The Streethawk TV series was one of the coolest shows on television in the 80s. It starred Rex Smith as police officer and former stuntman Jesse Mach who was selected to be a test rider for “Street Hawk“, (The TV Series had two words – Street Hawk and not Streethawk but one word sounds so much better don’t you think?) a secret crime fighting motorcycle capable of speeds of up to 300 mp/h, and was equipped with all sorts of gadgets including a machine gun! Norman Tuttle (Joe Regalbuto) was the engineer behind the bike, a mix between James Bond’s ‘Q‘ and Batman’s Alfred. Not only was the show cool, it had one of the catchiest soundtracks around, based on an original by German electronic music group “Tangerine Dream“!

The design of the Streethawk bike was dreamt up by Andrew Probert, who also designed the Airwolf helicopter! He has also worked on numerous sci-fi movies and TV series including Star Trek. You can read the complete story on his involvement in the Streethawk project here.

I’ve always been interested in the bike they used in the TV series. Apparently it was not one bike but many! The 2-hour pilot episode Streethawk was based on a 1983 Honda XL500 and the series used a different bike, based on a 1984 Honda XR500. For stunts they used bikes based on Honda CR250s. Streethawk sadly lasted only 13 episodes but with the resurgence of interest in Knight Rider, Transformers and other 80s icons, who knows, we may see a Streethawk remake! Super helicopter (Airwolf), super car (Knight Rider) and super bike. Hmmm.

There is more info on the Streethawk bike specs at Streethawk Online. To me, growing up in the 80s, I often wondered if the 2nd Suzuki Katana was inspired by Streethawk. Of course the Suzuki Katana was a German design wasn’t it? But that’s another story.

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The Streethawk TV series was one of the coolest shows on television in the 80s. It starred Rex Smith as police officer and former stuntman Jesse Mach who was selected to be a test rider for “Street Hawk“, (The TV Series had two words – Street Hawk and not Streethawk but one word sounds so much better don’t you think?) a secret crime fighting motorcycle capable of speeds of up to 300 mp/h, and was equipped with all sorts of gadgets including a machine gun! Norman Tuttle (Joe Regalbuto) was the engineer behind the bike, a mix between James Bond’s ‘Q‘ and Batman’s Alfred. Not only was the show cool, it had one of the catchiest soundtracks around, based on an original by German electronic music group “Tangerine Dream“!

The design of the Streethawk bike was dreamt up by Andrew Probert, who also designed the Airwolf helicopter! He has also worked on numerous sci-fi movies and TV series including Star Trek. You can read the complete story on his involvement in the Streethawk project here.

I’ve always been interested in the bike they used in the TV series. Apparently it was not one bike but many! The 2-hour pilot episode Streethawk was based on a 1983 Honda XL500 and the series used a different bike, based on a 1984 Honda XR500. For stunts they used bikes based on Honda CR250s. Streethawk sadly lasted only 13 episodes but with the resurgence of interest in Knight Rider, Transformers and other 80s icons, who knows, we may see a Streethawk remake! Super helicopter (Airwolf), super car (Knight Rider) and super bike. Hmmm.

There is more info on the Streethawk bike specs at Streethawk Online. To me, growing up in the 80s, I often wondered if the 2nd Suzuki Katana was inspired by Streethawk. Of course the Suzuki Katana was a German design wasn’t it? But that’s another story.

COPYRIGHT © UNIVERSAL STUDIOS & ANDREW PROBERT

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