New Bremen, Ohio, is home to the largest privately owned collection of bicycles in North America, housed in the Bicycle Museum. The museum contains vintage bicycles, prototypes, memorabilia, and futuristic models, including the 1892 Victor and the 1960 Bowden Spaceliner.
Whether you’re a sports fan or a history buff, you can find a museum to your liking in New Bremen, Ohio. The small town, with a population of just under 3,000, was founded in 1833 and retains much of its historic charm, making it an ideal place to host one of America’s most unusual historic attractions: the Bicycle Museum.
The Bicycle Museum contains the largest privately owned collection of bicycles in North America. Founded by Jim Dicke, a cycling enthusiast and owner of Crown Equipment Corporation, a multinational corporation that manufactures electric forklifts, the Bicycle Museum has been open to the public for more than a decade.
The Bicycle Museum houses vintage bicycles, never-before-seen-on-the-market prototypes, cycling-related memorabilia, short films on the history of the bicycle, and a great shop where visitors can buy everything from books to miniature models of the most amazing bicycles ever existed.
One of the more notable examples featured in the Bicycle Museum is the 1892 Victor, the classic high-front wheeled vehicle in which riders stand an exceptional 56 inches (142.2 cm) off the floor. The 1892 Victor was the Rolls Royce of his day, selling for $130 US Dollars (USD) at a time when a factory worker made an average of $17 USD a month. Another majestic example is the turn-of-the-century military bicycle, equipped with rifles, a small med kit, and a typewriter.
The Bicycle Museum features dozens of prototypes with all kinds of adaptations, such as dual headlights, wooden frames, wicker sidecars, and small-wheeled folding bikes. For those looking for something more modern, the Bicycle Museum also houses several futuristic models, including the 1960 Bowden Spaceliner, which looks like something out of a science fiction film. Only 522 Spaceliners were made, making the bike a collector’s item. The same goes for the 1922 Dalton, which featured a seat placed between the front and rear wheels, rather than above them.
While the Bicycle Museum isn’t huge, the collection is ever-growing and is now considered the largest museum of its kind in the country.
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