After years of looking for an elusive Czech “ice bike,” we finally found an original racer in England, still carrying its patina from the last race: a 1970 Jawa DT 500cc.

Did you know that famed Spanish brand Bultaco once made a purpose-built flat track bike called the Astro? The bikes date from 1974 and have the model name 123 Astro. “Most all the Astros were exported to the United States—there were only 300 made.

We had a chance to  chat with three-time world champion and local legend Wayne Rainey at our recent Vintage Flat Track event. Here, he talks about the value of dirt track, and this bike from his former tuner, Shell Thuet.

This 1971 Suzuki TS185 flat tracker was built and raced by Nelson Gong, a Monterey rider who worked and was sponsored by Rod Powell, the custom car and bike painter. He won nine straight races on this bike!

What’s speedway? Think of it as flat track on steroids. These bikes have no brakes, no gears, minimal front suspension, no rear suspension, and methanol-burning engines. Moto Talbott has several Speedway bikes on display.

With a beautiful 75° day, it was finally time to take out the “black widow.” In 1977, the stock R 100 RS was BMW’s ultimate tourer. Our bike was parked after only 17,500 miles, uncovered, in a field in Carmel Valley for 25 years. 

Have you ever seen how sano today’s race bikes are? Things were different back in the ‘60s, as you can see from this 1968 Hodaka Steen Racer. Amazingly, this tiny bike raced at Daytona in 1969! The ACE (Hodaka) 100 cc bike was raced in the Sportsman 100 class.

Can motorcycles save lives? This modest little Yamaha has. Several years ago, at the local Moto GP race Robb Talbott met representatives from Riders for Health, an organization that uses motorcycles to provide medical supplies and transfer test samples to and from remote African villages.

You’d be right if you called this bike ugly—and museum founder Robb Talbott wouldn’t challenge you. But it’s ugly in a beautiful kind of way, don’t you think?  This 1978 Chang Jiang CJ750 Yangtze is a Chinese copy of a Russian copy of a German BMW R71 built in 1938. You might say it lost a lot in the translation! 

We've got near-perfect examples of historic motorcycles—but we also have bikes that are just, well, cool. Phil Cross and museum founder Robb Talbott began talking about a '60s “Frisco” chopper three years ago, and it’s now on display.

Running a motorcycle museum can be hard work. So sometimes, you need to just get away…and ride. Founder Robb Talbott did just that last month, when he took his new Ducati Scrambler to Colorado, where he used to live and race. He was joined by his daughter, Kalin. 

AMA Hall of fame rider Don Castro lives and owns a shop, Racers Edge, not far from the Moto Talbott museum. He and museum founder Robb Talbott have a friendship resulting in a trove of historic memorabilia and a rare 1960 Montesa flat-tracker.

We feel lucky to have recently acquired this Ducati 851 “Kit”—one of just 201 that were homologated as part of the company’s race effort in 1988. Back then, it was about as close as average folks like us could get to owning a competitive world superbike.