Photograph by Frank Di Piazza

Gear-heads rejoice. The Moto Museum, which opened last May, offers St. Louisans a peek at nearly 150 vintage motorcycles from the United States and a host of European countries, including Germany, Italy, Poland and Hungary. Some are so old, they still have pedals.

The museum, at 3441 Olive behind Vito’s restaurant, evolved out of St. Louis architect Steve Smith’s passion for collecting antique motorcycles. After doing so seriously for about five years, he and his son Zach decided it was time to roll out the collection for all to see. Steve already has a full plate—he runs The Lawrence Group design firm—so 23-year-old Zach, a history graduate from the University of Kansas, stepped up to oversee daily operations.

Zach’s been busy: welcoming the museum’s weekend visitors, plus the 3,000 attendees at last year’s International Motorcycle Festival; applying for nonprofit status; hosting charitable and business events like Grand Center’s Visionary Awards; managing an expansion and renovation; and preparing for the fall opening of a yet-unnamed Moto Museum restaurant. On the eve of Moto’s first anniversary, we asked him to take a break and, er, bring our readers up to speed.


Why start a motorcycle museum? There is a very fascinating history behind these bikes. We consider this a form of art. Granted, it’s not a painting or a sculpture. But most of these bikes were literally handcrafted, many times by a family that had a small little shop. Like that bike there in the corner that’s all black. That’s a French Thor, built in 1914. It looks a lot like a bicycle and even had pedals on it so you could start it. If you look at some of the bikes, you’ll see the transition from bicycle to motorcycle.

So who’s the genius behind the purchases? My dad. He knows what he’s looking for. He’s the buyer. He researches which bikes to buy. Mostly we look outside the country. For instance, the Böhmerland in the front room—from Czechoslovakia—he said he’s only seen one in the United States, at a museum.

Who comes to the museum? Everybody. One time we had three generations come in our door: a son, a dad and a granddad, which was just neat. Another time we had a wedding party come and have their wedding photos taken in here.

Was the groom a big biker? No. He wasn’t some biker with leather chaps. They were just regular Joes. They just got past the barrier that this isn’t a biker hangout. They came in and took photos, and the bride took a picture with herself on a bike in her white gown.

Do you get the leather-wearing biker crowd? Yes, we get some, but not a lot, partially because we don’t have a lot of advertising. It’s all word of mouth.

What’s so interesting about the bikes? Some of the designs were so advanced for their time. We have a bike from 1928 that is water-cooled. That wasn’t really pushed until the Japanese used it in the early ’70s. A lot of people think the Japanese invented a lot, but they took a lot of ideas from other manufacturers.

Who had the idea to start a museum? It was my dad’s idea. The inspiration for the museum is the Guggenheim Museum display of motorcycles in 1997, which was the biggest attendance they’d ever had. It was fascinating. It was motorcycles from all over the world.

Is this just a rich guy’s museum? It’s definitely a passion. For some of these bikes we paid $300; for some we paid a whole lot more.

What’s the most the museum has paid for a bike? $10,000.

Considering that a Harley retails for $20,000 or $25,000, that’s not too bad. With a Harley, they are in high demand. At an auction last year we saw older Harleys going for $150,000. That stuff is just really unbelievable. We’d never have that in our museum because we’d be afraid that someone would knock it over.

Do you focus on particular periods? From the 19-teens until the 1960s, and definitely European, because they are rare in the States and they are fascinating. A lot of avid motorcycle fans who come in here will never have heard of these bikes.

Have you had any interesting experiences on bike-buying trips? We’ve got tons of stories. We have one bike in the front room we bought from a lady in Eastern Europe. My dad went to pick it up from this lady who was in her eighties. She lived alone on this big estate with a big wall and gate. He pulled up in a van. She didn’t know a lick of English; he didn’t know any German. So they communicated only in gestures. He paid her in cash because that’s how we pay for all the bikes in Europe. Fascinatingly enough, she was the only lady who had a counterfeit machine to make sure we weren’t ripping her off. She had this bike in her barn, and it was just the most beautiful motorcycle we picked up on the entire trip. It was really well maintained. This 80-year-old lady helped my dad load the bike into the van like your grandma helping you out. He has it all on video.

What’s different about the museum that people will notice? The first thing they’ll notice is that the collection is on stands at waist height so you can get up close to them. At most museums, typically you can’t get close to them, or it’s garage-style and they’re just lined up in a row. You can walk all the way around them here. Secondly, a lot of people will say, “I didn’t know X or Y invented motorcycles.” Like the water-cooled one, people are very fascinated by that one. Or the three-seater, people are blown away by that. We also have a Vespa with a sidecar, and that’s a really big hit with people because it’s unusual and beautifully restored.

What do you see for the future of the Moto Museum? We plan on opening up a restaurant next door. Chris LaRocca from Crazy Fish and Sage will work with us on that. It will open in late summer, in time for the start of SLU’s season at the Chaifetz Arena. We’ve been working with Saint Louis University on that, and they’ve been very supportive. We think it will be a great addition to Grand Center.

So will it have a motorcycle memorabilia motif? Well, it won’t be Harley-Davidson/Hard Rock Cafe–ish. It will be the type of restaurant that you could go to if you were going to the Fox or the Powell or to a game at the Chaifetz. It will have a theme, but it won’t be a sports bar. We’re really excited about it.