Too cold outside to ride a bike? Don’t know what to do at the weekends? How about a trip to the biggest bicycle museum in Germany? „Deutsches Fahrrad Museum” in Bad Brückenau, Bavaria has everything you need.
It’s a private collection of the bicycle enthusiast Ivan Sojc, who bought an Art Nouveau villa, built in 1908, to give the collection a sutiable environment. You can find more than 200 bikes in the cllection and lot more accessories. In the two level exhibition you can learn everything about cycling history from 1820 until today. After the visit you can have a cup of coffee in the café on the ground floor. It really is a bike enthusiasts paradise!
The dandy horse was a human-powered vehicle that was the first means of transport to make use of the two-wheeler principle. It is regarded as the forerunner of the bicycle. This on was made in 1820.
If you haven’t enough of cycling, you could play a game. It wasn’t PS3 or Xbox compatible but it made lot of fun anyway.
It used to be popular to hold races on bikes towed by specially designed motorcycles in Germany. On this bike was achieved a world record of 154,506 km/h in 1950.
Modern bicycles use lightweight chains but 100 years ago it was a job for a real blacksmith to manufacture them.
Picture is little dull, but you can see one of the first attempts to build a full suspension bike. Look at the strange pivot on the seat tube!
In 1888 John Boyd Dunlop invented rubber tires filled with compressed air, which was a brand new feature on the bike in front. It finally made the ride much more comfortable.
For the trip we rode in a new Skoda Rapid Spaceback. It’s a roomy and usable hatchback for a great price. The car was perfect for such a trip for two people. Driving on the German Autobahns, it was not a problem to achieve a speeds of 212 km/h with a ten liter per 100km fuel consumption. Of course, driving ‘normally’, the hunger for fuel descended to a more pleasant 7,5 l/100 km average ratio.
Upon our arrival, we were so happy that we had to take a picture with the sign.
In front of the museum there’s a big amount of different kinds of bizarre bikes. All visiting kids are free to use them.
Art Nouveau vilal from 1908 where the Museum is located.
There were two interesting surprises waiting for us as we drove. Firstly is that the car is absolutely quiet and calm, even at the high speeds. The other thing is the perfect and precise steering. We were a little bit sceptical that the Spaceback would not be a suitable partner for longer trips, but yes – it worked out exceptuonally well! It was that good that one of us refused to take turns and drove all the way to the museum.
Today we use small lights attachable on the handlebars. It’s wasn’t always so.
A corner devoted to military bicycles since the age of the Great war until the late fifties. The first bikes were deployed by the french army in 1888.
It seems that around 1900 it was popular to wear pink pajamas and a big mustache while riding a high wheel bicycle in Germany.
How to get there? Bad Brückenau is a spa in the middle of Germany. The Museum is open everyday except mondays. Entry is 4,50 euro for an adult. More on: www.deutsches-fahrradmuseum.de
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