
Wheels Through Time Museum
Clip: Season 21 Episode 25 | 4m 47sVideo has Closed Captions
Celebrate vintage motorcycles at the Wheels Through Time Museum in Maggie Valley.
Visiting the Wheels Through Time Motorcycle Museum is truly a one-of-a-kind experience. The museum's executive director's father was a Harley-Davidson dealer for 26 years and developed a passion for early American motorcycles and vehicles. Visitors can interact with the bikes as everything in the museum is in working condition, including the Traub, the world's rarest motorcycle.
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North Carolina Weekend is a local public television program presented by PBS NC

Wheels Through Time Museum
Clip: Season 21 Episode 25 | 4m 47sVideo has Closed Captions
Visiting the Wheels Through Time Motorcycle Museum is truly a one-of-a-kind experience. The museum's executive director's father was a Harley-Davidson dealer for 26 years and developed a passion for early American motorcycles and vehicles. Visitors can interact with the bikes as everything in the museum is in working condition, including the Traub, the world's rarest motorcycle.
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This might actually come in handy for our next story, a motorcycle museum where every bike is still in good working order.
Let's head to the Wheels of Time Museum in Maggie Valley.
[motorcycle revving] - So when people walk into Wheels Through Time, I don't think a lot of people really understand what they're about to experience.
[upbeat music] The museum started in Southern Illinois, actually.
My dad was a Harley-Davidson dealer for 26 years.
During his youth, really became passionate about early American motorcycles and automobiles.
About a 50 year period, he developed the collection that is here at Wheels Through Time.
Found Maggie Valley in 2001, bought the property here that the museum sits on, constructed the building, moved the whole collection.
Within one year of finding this property and breaking ground, the museum was open for visitors.
- One of the things that sets Wheels Through Time apart from other automotive or motorcycle museums is the more tangible experience that you can have here.
You get to see all the bikes up close.
We don't have velvet ropes that everything's kind of hidden behind, so you can get right up on the machines and take a look at them.
There's the sounds that people hear because we are the Museum That Runs.
[motorcycle revving] You hear it there.
So, throughout the day, you're gonna hear that as you walk through the museum, motorcycles and things being fired up, so people can hear and not just see what they're looking at.
And then you have the smell of the museum.
Most people describe it as walking into their granddad's shop.
And you hear it multiple times a day, people just love the smell, because it just brings back so many memories for them.
- At Wheels Through Time, there's over 375 motorcycles.
Of course, everything's American.
It's dominated by Harley-Davidson.
Harley-Davidson's dominated the American motorcycle scene for maybe 70 years now.
But there are 34 brands of motorcycles, one of a kinds, more than you can see anywhere else.
When folks come, they're gonna see the shiny bikes, the off the assembly line, just like, you know, restored machines that look just like they were brand new.
But at the same time, they're gonna see machines that are pulled out of old barns, pieces of history that we put great amount of time and care into keeping just as they are, because they're only original once.
- I can honestly say with my hand on my heart, I've seen 99% of every single vehicle in this museum run.
[upbeat music] - The museum is nicknamed the Museum That Runs, and the big thing here at Wheels Through Time is that everything in the building can crank up and go.
No place in the world can you hear and see most or many of the rarest motorcycles in the world fire up and actually run.
- Well, one of the most important motorcycles in the museum is the world's rarest motorbike, the Traub motorcycle.
No one knew anything about it until 1967, and it's just a phenomenal story.
And of course, it brings in so much history.
- The Traub.
[chuckles] And to listen to Andy tell about it.
- The story behind it is utterly fascinating.
And as they find out more and more about it, as time goes on and it keeps going, it's like a great mystery that they're still trying to figure out.
- One of my favorite parts about working here at the museum is the interaction with people as they come in.
And the one thing about motorcycling is it kind of spans all the ages.
And so as people come in, they're sharing stories.
- If there's one thing that we hope our guests take with them when they leave, is a little bit of inspiration and a little bit of excitement, and maybe even compelling somebody to chase down an old bike themselves.
It's always exciting.
- Why do I love it?
Well, Dale saw me, I was traveling around the world on a bicycle.
He brought me in here, and it just opened my eyes to American history.
The courage of these very early settlers who were using motorbikes, the Depression, they're homemade in America.
It's just an inspiration of how clever and how hardworking American people were just to make this country what it is today.
- Wheels Through Time Motorcycle Museum is at 62 Vintage Lane in Maggie Valley, and it's open Thursday through Monday from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
For more information, give them a call at 828-926-6266, or visit them online at wheelsthroughtime.com.
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