Haas Moto Museum—Collecting Stories

As motorcyclists, we tend to get wrapped up in numbers. How much horsepower? How much torque? What's the top speed? 

Although these certainly are important metrics, I bought my first bike because of how it made me feel. It made me feel alive. It was dangerous and cool. 

But, most of all, it was love.

Bobby Haas fell in love with motorcycles in his 60s and decided to become, in his words, “like the Medicis, patrons of Renaissance artists like Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.” He resolved to sponsor motorcycle artists, builders, and dreamers. 

A few years later, he founded the Haas Moto Museum and Sculpture Gallery together with his partner, museum director Stacey Mayfield.

The collection now boasts 230 motorcycles, beginning with a Peugeot trike from 1899 and spanning every decade to the present. 

“The heart of the museum,” Stacey told me, “is the custom collection.” And what a collection it is. 

More than 60 masterpieces from designers worldwide grace the Custom Shop, each more breathtaking than the last. “Every bike in here tells a story. And they tell the story of not just the bike, but also the relationship that we have with those individuals,” explained Stacey.”