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Thread: Wheels Through Time

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    The Open Road
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    4,729

    Wheels Through Time

    The wife and I trekked out to Maggie Valley North Carolina to finally visit a place that I've been trying to visit for almost 14 years now.

    This museum is called Wheels Through Time and it was created by Dale Walksler who I believe, started collecting antique American motorcycles since about 1992. He already owned a motorcycle dealership in Illinois when he began collecting and displaying antique motorcycles.

    Review: I'd been a fan of Dales YouTube channel for quite some time and has a good friend who visited the place in 2007 and convinced me that it was like the Barber Museum of American only antique motorcycles. I was familiar with his collection of one of a kind American iron for some time now but had always wanted to see the place in person someday. Last Thursday I got that chance. This place has about 350 of the rarest examples of antique American motorcycles ever assembled in one building and every complete motorcycle in the building starts and runs. There are a number of curators on-hand, including the owner Matt Walksler, who tell the history of each machine in detail. Matt's father Dale passed away of cancer about a year and a half ago and his son Matt carried the torch and is responsible keeping his dad's legacy since today. Dale appears to have taught Matt everything he knew, which is a literal PhD worth of knowledge of the history and mechanical workings of these machines.

    Impressions: Holy Cow. We spent at least six hours there. I was already overwhelmed in the first room of the museum. They have all American early iron, flat track racers, board track racers, hillclimbers, street bikes, drag bikes from 1903 up until the early sixties with a handful of later model shovels and evos. Not just Harley and Indian either. There are plenty of other American machines represented.

    Every bike on display runs. They go around and randomly pick machines from exhibits and put a little gas in them and fire them up. In six hours we were there, they fired up 12 different antique bikes and Matt took a spin around the inside and outside the museum on at least one of them. The condition of the machines ranges from almost totally rusty to 'original paint' to 'fully concourse restored' and everything in between. The pics I'm getting ready to share don't do it justice at all. It's just something you should really go see in person and it's well worth the $15 admission to see the rarest antique American motorcycles on the planet Earth.

    This is this year's raffle bike, a 1937 knucklehead meticulously restored with many NOS (YES, NOS) parts. These annual raffles help keep the place going so Matt can buy more machines to exhibit. I can tell you that these pics don't do this bike justice now that I've seen it in person.



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  2. #2
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    The Open Road
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    4,729
    I'm going to start posting pics and at the end of posting pics, I'll say "The End" so you know. After that, you can comment or not, but please wait till I'm done posting pics before you tell me that this thread sucks. Thanks.

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  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    The Open Road
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    4,729
    More

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  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
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    Sportsters and racers mixed in here too

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  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    The Open Road
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    4,729
    More

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  6. #6
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    The Open Road
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    4,729
    La di da

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  7. #7
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
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    Yeah boi

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  8. #8
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    The Open Road
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    Yup

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  9. #9
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    The Open Road
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    4,729
    Hoo dee hoo

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  10. #10
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    The Open Road
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    Just sayin

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  11. #11
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
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    This

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  12. #12
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
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    Those

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  13. #13
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    The Open Road
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    This

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  14. #14
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    The Open Road
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    4,729
    He

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  15. #15
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    The Open Road
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    4,729
    The 1916 Traub Motorcycle

    This is the rarest American motorcycle in the world. It was found bricked up inside a wall under a staircase. Was once owned by Bud Ekin and had tires to a Steve McQueen. Bud Ekin was a famous champion American Triumph racer, stuntman in The Great Escape and Bullitt (drove McQueen's mustang in stunt scenes)

    This bike was all homemade and hand built with only the rims, tires, carb, and magneto as the only purchase components. Every other part of the motorcycle including the engine was homemade one-off by a certain Mr Traub around 1916. Not much of known about the builder or what it was eventually bricked up in a wall sometime around WW1. This thing runs and drives. This is one of one.

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