Hi All, Jonga here. Was wondering if anyone had visited Barber Museum.... and recomends it as a stop for JC, Andy and myself on our trip were getting ready to start. Their an article in Thunder press this month about the museum so I thought I'd get some Hands on feedback if anyone has been there. Thanks in advance, Jon
Plan to spend at least two hours if you go. If you don't give yourself the time you won't be happy when you leave, especially if it is difficult to get back there.
Every bike in the museum is "wet". At any time Mr. Barber, a retired dairy farmer, can ask to have one of the bikes ridden.
He gave us a personal tour a few months ago when I was there for a Porsche meeting and we were using the track. Porsche uses the Barber facility for their driving school and they have run of the facility as they partnered with the museum.
We were fortunate to be there when Mr. Barber was there and he took 6 of us on a walking tour. The funny thing is he said, "I don't even ride really, a couple of my shop guys and I were talking when we were winding down the dairy operations and trying to figure out what we could do with all the shop guys that mostly kept the dairy rigs on the road and did bodywork as well."
He had them try their hand at restoring a 1957 Chevrolet. When they had finished he recalled it would have made a nice used car but not a restored classic. He said, "don't ever have truck guys work on cars. They're too used to using BIG hammers and stuff!"
But the shop guys didn't want to give up so they got a classic Honda Road Race bike and restored it. They gave it to Mr. Barber as a gift. Barber, who had raced Porsche and other sport cars in his early years, was fascinated with the engineering that went into the make up of motorcycles. A love affair was underway.
He is a great guy to talk to and truly has a love for motorcycles now. He had just purchased his 900th bike and asked if we knew what they say when you have done that........well, he said, after they have that white jacket strapped on you....and then he just laughed. He has no idea when he will have all the bikes he wants, but if you are lucky enough to get down where you can get a good look at the basement floor (closed to the public, they do all the restoration and maintenance there, but visible from the upper floor) you will see it appears he is broadening his modest car collection as well. Looks to me like he is working on a Lotus collection and the odd muscle car here and there as well as a Ferrari or two.
I could go on and on and we only got to take about an hour with Mr. Barber before we had to return to the track. I would say we saw about one third of the exhibit and didn't spend that much time with any single bike.
A MUST SEE www.barbermuseum.org
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Topic: Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum (Read 884 times)