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Hog heaven: A new Milwaukee showcase

Troy Melhus, Star Tribune

In a nod to its history, a sculpture of a hill climber is cast outside the museum’s main entrance.

By TROY MELHUS, Star Tribune

Last update: July 5, 2008 - 11:33 AM

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GETTING THERE

They say it's the journey, not the destination. Riding your hog to the new Harley-Davidson museum is a great mixture of both.

The fast way: If you're looking to get to Milwaukee ASAP, hit Interstate 94 and head east. The road is smooth, offers plenty of rest stops and cruises through the scenic Wisconsin Dells. The speed limit is mostly 65 miles per hour and true Iron Butts can make the 300-mile ride in less than six hours.

The scenic way: If you're willing to take the time, maybe even an extra day, ride your Iron Horse east on the route I took to Beer City.

U.S. Highway 10 -- dubbed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Highway in Wisconsin -- runs east out of St. Paul and winds through Stevens Point and several other lake cities before hitting Appleton and Oshkosh.

For my two-wheeled journey, I headed south from 10 along state roads to Oshkosh. From there I rode Highway 45 south along Oshkosh Lake and through Kettle Moraine State Forest. The final leg through Kettle Moraine was among the best, as the roads bobbed and weaved through forests and past lakes before merging into the multiple lanes of Milwaukee proper.

There are dozens of old two-lane winding routes that can take you across Wisconsin, several of which are highlighted in the 2003 book "Sunday Rides on Two Wheels," by Barbara Barber.

JUST THE FACTS

www.h-dmuseum.com

Address: 400 W. Canal St. (at the corner of 6th and Canal).

Admission: $16 adults, $10 children.

Summer hours: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday through Tuesday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday.

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Milwaukee's new Harley-Davidson Museum opening on Saturday, July 12, isn't just a landmark. It's a destination, a rallying point, a tangible target for pilgrimages.

That was evident from the moment I rolled up to the museum's grounds on my own bike. The venue is unmistakably Harley. If the loud pipes, large strips of orange pavement and giant Harley-Davidson shield atop the 130,000-square-foot museum don't give it away, the rows of motorcycles parked "Sturgis style" do. And the familiar rumbles of the Harley echoed throughout the museum the minute I opened the tall steel doors.

"It's not a whispering museum," director Stacey Schiesl joked with me on an early tour. "That's not in keeping with who we are."

Set on a 20-acre former industrial site just west of Lake Michigan, the grounds -- which are open to the public year-round -- have been designed to accommodate up to 15,000 bikers at a time.

Inside three new industrial-like buildings are several meeting rooms, a restaurant and the Harley-Davidson company archives. The exhibits begin with an introduction to the Harley engine because, well, it all starts with the engine. "[The engine] is always like the jewel and they built the bikes around the jewel," curatorial director Jim Fricke said.

The exhibits also encourage you to look beyond the mechanics. Just to the right of the entrance, for example, is the oldest-known Harley-Davidson in existence -- the 1903 bike dubbed "Serial Number One." Many of the original motorcycles from the factory's early lines -- not replicas, but original bikes -- are displayed in near-perfect condition.

It's the depth of the collection that makes this so fun: There's Elvis' Harley, a 1956 KH; a replica of Easy Rider; bikes from Harley's AMF phase, and scores more motorcycles to show how individual each of these bikes can be.

Most notable, though, is the way the museum weaves in the rider culture itself. Fricke notes that ultimately it's the riders who have made Harley-Davidson what it is -- hence several displays of personalized bikes and a wall devoted to pictures of bikers and their rides.

Indeed, this is a place that does more than celebrate the motorcycle. It celebrates the life that surrounds it.

Troy Melhus • 612-673-4883

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