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[Midnight Rider]

I know... [smiley=worthless.gif], but we stopped at this place unplanned Sunday out riding around. It's a shame I didn't have the camera.

If you want to see 5 floors of every kind of motorcycle that's EVER been made, some of which I had never even heard of, much less seen, this is the place to do it.  Plus, he's got restored race cars (a nice selection of Lotus), and a beautiful Baby Blue '58 Bel Air Impala Convertable that will knock your socks off.

LOT's of HD scoots; bicycles with motors on them from the very early 1900's (one had beautifully restored WOODEN rims; Indians, BMW; Ducati; BSA; Triumph; Matchless; Norton; Cushman; several Italian bikes I had never heard of, but were apparrently hot on the track in their day; Enfield; Moto Guzzi; bikes from 1900 to 2006.  He even has an exact replica of Fonda's HD in Easy Rider (they think the original is destroyed, but have recently "found" Hopper's).

Plus, they were having a "Track Day" on the race course, so got to see some guys coming down a downhill right hand 180 dragging knees and chit.  First class facility!!  [smiley=xyxthumbs.gif] [smiley=xyxthumbs.gif]

If you're ever coming through the Birmingham area and have a couple of hours, it is definitely a must see.

[Fired00d]

Speaking of this musuem they are having 2nd Annual Barber Vintage Festival on Oct 20 - 22, 2006.

 [smiley=pumpkin.gif]
Ride Safe,
Fired00d
 [smiley=fireman.gif]

[TexTaz]

TC - I'll try to help you out with some pics.  We went down for a day before the HOG rally in Chattanooga last year.   Place is really cool.   Here's a shot of bikes stacked up - I think there are 5 floors if you count the basement.

[TexTaz]

Many vintage and classic bikes

[TexTaz]

Must have SCCA day.  Mostly Porshe's with an occasionaly Vette or Miata in the mix.

[TexTaz]

And here's the bike I wish I'd been on for the ride back to Chattanooga.  I swear everybody on I-59 that day must have thought they were qualifying for Talledaga.  There were 4 of us and we were running 80+ ... in the slow lane...

[Midnight Rider]

Thanks for taking up my slack, Tex....it truely is an awesome place, with some amazing bikes on display.  No telling how much all the stuff he has in there is worth.  George Barber was/is in the milk business....I can remember back in the days when they used to deliver milk to our front porch in glass bottles.  You just left the money for the milk in the empty bottles you sat out on the porch for them to swap for full ones.  The guys would come at about 5 in the morning, so all the kids would have fresh milk for their breakfast.  Can you imagine leaving money on your front porch these days?  Wouldn't be there for the milkman, that's for sure.

Anyway, he got started restoring bikes as kind of an accident...he's got OCD baaaaad, but that's a good thing, otherwise we wouldn't have these great bikes to go visit and drool over.  That photo of the cars taking that turn is right outside the back windows of the building...the restoration shop is on the bottom/basement floor....you could eat off the floor in the shop.  Wouldn't that be an interesting job?

The guy has done a lot of good charitible work here in the B'ham area, so he didn't just take, he gave back, and still is.  The track is world class.

[TexTaz]

Interesting.  With the money in that place that's a lot of milk... [smiley=drink.gif]

[Jock]

Definitely worthy of a visit if you are in the area...

http://www.barbermuseum.org/

[PHAZE]

It's worth the trip for the museum, but if you go for races, it's fantastic.