MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Ouch. There's going to be an unhappy underwriter somewhere. What a loss!
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10158502054278791&id=52844363790
In a disaster beyond reckoning, the Top Mountain Motorcycle Museum was completely destroyed by fire this morning, with 250 exceptional and exceedingly rare machines inside. It recalls the 2003 National Motorcycle Museum fire, and is a mighty blow to motorcycle history. Two of our friends and allies had significant collections inside, and we cannot help but feel their distress today.
I don't like motorcycle museums much. It saddens me that they're left unused when it wouldn't be too difficult to get many of them working again. Bikes ought to be used.
Seeing them on fire is of course more saddening though.
Sounds like there were a couple of Brough Superiors in there but they may be salvageable - when you've seen the state of the bodin boroughs anything is possible with the right amount of money.
Edit - maybe more there was a BS centenary exhibition on as well ☹️, Indians were in another building and unscathed
Looks like an amazing building as well.
I don’t like motorcycle museums much. It saddens me that they’re left unused when it wouldn’t be too difficult to get many of them working again. Bikes ought to be used.
I'm torn. Yes, things should be used, it's what they were designed and made for. However, when they are used things wear out, break, need to be replaced, need to be repainted, etc, and you end up with a replica of what the thing was. Museums preserve things as they were at the time they were important, allowing future generations to enjoy and appreciate them. Or something.
It's an amazing building and setting, weird place for a motorcycle museum, but a beautful place nontheless.
It also holds the bottom station of a big gondola so I wonder if that'll be affected too.
Saw this this morning. One of the comments in that feed refers the the fire as "jewish lightening". Reported the comment as imo that's a pretty beyond the pale term. Facebook came back and said it was fine and it would not be removed. Unimpressed.
Loss of building and contents v sad though.
looking at pics and video the toll booth end went up first and bore the worst of the damage, I think the gondola and main motorcycle display area are between the toll booth end and the restaurant. Looks like they saved the restaurant from burning down but little else.
When I spoke to the hotel we were scheduled to go to in March in neighbouring Obergurgl they were making noises that they might not open the ski area at all this season. As this is a key gondola on the hochgurgl side that's only going to be more likely now.
Not a museum, but a private car storage facility went up in Cheshire just before Christmas. Over 70 cars were in there, some quite rare and pricey
Bikes ought to be used.
Yeah, nice to watch but not necessarily an enjoyable experience to ride, akin to riding a 90's rigid mtb with cantilever brakes in my view but made even worse by the fear of wrecking something worth ££££ and I don't even hanker over the most modern motorbikes or mountain bikes.
I hope they had "New for Old" cover.
That is a shame.
I don’t like motorcycle museums much. It saddens me that they’re left unused when it wouldn’t be too difficult to get many of them working again.
Aye,but it's nice to be able to get up close to some of the classics,rather than hope that you see one at a rally/race meeting or when some old duffer stops at a cafe/garage.
It's right and proper not to use bikes like these when they are virtually the last of their kind.
Plus it allows more people to experience them than if they were privately owned and ridden.
This, is a devastating loss.
I hope they had “New for Old” cover.
Replacement with something available new with similar benefits/performance? Honda C90 would do for a lot of them, CB500F for most of the rest.
Be interesting to see if they where insured for any value , eg autotrader type valuation, or what the owners. museum thinks theyre worth.Also did somebody actually remember to renew the insurance
But here was another high value main dealer car garage in i think stockport set on fire a few months ago, lots of cars destroyed.
also Ronnie Corbetts old 3 million pound house, burnt out and still no repairs after more than a year,
Must be a bit difficult when you make that claim to the insurance and wait.
What a shame, it was cracking place. We were snowboarding/skiing there last season. I'm not a massive motorbike fan, but it was a lovely place for a coffee break.
I remember seeing the original motorcycle museum go up in flames as it was on my route home from work, it was just taking hold with lots of thick black smoke and at that time no fire engines etc ... the whole area smelt of smoke for days after 🙁 … I'm not a motorcycle person , but very sad to see such history go up in smoke