The Irbit State Motorcycle Museum was created as a State Museum of the Russian Federation to protect the former IMZ Factory Museum from sale and dispersal.[1] The museum was officially opened on June 25, 2004, as the Irbit Motorcycle Museum.[2] The keystone of the museum was the collection of the Design Department of the IMZ factory acquired by local authorities in 2002. It is temporarily housed in a building at 100a Ulitsa Soviestskaya, in Irbit, while a permanent home is built in Ulitsa Lenina. It received the status of a State Museum of the Russian Federation on January 1, 2006. The museum contains an extensive collection of production, racing and prototype bikes from the IMZ-Ural Factory as well as many foreign models from a wide range of manufacturers. The collection is unique in its display of the development of the Russian heavy motorcycle.
Its current director is Alexandr Ilyitch Bulanov, a notable historian in the town of Irbit as well as a Guinness Book of Records-holder for Ural motorcycles.