Our 2018 trip to PS Speicher was a truly memorable one. What was to be a prelude to Volkswagen’s Autostadt proved to be a never seen it coming overload of fun. Obviously, we had to pay another visit, but we had no idea how much more time we would need for our second run.
Since 2018, PS Speicher has granted access to its renovated depos. These are large warehouses refurbished into fully-fledged Museums exhibitions. These depos do not feature the state of the art decoration of the PS Speicher, but they are recently renovated, and most segments are equipped with decorations and explanations.
One of the largest depo is dedicated to motorcycles. The three-story building with 3,500 square meters net exhibition area was converted from an old Einbecker wallpaper factory.
To commemorate the Vereta factory, the building also keeps a well-maintained display of machinery and old equipment on the top floor.
This depo hosts hundreds of motorcycles and boosts PS Speicher’s stocks well above major car museums. We are, of course, a bit hesitant to calculate a museum exhibition based on the number of vehicles when motorcycles and microcars are on the line.
In this case, however, it’s not just about some graveyard of expired pieces, but a very serious collection.
The massive fleet of 1200 motorcycles are all showroom shiny (also the pre-war ones), and even the recent ones are unique specimens or milestones. And this is just a depo! The most important or curious ones are featured in the main building with an impressive decoration…
But the remaining 1000 bikes in the depo are not any less exciting. Long lost brands like Wanderer, Zündapp, Laverda, Münch, Horex, Tornax or Maico (don’t worry, we also had to google most of them 🙂 ).
These exhibits are essential museum exhibits. Many successful brands maintain an important factory museum or at least keep a core stock of milestones in their vaults.
But defunct brands are not that fortunate, and this depo serves to maintain their memories. We observed and praised this role for many public museums, like Italy’s national auto museum MAuto, which has a well-deserved place in Turin, despite many factory establishments.
Beyond quality, the sheer size of the fleet is astonishing. Just have a look at the endless line of pre-war models. I reckon PS Speicher has one of the most extensive stocks of rare brands. Still, every specimen gets interesting, even mainstream ones when it comes to pre-war motorcycles.
We are really not into motorcycles, so we particularly appreciated our guide’s detailed explanations about these two-wheelers. Just a few minor details, observe the showroom shine green Wanderer 4.5PS Sportmodell speed bike with a dedicated oiling mechanism on the steering wheel.
The last floor hosts modern motorcycles with many familiar milestones (like the Honda CBR and the Augusta MV).
At the same time, the halls offer even more rarities like the defunct German manufacturer Münch, but also other relatively unknown ones like Laverda and Horini.
You might also find quite a few experimental bikes equipped with a Wankel, diesel or electric engine.
The depo also keeps a few unique race models, the red Harley Davidson or the silver Ducati with a sidecar, just to name a few.
The Museum aspects are well served with the motorcycles from the East-German MZ, one even with complete police conversion, with the insignia of the People’s Police of the DDR.
Of course, you will also find the usual suspects from Japan, with entire line-ups of iconic two-wheelers from the 70s and 80s.
I repeat, we are not into bikes, but if you do, you really have to see this.
As in the past, we moved the full gallery to the second page to help our loading speed.
