Tom Cotter Reveals the Secrets of Barber Vintage Motorcycle Museum

With a nickname like The Barn Find Hunter, Tom Cotter is more of a dust-in-the-air kind of guy, but that doesn’t mean he can’t appreciate a good museum. So, while road-tripping through Alabama in his Ford woody wagon, of course he would stop in at a museum that holds some of the most significant motorcycles and racing cars in history.

Step inside the door of the Barber Vintage Motorcycle Museum, in Birmingham, Alabama, and you’ll immediately realize there is no way to see everything in one go. Tom’s guide for his tour is Lee Clark, a man who has been instrumental to the growth and construction of the Barber museum, which now comprises five floors containing hundreds of two- and four-wheeled legends.

The museum’s collection actually includes over 1700 machines, with 1200 on display at any point in time. Tom and Lee start in the basement, an area normally closed to the public except for a handful of race weekends each year. The area is mainly focused on maintenance and light restoration work to keep the cars and bikes of the collection running and in top presentation condition.

The collection ranges from the absurd, like the 48-cylinder Whitelock Tinker Toy, to the mechanically brilliant, like the Britten V1000 racing machine, and everything in between, from all corners of the globe and from all eras of production. The Barber museum is the only place I’ve ever seen a Vincent lawnmower, and also the only place I’ve seen a MotoGP bike in person. The range of this museum cannot be understated, and it is all presented so wonderfully.

As Tom and Lee progress upward, it becomes increasingly obvious that the museum was constructed, rather than adapted, for its current use: Motorcycles seemingly pop out of walls, and Lotus Formula 1 cars hang from concrete floors. Nearly everything you can see or touch has a story, and each one is worth hearing and seeing.

Throughout the video, Tom captures a few of the highlights, but to truly drink in the Barber Vintage Motorcycle Museum, it’s best to plan your own trip—though anyone who has been there before will tell you to plan two, because you won’t be able to absorb everything this museum has to offer in just one visit.