For anyone in Ireland with petrol running through their veins and a soft spot for British motorcycles, a trip to the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham is well worth putting on the calendar. It is not simply a museum filled with old motorcycles. For enthusiasts, it is a journey through the history of an industry that once made Britain one of the most important motorcycle-producing nations in the world…. And for an Irish visitor, getting there is surprisingly straightforward
The National Motorcycle Museum is located at Bickenhill, Solihull, directly beside Junction 6 of the M42 and opposite the NEC. Birmingham International Airport and railway station are only a few minutes away by taxi, making the museum particularly accessible from Dublin.
Getting there from Dublin
For a Dublin-based enthusiast, flying to Birmingham is probably the easiest option. Birmingham Airport is exceptionally close to the museum, with the museum itself stating that the airport is less than five minutes away by taxi. Birmingham International railway station is similarly convenient.
There is also something appealing about making the journey by road and ferry, particularly if you are travelling with fellow enthusiasts or planning to combine the museum with a longer motorcycle trip around the Midlands. The area is steeped in British motorcycle history, with the old manufacturing centres of Birmingham, Coventry and Meriden all within reach.
Whichever way you travel, the museum’s location makes it an easy destination for a weekend away.
Prepare to be overwhelmed
The first thing that strikes you when you enter is the sheer scale of the collection.
The museum has more than 1,000 British motorcycles in its collection, with around 850 on display at any one time. The machines represent more than 160 manufacturers and span from the earliest pioneering motorcycles through to much more modern British superbikes.
For an enthusiast, this is where the visit becomes something special.
Rather than seeing a handful of famous motorcycles surrounded by large amounts of empty space, you are surrounded by machines. BSA, Triumph, Norton, Ariel, Vincent, Royal Enfield, Matchless, Brough Superior and dozens of less familiar names are represented.
And that is one of the pleasures of the museum. You may arrive intending to find a particular Triumph or Norton, only to discover a machine from a manufacturer you have never heard of.
A history lesson for motorcycle people
The five display halls are arranged to make sense of the development of the British motorcycle industry.
Hall 1 covers what the museum describes as the “60 Glorious Years”, taking visitors from 1898 through to 1960. The machines are arranged chronologically, allowing you to see how motorcycles evolved from relatively primitive pioneer machines into sophisticated post-war motorcycles. The hall also has significant Vincent and Sunbeam collections.
The other halls are arranged largely by manufacturer, giving enthusiasts the opportunity to follow individual marques through their different periods.
There are dedicated displays covering BSA, Matchless, Norton, Triumph and Royal Enfield, alongside a particularly impressive collection of Brough Superior motorcycles. There are also military machines, prototypes and working motorcycles, including police and ambulance machines.
For anyone who has ever spent a wet Sunday afternoon in an Irish shed trying to identify an old British motorcycle, there is plenty here to keep the mind occupied.
The competition machines
Hall 5 may be the one that really grabs the attention of serious enthusiasts.
It is dedicated to competition motorcycles, covering road racing, off-road, sprint and drag racing. The collection also includes world-record machines and the famous works Norton rotary racers. Among them is the Norton ridden by Steve Hislop to victory in the 1992 Senior TT.
Seeing these machines up close in the flesh is one thing, but knowing what they represent is another. These are not simply ‘old’ motorcycles. They are the physical remains of an era when British manufacturers, engineers and riders competed at the highest level of motorcycle sport.
For Irish enthusiasts, with the Isle of Man TT being such a familiar part of motorcycle culture, this section should be particularly appealing.
More than polished chrome
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the museum is that it tells the story of an industry rather than simply celebrating individual motorcycles.
You can see the engineering progress, the changing designs and the enormous variety of manufacturers that once operated in Britain. Some became household names; others disappeared almost without trace.
The museum itself began in 1984 with 350 motorcycles collected by founder W.R. “Roy” Richards. His ambition was to preserve Britain’s motorcycle manufacturing heritage, and that original collection has grown into today’s enormous archive. For enthusiasts, that gives the visit some real significance. Many of the names on the tanks and badges represent companies that once employed thousands of people and helped shape communities across the Midlands.
In 2003 however a fire ripped through the building, gutting most of it and destroying hundreds of bikes. The fire is thought to have been caused by a discarded cigarette butt that landed on a box of air conditioning filters behind the building. Many of the museum’s rarest and irreplaceable exhibits were destroyed,[2] with the loss of 380 motorcycles. The cost of the fire was estimated at over £14 million. After fifteen months and a £20 million rebuild which included installation of a £1.2 million sprinkler system, the museum was reopened on 1 December 2004. 150 of the motorcycles that had been destroyed in the fire were fully restored for the re-opening. Many of the fire damaged motorcycles were restored to showroom condition.[4]
Allow yourself plenty of time
This is not a place to rush around in an hour.
If you are genuinely interested in motorcycles, allow most of a day. There is simply too much detail to absorb quickly, and the temptation will be to stop every few metres when another familiar tank, engine or frame catches your eye.
The museum is currently open seven days a week from 8.30am to 5.30pm, with last admission at 4.30pm. Adult admission is currently £17, and the museum operates a cashless payment system.
There is also a café and shop, so you can take a break, have a coffee and inevitably leave with something motorcycle-related that you hadn’t planned on buying.
Worth the trip from Ireland?
Absolutely.
For an Irish motorcycle enthusiast, the National Motorcycle Museum is one of those places that justifies the journey. It connects the bikes we grew up with, the motorcycles we admired in magazines and the machines our parents or grandparents may have ridden with the much bigger story of British engineering.
Whether your allegiance is to Triumph, Norton, BSA, Vincent, Royal Enfield or something much more obscure, there is almost certain to be something there that makes you stop and stare.
And perhaps that is the best reason to go. You don’t visit the National Motorcycle Museum simply to look at old motorcycles. You go to remember why motorcycles matter in the first place — the engineering, the sound, the history, the competition and, above all, the freedom they represent.
From Dublin, Birmingham is only a short trip away. For anyone who considers themselves a proper motorcycle enthusiast, it is a trip worth making.
