Teuva Bicycle Museum

Visitors are welcome to try out cycling with a big old-fashioned wooden bicycle. The one who succeeds receives a diploma!

The Teuva Bicycle Museum uniquely recounts the history and usage of the bicycle throughout times. Various bicycles, posters, photographs and other items bring history to life.

The Bicycle Museum displaying the history of the bicycle is one of a kind in Finland. It opened its doors in 1999 and there are over 400 objects and 800 photographs in its collection. The museum was initiated by German born bicycle repairman Reiner Boje, who had settled in Teuva. He would fix old bicycles by removing parts from broken bikes and assembling them into intact and functioning bicycles. In the museum collections are fourteen bicycles assembled by Boje. Most of the vehicles originate from the period after the Second World War, but some of them date to the beginning of the 20th century.

When stepping into the museum the visitor is greeted by colourful and humorous banners advertising different bicycle brands. In the vitrines have been gathered various metallic hull labels from the different decades of the 20th century. A short video installation illuminates the history of the bicycle in Finland.

The rarity of the collection, a Swedish army bike, has been equipped with a large bag containing tools and spare parts, which are needed in repairing. A tricycle and the seat of a chair have been combined into a homemade wheelchair, which had a hand-operated chain instead of a foot-operated one. The engine assisted bicycle becomes with a few peddles the cross of a bicycle and a motorcycle. The homemade tandem for three persons from the year 1974 is an interesting vehicle. Its tyres and hoops have been fortified in order for them to carry the weight of three people. There is also an exercise cycle from the 1960s in the collection.

Bicycles used to have diverse additional equipment, some of which had been obtained from abroad. There is a Spanish bicycle lamp, which used to run on oil and a stearin candle, from the beginning of the 20th century in the museum. The decorative, petite cogwheels and chain covers look more like works of art than parts of a bicycle.

Thursday cycling and lotteries are organized during the summer seasons.