Some of us may remember Akira, a 1988 Japanese anime film version by Katsuhiro Otomo, which was based on his original manga comic story. The story is about characters in post-nuclear war 2019 Tokyo, where Neo-Tokyo is filled with protestors, teenage bikers, soldiers and street gangs.

Central character Kaneda, a biker who attends reform school battles with his Capsule Motorcycle Club against the Clown bike gang and rides a really cool (how can he afford it!?) bike which has been the subject of the manga, anime and several attempts to produce 1:1 scale Akira-influenced bikes. Bandai also made a highly detailed model, which I recently acquired (and will review here later). McFarlane Toys had earlier made a plastic version whereas the Bandai version seems to have a metal subframe and lots of options to remove and add on bodywork.

In the anime, the sound of the Kaneda bike was produced by mixing the sound of a 1929 Harley-Davidson with the sound of a jet engine! The design was supposedly by a former Honda R&D engineer who left Honda to work for White House, a Japanese custom bike company. The manga showed the Kaneda bike with a Honda logo whereas the anime had a (sort of) BMW logo.

The Kaneda bike has become something of a motorcycling icon, despite being a work of fiction! Thousands of moped riders in Malaysia and elsewhere proudly placed ‘Akira’ stickers on their helmets, and the bike has embedded itself in the psyche of bikers everywhere. In addition to the manga, anime, toys and DIY replicas, an upcoming live action movie is in the works. More on that later.

バイカーブードゥー

You may have already read about the Swiss-designed Acabion GTBO, a two-wheeled enclosed motorcycle with a 750hp turbo-charged engine dreamed up by Lenka Mikova and Peter Maskus. It sure looks impressive, doesn’t it? It’s basically an enclosed hybrid-drive (electric motor assisted for low speeds) motorcycle which runs on two wheels under normal running conditions, with two outrigger wheels which lower themselves automatically at low speeds if balance is lost, or at high speeds. The aerodynamic shape is touted to enable the Acabion to save fuel, become very efficient and economical to run.

But the question begs to be asked … just how practical is it? For one thing the prices start at 1.83 MILLION Euros. That’s US$2.714 million / RM8.733 million, which is just mind boggling as I believe that’s about what Kenny Dreer‘s new Norton Commando took to develop! It takes three years to build an Acabion so be prepared to wait. What’s the turning circle like on this thing (it looks long)? How does it fare in start-stop urban traffic?

I’ve always been interested in alternative modes of travel so the Acabion really intrigued me, and it pains me to write something that sounds negative but transportation and mobility shouldn’t be only for a selected elite. Without prejudice, sorry Acabion but in my humble opinion right now even a T-Rex or a Carver are starting to look more affordable!

バイカーブードゥー

Some of us may remember Akira, a 1988 Japanese anime film version by Katsuhiro Otomo, which was based on his original manga comic story. The story is about characters in post-nuclear war 2019 Tokyo, where Neo-Tokyo is filled with protestors, teenage bikers, soldiers and street gangs.

Central character Kaneda, a biker who attends reform school battles with his Capsule Motorcycle Club against the Clown bike gang and rides a really cool (how can he afford it!?) bike which has been the subject of the manga, anime and several attempts to produce 1:1 scale Akira-influenced bikes. Bandai also made a highly detailed model, which I recently acquired (and will review here later). McFarlane Toys had earlier made a plastic version whereas the Bandai version seems to have a metal subframe and lots of options to remove and add on bodywork.

In the anime, the sound of the Kaneda bike was produced by mixing the sound of a 1929 Harley-Davidson with the sound of a jet engine! The design was supposedly by a former Honda R&D engineer who left Honda to work for White House, a Japanese custom bike company. The manga showed the Kaneda bike with a Honda logo whereas the anime had a (sort of) BMW logo.

The Kaneda bike has become something of a motorcycling icon, despite being a work of fiction! Thousands of moped riders in Malaysia and elsewhere proudly placed ‘Akira’ stickers on their helmets, and the bike has embedded itself in the psyche of bikers everywhere. In addition to the manga, anime, toys and DIY replicas, an upcoming live action movie is in the works. More on that later.

バイカーブードゥー

You may have already read about the Swiss-designed Acabion GTBO, a two-wheeled enclosed motorcycle with a 750hp turbo-charged engine dreamed up by Lenka Mikova and Peter Maskus. It sure looks impressive, doesn’t it? It’s basically an enclosed hybrid-drive (electric motor assisted for low speeds) motorcycle which runs on two wheels under normal running conditions, with two outrigger wheels which lower themselves automatically at low speeds if balance is lost, or at high speeds. The aerodynamic shape is touted to enable the Acabion to save fuel, become very efficient and economical to run.

But the question begs to be asked … just how practical is it? For one thing the prices start at 1.83 MILLION Euros. That’s US$2.714 million / RM8.733 million, which is just mind boggling as I believe that’s about what Kenny Dreer‘s new Norton Commando took to develop! It takes three years to build an Acabion so be prepared to wait. What’s the turning circle like on this thing (it looks long)? How does it fare in start-stop urban traffic?

I’ve always been interested in alternative modes of travel so the Acabion really intrigued me, and it pains me to write something that sounds negative but transportation and mobility shouldn’t be only for a selected elite. Without prejudice, sorry Acabion but in my humble opinion right now even a T-Rex or a Carver are starting to look more affordable!

バイカーブードゥー