Velo museums - Velo museums - STERBA-BIKE.cz

The summer exhibition METAMORFOSI MECCANICA organized at the beginning of June 2019 on the occasion of the famous Giro d'Italia visited also the legendary Vicenzo Nibali (in the photo) was a selection of the collection of historical bicycles "Collezione velocipedi e biciclette antiche A. & C. Azzini"

Photos: A. & C. Azzini

album: 242/A - Collezione A. & C. Azzini

A private museum present 10 main sector with circa 200 bicycle, they cover up the period between 1818 and 1955. There’re several typology of partition in order to have a clear image of the evolution of the bicycle. The Museum will be open only in the time table available in Facebook at the page Velocipedi e biciclette antiche collezione privata A & C Azzini and if you won’t find a date there you can have a reservation just for you in the weekend simply by keeping in touch in facebbok’s page.

Contact: www.velobiciantiche.it

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/velobiciantiche/

album: 242/B - Collezione A. & C. Azzini

A very nice and friendly small private museum not far from Paris. Nice atmosphere and smell there - typical for france museums and velo-moto collection. Many seasonal exhibitions and events are organized there every year.

Contact: http://www.musee-ateliers-des-pionniers.fr

album: 241/A - Musée Ateliers des Pionniers

A small privat museum in very nice area - Kuks village.

Contact: http://www.veteran-muzeum-kuks.cz

album: 240 - Museum Kuks 2019

A small local exposition near Prague with all bicycles and items from local factories and clubs.

Contact: http://www.omk.cz

album: 239/A - Kladno 2019

Powerhouse Museum is part of Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences  in Australia. A small colection of bicycles is there. The exposition 200th Anniversary of the Bicycle was organized there in 2017 and all highlights from their collection was showed.

Contact: https://maas.museum

album: 238 - Powerhouse Museum

New museum was opened in the Czech Republic during summer 2017.

Over 200 bicycles from all time period.

Contact:    http://www.barokniarealzirec.cz 

album: 220 - Museum Žirec 2019

A secret place in Geneva/Switzerland viseted by the Swiss highwheel specialists Jürg Zaugg and Anders Thorell early January 2019. These highwheels and boneshakers have been sitting there untouched since the late 1930s. Exciting discovery !
Many thanks to the curator of the "Musée d'Art et d'Histoire" of Geneva who was able to open the Museum's reserves. A new highly secured facility has just been constructed where all the Geneva public museums will centralise their reserves.The bikes are therefore now stored in a less romantic place than what you saw on the previous post but with a better climate control.The museum has a total of seven vintage bikes, none of which have ever been shown to the public since they were donated to the museum between 1934 and 1949. The museum's intention is to start showing one or two from next year on.

Photos were taken by Anders Thorell 2019

Contact: http://institutions.ville-geneve.ch/fr/mah/

album: 234 - Musée d'Art et d'Histoire Geneva

Fantastic atmosphere is in the “Royal Carriage” museum in Compiegne close to Paris. Only three velocipedes are on display for public. Very decorative velocipede Cie Parisienne, front suspension velocipede Benon and an english safety Singer.

Contakt: http://palaisdecompiegne.fr/

album: 51/A - Compiegne, France

The photos were taken 2010

At the present time, this part of the exhibits are not open to the public and not everyone has the opportunity to examine the beauty of the displayed items. Some pictures were taken in museum deposit.

album: 51/B - Compiegne, France

Text: author of the exposition Dr Jan Králik

The bicycle is a perfectly designed piece of sports equipment, means of transport and leisure activity. We have Karl Drais to thank for it; his two-wheeled “draisienne” was first unveiled on the 12th of June 1817. The history of the bicycle starts here, and from that point on, its designs have been as diverse as its principle is simple.

At first it was seen as a fun leisure activity, but it soon began to be used as a mode of transport, which then led, almost naturally, to racing. The first recorded velocipede race, on bikes with cranks and pedals on the shaft of the front wooden wheel (with spokes), took place in France on the 8th of December 1867. The winner completed the 17–kilometre course from Paris to Versailles in one hour. The first race to be held in the Czech lands took place in Kutná Hora on the 8th of August 1869. A race was held in Brno one week later.

Subsequent chapters in Czech cycling history were written by famous (and long forgotten) manufacturers, riders, trainers, managers, businessmen, mechanics, functionaries and journalists. The Favorit factory in Rokycany played a particularly exceptional role. Its roots, development, humble beginnings, growth, mishaps and decline is a fascinating story, but about which there are relatively few documents or written reports.  Former factory employees and racing cyclists are the main source of information, and although their memories may be clouded by time, their recollections reveal their love of the Favorit brand. Favorit was one very few companies to receive credit for both its quality and (non)availability during the era of blatant socialist experimentation.

Following the wild privatization after the fall of communism and dissolution of the company, it seemed that Favorit was condemned to slow oblivion. Only collectors breathed life into the old discarded bikes and admired the old metal frames.

But never say never. The brand has been restarted, and the manufacture of Favorit bicycles in Rokycany has come to life again.

The legend is back.

album: 233 - The Legendary Favorit

This highly specialized museum concentrating on the beginnings of development of bicycles is located in a family castle Château de Bosc . All machines in the collection are very rare examples, many of them are not possible to show on next places because they exists only in one example. Just these bicycles made this museum as one of the best bicycle museum around the World.

Contact:   http://www.chateau-de-bosc.com

Last visites in 2017 a 2018 and some new examples:

album: 08/F. Moto velo musée, Domazan – France

New face of museum after exchange some bikes from spring 2015 :

album: 08/E. Moto velo musée, Domazan – France