7 motorbikes for the 7th koldo almandoz
In most road movies the star of the show is normally a car. There are those, however, who would rather forsake the four wheels and leave themselves open to the clemency of the weather. If you compare a bike to a car, well, the bike doesn't offer much protection. But anybody who has ridden a motorbike knows that the sensation of opening up the accelerator and feeling the thumping vibrating engine between your legs is better than any other type of caress. Motorbikes, like all passionate lovers, are very demanding of bike lovers. Just ask anybody who's been mashed into the ground and burned on a bike. They'll tell you. Enough. No more biker clichés. Time to get to the point. Motorbikes and cinema. Mobylette: Our very first motorbike-lover. You know the way French women have that something special, well, this bike conquered us in the same way. Amelie Poulain's heart can be seen parading around the streets of Paris on a Mobylette. The sounds of a Mobylette make up the soundtrack to the film "Rosetta". There's always a red Mobylette parked somewhere in Rohmer's summers.
Triumphs: This most-loved of English bikes has appeared in many films, but it was in "The wild one" (1954) where it just about reached star status. Underneath the butter-wouldn't-melt-in-my-mouth attitude of Marlon Brando, the two-wheeled English machine eventually struck fear into the heart of a whole village. The black leather jacket with the words Black Rebel Motorcycle Club emblazoned across the back will always have that special meaning attached to it.
BMW: Steve McQueen robs a German SS official's bike in the film "The Great Escape" (1963) and leaps over a barbed-wire fence. BWM was written across the bike, but it was actually a camouflaged Triumph. That sacrilege was never remedied until 1997 when the English Queen's very own servant James Bond used a BMW in the film "Tomorrow never dies". It cost the German manufacturers a packet but it did at least manage to save a little honour for them.
Vespa: Nani Moretti showed us the streets of Rome as seen from a Vespa in "Caro Diario". We previously got to see the Vespa in the very same surroundings as we witnessed the carry on of several night-owls in Fellini's "La Dolcce Vita" or "Roman Holiday" lovers Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn as they sat atop this very bike. Every Italian atrezzita needs a Vespa in their garage. Italy and its cinema certainly would not be the same without this bike.
Harley Davidson: Peter Fonda and Denis Hooper drove across the States on their Harleys as if they were the hippy children of the “wild” Marlon Brando. They called the film "Easy Rider". Drugs, deserts and gunfire. A way of understanding a generation and motorbikes. The Milwaukee Pig has appeared in many films since then, but none of those films is "Easy Rider".
Yamaha: Japanese bikes are King of the Hill in current commercial cinema. James Bond, apart from the brief liaison with BWM previously mentioned above, drives Yamaha bikes all the time. "Lara Croft" is another fan of Jap technology, as is Vin Diesel in the flick "XXX". All that said, in my humble opinion, Yamaha scaled its dizziest heights in the savage "Mad Max II".
Ural:The Russian Harley. The Ural has steamed across all the Eastern Steppes. The Ural also appears in the 1979 English war film "Escape to Athena". The bunch of bikers who appear in the film "Dikil Vostok", made in Kazakhstan, drive their Urals around as if they were Kurosawa's "7 samurai" as they help out some circus workers in peril.
Triumphs: This most-loved of English bikes has appeared in many films, but it was in "The wild one" (1954) where it just about reached star status. Underneath the butter-wouldn't-melt-in-my-mouth attitude of Marlon Brando, the two-wheeled English machine eventually struck fear into the heart of a whole village. The black leather jacket with the words Black Rebel Motorcycle Club emblazoned across the back will always have that special meaning attached to it.
BMW: Steve McQueen robs a German SS official's bike in the film "The Great Escape" (1963) and leaps over a barbed-wire fence. BWM was written across the bike, but it was actually a camouflaged Triumph. That sacrilege was never remedied until 1997 when the English Queen's very own servant James Bond used a BMW in the film "Tomorrow never dies". It cost the German manufacturers a packet but it did at least manage to save a little honour for them.
Vespa: Nani Moretti showed us the streets of Rome as seen from a Vespa in "Caro Diario". We previously got to see the Vespa in the very same surroundings as we witnessed the carry on of several night-owls in Fellini's "La Dolcce Vita" or "Roman Holiday" lovers Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn as they sat atop this very bike. Every Italian atrezzita needs a Vespa in their garage. Italy and its cinema certainly would not be the same without this bike.
Harley Davidson: Peter Fonda and Denis Hooper drove across the States on their Harleys as if they were the hippy children of the “wild” Marlon Brando. They called the film "Easy Rider". Drugs, deserts and gunfire. A way of understanding a generation and motorbikes. The Milwaukee Pig has appeared in many films since then, but none of those films is "Easy Rider".
Yamaha: Japanese bikes are King of the Hill in current commercial cinema. James Bond, apart from the brief liaison with BWM previously mentioned above, drives Yamaha bikes all the time. "Lara Croft" is another fan of Jap technology, as is Vin Diesel in the flick "XXX". All that said, in my humble opinion, Yamaha scaled its dizziest heights in the savage "Mad Max II".
Ural:The Russian Harley. The Ural has steamed across all the Eastern Steppes. The Ural also appears in the 1979 English war film "Escape to Athena". The bunch of bikers who appear in the film "Dikil Vostok", made in Kazakhstan, drive their Urals around as if they were Kurosawa's "7 samurai" as they help out some circus workers in peril.
