Bicycle Museum of America
The Bicycle Museum of America is a bicycle museum in New Bremen, Ohio, US. The museum is one of the largest private collections of bicycles in the world.
History
The museum was founded by Jim Dicke II of Crown Equipment Corporation, the international manufacturer of powered industrial forklift trucks, also in New Bremen, who was looking for a nice attraction for the town. In 1997, Dicke acquired more than 150 bicycles and memorabilia at auction of the Schwinn Family Collection previously located at the Navy Pier in Chicago. Many other bicycles have been added to the museum over the years, but the original Schwinn family bikes form the heart of the collection.The museum is funded by the owners, and the small admission charge is donated to a local charity.
Exhibits
The museum houses antique bicycles from the 19th century, balloon tire classics of the 1940s and 1950s and banana seat high-rise handle bar bikes of the 1960s.The museum has more bicycles than it can display at any one time in the 3-story downtown historic building, despite hanging bicycles from ceilings and mounting them on almost every wall, so the museum occasionally rotates the collection. The collection includes bicycle-related objects, such as accessories, cycling jerseys and tools from the past 140 years, and a display of hundreds of head badges from some of the thousands of bicycle manufacturers over the years.
Historic bicycles
The oldest bicycles are on the first floor. There is a replica of the earliest form of a bicycle by Karl von Drais, an 1816 wooden peddle-less walking bike. The exhibit includes several Penny-farthings, the high-wheelers, including one mounted so people can try it out. There is a 1901 ice bike, with a sled runner in front and a spiked rear wheel. Ammunition and assorted supplies are mounted on the rear rack of an 1896 Columbia Model 40 modified by the military with a machine gun mounted on it. Ignaz Schwinn's 1897 custom tandem bicycle has a seat between the riders to hold a young child.There is a bicycle that was ridden on the circus high wire, a 1900 Dayton women's bike by Davis Sewing Machine Company, a replica of the Wright brothers' 1896 St. Clair airfoil test bicycle, and an 1896 "Zimmy" named after Arthur Augustus Zimmerman, a racing bicyclist known for his rapid pedaling speed.