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Cycle fans warm up to exhibit at Warren's Packard museum
By Jordan Cohen
WARREN
Jane Luchenbach is a true motorcycle enthusiast, which explains why she drove nearly six hours from her home in Downington, Pa., to attend Saturday’s opening of the 12th annual antique motorcycle exhibit at the National Packard Museum here.
“I found out about the show at a motorcycle swap meet, and knew I had to come,” she said as she shot a photo of a 1953 motorcycle built in the former East Germany.
“It’s definitely worth the trip, and it’s nice to see these cycles in different settings.”
“This is fantastic,” said Carl Estes of Cincinnati, who accompanied Luchenbach to the exhibit. Estes knows something about antique motorcycles since he races models built before 1924 on dirt tracks, and has won a national championship of the Antique Motorcycle Club in that division.
The show, “Motorcycles Around the World,” displays more than 30 cycles built in 12 countries. “We don’t repeat displays so [the cycles] are different every year,” said Bruce Williams of Cortland, who has been the show curator since its inception.
The motorcycles are placed among the museum’s classic Packard automobiles.
Williams said he situated the cycles next to the cars that were built in the same time period. The oldest motorcycle in this year’s display, a 1911 single-cylinder Pope, sits near a classic 1910 Packard. The Pope can be started only by pedaling it like a bicycle.
One bike that kept camera shutters going is a 1942 Harley-Davidson owned by Hollywood screen legend Clark Gable, a motorcycle aficionado who purchased a new one every few years, according to Williams. Photos and cut-outs of Gable, including one with him on a cycle, accompany the display.
“I’d love to have one of these,” said Mark Purnell of Girard, who along with his father Fred Purnell of Lake Milton, marveled at Gable’s cycle. “It’s just beautiful,” the elder Purnell said.
The current owner of Gable’s cycle, an Ashtabula resident, loaned the vehicle to the museum for this year’s show.
Harley-Davidson owner Dennis Wildman of Niles said he has been attending the cycle shows at Packard since 2009.
Wildman said his father owns a 1950 Indian cycle and a Norton with only 2,300 miles on it, which is why he appreciates the display, as does his wife, Kathy, who was attending her first antique-cycle show.
“They don’t make them like this anymore,” she said.
Her husband said he has another tie to the show. “I work at the Ohio Lamp plant on North Park Avenue [Warren] where the first Packard was built,” Wildman said.