Motorcycles Make History in Miami, Okla.

In 1971, a shirtless Steve McQueen was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated jumping a Husqvarna off-road bike.

Now, McQueen’s own 1971 Husqvarna is on display at the Route 66 Vintage Iron Motorcycle Museum in Miami, Okla.

McQueen, who starred in films like “The Magnificent Seven,” “Hell is for Heroes” and “Bullitt,” had no connection with Miami. But concert and boxing promoter Tony Holden did.

“He’s from here originally, and when he started collecting motorcycles, he just wanted to do something neat for Miami,” says Chris Martin, curator of Route 66 Vintage Iron. The museum, which opened in May 2006, has since grown to include a retail building next door filled with collectibles, logo merchandise and biker leather.

That connection keeps the museum free to the public, Martin says.

“We’ve just completed our third year, and this has been our best summer yet,” he adds. “We get a lot of bikers who ride out for the day, and we rely a lot on Route 66 tourists.”

The museum is right on the “Mother Road,” at 128 S. Main St. in Miami, but its centerpiece revolves around McQueen, who hailed from Indianapolis. The 1971 Husqvarna is “the most well-documented Steve McQueen bike in the world,” Martin says, and the collection also includes 14 of his personal racing trophies and some antique furniture he owned.

McQueen loved motorcycles before Hollywood ever knew his name, according to the Motorcycle Hall of Fame, which inducted him posthumously in 1999. His first bike was a 1946 Indian Chief.

“I was so proud of that Indian that I rode it over to see a girl I was dating,” he said in that Sports Illustrated issue in 1971. “She said, ‘You don’t expect me to ride around with you on that, do you?’ I surely did. The girl went and the bike stayed.”

Before his death in 1980, McQueen was part of the most famous motorcycle jump ever filmed — for “The Great Escape” — financed the motorcycling documentary “On Any Sunday” and had ridden and raced around the world.

But his collection is just part of what’s on show at Route 66 Vintage Iron. Its 40-plus bikes also include a 1919 Australian GCS, the only one known to exist; a 1917 Harley, which Martin says is “the best pre-1920 original condition Harley in the world”; a 1949 Indian Arrow; and a 1919 Indian Daytona board track racer that ran 100 mph when cars went about 25 mph.

The sport of board track racing was “just like NASCAR back in 1920,” Martin says.

Martin says motorcycles seem to be gaining in popularity as the baby boomers think back to their childhoods. But as the Discover Oklahoma promo for the museum says, you don’t have to be a bike lover to appreciate the beauty of these restored machines.

“They come from a time when people rode for the thrill, not the gas mileage.”