By Mark Richardson
The Wheels Through Time museum in Maggie Valley, N.C., is devoted to American motorcycles. It gets about 150,000 visitors every year to its site near Asheville in the Smoky Mountains. There are more than 300 bikes on display from at least 24 different marques, though the majority are Harleys. Most don’t have written descriptions, but we had a personal tour of the best of them with curator and guide Jack Harwell.
The museum is the life’s work of owner Dale Walksler, who began collecting in 1970 and is still going strong. He hosts the “What’s in the barn?” reality TV show on the Velocity Channel.
Almost all the bikes are in running order and Dale rides them regularly.
Some are just wacky, like this lawn-mower trike.
Some are truly unique vintage machines. This is the rarest bike in the collection and perhaps the world: a 1916 Traub. It was found bricked-up between the walls of a Chicago house in 1967, and nobody knows anything about it.
The Traub company of Switzerland still makes industrial machinery, but has no record of ever making a motorcycle. Almost everything is hand-made, though it can be dated by its Schebler carburetor.
Some bikes on display are important examples of motorcycle sport in America, like these board-track racers.
And this hill-climber, a 1928 Indian Altoona. It was ridden on the west coast in the late 1920s and ‘30s out of Guy Uruquart’s shop in San Diego.
And this Harley XR750 road racer from the 1970s, the superbike of its day.
A whole corner is devoted to the machines raced by Carroll Resweber for six years in the late 1950s and early ‘60s. Resweber won four straight National Championships until his career ended with a crash during practice.
He went on to work for Harley-Davidson for the next three decades and died this spring, aged 79.
Some bikes on display aren’t even bikes anymore. This was designed to saw ice from frozen lakes, before refrigeration.
This is the personal touring bike of Oscar Hedstrom, one of the founders of the Indian Motorcycle Co. It was specially built in 1913 in the company basement, but there are less than a dozen parts that will fit a 1913 Indian.
The first person to cross the United States from coast to coast by motor vehicle was George Wyman in 1903, and his “California” motorcycle became the Yale brand, like this 1905 example. He broke down in Nebraska and the bike was fixed by Louis Flescher, a bicycle mechanic.
Flescher was so inspired by Wyman’s bike that he started his own motorcycle company in Omaha. This is the 1914 Flescher Flyer, the fourth of only five Fleschers that are known of.
One of its unique features is a right floorboard that also operates as a brake pedal and a clutch lever.
“The folks who built these bikes back in the teens and ‘20s, had they had access to today’s technology, I wonder what we would have in the parking lot today,” says curator and guide Jack Harwell.
The 1909 Pierce-Arrow has both a gas tank and an oil tank incorporated in its frame, as well as an enclosed drive shaft.
In 1953, this very rare Harley KRM flathead was the predecessor to the Sportster.
This pair of shaft-driven Harleys have horizontally-opposed engines, not the iconic V-Twins the maker is known for. Harley-Davidson built 1,000 XAs in 1942 for use by the army in North Africa, but the military campaign ended before they could be shipped overseas.
And no – the 007 serial number has nothing to do with James Bond.
This 1913 Thor SR1 board racer is the only example known to exist. Thor’s racing success inspired Harley-Davidson to start its own team. The bike’s 1000 cc V-Twin made only 7 hp, but it was still very fast – and dangerous – once it built speed.
Owner Dale Walksler still enters the Thor every year at the Wauseon AMCA races.
This Harley with a sidecar was built for the 200-mile Jackpine race in Lansing, MI.
Not all three-wheeled Harleys were raced. This 1941 shaft-drive knucklehead trike is one of only 16 built. They were used by the Canadian army in World War II.
Coca-Cola was concerned this 1970s chopper would “lead to the dilution of the distinctiveness of ‘Coke’,” and asked the builder to stop calling it “the Coke Machine.”
“We are concerned that the public may conclude that we sponsor or are in some way associated with your display,” wrote Coca-Cola’s lawyer to the chopper’s builder. “We know that you, like us, do not wish to give the public this erroneous impression…”
In more recent years, Brett Donahue rode this Harley Sportster to third place in the 2007 Iron Butt Rally, covering 11,238 miles in 11 days around North America. It’s fitted with extra gas tanks, to stop less often in the long-distance riding event.
Evel Knievel jumped this Harley as part of his stunt show, and it was restored afterward by his official bike painter. It was one of several he’d take to a jump. If something didn’t feel right, he’d choose a different bike.
Not every machine on display is a motorcycle – there are a few cars that the owner happens to like, including this Harley-engined midget racer. It’s powered by an XA750 military engine and was built by Harry Molenaar, a Harley dealer in Indiana from 1932-1990.
If you want to take one of the historic motorcycles home from the Wheels Through Time museum, go to the museum’s website (www.wheelsthroughtime.com) and buy a $10 ticket to win this 1939 Harley EL knucklehead bomber. The draw takes place Nov. 14, 2015. Good luck!
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