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Kanada's bike from Akira becomes a reality
Akira is one of those classic films for geeks that's become an icon. Its bleak vision of the Tokyo of the near future, it's crazy story line, its disturbing visuals, all made it one of the most popular anime films ever made.
Now, the famous motorcycle from that movie has jumped from the screen and into reality. Think you can tear it up like Kanada? Well, you probably can't, as according to the horribly mangled machine translation I'm basing this post off, it's just a concept model. But hey, just seeing the real-life representation of such a classic piece of animation history is pretty cool, right? Yeah, I know, I wish it was for sale too.
By sagedismal at 1:24 AM ON 06/15/07
That's a really old picture. I've seen that version of the Akira live action bike before over 4 years ago. Now if you said they were going to mass produce them for sale then that's another story, but other than that, get a new story, this one is old.
By solace001 at 10:57 PM ON 06/18/07
It hasn't really been clarified just how functional this really is. Is it balanced for riding? Is it even street legal? I can't imagine real AKIRA fans or motorcycle enthusiast being excited by a model.
By Storm at 4:31 AM ON 09/18/09
I am excited by the concept of the bike but it is an engineering challenge. You have a forward mounted motor driving a rear wheel with an incredibly low seat in the way. How do they route the chain? How does the swing arm function? The handlebars are so far back it's impossible to believe that they are directly attached to the forks. If they are attached to the forks then the extreme amount of rake would make your turning radius huge, not very practical. Also, in the anime it has reverse. How is this achieved, or is it ignored? Maybe the motor drives the front wheel?
Seeing this picture just ignites my imagination and brings up so many questions. I would like to see schematics, or at least photos of the inner workings.
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Storm:
I am excited by the concept of the bike but it is an engineering challenge. You have a forward mounted motor drivin...More »