NEW BREMEN – Located smack dab in the middle of the village of New Bremen at 7 W. Monroe St., one could mistake the Bicycle Museum of America for just another attractive, well-kept building in a attractive, well-kept village in western Ohio. But with an understated charm from the outside, the Bicycle Museum of America Museum is anything but low-key on the inside.

The Bicycle Museum of America (BMA) has three floors packed floor-to-ceiling – literally – with beautiful, meticulously restored, and outlandish bicycles. The displays run the gamut from the first bicycle ever to a modern hand-crafted wooden bike that weighs less than your average terrier and costs about as much as your average SUV – and everything in between. The BMA is Barrett-Jackson on two wheels, except no bids are being taken.

The BMA tour itself is self-guided and thoughtfully well-laid out, and staffers will act as guides on request. The day I visited, Museum Supervisor Juliana Milewski was kind enough to accompany me on the tour and answer my notebook full of questions. We talked about how those wacky Victorians actually got on and off those outlandish “penny-farthing” bicycles with the oversize six-foot front wheels, which were called “high wheels” here in the states. It is small wonder that the operation of these contraptions is where the expression “taking a header” originated. …..READ MORE……