedingly rare originals - for example the 4 cylinder 1968 Villa 250cc 4 cylinder prototype of which I understand only 2 exist,#100 of 100 rotary 1988 air cooled Norton's sold as consumer models, and #10 of 10 Britten's. Solvang is also the home of the Danish Days Nimbus gathering each year put on by the Nimbus Motorcycle Club - needless to say, there was also one 1936 Nimbus in the collection.

The best part was that during the week you need to make an appointment as the place is closed - so we had the whole place to ourselves , and we also got a look at the over flow area of the machines not yet on display - I'm still smiling !

A few photos:

Early Cobra (not a 500/5)



A 1957 Gilera 500cc - why they never produced a road version is beyond me - it is a beautiful bit of machinery.



A 1922 Megola-werk radial engined machine.



Britten - never raced, #10 of 10.

[Suzsmokeyallan]

Thanks for posting those up Ian, you really have to pull up a chair and sit and look at those Brittens for hours. There is so much to see on one for those bikes, its like taking everything thats known and proven for modern motorcycle design and then turning the ideas sideways.
This part of the bike that I saw at the Barber museum had me staring at it for quite a while from all angles. After all of that scrutinizing I began to wonder just how it would 'feel' to me if I could actually ride one. One concern was would I actually like it, and think it was the best thing ever built, simply or loathe the thing.

[MikeH1A]

Hee Hee, they made those blue babies in my home town Clever chappie our John.

[titan performance]

I was lucky enough to see them run at the Isle of Man........

[Suzsmokeyallan]

I found this on You Tube, John and I share the same birthdate on August 1st but 11 years apart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QM_aNwaodd4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;"

Did any of the bike manufacturers ever approach John and offer him an R&D contract?

[MikeH1A]

Thanks for posting that clip Allan. Love watching that bike run. However, my favourite clip of all time is the Britten going down the back straight and then overtaking the Ducati whilst on its back wheel - gives me goose bumps every time.

I'm not sure about the big manufacturers but there was an interesting aside where some guys who had bought rights to the venerable Indian name approached John and his team to design and build bikes to relaunch the classic brand. As I understand it, the original idea was to produce an Indian race bike based on the V-1000, but with it's own bodywork. This was planned/hoped to lead onto a street legal Indian superbike, a 1400cc heavyweight cruiser (the 'chief") and a 1200cc Middleweight called the "Scout". The big plans were also for the Britten team to build and race two Superbike prototypes at Daytona. If things went well, the Britten team were to be permitted to produce the finalised bikes for production. But .... history shows this didn't move forward as hoped for many reasons. There are some initial sketches of the proposed race bike and cruiser in an excellent book entitled (Surprise, Surprise) "John Britten" by Tim Hanna and published by Craig Potten Publishing 2003. I found this book to be a fascinating exploration of the genius, personality and relationships that led to this unique development from a small back shed to the great tracks of the world.