Moto Museum 2 Spain

www.london-motorcycle-museum.org

Moto Museum 2: Bassella

After a few minutes thought after leaving Moto Museum 1 the brain kicks into gear, I have hired a car, the kids don't get up until the afternoon and we have no plan for the morning. The second Museum will open at 10am. It is only one and a half hours away. Leave by 08:30 arrive about 10:00, leave Museum 11:30 and be back as the kids are waking up. Gita goes along with this. So bright and early on the Sunday morning we are away taking some motorway and some of the nice biking main roads. I miss the Museum sign and waste valuable visiting time searching for it. How could I miss this sign! 

When we do get there the Museum looks closed but one of the people working at the cafeteria in the same building says someone will be back in a minute. After a minute I have assed over some LMM fliers and will collect some of theirs when I leave. 

They have about 200 bikes on display with lots of room to view them. I am enjoying every second reading the notes about the bikes and again taking lots of photos. There are quite a number of British bikes on display with all the major players represented. There is even a Velocette LE! Not many of those in Spain!

Bultaco, Montessa and Ossa are well represented with more variants than you can imagine. A very much younger picture of a smiling Sammy Miller adorns one wall. 

Displays of Off Roading fill a large area as this was the main international market for the Spanish machines. They all did the small machines for domestic consumption.  What did catch my eye was this 4 cylinder Derby two stroke racer.

Within the two levels of the Museum is a restoration area, a mini cinema where they are playing a film of the history of the Museum and telling the story of how, the founder, Mario Soler began restoring motorcycles that started the collection.

The Museum is interesting in itself. A dam was built and the village of Bassella where the Soler Collection lived was flooded in the 1990's. The villagers were relocated and so was the Museum. The building that now houses the collection was built from reclaimed materials of the original village and the name of the place along with the Museum and a petrol station are all that is left. We leave the Museum around mid day and get back to Barcelona around two and then we all head off to the beach to have lunch, some sun and an unexpected dip.