Robb Talbott likes to create.
That’s natural for someone with an art degree from Colorado College, a prestigious private university. Yet at his facility in Carmel Valley, there are no sculptures, no dominating oil paintings on the wall.
Instead, there are motorcycles – frail bikes from the turn of the last century, classics that rode the highways in the ’30s and ’40s, racers and modern machines. There are rarities and barn finds, and even a room resembling a barn. Peek through its windows and you’ll see parts, tattered posters and weathered motorcycles.
Downstairs sit a pair of MV Agustas from the 1950s that Talbott discovered in a barn. Both were in rough shape. He restored one to showroom condition and left the other alone.
“I ask [museum guests] and the majority like the unrestored one,” he explains. “I like the unrestored one. When you restore a bike, its history is gone.”
The Moto Talbott Motorcycle Museum is the most recent project for a man who had a brief motocross career, restored classic cars and for more than three decades operated a winery. A single impulse runs through all of this.
When he started Talbott Vineyards in 1982 there was no winery, no tasting room. There weren’t even vines in the ground. “I created it from nothing,” Talbott says. “It was hugely satisfying. I made mistakes, of course.”
He also produced award-winning wines – Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays that regularly drew 90-plus-point raves. Talbott found art in winemaking. The bottles curve seductively. For the Talbott label he selected a stately crest. And there’s wine itself.
In 1998 the famed Guggenheim Museum in New York opened an exhibition, “The Art of the Motorcycle,” and published a book of glossy photographs from the display. “That opened me up,” Talbott recalls. “My background is in design, but I’d never thought of them as art – even though I raced them, wrecked them, whatever you do with them.”
He keeps a copy in the museum. And he has a 1997 Ducati 916 parked on a pedestal. It’s the one Guggenheim lauded as the most appealing motorcycle in terms of art.
Talbott had ridden bikes – powered and pedaled – most of his life. But in 2011 he began to collect with an eye toward aesthetics and history rather than cubic centimeters.
“I just bought bikes I fell in love with,” Talbott explains. “I like to tell the stories of them, and there are some great stories here.”
There’s a 1965 BMW R69S that’s a survivor. When a wildfire raged toward his property in 2008, its owner dug a hole and buried bikes for safekeeping. “I’ve never polished this bike,” Talbott notes. “It has to retain its history.”
Talbott enjoys telling the tales behind each of the 180 motorcycles. Some were crafted in the early years with little thought for safety. Although he is emphatic that patina helps preserve the story of a motorcycle, Talbott brings some of them to a gleaming mint condition.
Colors and shapes flow throughout the Moto Talbott Museum. The engine and exhaust housed in a 1968 Triton 650 resembles a sculpture of metal and chrome. A 1957 NSU Supermax 250 could be mistaken for midcentury modern furniture. There are sleek Italian rides, Indians and Harley-Davidsons of yore and a customized 1974 Honda that is one of one in the world.
Talbott opened the museum in 2015 as a nonprofit. It was the same year he sold the winery to E & J Gallo. As his interest in motorcycles found new direction, Talbott’s enthusiasm for winemaking waned.
“My dad used to say ‘nothing is ever created without passion,’” he observes. “I thought to myself, ‘Do I want to do this when I’m 80?’”
Talbott’s passion for motorcycles is evident. He’s filled the museum to capacity, but only rarely can he bring himself to sell a machine to create room for new finds.
“I love all my bikes,” he says.