The Iwashita Collection

 May 19, 2023

Visiting the motorcycle museum twice in 2006, on my way around Kyushu, was one of the better experiences back then. The staff was unusually nice, and the place had a 'Rider House' train wagon parked  outside, which I - being on a tight budget - really appreciated: The so-called Rider Houses, where anyone arriving on two wheels could stay one night for free, were mainly to be found on Hokkaido, but a few made it to here too. Iwashita-san and the girls Aya and Kazuko even til me to The Hitparade Club, a 1950s style music place in Beppu.

Outside the train agon has disappeared, and inside the entry hall that once housed a cafe is now crammed with all sorts of furniture, pianos and whatever. Iwashita-san looks 17 years older, but is still in good shape, and talkative too, albeit only in Japanese. Phone translations do the job.

At age 23 Iwashita-san started a company supplying spares for the automotive industry, and some time later asked himself what to do with his life. So at age 30 he started collecting motorcycles for a future museum, the result of which we see today. There are 210 motorcycles exhibited, the video say, and another 400 in storage - usual museum situation. First floor has a few, along with most of the 700,000 other items of various sorts; toys, Princess Diana memorabilia, and other collectors items, if you happen to collect that sort of stuff. But the motorcycles dominate 2nd and 3rd floors, as the pics below will show.

In 2017 an earthquake knocked over practically all the bikes, but Iwashita-san and a crew of 10 volunteers got it up and running again in little over a year. Now the bikes placed on pedestals are secured with steel wires, just in case another earthquake strikes.

Japanese BIM, DSK and Marusho all made copies of the 1950s BMW twins.

Misima was one of literally hundreds of Japanese motorcycle brands, before we 
finally ended up with The Big Four.

Suzuki Colleda headlight nacelle.

One of Japan's preciously few Nimbuses, looking a bit forlorn.

The Brazilian behemoth Amazonas, which used an aircooled VW 4-cyl. Boxer engine.





Trikes were once abundant in Japan, and this Mazda had the most impressive plate 
steel handlebar of them all.

Military H-D copy Rikuo, with very stylish headlight nacelle.

'MIZUNO' three-wheeler with frontwheel drive. What I cannot figure out is the engine, that for all one can see has either four or eight cylinders, or just a seriously strange water cooling system.





Tiny diesel engine for mounting beneath a bicycle. Looks suspiciously much like the Danish 'Lohmann' engine and a similar English one, so it was probably produced here under license.

Brough Superior fishtails.

Kommentarer

Send en kommentar

Populære opslag fra denne blog

Preface

Billede
March 30, 2023 Ever since my trip to Japan in 2006, I longed to go back. This time it'd be with a sidecar attached to the Nimbus bobber, and an old friend of mine in it. The plan was to go in spring, and head for the north island of Hokkaido, which I missed last time around. In early 2020 I got quote for shipping the sidecar bike by sea, at a surprisingly low $431 - about 1/4 of what I paid to have a solo MZ shipped to Los Angeles two years previously. Apparently they have a lot of empty containers going eastwards, and are happy to put anything in them. Bought plane tickets for both of us too, so everything looked fine. Then the bloody virus hit, the world grinding to a halt. Trip postponed first to 2021, then to 2022, where we do a trial run to England and Ireland instead. The Nimbus blows a cylinder head gasket and the ignition system dies on the very first day, but hey, better in Northern Germany than 300 clicks outside of Tokyo. The rest of the trip was taken on a 50 year old M...
Læs mere

Getting Back On Track (maybe)

Billede
May 4, 2023 Reading through pics of the carburettor pages of an English book about Nimbus maintenance that a friend back home sent me, I realize that the small factory booklet has got a few things wrong, and after an hour or two the plugs finally look ok. That was after just starting it up, so a test ride tomorrow will bring the real verdict. Rasmus had stayed up half the night reading about Nimbus too, and did his part to get the old girl going. I'm still underslept but finally past jetlag, and seeing that the bike seems to work, I'll mention some of my obeservations the last week about Tokyo: Annoyingly many more foreigners, compared to last time 17 years ago. (What are you guys doing here? Got bored messing up Barcelona and Venice? You're not exotic like the Japanese are. Go home.) Overweight Japanese - didn't notice that many 17 years ago. (Americans visiting Denmark every five years say the same about the Danes.) There are practically none of the large custom scoot...
Læs mere

Beppu, Yufuin and The Iwashita Collection

Billede
  May 18, 2023 Making up for last night, I go to the Takewagara onsen before we head inland. Just what I wanted, and at 300 yen ($4 or 30 dk it's a true bargain if there ever was one. Being soaked in however hot the water in that basin was, was great, and I soak in the history of the onsen, which dates back to 1879. ( https://travel.gaijinpot.com/takegawara-onsen/ ). Once outside again my mood is tempered by the fact that the Nimbus' ignition coil has selfdestructed, which under unfortunate circumstances can happen if the ignition is left on. Bugger. Having replaced the coil with an old one I wisely brought along JUST IN CASE, and the spark plugs too, it runs fine, but still needs first gear for the hills towards Yufuin, where one will find The Iwashita Collection, a large motorcycle museum I want to visit again. Caring little about what the weather forecast predicted, a local rain god makes us suffer the last 6 miles/10 kilometers to the museum. The museum is its old self - ma...
Læs mere