Audio By Carbonatix
Motorcycles were built to roam the big, beautiful landscapes of the West. Despite the cycle’s mythical status, however, our part of the country has only two museums dedicated to two-wheeled wonders. One of these is located, appropriately, in Sturgis, South Dakota. The other is the Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Museum in Colorado Springs.
On July 2, the Colorado institution — if you can call a motorcycle museum such a thing — will host its ninth annual Hall of Fame induction, complete with a motorcycle show, bike rodeo, pig roast and free concert by rocker Jimmie Van Zant. Founded in 1992 by cycle shop owners Jim Fear and Walt Timme, the musuem displays more than 75 vintage and restored bikes: Harley-Davidsons, Excelsiors, Tornaxes, Indians, Triumphs, Vincents. The museum also collects photographs, art, sculpture and period memorabilia.
As for the seven inductees (three of whom have passed on to Hog Heaven), well, “We don’t do a specific criteria. It’s just people who have dedicated their lives to the sport and made a contribution,” says Pam Fear, Jim’s wife.
They’re people like Bonnie Truett, a pioneer who saw his first Harley drag race in Texas in the early ’70s and started a race open to all kinds of bikes in Arkansas City, Kansas. This August marks the 29th year Truett’s race will be run. “It’s a wall of spectators,” says Truett. “People come to party. It’s like a happening.”
Pueblo resident Griz Robinson is being inducted for his collection of Harley Panheads, a model manufactured between 1948 and 1965, so named because “the head and the valve cover look like a big frying pan,” Robinson explains. He has ten Panheads; he donated two to the museum for a while, but he eventually had to take them back to fix up and sell.
The day’s events won’t just celebrate the inductions. They’ll also be a birthday party for co-founder Timme, the soon-to-be 86-year-old who rode his first bike in 1929 and hasn’t called it quits yet.
