Unique motorcycles roll into the Hall of Fame gallery

While most exhibits at the Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum remain static for a year or two, once they are in place, one part of the Museum is always evolving: the Hall of Fame gallery.

The names of all the Hall of Fame honorees are posted on the wall in the Hall of Fame, but naturally the motorcycles draw the most attention. Each machine on display has some tie to a rider, racer, designer, engineer, business leader or other honoree in the Hall of Fame.

Here are just three examples of motorcycles that have recently become part of the Hall of Fame display.

Recently, on a snowy winter day, Motorcycle Hall of Fame honoree Dave Barr delivered to the Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum the well-traveled 1972 Harley-Davidson that carried him on an 83,000-mile trip around the world.

Barr, a military veteran and double amputee, earned his spot in the Hall of Fame with his gritty determination to pursue adventure on two wheels. He chronicled his amazing journeys in "Riding the Edge," a book about his around-the-world trip, and "Riding the Ice," an account of a subsequent ride across northern Europe, Russia and Siberia in winter. For more, see Dave Barr's website. To see his famous Harley, visit the Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum.

A far different but extremely significant motorcycle also joined the Hall of Fame display recently: this 1997 Yamaha YZM400F racebike campaigned in AMA Supercross and motocross by Hall of Fame racer Doug Henry.

Today, four-strokes dominate professional motocross, but a little more than a decade ago, two-strokes were the only motorcycles that had ever carried a rider to a podium in an AMA national. Seeking to explore the possibilities of four-strokes, Yamaha built this 400cc prototype and asked Henry to race it in the 1997 Supercross and motocross seasons.

In the final round of the Supercross season in Las Vegas, Henry pulled away from the start and won the race. The change didn't happen overnight, but that victory (and this motorcycle) marked the beginning of the four-stroke era in motocross.

Another mouth-watering motorcycle to go on display in the Museum in recent months is this Rickman-framed Honda CR750.

In 2007, Don and Derek Rickman were inducted into the Hall of Fame, and to celebrate their presence at the Concours d'Elegance bike show that precedes the induction ceremony, a special class for Rickmans was established. The brothers themselves chose the category winner, this CR750 owned by Robert Simpson, who generously lent the bike to the Museum to be displayed for one year in the Hall of Fame gallery.