ADV: Overland Exhibit Opens Saturday, July 3, at the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles

Now that we’ve all been uncooped up for the last year-and-a-half (those of us who ride at least) it’s time to recoop in large crowds again to ogle the vehicles we’ve been riding around on and in for the past century. It only stands to reason. And what better place to do that than the late Bob Petersen’s namesake automotive museum on the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax in LA? ADV: Overland Exhibit’s got adventure bikes ranging from a 1903 California to the Triumph that won the 1966 Baja 1000, futuristic concepts, 23 adventure-touring motorcycles and race vehicles from 1930 to the present, and sci-fi and NASA off-world exploration vehicles.

The fun starts tomorrow, June 3, and there will be an opening reception on July 15th complete with a drive/ride-in event on the Petersen rooftop, where many a smokey burnout photo shoot took place once upon a time.

From the event program: In 1903, crossing the USA on wheels had never been done, but that changed when George Wymans rode a California motorcycle for 50 days from San Francisco to New York. In 1912, nobody had circled the globe on a motorcycle, but that changed when Carl Stearns Clancy straddled his Henderson Four and headed east. In the next 100 years, brave men and women struck out to see the world on wheels, making epic journeys recorded in books, films, and television. Folks more technically-oriented imagined travel off-world, on the Moon or Mars or beyond, in science fiction and actual space programs.

Exhibition curator and Motorcycle Arts Foundation co-founder Paul d’Orleans explains: “ADV:Overland celebrates the spirit of adventure. These remarkable machines tell a human story, of dreamers and reckless youth, stubborn visionaries and dogged competitors, all together in one place. It also includes the ultimate overland dream of surface exploration on other worlds, which is happening on Mars right now – and we have some of the NASA/JPL rovers. We told lenders not to wash their overland veterans: we wanted to show good honest dirt as proof of their rough duty.”

The contrast between the extremely simple overland machinery from the early 20th century to Charley Boorman’s electric LiveWire from Long Way Up is great, but the journey still had to be made on wheels. “The genesis of overland travel can be seen in the early bikes, like the 1912 Henderson Four that Carl Clancy rode around the world. These rudimentary machines captured the public’s imagination and fueled overland travel and competition we see today, like the Baja and Dakar rallies, and films like Long Way Up,” added MAF co-Founder Sasha Tcherekoff.

If 100-year old dirt-covered bikes don’t inspire you, then come to ADV: Overland for the far-out space exhibits. Two sci-fi overlanders from the Lost In Space series, including the spectacular 1960s tracked glass house, keep company with a futuristic 3-D printed electric “Lunar motorcycle” from Hookie.co. For an inspiring comparison between real and imaginary off-world overlanding, NASA/JPL loaned two actual Mars rovers – models of Opportunity and Sojourner – that have logged more miles on other worlds than any other vehicle.