Day-trip destinations: Get geared up for real-life riding by visiting bicycle museums

Spring is here and bicycles are beginning to emerge from hibernation and their traditional winter habitats beneath piles of old tarps and garden tools in garages across the land.

One great way to renew an enthusiasm for cycling, which may also be aslumber after a long winter’s nap, is to visit one of the great bicycle museums or exhibits nearby.

Visitors may not want to bicycle there, at least not yet, but the sites are all within easy driving distance for a day — or overnight trip from central Ohio.

Indiana State Museum exhibit on Marshall 'Major' Taylor

A new exhibit at the Indiana State Museum (www.indianamuseum.org) in Indianapolis focuses on one of the first African Americans ever to win a sporting championship of any kind.

Wildflowers: Day-trip destinations: Nature preserves, parks offer respite while enjoying wildflowers

“Major Taylor: Fastest Cyclist in the World,” examines the life and accomplishments of Marshall “Major” Taylor, an Indianapolis native born in 1878 who won world bicycle sprint championships in 1899 and 1900 and set numerous records throughout his career.

“He has an amazing story,” said Kisha Tandy, the museum’s curator of social history.

Taylor started working for bicycle shops in Indianapolis and giving lessons in trick riding before he started racing, Tandy said.

But racism in Indianapolis, including a “whites only” policy at area bicycle tracks, caused Taylor to move to Massachusetts when he was just 17, Tandy said.

Fort Wayne: Travel: Fort Wayne, Indiana, a weekend destination with vibrant downtown

Although he experienced horrendous racism throughout his career, Taylor won well over 100 races, and later wrote an autobiography, “The Fastest Bicycle Rider in the World.”

The interactive exhibit includes the opportunity for visitors to test their skills and times on stationary bicycles, tinker with bicycle parts and design and visit a cycling “training room.” The exhibit, which also includes plenty of information and mementos from the museum’s extensive collection of Taylor’s letters, scrapbooks, and trophies, runs through Oct. 23.

Wright brothers' contributions to cycling showcased at Dayton exhibit

Before they took to the skies, Orville and Wilbur Wright built bicycles, a fact not overlooked in their hometown of Dayton.

The brothers operated bicycle shops at several sites in Dayton. The only one still standing has been preserved as part of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park (www.nps.gov/daav). Visitors learn about the Wright brothers’ involvement in the bicycle craze that swept America at the end of the 19th century.

Dayton’s Carillon Historical Park (www.daytonhistory.org) also pays homage to the Wright brothers’ cycling roots with a reproduction of a Wright Cycle shop and a collection of historic bicycles, including two rare original bicycles built by Orville and Wilbur.

Bicycle Museum of America

Some of the oldest and rarest bicycles extant can be found at the Bicycle Museum of America (www.bicyclemuseum.com) in New Bremen in Auglaize County.

Travel destinations: Ohioans are once again saying 'aloha' to Hawaii and other far-off destinations

The museum, in a historic building in New Bremen’s cute downtown, contains a beautifully curated display of about 150 bicycles (out of a collection of more than 800), most of them magnificently restored.

The bicycles range from an early wooden two-wheeled “running machine” built in 1816, to the iconic high-wheelers of the 1870s and 1880s, and one of several famous prop bicycles co-starring in the cult-fave 1985 movie “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.”

Bicycle Heaven

Another (and perhaps the only other) of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure prop bikes is on display at Bicycle Heaven (www.bicycleheaven.org) in Pittsburgh, which bills itself as the world’s largest bicycle museum. I, for one, am ready to believe the claim.

With more than 6,500 bicycles on display, Bicycle Heaven is a glorious, gleaming maze of chrome and color. Several of the bicycles have been featured in movies or on television, including a bicycle-built-for-four that the Monkees once rode on their 1960s television show.

Sanibel Island: Travel: Sanibel Island a nature lovers' retreat in addition to popular resort area

Although the museum contains bicycles from every era, it specializes in the colorful chrome beauties of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s — or at least it seems so to visitors of a certain age whose dreams of childhood are filled with such as these. (And there are “banana” seats everywhere.)

Like many of the country’s great private museums, Bicycle Heaven is a tribute to what one person with a passion — some might say “mania” — for collecting can accomplish.

Owner Craig Morrow said he started his collection with “one bike I pulled from a junk pile 35 years ago.”

Morrow opened the museum 11 years ago, and the collection has kept growing.

Plus, Bicycle Heaven is not just a museum, but also a working bicycle repair, retail and rental shop. So if you see a dreamy vision from childhood that you covet, you can probably make an offer.

Steve Stephens is a freelance travel writer and photographer. Email him at sjstephensjr@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Travel: Bicycle museums, exhibits offer history, activities more