MOHAI Now Now: Cossacks & Motorcycles
- MOHAI’s Now Now exhibit dives into the history of the Cossacks, Seattle’s long strolling motorcycle stunt and drill team. - Exhibit and related programs run April 18–June 12, 2026, so it’s open this weekend. - See event dates and ticketing at mohai.org
Seattle’s Museum of History & Industry is using a small-format Now Now display to tell the story of the Seattle Cossacks, a motorcycle stunt team that has been riding since 1938. (mohai.org) The museum tied the display to a public program on Saturday, April 18, 2026, when Cossacks member Rob Root and other riders spoke at MOHAI’s Microsoft Lakefront Pavilion from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. The talk was free, and museum admission was sold separately. (mohai.org) MOHAI’s events calendar also lists a motorcycle-club day on Saturday, April 25, 2026, with $5 off admission for club members and gallery talks on *Kickstands Up! 125 Years of Motorcycling in the Pacific Northwest* from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. The larger motorcycle exhibit runs through April 26, 2026. (mohai.org) The Cossacks fit neatly into that broader exhibit because MOHAI and the Pacific Northwest Museum of Motorcycling frame motorcycles as working machines, racing machines, and vehicles for touring across the region. KUOW’s December report on *Kickstands Up!* noted that the show includes two bikes from the Seattle Cossacks. (mohai.org) (kuow.org) The team’s history starts in Seattle in early 1938, when riders who had been doing tricks between races organized formally and adopted the name “Seattle Cossacks.” On the team’s history page, the group says the name came from the Cossacks’ reputation for horsemanship and from the era’s nickname for motorcycles, “iron horses.” (seattlecossacks.com) MOHAI’s event page says the team became known for “great pyramids and other wonders of the motorcycling world,” and the Cossacks’ own site still sells the act the same way: riders climbing onto moving vintage Harleys without ropes or props. Those low-speed formations are the signature trick that made the group a fairground and parade staple. (mohai.org) (seattlecossacks.com) The team is not just a museum subject. Its website says the Cossacks are still booking shows, and recent listings place them at the Spokane Motorcycle Show in March 2026 and at the Oyster Run in Anacortes in September 2024. (seattlecossacks.com) (triumphrat.net) (youtube.com) For visitors this weekend, the practical point is simple: the April 18 talk has passed, but MOHAI’s motorcycle programming continues on April 25 and the main *Kickstands Up!* exhibition remains open through April 26 at 860 Terry Ave. N. in Seattle. (mohai.org 1) (mohai.org 2)
