I left on Saturday morning joined by two friends, Chris and John, who decided to ride along to the St. Francis Motorcycle Museum in St. Francis, Kansas. I noticed a sign for it when I took US-36 to the 2017 R100RS 40th Anniversary Rally, but didn’t feel like I had the time to stop.  The museum is about 200 miles from metropolitan Denver, so it’s about the half-way mark for today’s route which ends in Belleville, KS.

As last time, US-36 is a lightly traveled road in excellent condition with almost no 18-wheelers. The traffic this time was about twice as much as the 2017 trip because I left on Sunday that time and most of Kansas stays home on Sunday. But it was light traffic nonetheless and made for a relaxing ride.

St Francis Motorcycle Museum

What an enjoyable collection of turn of the 20th century American motorcycles from the numerous manufacturers in business before WWI and the later Great Depression. As is the case with the computer revolution of the middle part of the 20th century, which had a large number of computer hardware companies, the American motorcycle industry consolidated over the next 50 years into a handful of companies. The collection was a delight and even included two BMW’s, an R60S and an R27.

Geographic Center of the US

After I left John and Chris in Bird City where they turned off to visit a good friend of John’s before heading back home, I continued for another 200 miles to Belleville KS. Not too far from there is the geographic center of the US. Although I didn’t exactly go to the exact spot, I did take some pictures of the memorial to it on US-36.

Days Slide Show

Here is a slide show of the days pictures, mostly of the fabulous motorcycles on exhibit in the museum.