Coventry has been home to more than 150 different motorcycle marques. Roy Workman went looking for Coventry's classic bikes in its revitalised transport museum...

Coventry's Transport Museum is a salute to the Coventry area's central role in the history of British Road transport. The four-year development, which includes an all-new motorcycle gallery and expansion of the three acre site and collection, was completed in 2006. The museum now displays nearly 100 motorcycles, over 200 cars and commercial vehicles and 300 cycles. The best part is that the admission is FREE.

We had an enjoyable trip up there, however the Coventry ring road can be exciting and watch out for the speed cameras! The museum does not have any parking space of its own, although there is a pay-and-display car park in Silver Street, which is at the back of the museum. The cost is 50p to park on Sundays, and £2.30p buys you three hours on Mondays to Saturdays. The museum entrance is a five minute walk away. Double yellow lines are everywhere we did not notice any solo motorcycle parking bays.

The building looks newish and the exhibits are on two floors. Most of the motorcycles are on the second floor, fairly close to the café which does light snacks.

Whilst entrance to the museum is free, it is suggested that you might like to buy a brochure, which costs £2, to help with the upkeep of the museum

We arrived at 11am on Sunday, and found that the place was already busy, with lots of people of all ages, ranging from kids in push chairs to those more mature visitors toddling around using walking sticks. There are vehicles here from the earliest to the latest and they also look into the future. There are lots of interactive things to do - for instance you can design your vehicle of the future on a computer, and you can try sitting on a mock-up of a penny farthing and there are areas for little ones to sit and draw.

On display on the ground floor there were lots of the heavier vehicles, like lorries and buses, together with cars and the occasional motorcycle.

There was also a display of Coventry during the blitz, complete with an air raid wardens' post and a couple of period motorcycles. This was very well done and certainly worth a look.

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Close by was the Roxy Cinema, showing a couple of old-type silent movies complete with piano accompaniment. These were very good. However at the end of the film we were surprised to see that these films were made in 2001!

In some of the halls there were video clips telling you about the display, and some of these included sign language. There were plenty of seats dotted around the halls, so that you could rest and take it all in.

One vehicle that particularly interested me was a 1928 front wheel drive Alvis motorcar.

Moving upstairs we spotted the large Michael J Wright collection of model cars on display; apparently in 2007 there will be a model vehicle display room.

We stopped for a cuppa and a bun in the tea shop before wandering over to the motorcycle gallery. This was quite well done. The history of the motorcycle was displayed on the walls. In 1896 Humber made their first motorcycle and Thomas and Co began making their Excelsior machines. 1898 saw Ariel and Royal Enfield start production. Coventry-Eagle, Rover and Riley, who were all cycle manufacturers, began experimenting with motorcycles in 1899 and Matchless was founded in Plumstead in London. In 1902 Norton and James started production.

The Coventry area has been home to more than 150 motorcycle manufacturers over a 70 year period. In 1920 there were 57 companies making motorcycles in the city. However by 1950 only two Coventry companies remained, those being Triumph and Francis-Barnett.

I normally think of Francis-Barnetts as being powered by 2-stroke engines - however there is a Red Stag Sports which is powered by a Blackburne OHV engine.

An interactive exhibit here was a set of front forks and handlebars and a sound box. The throttle had four settings. On selecting one of them, and turning the handle on the sound box you heard a recording of the engine running. The recordings were of bikes on display; No 1 was a 1924 Rudge, No 2 a 1934 Francis-Barnett Kestrel, No 3 a 1937 Rudge Sports Special and, finally, No 4 was a 1916 Lea Francis. Quite a few people were trying this machine.

Ted Simon's round-the-world Triumph was on display, as was Stanley Glanfield's outfit; this machine covered 18,000 miles on a world tour, starting on the 2nd July 1928.

A nice touch was a new Hinckley Triumph and a 1926 Triumph model P sharing the same stand. Whilst most of the motorcycles were in good condition others were 'as found'. Some of the motorcycle makes I was not familiar with, like a Hazlewood or a wee McGregor.

There was a mock café with a Ton-Up menu, and a film show showing excerpts of films featuring motorcycles.

Close by was the pedal cycle section, which contained some interesting exhibits, including a 1900 Rudge Companion Sociable. This was a bicycle built for two people sitting side by side - that could have been an interesting ride. Another was a Singer Victoria cycle for six people - this had six wheels - three rows of two wheels. My father, who is now 92, remembers seeing something similar in Portsmouth after the First World War.

Near the entrance was a large shop with books and models for sale.

We felt that this museum is well worth a visit, although if it had more motorcycles it would have been even better. In the main it shows what was made in the area, but there were some exhibits which were manufactured in other locations. We were there for over three hours and there were some areas that we zipped through as there was a lot to see. It was certainly worth braving the Coventry Ring Road system and Gatso cameras to get there.

The Coventry Transport museum is open every day, including Bank Holidays, apart from 24th, 25th and 26th December, at:
Millennium Place
Hales Street
Coventry
CV1 1PN

www.transport-museum.co.uk