Kersting'

Northwest Indiana is farm country. The land is flat and fertile and fields of crops stretch to the horizon in every direction. It seems incongruous to find Kersting's World of Motorcycles in the middle of this bucolic rural setting. This impressive compound of buildings located 4 miles south of North Judson not only houses thriving Harley Davidson, Yamaha and Kawasaki dealerships but it is also home to an excellent vintage motorcycle museum. Jim Kersting first opened his Harley Davidson dealership in 1962 on this spot with a solitary cement block building. To hedge his bets that the enterprise might not thrive he also sold gasoline and installed a car lift in one of the bays just in case he had to revert to automotive repair to make ends meet. The business did thrive and today it employs the entire Kersting family along with a cadre of mechanics and sales personnel. The Harley showroom utilizes some of the original building and I am told that the the present parts counter was built over the old car lift.

Jim's life-long passion has been collecting antique motorcycles and memorabilia. Over the years his personal collection grew to well over 100 motorcycles. For many years the motorcycles were displayed in a mezzanine above the showroom but eventually the collection outgrew this cramped space.

In 2003 Jim built a new 10,000 square foot building to house his collection. In the center of the museum is a replica of his original cement block shop which can be seen in the picture above. Not surprisingly the collection includes many Harley Davidsons. In the picture below you can see (from left to right) a 1937 knuckle head 61 with a unique roll-up windshield, a 1935 Flathead 74 and a 1910 Silent Grey Fellow leather belt-drive single. The Grey Fellow is completely original and the engine has never been opened. I was invited to try cranking the bicycle-style peddles and when I did the motor instantly sprung to life.

There are some nice European bikes as well. These include among the many English models is a two-pipe Ariel square four, a Douglas boxer twin, a Sunbeam S7, a Vincent Rapide and a Norton Manx. From the continent there are several BMWs including a rare 1934 R2. There is an equally rare 500cc Moto Guzzi horizontal single, and a Danish Nimbus 750cc 4 cylinder. The 1934 175cc Jawa is as cute as they come. The Panther sloper is a mystery. The badges say England but the Motorcycle Encyclopedia says it is German. Don’t miss the Cezeta scooter from Czechoslovakia which sports one of the funkiest body styles you will ever see.

One of the more interesting exhibits is the Japanese copies. The makers of the little 250 cc Lilac clearly had the German Victoria Bergmeister in mind (click here to see a Bergmeister). An even more faithful reproduction is the Marusho BMW R-bike look alike. The engine is almost a carbon copy of a BMW R50/2 (click here to see the BMW). The chassis is clearly Japanese but the wheels are again pure BMW. Another Japanese company Meguro made what looks to be a copy of the BSA pre-unit 650 vertical twin motor back in the 50's. Kawasaki acquired Meguro in the 1963 and imported these into the US as the Kawasaki W1. Actually the innards of the W1 have little resemblance to the BSA as they have roller bearing big ends and ball bearing mains (click here to see the BSA).