PLAY: Carmel Valley’s newest museum is a motorcycle mecca, run by a winemaker-turned-moto maven.
Carmel Valley’s Moto Talbott museum puts ‘two-wheeled art’ on proud display
Calling all gear heads. If your idea of the perfect getaway is zooming around the heart-stopping curves of Highway One at full-throttle speeds, while the Pacific Ocean roars in your ears and the wind kisses your face, then you simply must make a pilgrimage to Carmel Valley’s new Moto Talbott museum. This is one pit stop — the West Coast’s largest public exhibition of bikes, excluding private collections — that’s guaranteed to get your motor running.
Imagine motorcycle nirvana, a sprawling, two-story, 5,000square-feet of some of the most gorgeous bikes you have ever seen. Even someone who doesn’t know a Harley from a Harlequin can immediately appreciate these bikes as pieces of movable sculpture. Ogling 163 of these beauties, from jaunty ’50s Italian racers to American speedway racers and neo British bombers, it’s obvious this is mecca for motorheads. Lovingly created by wine and necktie magnate Robb Talbott, this church of moto mania also makes a delightful break from a day of wine-tasting in the leisurely, wildflower-filled paradise of Carmel Valley.
Built around Talbott’s impressive personal collection, this is a temple for people who worship the marriage of metal, art and speed that is the motorcycle — an oasis of motorized eye candy in shades from vintage lime to cherry red.
“This is motorcycle as art. It’s two-wheeled art,” says curator and mechanic Bobby Weindorf, roaming around the museum regaling visitors with tales of the open road. “It’s definitely a metallic sculpture that you can ride.”
The museum attracts hardcore motor aficionados, of course, but it also tempts the uninitiated. Unlike some collections, this one doesn’t focus on any one genre of motorcycle, instead dazzling the eye with its eclectic array. It’s hard to take your eyes off the bulbous silver and blue Mondial racer, for instance.
“A lot of people who walk in here aren’t into bikes,” Weindorf says, “but anyone can see how beautiful they are.”
Each country, culture and time period evokes its own unmistakable aesthetic. The yearold museum has vintage bikes that go all the way back to 1911 alongside newbies, such as a dashing 2016 Decopod. All of them are precious, of course,
“Each bike has a story to tell. The Italians are always sexy and cool; the British bikes look stoic.” — Bobby Weindorf, curator and mechanic
but some are particularly valuable. The 1926 BMW is a black and white gem that goes for $350,000. One particular eye-catcher is a seductive 2003 Vespa Coach that’s a bargain at just $20,000. The total value of the bikes is estimated at around $4 million.
“Each bike has a story to tell,” Weindorf says. “The Italians are always sexy and cool; the British bikes look stoic.”
There are beloved bikes that Talbott once rode in races, as well as one-of-akind prototypes and rare antiques found stashed away in barns across Europe. It’s been a labor of love to hunt them down and restore them to their original glory.
Weindorf, for one, likes to get his hands dirty in the museum’s basement garage, shining chrome and fixing fenders. It’s almost as much fun as riding like the wind, he says. Well, maybe not quite.
“The sense of freedom you get from riding is the biggest thrill,” says Weindorf. “There’s nothing like it. It’s not about getting somewhere. You don’t just zip through a place, you see and smell it and feel it when you’re on a bike. You are one with the road.”