Showing content from https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CoolBike below:
Website Navigation
Cool Bike - TV Tropes
"Bikes are not 'nice'. Bikes are cool."
So you've got a badass. Or a loner. Or an Action Hero or Action Girl. Now (s)he needs a suitable way to get from Point A to Point B. Because walking isn't very impressive unless you're calmly walking away from the carnage you just caused, or slowly walking toward the carnage you intend to cause.
Now you could always go for a cool-looking car. But how about something more personal, and much more impressive?
Easy. Give them a Cool Bike. No, not a bicycle. The big, shiny, loud, sexy, purely awesome motorcycle. The motorcycle is to a modern character what the big black horse is to the Western or Fantasy character: an identifier, a mark of status, and above all, an accessory that adds to their overall coolness.
Ever since the end of World War II, motorcycles have been seen as the absolute coolest way to travel. Whether they are traveling through the desert, city streets, a coastal road, or up a wall, the bike can promote an aura of awesome that is unmatched by any other everyday vehicle. Riding a motorcycle lends an aura of independence and attractive danger to the rider.
Cool Bikes come in different types, and the type of bike generally says a lot about the type of character who rides it. A chopped, stripped Harley is virtually almost always the choice of a Badass Biker, and it's also often the choice of the Sociopathic Hero and the Villain Protagonist, while a sleek crotch rocket is more likely to be ridden by an Action Girl, an older Kid Hero or a Jerk Jock. If the Harley is chopped or stripped or neither, the rider could be The Atoner, The Drifter, a major-league Action Girl, an Action Hero, a Supporting Leader, or The Ace. The Adventurer Archaeologist tends toward the lighter, more nimble dirt bikes, or even better, an old military bike. Big, heavy Goldwings and other touring bikes aren't usually cool, although their riders may think so.
The Badass Biker always has a Cool Bike. An Anti-hero is likely to have a Cool Bike. Action Girls may have Cool Bikes. Cool Bikes may also have an accompanying Cool Sidecar attached. See Monowheel Mayhem / One-Wheeled Wonder when awesome only needs one wheel.
Oh, and remember that you don't drive a bike; you ride it.
For a look at appearances of real-life motocycles in fiction, see Bikes of Fiction.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
- Many are featured in Ah! My Goddess. Most notable is the one owned by the protagonist, a BMW RS 54 Rennsport with sidecar modification.
- Kaneda's red motorbike in AKIRA most definitely qualifies.
- Akudama Drive: Courier's motorcycle is equipped with grappling hooks, a railgun, and probably much more.
- Bakugan New Vestroia gives us Mira, a Badass Biker girl who rides a Subterra colored motorcycle in her first appearance.
- Gundalian Invaders give us new forms of Battle Gear, the Mobile Assault Gear. And what do Drago and Talean ride? The motorcycle based ones.
- Bakuon!!: Raimu, story-wise. Splash pages from the manga has each of the girls drawn with one, although they have different bikes in-story.
- Baxinger is made of this. Five motorcycles that shoot lasers, fly both in air and in space AND become the components to a giant robot.
- Norman from The Big O rides a Cool Bike which comes equipped with a rocket launcher, and the bike in question seems to be pretty durable and maneuverable, given how it went toe to toe with freaking Megadeus in a highway chase scene and had not a scratch on it by the end thanks to Norman's driving.
- The motorcycles ridden by Toho Heavy Industries' artificial humans in Biomega.
- Black Cat Detective: All members of the police force ride one extremely cool bike that can also transform into an even cooler flying bike.
- Black★★Rock Shooter: Dawn Fall: Empress' version of the Black Trike is a Sentient Vehicle with several mounted guns and a belief in More Dakka. It also gets more f-bombs than Empress herself.
- Blassreiter is all about cool bikes.
- The Motoslaves of Bubblegum Crisis also serve as small Transforming Mecha. Priss and Sylvie also ride cool regular motorcycles. And there's the Highway Star.
- Masumi Sera from Case Closed rides a Yamaha Artesia bike XT 400. The reason it's an Artesia? Mobile Suit Gundam, though maybe you didn't know that since Detective Conan is a mystery manga.
- Yukiko also rides a Cool Bike on a trip to Gunma.
- The first appearance of Hyoma Nagare from Combattler V had him riding a bike and performing crazy maneuvers with it.
- Moto-Mechazawa from Cromartie High School.
- In Devil May Cry: The Animated Series, Lady has a red 1974 Ducati 750 Supersport.
- Beelzemon of Digimon Tamers has a cool, living bike called Behemoth. And if you aren't Beelzemon, it will possess you and ride all across the landscape.
- And better, it wasn't made for him or anything like that. Beelzey was just the only one powerful enough to tame the cursed bike that had terrorized a town with its original rider (and then Guilmon, who knocked the original rider off only to become possessed himself.)
- éX-Driver is an anime about cars - the glitch-prone AI-controlled ones all normal people drive, and the old, all-manual sports cars the protagonists drive in order to catch the aforementioned AI ones. So it's all the more surprising when Rei Kazama turns up on a Ducati, which has a lot less trouble catching the runaway cars than the old cars do.
- FLCL: Haruko's yellow vespa is also undeniably cool, which is interesting as it's a scooter.
- Genesis Climber MOSPEADA (AKA, the third series of Robotech) has motorcycles that transform into Powered Armor.
- Most of Go Nagai's main characters ride and have cool bikes. Some examples are:
- Great Teacher Onizuka: Onizuka, as a former Bōsōzoku, has a cool custom Kawasaki Z400GP, which he and his friends rebuilt from scrap in the prequel Bad Company. His best friend Ryuji rides a Honda CBX, though he got it unmodified as a gift. In GTO, Ryuji actually runs a motorcycle shop.
- Heat Guy J: Daisuke Aurora has one massive ride, plus a Cool Sidecar for his android partner J to ride. It is loaded: massive engines for incredible speed, heads-up display, converts to an even more badass mode when J rides it, and it's amphibious!
- Laid-Back Camp:
- Rin's grandfather owns a Triumph Thruxton as part of his Cool Old Guy setup.
- Rin herself downplays this trope. She's a bit of The Drifter, but since she's too young to ride a motorcycle, she rides a Yamaha Vino scooter.
- The Garland units in Megazone 23 combine Cool Bikes with Transforming Mecha.
- The FXA-08R Mega Rider in Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ is a Mobile Suit support ship that doesn't quite have the space to hold the suits it carries. Instead, they sit on it like a giant hovercycle.
- Smoker from One Piece has his Blower Bike, which is actually a large motorized tricycle with wide wheels, powered by his Devil Fruit.
- The vehicles in RideBack are essentially Cool Bike meets Transforming Mecha.
- Jun the Swan's G3 from Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. It has portable buoys that when lowered under the bike can allow it to ride on water surfaces. Later in the series, it gets a missile launcher.
- In Shirobako, Shun Watanabe, the studio's line producer, is a great lover of classic vehicles, and owns an old-school Ural bike with all the bells and whistles (including handle guards and the Cool Sidecar), which he uses to deliver the broadcast copies of Third Aerial Girls Squad to the TV stations around the Greater Tokyo area, and which also serves as a model for the Arupin's bike in Exodus.
- Soul from Soul Eater too believes in the power of cool bikes, which is why he has one.
- Jiggy Pepper from Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee has one that runs on the power of heart.
- In Venus Wars, Aphrodia's army resorts to the Hound combat bikes to fight Ishtar's Admiral A-1 tanks, with different flavors depending on the media:
- In the original manga the Hounds are conventional bikes massing a tonne (thus requiring the rider to be quite strong just to use it as a normal bike) and equipped with rocket boosters, anti-tank rocket launchers, and an 80mm anti-tank rifle.
- In the OVA, instead, they're monowheel bikes equipped with railguns.
- Ditto the mecha in Viper's Creed.
- The first time we saw Kenichi Go from Voltes V he was practicing in a firing range by shooting AND riding at once.
- In Yohane the Parhelion -SUNSHINE in the MIRROR-, Dia (as her secret identity Scarlet Delta) wields a dashing red and black motorcycle that wouldn't be out of place in your average toku show. In addition to simply serving as a mode of transportation, Dia's sister Ruby can become an Equippable Ally by fusing with it, powering it up and allowing Ruby to take control of the bike.
- Some of the D-Wheels from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's would probably fall under this trope, especially since some are designed to be some of the coolest wheels in the anime: one based on the ride of the hero in Ghost Rider, a dragster, a steamroller... After all, cool bikes MUST be the centerpiece on an anime which features card games on motorcycles.
- Many of them have awesome names to boot, whether in the series itself, as with Dark Glass's "Delta Eagle" and Jack Atlus's "Wheel of Fortune", which in the dub has its name changed to "Phoenix Whirlwind", or in supplemental material. Some of the other names include the main character's "Yusei Go", which appears to be a reference to "Speed Racer", as well as Black Bird (which can "fly"), The Beast (dub-series only, unnamed in the original), Giganto L, T-666/Terrible Omen, and Bloody Kiss.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V brings back the D-Wheel's. They are first introduced by Yugo, and later on, almost the whole main cast gets one.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL:
- Orbital 7, Kaito's little robotic assistant can turn into this.
- Akari and Shark ride have some cool rides too.
Asian Animation
- Bima-S and his rival Masked Warrior have their own respective futuristic bikes.
- Mechamato: MechaBot can mechanise with Amato's bike to form the Mechabike, which is not only self-propelled, but also has tyres which can adjust to be spiky enough to ride up a wall. With different modes and enhancements, it can ride on water and ice as well.
Comic Books
- Batgirl: Barbara Gordon rides a souped-up bike as Batgirl.
- She uses it in her Batgirl (2011) solo book the whole time.
- She gives Stephanie Brown (the third Batgirl) one in Batgirl (2009). Subverted in Batgirls, where she gives Steph and Cassie Bat-e-scooters, which they jointly decide are decidedly uncool. They get used to them though.
- In Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl, Barbara owns a sci-fi bike which looks like an one-wheeled Batmobile in which she rode Supergirl back to Metropolis.
- Batman:
- In Batman: Year 100, the Batmobile is reimagined as a souped-up motorcycle.
- Batman and Batwoman get rocket-powered motorcycles in Part 2 of Night of the Monster Men. The bikes are powerful enough to restrain building-sized kaiju with cable barbs.
- Bazooka Jules: Super-thief Eddie Daytona's motorcycle has sensors, weapons, and can repair itself.
- DC × Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue #1 sees Shadow the Hedgehog riding alongside Batman on a pair of motorbikes, with Shadow using his personal "Dark Rider" bike from Shadow the Hedgehog, and Batman riding the Batcycle.
- The Flash: Hot Pursuit, an Alternate Universe Barry Allen who lacks his Super-Speed, rides a bike that is powered by the Speed Force. Its wheels appear to be made of pure speed energy.
- Ghost Rider: The Ghost Rider's bike is cool mundanely. It's even cooler in Ghost Rider mode, what with the chains and skull and flames. And it leaves a trail of flaming tire tracks... and can ride up even vertical walls.
- Johnny and Danny's bikes represent two distinct types - Johnny's is a chopper, while Danny's is a speed bike.
- Hawkeye: Clint Barton has a flying bike called the Sky-Cycle.
- Judge Dredd: The Lawmaster, equipped with bulletproof tyres, Nitro Boost, on-board AI and bike cannon.
- Lobo: Doubling up as a Cool Spaceship, Lobo's spacehog, his custom Spaz-Frag 666 that acts as his personal transport everywhere from terrestrial locations to deep space. It can reach warp speed and once it was even a fully functional Time Machine. Can be also a Flying Arsenal filled to the exhaust with several of the deadliest weapons in the known universe and it even responds to his whistle commands.
- Nightwing: Dick Grayson has the Wingcycle, which is normally awesome but in typical Dick Grayson fashion he also has a very lame looking sidecar he attaches to it at times. The man has some trouble with fashion.
- Poet Anderson: The Dream Walker: Ayo and the Anderson brothers use them to travel outside Genesis.
- Robin: Tim Drake had a highly modified motorcycle as Robin and so too did the two Robins who followed after him, Stephanie and Damian. Though Steph had already had a bike from the very first panel she appeared in that one wasn't nearly as cool. Tim himself tricked his bike out even further as Red Robin.
- Shaman's Tears: Joshua Brand travels on a classic Indian Chief motorcycle.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics): In the "Treasure Team Tango" storyline, Shadow brings in his Shadow the Hedgehog-based motorcycle to help give Team Rose a lift. When questioned why he has this, he sheepishly admits he's fond of it.
- SpyBoy: The Spy Cycle.
- Supergirl: Post-Flashpoint in Supergirl (2011), Supergirl owned for a short while a rocket space bike named KR-1.
- Werewolf by Night: Jack Russell rides one. And unlike his cars, he has thus far managed to not crash it once.
- Werner: Lots. The fact that Brösel is a motorcycle nut and draws extremely realistic (but often still wacky) bikes helps a lot.
Fan Works
- Evangelion 303: Asuka owns a very cool-looking red bike.
- In From Fake Dreams Shirou gets Saber an enchanted, nitro-boosted 1999 Suzuki Hayabusa. She loves it.
- Here Comes the New Boss: In order to travel fast while drawing less attention than simply running, Elpis finds a junked bicycle, repairs it, and massively soups up the gear assembly until it can take full advantage of Super-Strength, with "the kind of mechanical advantage that would make Archimedes come back to life just to wax rapturous over it."
I could push it to 40 miles per hour with little effort, and fold it up to hide it behind a dumpster or inside a neighbour's hedge, or just buried inside the concrete of the sidewalk by Stoneknapper’s power.
- Hero Academia D×D: Itsuka Kendo's Balance Breaker (called Turbo Cavaliere) takes the form of a chrome-plated and teal motorcycle with black bat wing-like decorative extensions near the handlebars, with the exhaust ports taking the form of vents in the front rather than the back, and orange-colored double-sided serrated blades extended from the axle of the front wheel. It also provides her with a skintight teal and black leather biker suit, and a long light pink scarf.
- Lightstorm rides one in Sailor Moon: Legends of Lightstorm. He can summon it with his utility belt, perform death-defying stunts with it while navigating the city, ride at tremendous speeds, and apparently doesn't need to fill it up with gas.
- The Guardians' flycycles/skybikes in The Keys Stand Alone.
- Laserllama: Judging from its name and abilities, a Mechanic Artificer's Autocycle is meant to resemble some sort of bite. It also happen to be a technological marvel that is useful in combat.
- There's a few in The Moon's Flash Princess:
- Minako has a 1999 Suzuki Hayabusa, the fastest production bike ever made (see below). It was a present for Lila, with a side of riling Haruka up.
- Lila has a Piaggio Vespa 150 TAP - that is, a scooter with a (deactivated) anti-tank coiless gun. According to Minako, in its original form it would have been too cool to be street legal - or legal at all.
- In Pokémon Reset Bloodlines, Johto Elite Four member Karen rides a customized motorcycle that includes a Cool Sidecar for her Umbreon to ride with her. The handle bars look like the horns of a Houndoom, the wheels have a yellow trim that resembles an Umbreon's glowing circles, and its exhaust is adorned by a pair of model Murkrow wings.
- Yang's motorcycle in A Girl and Her Bike is Bumblebee/B-127, a kickass alien robot warrior. It doesn't get much cooler than that.
- SAPR: Sunset uses a motorcycle that she built from spare parts, though it's described as being less cool and more of a horrific abomination of random parts.
- Varric rides a black and silver Harley-Davidson in the Skyhold Academy Yearbook series.
Films — Animation
- Aachi and Ssipak loves this trope seeing as how every character has a cool motorcycle or at least motorcycle-like vehicles. Special mention goes to the character of Geko, a badass cyborg who has a bike with plenty of weapons.
- The Bad Guys (2022): Diane owns a sleek white motorcycle that can be disguised as a briefcase.
- Cloud's Custom Motorcycle "Fenrir" in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Bonus cool points for having a built in sword rack. The Remnants have some pretty sweet rides, too — naturally, there are at least two high-speed chase-battles.
- In Incredibles 2, Helen's bike, the Elasticycle, has the ability to break up into two unicycles allowing Helen to stretch her body when riding.
- In Poet Anderson: The Dream Walker, all of the main Dream Walker characters have rad futuristic bikes.
- TMNT: In his Nightwatcher guise, Raphael rides a motorcycle covered with plate steel. Michelangelo himself comments on how awesome this is.
Films — Live-Action
- In the Babe Ruth biopic The Babe, the Bambino rides an early model Harley-Davidson.
- Batman: The Movie features the Batcycle, which comes equipped with a detachable, steerable sidecar.
- In Battletruck, Hunter owns a high-tech, armored Suzuki bike that serves as his primary means of personal transport.
- BMX Bandits: BMX Product Placement is all over the place in this movie.
- The Bike that is built into the front steering system of the Batmobile in The Dark Knight, referred to officially in the movie as the "Bat-Pod". It features built-in autocannons and apparently sports a gyro-stabilizer for the rider and engine, allowing it to make impossible turns, recover from wipeouts, and ride straight up a wall, flip over upside-down, and land upright again. We see it return in The Dark Knight Rises, and has the distinction of being the only Bat-vehicle that survives through more than one movie in the Nolanverse.
- The Delta Force has Chuck Norris on a dirt bike with dual rocket launchers, machineguns, and rear-facing grenade launchers. Twice.
- Possibly the best-known film motorcycle, Peter Fonda's "Captain America" chopper from Easy Rider. Both this and Dennis Hopper's more conservative chopper started life as Harley Davidson Hydra Glides.
- In G.I. Joe: Retaliation a motorcycle that splits apart and turns into explosive projectiles is used by Firefly to help break Cobra Commander out of prison.
- Steve McQueen's stolen Triumph SR6 650 in The Great Escape. Pure Rule of Cool. There's nothing like that whole scene at all, in the book the movie was based on. But the chance to put Steve McQueen on a Triumph for a chase scene was simply irresistible.
- The demon-possessed Norton Commando in I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle. Any Norton Commando is cool, but a man-eating demonic one is even cooler. Albeit evil.
- Will Smith's character's Black MV Agusta F4 in I, Robot.
- In The Knowledge, this trope is inverted by the candidates of the legendarily difficult exam faced by those aspiring to drive London taxis. Most of them ride very basic mopeds while studying their routes.
- In The Lost Boys the eponymous vampires also ride cool bikes. In the novelisation David's bike is explicitly mentioned as being a Triumph.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- The green Harley-Davidson WLA Liberator that Captain America rides in Captain America: The First Avenger. It even comes with machine guns, and a rope-launcher, which Cap uses to great effect against motorcycle-ridng HYDRA mooks late in the movie.
- Avengers: Age of Ultron:
- Black Widow's bike drops out of the Avengers' quinjet and is capable of making the landing without too much trouble.
- Captain America rides his own souped-up motorcycle into one of the battles with HYDRA, which he then throws at one of their tanks as an improvised projectile.
- The Ducati 996 ridden by Trinity in The Matrix Reloaded film during the highway chase.
- Young Boris's rather satanic looking bike from Men in Black 3.
- They don't ride motorcycles, but the bikes in Mystery Team ARE pretty cool.
- In Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, Nanny McPhee, of all people, owns one. It can fly, and travel at much faster speeds than its regular counterpart, without any harm to the occupants. It even includes a place for her stick, and a sidecar for the children.
- Oblivion (2013) : Harper's motorcycle - which is collapsible so it can be carried on the Bubble Ship's storage space, has integral winch and sensors and is pretty rugged. Pity that it gets stolen early in the movie, and then soon after Harper gets it back it runs out of gas.
- The BMW R 1150R Rockster used by Ben Affleck's character in Paycheck.
- In Return of the Jedi they introduce speeder bikes. Back then they may have been a reference to horses, but in the prequel trilogy and the expanded universe they are treated like motorcycles, complete with speeder bike gangs.
- The police hoverbike from Star Trek (2009). The trailer even made it seem as if the cop was a robot with a metallic voice. Since Trailers Always Lie, the cop in the actual movie had a normal voice.
- Star Trek Beyond has one in the Franklin which Kirk makes sure to ride to raid the enemy base.
- In Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over they have a race utilizing cool vehicles, specifically motorcycles. Kinda weird that they have that much experience driving and riding when most of them don't look old enough to get a permit, but hey, it's a video game.
- In the James Bond movie Skyfall the opening chase scene includes Bond and his quarry riding motorcycles through Istanbul, and even on the rooftops. It's hard to get much Rule Of Cooler than that.
- Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024): Shadow the Hedgehog, much like his appearance in his self-titled spin-off game, steals a motorbike to escape from Team Sonic in Tokyo. Sonic is the only one with enough super speed to catch up with him, resulting in a high-speed chase throughout the city that results in Shadow driving and later sliding up the Tokyo Tower with the bike.
- Arnie's iconic black 1990 Harley-Davidson Fat Boy in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
- Fiona Volpe's BSA Lightning with the built-in missile launchers in Thunderball.
- Torque has plenty of very nice bikes, but the turbine-powered Y2K definitely takes the cake.
- Arcee, Chromia, and Elita-1 from Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen.
- The Lightcycles from TRON. They're fast, deadly, and fold right up into the handlebars for easy storage!
- In TRON: Legacy, the motorcycle Sam rides in the opening is his own. It's later established that Sam inherited his dad's insanely-fast Ducati, fixes it after it's been sitting in a shed for 20 years, and is even more of a daredevil with it than his old man was. Likewise, the comic based on Tron 2.0 establishes Jet's ride of choice as one of these. It ends up saving their butts on the Game Grid.
- In the Disney Channel Original Movie Up, Up and Away (2000), Warrior Woman's motorcycle can move as Super-Speed. We can assume that, besides Super-Strength, she also has Super-Reflexes, necessary to control that thing.
- Marlon Brando riding a Triumph Thunderbird in The Wild One is one of the events that started this trope.
- X-Men Film Series
- In X-Men, the motorcycle belonging to Cyclops, which Wolverine *ahem* borrows to get to the train station.
- The Harley-Davidson Logan acquires at the Hudsons' farm in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
Literature
Live-Action TV
- While most of the main cast tend toward Cool Cars, Doug Penhall of 21 Jump Street instead rides a Triumph Bonneville.
- In the Babylon 5 episode "Eyes", Garibaldi and Lennier assemble from parts a black 1992 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-11. Garibaldi thinks it's too bad they can't ride it since they've got no gasoline, but Lennier had the forethought to install a power source of Minbari design. Ivanova says she's glad life on the station is back to normal ... then Garibaldi and Lennier go zooming by.
- As in the comics (and in fact before the comics), Batgirl has a Batgirl-Cycle in the sixties Batman series. It's coolness factor is somewhat hampered by frills and bows, presumably because it's a girl's bike.
- The Book of Boba Fett: The Mods all ride on swoops (the hovercraft equivalent to scooters or bikes) that are colorful and flashy while capable of performing quite impressive feats.
- In Crusade, Captain Gideon goes for a cruise through an abandoned alien city on a flying motorcycle, complete with shades and a leather jacket. He ends up having to use the jetcycle to evade alien Attack Drones that try to shoot him down, escaping only because his bike was smaller than they were.
- Spike gets one of these in Season Six of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- CHiPs. 'Nuff said.
- Dark Angel put its Action Girl protagonist Max on a black Kawasaki.
- Doctor Who: in "The Bells of Saint John" the Doctor produces an antigravity motorbike from his TARDIS and rides it with his latest companion.
Miss Kizlet: Really, Doctor? A motorbike. It hardly seems like you.
The Doctor: I rode this in the Anti-Grav Olympics, 2074. I came last.
Miss Kizlet: The building is in lock-down. I'm afraid you're not coming in.
The Doctor: Did you even hear the word, "anti-grav"? [rides the bike up the side of the building]
- In Galactica 1980 the colonial multicycles (motorbikes with flight capabilities) come achingly close, only to miss the target completely. Not unlike the rest of the series…
- (The Great) Biker Build-Off takes the idea, two bike builders, and makes a competition out of it: Who can make the cooler bike?
- Happy Days: The Fonz. In one episode, Richie acquires a bike of his own and asks Fonzie whether he thinks it's "nice". Fonzie's reply is the page quote.
- House MD series 2 has its medical diagnosis genius protagonist, Gregory House, buy a used 2005 Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade in Repsol race replica colours. He gets the bike at a good price as it's had an accident with very minor cosmetic damage that is not noticeable in later episodes. He adds to the coolness of the bike by stating its top speed as 180 mph, not 160 as presumed by his best friend, oncologist Wilson.
- In the last episode of iCarly: Spencer is restoring a motorcycle for Socko's cousin Ryder, a 1964 Sterling, which is actually a Triumph like Fonzie's, but when Socko and Ryder get in a fight Socko lets Spencer keep it, who then gives it to Sam.
- Kamen Riders are known for their Cool Bikes — that's where the "Rider" name comes from. The bikes were a much bigger part of the series in the earlier years; more recent seasons have it as The Artifact with only a few token appearances. It may have something to do with stricter road safety laws limiting filming. In order:
- The Showa Riders' bikes typically just have custom cowlings, due to special effects limitations of the 1970s, though they're all faster and more powerful than standard bikes, sometimes allowing them to ride along walls and up cliff faces. X-Rider's can be used as an underwater vehicle and Super-1's actually flies using rockets.
- Kuuga's TryChaser 2000 can combine with the sentient mecha-beetle Gouram, giving it extra armor and blades on the front. Partway through the series it's damaged and rebuilt as the BeatChaser 2000, which is also affected by Kuuga's Mid-Season Upgrade Rising Forms.
- Agito's Machine Tornador can become a hoverboard. G3, Gills, and Another Agito have custom bikes (GuardChaser, Gills Raider, and Dark Hopper, respectively) modified to resemble them.
- Kamen Rider Ryuki:
- All the Riders have access to a common type of one-man vehicle called the Ride Shooter, taking the Rider through the portal to the Mirror World.
- Ryuki's and Knight's Bond Creatures could also transform into motorcycles when in their Super Mode - still remaining very much sentient.
- Alternative and Alternative Zero's own shared Bond Creature, Psycho-Rogue, could also turn into a motorcycle called the Psychoroader.
- The American adaptation Kamen Rider Dragon Knight actually added more bikes to the show, by giving the characters their own awesome real-world motorcycles during non-spandex time and having them transform along with them when they became Kamen Riders. These largely (though not completely) replaced the Ride Shooters (renamed "Advent Cycles" here). There's an awesome scene near the end with six Riders, finally on the same page - even The Hero and the Evil Twin! - riding out of MIB headquarters unmorphed as a Cool Bike-riding, cool jacket-wearing squad, ready to kick butt and take names.
- More bike awesome from Dragon Knight: Mirror World bike chase. The sneaky Torque found out that Xaviax is too smart for The Starscream, and new The Dragon, polite but sociopathic Strike, is hunting him. Torque rides for his life, and on the street, it looks like a guy riding crazily for no reason. Only we can see that in the reflections in doors and windows, Strike is right on his tail. Torque eventually thinks he's lost Strike, when several stories up, the reflected Strike emerges into reality and drops in right behind him.
- Kamen Rider 555:
- Faiz has the Auto Vajin, which can transform into a robot with its own AI; in this form one wheel is a Gatling while the other is a jetpack and its handlebar becomes Faiz's Laser Blade. Its highest-priority directive is not "obey Faiz."
- Kaixa's Side Basshar includes a Cool Sidecar and turns into a walker mecha with tons of missiles that can deploy even more missiles.
- Delta doesn't get a unique bike, but he's usually associated with the Jet Sliger, a behemoth with five large jet engines to give it its name and a truly overkill amount of weapons. Also, its wheels are spheres, and it can travel sideways if desired. Every Rider apparently has one but only Delta really uses his. (Faiz' Jet Sliger gets blown to scrap in its introduction episode during a battle with Delta. Kaixa presumably has one if the other two do, but it is never summoned.)
- In Kamen Rider Blade, the BOARD Riders' bikes can all channel the power of the Rouze Cards, allowing the Riders to use them for special attacks. They're called the Blue Spader (belonging to Blade), Red Rhombus (Garren), Shadow Chaser (Chalice), and Green Clover (Leangle). Chalice's Shadow Chaser, like the later Dragon Knight, is an ordinary bike that changes when he does.
- Hibiki is the subversion; he gets a completely unmodded Honda Valkyrie Rune (see below under Real Life). The bike is where the Disk Animals are stored. This presumably plays into the fact that Hibiki, unlike his fellows, is not a Badass Biker. (He's certainly a badass. He just can't ride all that well.)
- Kabuto and Gatack have their own custom machines (Kabuto and Gatack Extender) which can transform into more battle-oriented forms, Kabuto's gaining a battering ram and Gatack's turning into a flying hoverboard; they're also affected by the Riders' Clock Up systems. The other Riders simply get slightly customized versions of the common Machine Zectron bike.
- All the bikes in Kamen Rider Den-O double as the control units for their respective Cool Trains. Den-O's is the Machine Den-Bird while Zeronos has the Machine ZeroHorn.
- Kiva's Machine Kivaa has the brain of a horse monster, turns invisible at high speed, and has an enhancement booster that nullifies wind resistance. It's also the only chopper-style Rider machine, and is generally awesome-looking. Ixa's Ixalion, despite the cool name, is simply a custom bike. Saga doesn't have a unique bike, but Taiga owns a Honda DN-01 that he uses exclusively as a civilian.
- Decade's Machine Decader can transform into past Rider machines via AttackRide cards; Decade changes it into the Auto Vajin in the first episode and the Side Basshar in the Grand Finale movie.
- Double's HardBoilder is modular, its rear half being swappable with jetski and flight wing attachments; it's also armed (machineguns in all forms, plus torpedoes for the water form). Accel is his own Cool Bike, and can combine with the sentient tank Gunner A for combat situations (he also owns a red Ducati called the Diablossa which he uses as a civilian). Skull's SkullBoilder is essentially the same as Double's bike without the option parts.
- The Riders of Kamen Rider OOO, and even allies that aren't Riders, use Ride Vendors; mass-produced bikes that can be disguised as vending machines and are stationed throughout the city for easy access. Plus as vending machines, they can also dispense can-shaped helper robots called Candroids. OOO (and only OOO) can combine one of those robots, the Tora (Tiger) Candroid, with a Ride Vendor into an enhanced version called the Toride Vendor.
- Kamen Rider Core from the Double/OOO movie was a monstrous... thing made from the dark memories of all Kamen Riders powered up by a few Core Medals. It could turn the bottom half of its body into a flaming motorcycle.
- Fourze's Machine Massigler, fitting with the show's theme of space travel, is shaped like a shuttle and is spaceworthy; the Powerdizer exoskeleton can even transform into a launchpad for the Massigler. Meteor has his own ride, the Meteorstar, which is styled like a satellite.
- Wizard's Machine Winger can combine with the Dragon Phantom to enhance the dragon's flight abilities, and more importantly act as a Restraining Bolt when it's being disagreeable.
- The cast of Kamen Rider Gaim all get bikes, with two models available: the Sakura Hurricane and the Rose Attacker. They transform to and from padlocks, the collectible trinket of the year, and have the ability to cross dimensions from Earth to the Helheim Forest and back once they get up to speed. There's also a third hoverbike model introduced later called the Dandeliner.
- Played with in Kamen Rider Drive, where Drive does not get a motorcycle but instead gets a Cool Car called Tridoron. The Rival Mashin Chaser and Drive's ally Kamen Rider Mach are the ones with the bikes; which are named Ride Chaser and Ride Macher respectively and can combine into a buggy-like vehicle called the Ride Crosser. Mach also has a full-fledged motorcycle theme going, using miniature Signal Bikes to transform and having a suit that looks like motocross gear. It's a breach of franchise tradition to deny the lead Rider a motorcycle, to be sure, but some fans have pointed out that the vehicles in some series were The Artifact anyway; and the car theme helps bring back the "man and his awesome ride" concept even if it's a different kind of ride than normal.
- Ghost's Machine Ghostriker, which is a normal motorcycle that transforms alongside Ghost and can combine with the Captain Ghost miniature pirate ship to turn it into the Iguana Ghostriker, a giant iguana mecha. Specter has the Machine Hoodie, which holds the spirit of Harry Houdini; when Specter is channelling Houdini's power, the Machine Hoodie opens up to be used either as a jetpack or as a hoverboard.
- In Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, bikes are rare, but they certainly make an impression when they do show up:
- The main motorcycle seen, the Bike Gamer, is a Kamen Rider in his own right named Kamen Rider Lazer. He's able to act on his own but his best tricks requiring a Rider as a, uh, rider. It doesn't last because he soon gets more standard Rider forms which he uses almost exclusively afterwards. Other Riders (including Lazer himself, once he gets a good humanoid alternate form) can also use Lazer's Transformation Trinket to briefly summon a non-sentient version of Bike Gamer.
- Genm's Sports Gamer is a BMX bicycle, but capable of Bike Fu attacks. It becomes armor and the wheels can be launched as weapons.
- It hits critical mass on one occasion late in the series, where Lazer summons and rides Bike Gamer while wearing a set of Sports Gamer armor. It's a bike-themed Rider, riding his own alternate bike form, and wearing another bike.
- Build gets the Machine Builder, a motorcycle that transforms from a smartphone. Also, his powers pair organic and inorganic materials, and a web series tie-in features him using a form where "motorcycle" is used as the inorganic half.
- Zi-O and Geiz both have Ride Strikers, which transform from pocketwatches. Also, their Time Mazines are Transforming Mecha, whose secondary mode are massive futuristic motorcycles.
- Zero-One has the Rise Hopper. Like Build's, it transforms from a smartphone, but there's a difference in execution; Build's phone would actively change size, while Zero-One uses his normal phone to summon a second, giant phone which then unfolds into a bike. (So why is the bike itself phone-shaped? Who cares; it's toyetic.) Kamen Rider Valkyrie also gets a major bike combat scene in the REALxTIME movie, using a regular motorcycle.
- Saber has the Diago Speedy. In a series where the Transformation Trinkets are based on books, the Diago Speedy unfolds from a motorcycle magazine (and is named after a publisher of such magazines, De Agostini). Blades and Espada each have their own rides called Gatrikers; another phone gadget that becomes a three-wheeler equipped with gatling guns. The rest of the Riders also have Gatrike phones, but are never seen using them in the bike mode.
- Kamen Rider Revice:
- For the first time, the bike is tied to the franchise's Swiss-Army Hero gimmick. Kamen Riders Revi and Vice transform into different "Genome" forms together; and Vice's Ptera Genome form is a hovercycle that Revi can ride. And even better, it's not just CGI trickery (though they do use that too) — Toei partnered with an actual hoverbike manufacturer to feature a custom version of their bike in the show. Plus, as all the Genome forms are designed to resemble prior Riders, Vice's hovercycle form has a paint job that calls back to Faiz and the Auto Vajin.
- Daiji also uses an unnamed standard-issue motorcycle on occasion for his job with Fenix; he's usually untransformed, but he does ride it once as Kamen Rider Live in the movie.
- One of the perks of the "Boost" powerup in Kamen Rider Geats is access to a motorcycle called the Boostriker, which can turn into an animal robot that assists with Finishing Moves (generally a kitsune since that's Geats' motif, but a bull version is seen once when Buffa uses Boost).
- Kamen Rider Gotchard revolves around "Chemy" Mons that were brought to life with the power of Alchemy, which includes a whole group of vehicle Chemies. One is Golddash, a motorcycle Chemy who serves as Gotchard's ride; there's also a spiked-wheel bicycle Chemy named Spicle in the set but it never makes a physical appearance. The series' Riders can Fusion Dance with pairs of Chemies to transform:
- Gotchard's fusions end up pairing both bikes with animals, Golddash with a crab and Spicle with a whale, and Gotchard can choose to use any of his transformations in humanoid or non-human forms. The motorcycle/crab form ends up extremely heavily armored and can transform into a wheeled mecha-crab, while the bicycle/whale combo's humanoid form is never seen but its nonhuman transformation turns him into a giant bike with whale attributes (whale-sized, rubbery, and can spray water from a blowhole).
- Valvarad can augment his armor with vehicle Chemies, and later as Kamen Rider Valvarad he fuses them with "Occult" (cryptid) partners. He never actually used either bike fusion within the show, but his possible combos are bicycle/fairy and motorcycle/kraken.
- At one point, a second Gotchard (normal Gotchard's future self) shows up with his own set of fiery "Daybreak" Chemies, and is shown riding in on Daybreak Golddash.
- Kamen Rider Gavv's bikes both tie into his use of Anthropomorphic Power-Up Food called Gochizo:
- By using a "Vrocan" ("Vroom Candy") Gochizo, Gavv can summon either an ATV called the Vrocanbuggy that he uses in combat or a regular motorcycle for civilian use. The buggy version can shoot hard-candy ammo out of the sides of its wheels, and in his Mini-Mecha form Gavv can grab it and hold it upside-down to use as a gatling gun.
- Surprisingly, the Gochizo also get a bike. Gavv's sword has a wide blade styled like a street, and it comes with a miniature roller-wheeled chopper motorcycle for the Gochizo called the Gochispeeder. The speeder is shown to be mostly useless in a fight, though.
- The Falcon in the Murdoch Mysteries episode "Murdoch Rides Easy", which can reach an astonishing-for-1910 speed of 75 miles an hour, and not even William Harley and Arthur Davidson themselves can figure out how. Murdoch's attempts to reverse-engineer this result in him inventing the nitrous oxide injector, but it turns out the bike's creator hadn't discovered this and was just lying about the speed.
- Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation gave Raphael a motorcycle. Despite Master Splinter's disapproval of the thing (A roaring loud engine is NOT HELPFUL when you trying to be stealthy), the idea proved popular enough to be used in the second cartoon. See below.
- NOS4A2: Vic has one she frequently rides in Season 1 that's actually magical, allowing her to travel over vast distances by a bridge she conjures for locating lost things. This is lost, but she gets another which lets her do the same thing in Season 2.
- Every employee from Pizza has a scooter
- Reno Raines rides one in Renegade.
- Sons of Anarchy is made of this trope. The titular bikers mostly ride custom Harley Davidson Dynas, with a few exceptions.
- Street Hawk was a short-lived 1985 Knight Rider ripoff which used a (non-talking) super-bike instead of a car. It is heavily armed, can boost assist for jumps and, when Mission Control is able to program a safe route under its control, can go over 300 MPH on urban streets with little threat of collision.
- In Super Sentai and Power Rangers, most teams had at least one or two bikes. Some teams would get a full set of bikes for each member (the Sixth Ranger often being left out if there was one), while other teams only had bikes for certain members, forcing the others to ride on a sidecar equipped on one of the bikes or use a different vehicle. However, they were gradually phased out in the the late 90s and 00s in favor of more fantastical vehicles or upgrades to their mecha. This wasn't much of an issue for Power Rangers, where the teams mainly used teleporters in the early seasons and the bikes were only kept just for the toys. However, several seasons gave everyone (or almost everyone) a bike where Sentai did not.
- Power Rangers also had no less than five flying bikes, each for a single Ranger in its season (Wes, Cole, Hunter, Ethan, and Will). They'd transform from motorcycles to various types of flying gear. Funnily enough, they seem to be the one piece of gear exempt from the Protagonist Power-Up Privileges, as the latter three went to The Lancer instead of the Red Ranger. There's also Carter's Trans-Armor Cycle, which turned into that season’s battlizer no less.
- Whether it's cool or not is up to the individual, but the most unique bike was the one belonging to the Omega Ranger / DekaBreak. It was a motor-unicycle! And those actually exist, some looking quite like the one in the show. Also, Omega Ranger's/DekaBreak's Humongous Mecha is a giant motorcycle that other robots can ride.
- No Ranger in Power Rangers Samurai has a bike at all, or any vehicles for that matter, but their mentor Ji does. Mike even asks if he, as a traditional samurai, should have a horse instead; Ji only replies "Have you ever had to clean up after a horse?" Though the lack of transport for the team kind of begs the question of how they would actually get to the battlefield.
- From the top:
- Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: All six get Shark Cycles, based on the Kakuranger bikes (of which there were originally three.) The Zyuranger bikes are seen in the background of one scene but not mentioned. The Dairanger bikes are toyline-exclusive.
- Power Rangers Zeo: Zeo Jet Cycles for the starting five; the Gold Ranger prefers to use his energy streak ability to get places fast. Being an alien hero with a different origin, it makes sense that he would not have all the standard equipment created for the rangers of Earth. Sadly, one doesn't get made for Jason when he returns. Ohranger was the same (in terms of bikes, not the Gold Ranger's origin).
- Power Rangers Turbo: Only the Blue Senturion has a bike; the car-themed Turbo team uses go-karts. Same for Carranger.
- Power Rangers in Space: The Silver Ranger's Galaxy Glider can transform into the Silver Cycle. Same for Megaranger.
- Power Rangers Lost Galaxy: Only the male Rangers get 'em. The female Rangers aren't bothered by this, probably because of their ability to always somehow already be wherever the boys are arriving by bike. The main transportation for the team is the flying Jet Jammer vehicles, which all five get. Poor Magna Defender is transportation-less. The Red Ranger's bike can turn into the Red Capsular Cycle for a finisher; this finishing mode is the only bike to come from Gingaman.
- Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue: The starting five all get bikes, but poor Ryan the Titanium Ranger is stuck riding the sidecar on Carter's bike. The sidecar could also be operated remotely for certain attacks. Also, the Trans-Armor Cycle is a bike that turns into armor becomes Carter's Super Mode. (The red bike and its Cool Sidecar are all that's from Go Go V).
- Power Rangers Time Force: The futuristic Vector Cycles were stored in miniature form until needed. Back in the year 3000, we could see the generic versions of them used by non-Ranger Time Force officers. Again the Sixth Ranger lacks one, but the Quantum Ranger probably doesn't mind, since he gets a jet. Also, the Red Ranger eventually gets a more weaponized bike called the Stratacycle. None of these were in Timeranger.
- Power Rangers Wild Force: All six get Savage Cycles based on their primary Zords (or in the case of Silver, it's the transformed state of his Zord and remains sentient!). When Cole's is destroyed, it's eventually replaced with a flying one given to him by Animus, based on the Falcon Zord. Gaoranger gave us the silver one only.
- Power Rangers Ninja Storm: Cam made three Tsunami Cycles for the main trio; the Thunder Rangers stole the designs and made improved ones. Strangely, Cam himself doesn't get one, even though he's the one who invented them and there's a green Tsunami Cycle in the toyline. In Hurricanger, only the Thunder Rangers had them (and apparently, that was the original plan in Ninja Storm, as the commercials for the introduction of the Thunder Rangers described the Tsunami Cycles as theirs). Hunter of the Thunder Rangers also gets the Ninja Glider Bike, which turns into a gliding vehicle.
- Power Rangers: Dino Thunder: Abaranger already had the Raptor Rider lizard mounts, but the CGI budget demanded that they were seldom seen outside of Abaranger footage. Enter the PR-exclusive Raptor Cycles for the primary colors, and ATVs for Tommy and Trent. The Blue Ranger, Ethan, also gets the Hovercraft Cycle. (Sadly, the teamup neglects to have an Ethan/Hunter hoverbike teamup).
- Power Rangers S.P.D.: Bikes for the boys only, and this time, it does get a Lampshade Hanging. As does the fact that Red and Green's bikes (Power Rangers exclusives) have a lot of weapons the blue one doesn't. Also, the Omega Ranger has a unicycle-style bike, and if you want one of your own, you won't have to wait until 2025! Only Blue's bike and Omega's uni-bike were in Dekaranger. And of course, the coolest Cool Bike of all is the mecha version, racing in faster than any of the other machines (yes, even the flying ones) and able to be ridden by the Megazord as well as turn into one of its own.
- Power Rangers Mystic Force: Both here and in Magiranger, there were Star Wars-style jet-bikes all around, except for the Sixth Ranger who gets a flying carpet. Unique to Mystic Force, the red one can turn into a more standard motorcycle. It'll be a while before we see bikes for everyone as standard Ranger equipment again.
- Power Rangers Operation Overdrive: Neither Sentai nor Power Rangers gives everyone a personal vehicle while morphed, though Rangers gives a variety of vehicles for them to use while unmorphed. The Black Ranger, Will, gets the Hovertek Cycle, which can turn into a hovering vehicle.
- Power Rangers Jungle Fury: Red has a bike that transforms into a finishing mode a la the Red Capsular Cycle. Yellow has a cheetah-themed bike she uses once when turned into a punk/gangster type by a Monster of the Week spell; sadly, it is only seen on that one occasion.
- Power Rangers RPM: You'd think this vehicle-themed series would have more vehicles! Butt-Monkey Ziggy's little moped is all that exists in the way of bike-ish vehicles (while Scott and Dillon have cars instead). However, the Humongous Mecha are animal/vehicle hybrids, and it's Ziggy that gets the shark/bike hybrid. Watch out for its tail-whip strike! ...Which he first activates purely by accident.
- Power Rangers Samurai: As said before, Mentor Ji is quite fond of his sweet ride.
- Power Rangers Megaforce: We get no bikes in this one, but when Samurai's Jayden and Ji guest star, it's only natural that Ji's riding his.
- Power Rangers Dino Charge: The new Dino Cycles aren't just fast, they've got tracking equipment. They're not Ranger-color-coded, instead being black and yellow like much of their equipment. They are actually created by combining two miniature unicycle-zords, a detail shared by Kyoryuger, where there are six of them total, one for each of the main five and a sixth used by the second Kyoryu Violet. In Dino Charge, we've seen them used by Rangers outside the main six, but it's unclear how many there are; you seldom see more than one or two riding them at once.
- Power Rangers Ninja Steel: All six Rangers have Mega Morph Cycles, motorcycles that transform from shuriken. Only five are seen at first, but we do get a late-series scene with all six using them in one scene. Like in Dino Charge, they're non-personalized and the entire team gets identical ones. Ninninger didn't have anything like this, and this is the first time in a while that Power Rangers has added a set of team vehicles that Sentai didn't have.
- Power Rangers Beast Morphers has Devon's Robot Buddy Cruise transform into a motorcycle. The Lion zord can also transform into a motorcycle to be ridden by Devon's Beast Racer zord. Same as Go-Busters.
- Power Rangers Dino Fury in season two episode two the dino fury cycle (which is a drag racing bike for all intents and purposes) is introduced and It not only goes like a bullet every inch of it Screams style and check this out although she is not a ranger herself Solon The Dino fury Rangers female dinosaur mentor rides the dino fury cycle into battle in episode 16 Yes you heard that right a dinosaur riding a dinosaur themed motorbike only on power rangers.
- Then Came Bronson, a loner Walking the Earth action-adventure show starring Michael Parks that ran for only one season in 1969 and '70. He does his wandering on a 1969 XLH 900cc Harley-Davidson Sportster.
- Tin Man (2007): DG's ride of choice appears to be a vintage 40's era motorcycle. It's also implied by her interaction with Officer Gulch that she rides like crazy on it.
- The Top Gear "1949" episode involves a race from London to Edinburgh (some 400 miles) in state-of-the-art vehicles of the time - Richard was ecstatic over choosing the legendary Vincent Black Shadow, but soon came to regret the decision over the long, long ride.
- Daryl's bike in The Walking Dead is a Honda 750 Nightwing he modified himself for a world full of zombies. It has a crossbow holder.
Music
Pinballs
- The Bat-Pod in Stern Pinball's Batman, prominently featured on the sides of the cabinet.
- The Evel Knievel pinball shows Evel riding his famous Harley Davidson XR-750.
- Naturally, the various Harley Davidson pinballs feature Cool Bikes from the company.
- The first game includes a FXSTC Softail front and center.
- The original table from Sega Pinball has models of the FLSTS Heritage Springer, FLSTS Springer Softail, and FXDL Dyna Low Rider on the playfield.
- Stern Pinball's "2nd Edition" and "3rd Edition" releases use models of the 1999 FLSTF Fat Boy, the 2000 FLSTF Fat Boy, and the 2001 FLSTS Heritage Springer.
- The protagonist's futuristic bike in Space Riders, complete with tapered nosecone, tailfins, and rocket thrusters.
- In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the Terminator can be seen riding a Harley-Davidson Fat Boy during the video for "Chase Loop".
- The Light Cycles from TRON: Legacy, prominently shown on the cabinet side art.
Professional Wrestling
Tabletop Games
- Crimestrikers has several kinds.
- One of the standard Crimestriker vehicles is the Thrillseeker, a motorcycle that can convert to flying mode.
- The Rapid Pulse, G.T. Overley's custom ride, is an enclosed cycle-like vehicle. It's inspired by Visionaries' Lancer Cycle and Shadow Strikers' Smokescreen.
- Audrey Claymore has a hovercycle, the Prairie Protector.
- Trix Condello has her own mini-hovercycle, the Trixter.
- Steve Jackson Games' catalog once contained a fictitious entry for Kung Fu CB Mamas on Wheels vs. the Motorcycle Aztec Wrestling Nuns. Despite not actually being a real game, if it did exist, it would have had one side entirely on Cool Bikes.
- Macho Women with Guns has only three character classes ... and one of them is Motorcycle Nun.
- Rifts has tons of these. Street Bikes, Off-road Bikes, Jumping Bikes, Transforming Bikes and well over a dozen Hover Bikes. At least half of which are armed or have that option.
- The WOPR from WarGames Defcon 1 has one of their earliest units being the Tri-bike, a drone motorcycle armed with twin machine-guns. It also has it's own built-in flare launcher which is used for summoning airstrikes for massive damage.
- Warhammer 40,000 is full of Cool Bikes of all sorts. The Space Marines field Assault Bikes and their cousins the Attack Bikes with their partner sidecars. A machine able to carry one or two fully-armored Space Marines into battle at incredible speeds and provide plenty of arms for battle fits the bill. The Eldar and Dark Eldar are still able to field Jetbikes. Sleek and speedy, able to hit you before you even know it works well with either Eldar. The Leagues of Votann get to speed in on hover trikes with back-mounted laser rotary cannons. Meanwhile, Orks can find incredible fun in their ramshackle Warbikes. Fast, deadly, and most importantly, loud, they are the epitome of the Speed Freeks.
Toys
- Hot Wheels have also made many Cool Bikes over the years. Special examples include the Ferenzo, the X-Blade and the Pit Cruiser, amongst others.
- From LEGO:
- The Destral Cycle from BIONICLE. So cool, it was the only one in their universe, and a villain stole it so that only he could ride it.
- The Furno Bike and Speeda Demon's ride from Hero Factory.
- LEGO Technic and LEGO Racers have produced many fine and crazy bike sets.
- Millennia from Slizer had two forms, one of which was a large, wide-wheeled bike ridden by his small robot form.
- RoboRiders were bizarre cyborg motorbikes, and the front wheels are also the ammunition.
Video Games
Visual Novels
- In The Fruit of Grisaia, Amane owns a heavily modified American chopper-style motorcycle named "Bobataro"!
Web Animation
- RWBY: Yang rides a motorcycle named Bumblebee. As the name suggests, it has a yellow paint job to match Yang's Color Motif. In Volume 2, she get's into a cross-city chase with a Humongous Mecha whilst riding it.
- Shrapnel:
- Averted in the first episode of KILL CONTRACT, since the "piece of shit" bike won’t even start.
- Played straight with Alouette’s white motorcycle.
Webcomics
Western Animation
- In Batman: The Animated Series, Robin rides one of these from time to time. He gets cool bikes across the DC multiverse.
- Biker Mice from Mars, where the Cool Bikes used by the protagonists were not only cool, and armed to the teeth, but sentient as well.
- From Code Lyoko, Ulrich's "Overbike". A mono-wheeled, flying bike with a reactor. Virtual, but certainly cool. It has a real-world close equivalent◊. Main difference is the color. (And that it doesn't fly, obviously.)
- C.O.P.S. (1988) features Highway's Bluestreak Motorcycle and and the C.R.O.O.K.S.' Air Speeder.
- Danny Phantom: In the first draft, Danny was supposed to ride a Harley. In the actual series, Johnny 13 does.
- The Ratcatcher in Darkwing Duck. While not as obviously modelled on his face as the Thunderquack, it has a distinctly duckbilled front fender.
- In Gargoyles, Brooklyn, Broadway and Lexington, despite being Winged Humanoids capable of gliding high above the New York skyline, become enamored with motorcycles and elect to build a genuinely badass custom chopper... which Brooklyn accidentally wrecks the first time he takes it out for a spin.
- Generator Rex:
- Rex can create the "Rex Ride", an orange and grey floating motorbike.
- Valve also has a Cool Bike that is grafted onto his body.
- In the Grojband episode "Soulin' Down the Road", Mina rides a motorcycle with a sidecar.
- Zoom's bike The Chopper in Hot Wheels: Battle Force 5, so called because it's both a motorcycle and a helicopter!
- David gets one of these from Doc in Invasion America. You don't get much cooler than a bike that you pilot with your mind, and which doubles as a hovercraft.
- Kai's sword of fire from Ninjago is revealed to be able to transform into an even cooler motorcycle, the Blade Cycle.
- Legends of Chima has the Speedorz, one wheeled motorcycles that make the sound effects of their tribe's beasts.
- The first episode of Loonatics Unleashed has Tech Coyote summon six motor bikes to the harbor by remote control. It's just one button: summon; the bikes ride themselves to the scene. Once the Loonatics mount them and get underway, they convert in transit into flying bikes. Upon these, the Loonatics engage the Ice Viking longboat, which can also fly, and shoot a Freeze Ray at them.
- M.A.S.K. has several: Condor, Piranha, Vampire, Iguana and Bullet.
- Motorcity: Chopper Mutt in the finale.
- In the later seasons of ReBoot, the virus Megabyte gets an upgrade from cool limo to Cool Bike, which is later acquired by Andraia. In her own words: "Now that is a nice bike!◊" Matrix gets his own Cool Bike later, one which can perform a Macross Missile Massacre.
- The fifth season of Samurai Jack has Jack arrive riding a badass bike with spiked wheels.
- Most people only remember Spiral Zone for the numerous armed bikes belonging to both heroes and villains.
- Storm Hawks has flight capable motorbikes called Skimmers. They usually fly with a jet-propulsion system, but some have a helicopter lift like Piper's. A Whole Episode Flashback revealed that smaller versions were pedal-powered.
- SWAT Kats: The Cyclotron launches right from the Turbokat, comes in both one and two seat varieties, has all sorts of weapons, fires miniature versions of a lot of the Turbokat's missiles. And it has a jet engine. In one episode, the SWAT Kats navigate a flooded area of Megakat city on jet ski variants of the Cyclotron.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003): As the team's resident badass, Raphael has a bike. One episode shows us that there are multiple bikes— all Colour-Coded for Your Convenience. Don's even has a Cool Sidecar, used once one of the other bikes gets wrecked.note Note that this is not a rare occurrence.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012): Casey Jones has the extremely rare instance of having a Cool Bicycle, thanks to the fact he's tricked it out with a grease slick, flamethrower, jousting spikes, firework cannon, and missile launcher.
- Teen Titans (2003): Following suit from Batman: The Animated Series, Robin rides one, as does Red X.
- Both Prowl and Oil Slick from Transformers: Animated. Prowl is a Japanese-style racing bike, Oil Slick is a positively demonic looking chopper.
- Arcee's vehicle form in Transformers: Prime, ridden by Jack on a regular basis. It's loosely based on her live-action film incarnation, which was in turn loosely based on her Energon incarnation (times three.)
- The Spider-Cycle from Ultimate Spider-Man (2012).
- The aforementioned Lancer Cycle from Visionaries, which is also magically powered.
- The Tornado Z in Zorro: Generation Z.
Real Life
- Although all bikes are generally cool, there are some models that are quintessentially cooler than the rest. If you have one of these, you're likely going to spark up a conversation with bikers:
- BMW R90/S, K1200R, R1200R and R1150R Rockster
- Triumph Bonneville, Daytona, and Speed Triple
- Ducati, any of them, but particularly the Monster and the Desmosedici
- Ducati engines use desmodromic valve gear. That type of valve gear is really complicated and expensive. No other manfacterer uses it. They're also immune to valve float and Ducati engines don't tear themselves apart when exceeding redline.
- Harley-Davidson, particularly the Softail Fat Boy as made infamous by Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Harley's mystique as a symbol of Americana and iconic design has made the brand a Cult Classic, spawning clubs, ministries and gangs revolving around Harleys among other things. Also of note is of its engines, some of which have been Long-Runners like the Big Twin (aka the Knucklehead, Shovelhead, Panhead and Evolution) being produced from 1936 to 1999 and Sportster engine, which was first introduced in 1957note The Sportster engine traces its lineage to the earlier Model K, which used a similar engine block but different valve train and is still being sold to this day, albeit updated to keep up with modern standards.
- Victory Motorcycles, The Rival to Harley-Davidson; its parent company Polaris Industries now also owns the Indian Motorcycles marque, eventually discontinuing the Victory line to focus more on Indian.
- Boss Hoss, for when you need to fit an entirely unreasonable engine to a bike. Of particular note is the "Super Sport", which stuffs a goddamned V8 into a bike.
- KTM, particularly the SuperDuke
- The Can-Am Spyder built by BRP. One look at it will tell you why.
- MV Agusta's F4 and Brutale bikes. They only make a handful of these per year, by hand.
- The BMW R75◊ and Zündapp KS-750◊ couple from World War Two were more about utility than coolness, yet they were the workhorses of the Wehrmacht, they had an automobile-like powered rear axle, locking differentials, offroad gears and usually could go where no sane driver of a Jeep or Kubelwagen would ever attempt to.
- An entire class of motorcycles designed for the same purposes as the WWII Wehrmacht bikes flourished in the Eastern Bloc from the late 1950s to late 1970s. Some were even direct copies of the R75. Others used a much simpler design, with big two-stroke, one-cylinder engines and chain drive. In rural areas, their simple design, easy to fix on the roadside with hand tools, provided much needed mobility for people when public transport was too unreliable and cars were financially out of reach. Czech CZ or Jawa, Russian IZh, KMZ or Minsk, East German Simson or MZ. The fashion of the bike and sidecar faded when cars became more accessible and provided more comfort in that harsh climate and roads.
- Including the Chinese Chiang Jiang.
- The modified "Indian" Scout used by Burt Munroe at the Bonneville salt flats; it still holds the land speed record for motorcycles under 1000cc.
- Most Indian motorcycles of the late 1930s to the early 1950s, but above them all the Indian◊ Four◊. One can hardly be more Diesel Punk than that.
- Henderson four-cylinder◊ motorcycles were among the earliest brands to hit regularly 100 mph in full road trim, which made them the favorite brand of police forces in the 1920s. Before Harleys, Moto Guzzis or even Indians.
- The legendary Vincent Black Shadow, widely considered the world's first superbike, with a top speed of 125 MPH, which was insane for its time period but has since been topped by other bikes. Hunter S. Thompson loved the bike in question and famously wrote about it in his novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
- Enclosed motorcycles, for those who like a more futuristic look, like the Peraves Monoracer or the TECA Technologies concept bike◊.
- The Honda Valkyrie Rune◊. Oh, the Honda Valkyrie Rune...
- It's predecessor, the Valkyrie F 6 C, set the stage as a production bike with a rather radical concept- take the 1500cc flat-six engine out of the then-current Goldwing, hop it up a bit (to the tune of 100 horsepower), then strip off nearly all excess weight by putting into a frame of a standard cruiser. What your left with is a bike that will do nearly everything- renouned Goldwing smoothness and reliability on long rides, but a lot more punch if you grab a handful of throttle.
- Not all that radical, more a return to its roots. The original GL1000 Goldwing was designed as a muscle bike. Due to its smooth, torque-happy engine, low-maintenance shaft drive and comfortable riding position many long distance riders started fitting theirs out with fairings and saddlebags. Honda took notice and started offering the Wing as a full-dress touring bike from the factory.
- There's also its successor, the 2nd Gen Valkyrie, where the design changes and improved power-to-weight ratio (mainly by fitting the larger displacment engine from the 1800cc Goldwing) have firmly shifted the bike into the "Power Cruiser" or Muscle Bike territory.
- Then there's the Honda NM4, also known as the "Vultus"note Latin for expression, appearance, or face in some parts of the world. The result of what happens when Honda tells their engineers and designers to go ahead and make a Cool Bike, originally with the intent of displaying their skills as a concept bike, and they decide to build a tribute to Kaneda's motorcycle and other futuristic designs. Honda realized it was realistic and practical enough to go ahead and put it into mass production.
- Speaking of cool Honda bikes, the 1978 Honda CBX stands out amongst other classic Japanese bikes with an advanced DOHC 24-valve inline 6-cylinder engine. While the chassis wasn't particularly special, the exhaust note is sure to turn heads as it straight up sounds like an F1 car. No really, take a listen...
- 6-cylinder bikes in general have coolness built right into them, literally. The Benelli Sei, the Honda CBX, the Kawasaki Z1300 are greatly sought after by classic motorcycle enthusiasts for a good reason. Nowadays though, 6-cylinder engines are mostly used on cruisers or muscle bikes. However, they have made a comeback in the last decade with Honda's new Gold Wing GL1800 and its close rival, the BMW K1600.
- Dodge Tomahawk. It uses the exact same engine that the Dodge Viper sports car does. What sort of engine is that, you ask? A V-10. A very high-displacement V-10. Despite giving the bike the highest top speed of any motorcycle (350 MPH), this unfortunately makes the bike a case of Awesome, but Impractical, as the weight and size of the engine meant that it had to have 4 wheels side-by-side and the fuel tank had to be mounted way at the front to avoid the heat the engine gives, and has a fuel economy figure of about 60 feet to the gallon.
- You could be forgiven for believing it safer to just take the warhead off a missile and ride that instead. (It'd probably still be just as safe with the warhead left in place.)
- If you want a somewhat practical alternative to the Tomahawk, Boss Hoss motorcycles produces a line of special high-performance motorcycles and trikes powered by Chevrolet "Small Block" or "Big Block' V8 engines. Despite their sheer size, power and weight, they are surprising comfortable to ride thanks to a combination of high build quality, low engine vibration and semi-automatic transmission with a reverse gear. Certainly a rare example of Awesome, and practical. As practical as needing a car-sized fuel tank just to have the same range as smaller motorcycles.
- Bimota's Tesi line of motorcycles, especially the Tesi 3D◊, with its much sleeker looks compared to its predecessors - The idea behind the design seems to be to put as much emphasis on its two-wheeled-ness as possible without impairing its functionality as a speedbike.
- The unique front suspension (technically called a hub-center steering system) also serves a practical purpose: the traditional front suspension, consisting of telescopic forks, have a constantly varying rake (degrees from vertical) as the bike pitches forwards and backwards, which can upset the bike's handling. The hub-center steering system maintains a constant rake, preventing this.
- One does not talk about cool bikes without mentioning a Confederate.
- The 1999 Suzuki Hayabusa one of very few street-legal motorcycles in the world capable of going faster than 300 km/h. The main reason for this is because in 2000 all the motorcycle manufacturers agreed to have safety measures to prevent bikes from going above that when they realized that few people can safely handle bikes going faster than that.
- The legendary British motorcycle maker Norton returned in The '90s. They made a new Manx, but they also presented the Nemesis A, only a prototype of which was made. It had a 1.5-liter V8 that allegedly produced 280bhp with natural aspiration, and it was unveiled before speed governors became mandatory, so it's safe to say that the Nemesis A would have mopped the floor with the Hayabusa and basically anything short of...
- The MTT Turbine Superbike, also known as the "Y2K Turbine Superbike", is one of the few commercially jet engine powered motorcycles. As cool as this sounds, with its up to 410 shaft horsepower engine and aggressive looks, it's subverted in the sense that it's really loud, produces really hot (1400F degrees) jet wash, and is treated as something of a Dancing Bear in the land of motorcycles. Jay Leno has got one.
- For sheer specs alone, the Kawasaki Ninja H2R deserves a mention. It packs an inline-four, supercharged, 998cc engine that produces a whopping 310 bhp of power - making it the most powerful road-homologated bike ever. This handily beats most entry level sports cars and makes it as fast as most high-end supercars. Oh, and its looks reek of pure badass.◊
- The Lightning LS-218, an electric bike with a claimed top speed of 218 mph, which would make it the world's fastest production motorcycle.
- The Arc Vector, also electric but more bells and whistles than you shake a stick at. 0 to 60 in 3.1s, but the controls are where the amazing happens. Keyless, reliant on the supplied helmet, which contains a HUD that replaces onboard dials and readouts. The rear facing camera is fed to the HUD and haptic feedback in the supplied armoured jacket provides other warnings eg imminent loss of grip or approaching traffic from behind. The price, though. £90k sterling, about $115k US.
- The Münch-4 TTS, also unofficially known as the Münch Mammut, was one of the coolest bikes you could ride in The '60s, and it became the father of the modern big bike. Its inspiration came when its later designer, Friedel Münch, took a glance under the hood of a NSU Prinz 1000 TT, looked at the air-cooled four-banger and decided, "This needs to power a bike." It went into small-scale production in 1966. It was huge for its time, there's no denying that. But in spite of its size and weight, the 1968 version with 1,200ccm and 88bhp easily outran everything the Brits and Italians sold, even leaving Vincent Black Shadows in the dust while fully loaded. Naturally, Jay Leno has got one.
- Münch returned for a short time with the Münch Mammut 2000. A bike made from the year 2000 on—and with a roughly 2,000ccm turbocharged (!) engine and 260bhp. It must have been one of the first bikes with a speed governor, and the engine produces so much power that you may think the clutch is slipping at 3,000rpm when it's actually the rear wheel.
- As the previous paragraph goes to show, if German individuals design motorcycles, they usually go completely and utterly bonkers.
- The Vespa 150 TAP: a normal Vespa 150 scooter that the French licensed manufacturer reinforced and equipped with a 75mm recoiless rifle and six rounds to provide mobile anti-tank firepower to the paratroopers. The rifle is supposed to be dismounted and fired from a tripod, but in emergency it can be fired from the moving scooter.
RetroSearch is an open source project built by @garambo
| Open a GitHub Issue
Search and Browse the WWW like it's 1997 | Search results from DuckDuckGo
HTML:
3.2
| Encoding:
UTF-8
| Version:
0.7.4
