The Irbit State Motorcycle Museum () is a

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

Irbit Irbit (Stress is given per the ''Dictionary of modern geographical names'', entry o().) is a town in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located from Yekaterinburg by train or by car, on the right bank of the Nitsa. Population: It was previously kno ...

Sverdlovsk Oblast Sverdlovsk Oblast ( rus, Свердловская область, Sverdlovskaya oblastʹ, p=svʲɪrdˈlofskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subject (an oblast) of Russia located in the Ural Federal District. Its administrative center is the c ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. The museum was created as a State Museum of the

Russian Federation Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

to protect the former IMZ Factory Museum from sale and dispersal.

History

The museum was officially opened on 25 June 2004 as the Irbit Motorcycle Museum. It received the status of a State Museum of the Russian Federation on 1 January 2006. Its current director is Alexandr Ilyitch Bulanov, a notable historian in the town of Irbit as well as a Guinness Book of Records-holder for Ural motorcycles.

Architecture

It is temporarily housed in a building at 100a Ulitsa Soviestskaya, in

, while a permanent home is built in Ulitsa Lenina.

Exhibitions

The keystone of the museum was the collection of the Design Department of the IMZ factory acquired by local authorities in 2002. The museum contains an extensive collection of production, racing and prototype bikes from the

IMZ-Ural IMZ-Ural Group Inc., more commonly known as Ural Motorcycles (), is a multinational company involved in developing, manufacturing, and worldwide distribution of Ural sidecar motorcycles. Headquartered in Redmond, Washington, with assembly facili ...

Factory as well as many foreign models from a wide range of manufacturers. The collection is unique in its display of the development of the Russian heavy motorcycle.

References

{{commons category Museums in Sverdlovsk Oblast Motorcycle museums Transport museums in Russia Museums established in 2004 2004 establishments in Russia