WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Museum Takes a Ride on the Wild Side
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Shelburne, Vermont - May 13, 2009
Sleek but powerful -- elegant, sometimes playful. The Shelburne Museum is spotlighting motorcycle design with its new show "Full Throttle."
"They're very practically-designed," explains Kory Rogers, a curator at the museum. "Some of them may have been gussied up a little bit. But they're still at their heart very safe, well-engineered vehicles."
The exhibit holds 50 bikes; restored vintage models, high-speed racing styles, and custom builds, including an airstream-inspired bike produced by one of the most famous garages in the industry-- West Coast Choppers in California.
"They're really unique. Some are like jewelry, really," says Debby Pearson of Green Mountain Harley-Davidson.
David and Debby Pearson run a Harley-Davidson dealership in Essex Junction. They helped the museum secure a loan of this early 1940s military bike. The Pearsons hope the exhibit both brings the motorcycle community together and gives non-bike owners a glimpse of the craftsmanship in these designs.
"The Shelburne Museum and motorcycles don't normally go together. Well here, they've come together and that's caused a big buzz, which is cool," David Pearson says.
The bikes traveled to Vermont from all over, as far away as British Columbia. The curator's goal is to appeal to a new audience. Some of the bikes will even be incorporated into the museum's other displays of traditional American folk art and culture.
"They're more than just machines, more than just objects," Rogers says. "These have personal connections. People who come will bring their own personal associations with these motorcycles. Whether it's childhood memories or adulthood memories, or memories of their parents, there is an emotional connection people have with these."
"Full Throttle" opens this Sunday, Lilac Sunday: The Shelburne Museum's first day of the season. It's on view through late October.
And in late July, the museum will host a fundraiser where patrons can meet the bike builders and collectors and see freestyle motocross riders do acrobatic stunts.
Jack Thurston - WCAX News
