History
The American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) began exploring the idea of establishing a museum for the sport in 1981 and established the American Motorcycle Heritage Foundation (AMHF) as a non-profit organization in 1982 to begin raising funds for the project.
The AMHF in 1985 decided to locate the museum at AMA headquarters, then in Westerville, Ohio. The Motorcycle Heritage Museum, as it was then known, formally opened on Aug. 16, 1990. A hall of fame section was added to the museum with the induction of the first class of members in 1998.
The AMA moved to Pickerington, Ohio, in December of 1998 and in June of the following year a new 26,000-square-foot building, the Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum, was opened at the new location.
In October of 2004, the Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum and the National Motorcycle Museum and Hall of Fame in Anamosa, Iowa, agreed to merge their halls of fame. Under the agreement, all members of the Iowa museum's hall of fame are to be added to the Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum in Ohio. The Iowa facility will then become known as the National Motorcycle Museum.