Those of us who were there on June 25, 1998, when the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum on Fifth Avenue opened its doors to 115 historic motorcycles will never forget it. After more than a hundred years, someone, somewhere had finally recognized motorcycles as art, as industrial design, and as an attractive museum exhibition.

The Art of the Motorcycle spent a year at the Frank Lloyd Wright designed museum, and became the most popular exhibition in the museum's history. A smaller version went to the Field Museum in Chicago and set more records.

1923 BMW motorcycle  |  

Then, the motorcycles were packed up and shipped to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, a building designed by the same man who designed the original exhibition in New York, Canadian architect Frank Gehry. Another successful run.

And now, that same man, Frank Gehry, has redesigned the exhibition to fit in a brand new building designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, a 67,000 square foot giant of a museum on two levels, The Big Box, adjacent to The Venetian Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Vegas appeal

Why Vegas? Because it's the only city in America west of New York that has a Harley-Davidson Café. Because you can fly there from anywhere. Because, in a normal year, Vegas hosts more than 42 million visitors from all over the world. They go to Vegas to lose their money and to be entertained, and among them there are hundreds of thousands of bikers and tech-heads who will come to see this amazing agglomeration of American and foreign iron.

Some things stayed the same, and some things are different. BMW is still the major sponsor, God bless 'em, along with Delta Air Lines. Museum director Thomas Krens, an avid biker, is still in the middle of the thing. Ultan Guilfoyle, the Irish-American biker and director of film and television at the New York Guggenheim, is still the co-curator of the exhibition, as is Charles Falco, University of Arizona physics professor, owner of 40 motorcycles, and collector of more than 3000 motorcycle history books.

Micheaux Perraux  |  

Celebrities in attendance for the grand opening, all of whom rode to Las Vegas from Oxnard, Calif., on new BMWs, included Lyle Lovett, a veteran rider and BMW dealer in Houston, Dennis Hopper, Jeremy Irons and his biker babe wife, actress Sinead Cusack, and Lauren Hutton, still recovering from a spill last year on a ride outside Las Vegas.

Two-wheel divas

But the real stars are the motorcycles. Most but not all of the bikes from New York City, Chicago, and Bilbao are still in the exhibition, but Guilfoyle told us in an interview that, because the museum is in the heart of the American West, because it's Indian's 100th anniversary, and because Harley-Davidson will be 100 in two years, some of the European bikes were pulled in favor of more of these American brands.

Guilfoyle said that the original exhibition in New York had to be adapted to work in a decidedly quirky Frank Lloyd Wright space, reduced in size for the rectilinear space in Chicago to only about 75 of the original 113 bikes, and then came Bilbao. "In Bilbao, we had an industrial city and Frank Gehry's whimsical museum building to put the bikes into. In Las Vegas, a whimsical city, we have Rem Koolhaas's industrial space to put the bikes into."

In giving a personally guided tour of the entire exhibition to a very lucky few, Ultan Guilfoyle was charmingly spot-on, neither overselling nor underselling the importance or the technical contribution of each bike in the place, from the very first motorcycle to the newest.

Guilfoyle explained that in Europe, motorcycles have always been considered part of the mass transportation system, economical and space-efficient, ridden upright. Here in America, he said, motorcycles are more like accessories or toys, ridden for fun but ridden like horses were in the Old West, laid back, relaxed, with one hand ready to reach for the lasso or the six-gun. He cites the Indian Chief as "the ultimate American motorcycle icon."

Featured among the 130 machines are the 1868 steam-powered Michaux-Perreau, the first gasoline-powered motorcycle of Karl Benz in 1886, the first mass-produced motorcycle, the Werner, and latter-day icons such as the Indian Chief, the BMW boxer, the Triumph Bonneville, the Honda 750, the Kawasaki Ninja, Ducati 916, the Suzuki Hayabusa, and the latest bike in the show, Lyle Lovett's personal MV Agusta Mille.

The space in Las Vegas is much bigger, more wide-open than the New York Guggenheim, (highlighted by a bright green central staircase, enormous murals from motorcycle movie stills, sheets of polished stainless steel, and other visual treats, with much higher ceilings), the displays are more colorful,  and the lighting is generally better. The information on each bike is printed right on each bike's stand, horizontally, so a separate stand won't get in the way, and every one of the bikes is held up vertical by a pair of cables so the sidestands or centerstands don't have to be used and don't get in the way of the aesthetics.

The motorcycles have been pulled from manufacturers, museums, and private collections all over the world (Otis Chandler, the retired publisher of the Los Angeles Times, is the largest single contributor, with 17 of his bikes on display, most built before 1920). All but a tiny few are perfectly and accurately restored to their original specifications, and they are simply beautiful to look at.

There's no better way to spend $15 and an afternoon in Las Vegas. The beautifully done $45 catalog that illustrates and explains the entire exhibition and each bike in it belongs in the library of any serious biker.