LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Motorcycles
built 132 days ago
Manufacturers, builders, collectors or individuals interested in lending appropriate bikes or ephemera in support of "MotoStars: Celebrities + Motorcycles" are invited to contact exhibit curator David Morris. Says Morris, "The Guggenheim Museum's 'Art of the Motorcycle' exhibition was the first-ever motorcycle exhibit to reach beyond the core enthusiast and embrace the general public -- and it proved to be one of the most successful museum exhibits ever. True to the Museum's mission to fully explore the stories and history of motorcycling, 'MotoStars' will go even further. The exhibit not only presents celebrity machines, it provides a rare glimpse into the passion that has brought famous persons and motorcycling together." As in all Motorcycle Hall of Fame exhibits, rare images, footage, memorabilia and ephemera will play a major role in illustrating stellar individuals and their love for two wheels.
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Motorcycles are motorized vehicles for transporting one or two riders. Generally, a motorcycle has only two wheels, but any vehicle with fewer than four wheels in contact with the ground can be classified as a motorcycle. Three-wheel variations of the motorcycle include the "hack" (motorcycle plus sidecar) and the "trike" (short for motortricycle).
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Motorcycles have a far higher rate of crippling and fatal accidents per unit distance than automobiles. According to the U. S. Highway Safety Authority, in 2004 15.0 cars out of 100,000 ended up in fatal crashes while the rate for motorcycles is 69.3 per 100,000 (a ratio of 4.6 to 1). The picture is worse when distance travelled are taken into account: in 2004 in the U.S., there were 0.4 motorcyclist fatalities per million miles compared to 0.012 passenger car occupant fatalities per million miles (a ratio of 33 to 1).
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Motorcycles have a higher rate of fatal accidents than automobiles. United States Department of Transportation data for 2005 from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System show that for passenger cars, 18.62 fatal crashes occur per 100,000 registered vehicles. For motorcycles this figure is higher at 75.19 per 100,000 registered vehicles – four times higher than for cars.[13] The same data show that 1.56 fatalities occur per 100 million vehicle miles travelled for passenger cars, whereas for motorcycles the figure is 43.47 – 28 times higher than for cars. Furthermore for motorcycles the accident rates have increased significantly since the end of the 1990s, while the rates have dropped for passenger cars.
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Motorcycles continued to grow in popularity for decades, although production for civilians tapered off during World War II. During World War II... a need arose for lightweight, collapsible models to be used by parachutists once they had landed. Royal Enfield produced a Flying Flea model for this purpose, while Excelsior came up with its Welbike, which could fit into a small air-drop container. The Welbike was later marketed to civilians as the Corgi, spawning the post-war popularity of the motor scooter, especially in Europe.
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Motocross bikes: Motorcycles designed for racing over closed circuits, often with jumps, over varied terrain of gravel/mud/sand. Sometimes simply called "dirt bikes" when not being raced, they can ... be used for informal off-road recreation, or "mudding".
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