Talbott Motorcycle Museum opens in Carmel Valley
It’s official. Robb Talbott’s motorcycle museum is open.
The former wine and necktie magnate’s personal bike collection, housed inside a 5,000-square-foot space in Carmel Valley, received the last of its needed permits and is open to the public.
Motorcycle analysts have said the non-profit museum represents the West Coast’s largest public exhibition of bikes, excluding private collections.
The barn-like former realty office, set at the eastern edge of the oak-dotted Carmel Valley village, houses 136 vintage two-wheeled machines.
The main room contains stunning examples of Italian postwar motorcycle art, including race bikes from Benelli, Gilera, Ducati and MV Agusta.
A basement contains a representative sample of bikes that dominated motocross racing in the 1960s and 1970s — many of them motorcycles that Talbott himself raced, or raced against.
Championship-winning motorcycles made by Triumph, BSA and Greeves, some slung in frames made by Rickman, stand alongside the two-strokes that ended the English reign, from Husqvarna, CZ, Maico and Bultaco — alongside some of the Japanese dirt bikes that challenged European motocross dominance.
Elsewhere are choppers, speedway racers, flat track bikes and more, along with vintage motorcycle-related photographs, signs and artwork.
The new museum will be open year-round, Thursday through Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets cost $12 for general admission, $10 for seniors and military, and $7 for children.
The opening of the museum comes after a very successful weekend for Talbott, who scored an unusual hat trick of three victories during the just-concluded Monterey Car Week festivities.
A vintage BMW R37 from his collection was named best motorcycle at the Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, on Aug. 19. The following day, a Benelli race bike featured at his museum was named top bike at the Concorso Italiano show. And on Sunday, the R37 won best in class in the BMW motorcycle division at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
“We did all right,” Talbott said Monday. “We had a pretty good weekend.”
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