Motorcycle museum - Birmingham has burnt down

[Mrs_Hippy]

apparently they have lost 750 of the bikes
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[Scotty]

Interesting, i should have been there to steal a few antiques.
shame though, i remember going there ages ago.
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Regards
Scott

[Mrs_Hippy]

The pictures are really sad


A massive fire which destroyed much of the National Motorcycle Museum near Birmingham, ruining 650 vintage machines, was caused by a "carelessly discarded" cigarette, investigators say.
The value of the destroyed bikes is put at £8m, but many of the machines are irreplaceable.

The destruction could have been worse - scores of bikes were pushed to safety by museum staff and delegates at a business conference on the city.

Fire experts at the scene on Wednesday quickly determined the cause of the fire which has left 70% of the building a blackened shell.

History of motorcycling

Speaking from the scene to BBC Midlands Today, West Midlands Fire Service spokesman Dave Glenis said the fire started outside the building in boxes of old air conditioning units.

"It appears that this is very close to the area where people smoke.


It is a devastating loss, not just to me, but for the country as a whole

Museum owner Roy Richards
"It was the careless disposal of a cigarette into those boxes. That's why the fire spread so rapidly through the building.

"We are not treating the incident as arson at this stage and believe it was purely an accident," he said.


More than 120 firefighters tackled the fire which could be seen for 15 miles around.

The bikes destroyed in the collection traced the history of the British motorcycle industry and many of the museum's rarest exhibits were among those lost.

Exhibits included BSA Gold Stars, Sunbeam Twins, DMW Hornets and Triumph racers.

But museum bosses have vowed that the museum will be rebuilt and hopes remain that some of the damaged bikes could be saved.

Neil Payne, competition and demonstrations manager at the museum, said: "I am sure that it will rise, like the proverbial phoenix, from the ashes.

"At the moment we do not know whether the bikes are destroyed beyond redemption.

Damage assessed

"We keep thinking it's a bad dream and we are going to wake up.

"This is a huge loss to British heritage."


Staff at the museum were said to be "absolutely devastated".


Staff and conference delegates helped rescue bikes
A museum spokesman said: "Over 300 of the exhibits in the museum have been saved.

"Sadly, three of the museum's five exhibit halls have been destroyed along with their exhibits.


"A full assessment of the damage is being undertaken with a view to getting operations under way again as soon as possible.

"Many irreplaceable machines will have been damaged in the fire, but they will be restored once again, to their original showroom condition."

The museum was home to more than 900 vintage machines.

Irreplaceable machines

Owner Roy Richards started collecting the bikes in the 1970s and the museum opened in 1984 with an initial collection of 350 machines.

It became one of the biggest motorcycle museums in the world and attracted about 250,000 visitors a year. It was also a conference centre.

Mr Richards said: "It is a devastating loss, not just to me, but for the country as a whole."


Exhibitor Neil Payne told the BBC: "There are so many unique, priceless, irreplaceable machines that are lost. It is absolutely devastating.

"The museum and indeed the country has lost some unique machines from British motorcycling history."
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[Major_Grooves]

That's terrible. I saw it on the news this morning. Imagine how gutted the guy who owns it is.

[MarJay]

The people on t595.net which is a Triumph message board have all gone crazy with grief... I can understand why. I'd also imagine that many of the exhibits were donated by other people.... what a waste.
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British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[Deano]

Thats such downer, losing all that history and exhibition of how far motorcycle mechanics & technology has come.
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Dean Stone #777
EMRA 2012 final standings, Formula 600s 3rd, Superstock 600s 3rd.
www.triplesevenracing.co.uk: www.ljmotorcyclerepairs.co.uk www.gettaylored.co.uk BN RaceScience, Now officially run out of money to carry on racing

[Kris]

shitter hope nobody got hurt.
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NSR125RR - ZXR750H1 - ZX9R E1 - GSF600S - GSF600SK3 - VFR400-NC30 - SV1000N - ST1100-R - CBR900RR-R - GSF1200SK5 - GSF600SK1 - VFR1200FA - GSXR1000K2 - ZZR1400 D8F
www.prisonplanet.com

[Shaun]

that really is a shame, hope the guy had insurance on all of them!

[Ste]

Insurance yes. Replacable? Nope

[P_J]

[Mrs_Hippy]

I work at the District Council - I would toast marshmallows

[Laura]

i think it's terrible I saw all the smoke on my way home from work.

It is such a big part of heritage that we have lost that can't be replaced think in generations times what people will have missed all because somebody has been careless.
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Good girls ride motorcycles bad girls thrash them.

[muppet_ninja]

my mates dad (colin hall) has restored the bikes at the museum for the last 30 years !! Imagine how gutted he was to see not only the bikes but 30 years of work go to ashes.

to make it worse there were loads of rare BSA Goldstars there on display recently as well, that came out of someone elses collection

[PRETTYTIEDUP]

Very sad

[Crazy Manx Man]

I haven't seena ny pictures but it's ashame to see so many rarities just vanish.

[Mrs_Hippy]

They do say that there is a chance they can restore quite a few of the bikes. Remembering of course the condition they must have got some of the bikes in after being found in someone’s chicken house and things.

There are always a lot of millionaires who love bikes and cars so I hope some of them decide to become benefactors.
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[Ant]

its a bastard because there was some "one offs" and old racing bikes in there, i went past today and the whole of the back is gutted, not a nice site!
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04 ZX10R ~

[John]

Poor bikes