FFuture

Among the other junk at home, I've got a model of Kaneida's bike from Akira. This is an FF with centre hub front end powered by some unspecified source (battery?). If you don't know this stuff, there is a huge market in Japan for futuristic comics (or "manga") and associated animation movies (" anime ") Apart from the Barbie shaped girls with big eyes and the distinctly western faces, these frequently feature motorcycle gangs on sci-fi motorcycles as well as a whole sub-genre about powered exoskeletons. The bikes often have unusual suspension arrangements and FF riding positions. The Judge Dread movie was heavily influenced by this although the bikes were completely ludicrous.

What reminded me about this was an article in a minority bike mag called "Grey Bike" about Jap market only unofficial imports. The article was about customising trends and cults in the Jap bike scene. The suggestion was that there is a very fast feedback loop between the riders, accessory shops and factories. A style appears on the streets, the aftermarket feeds it and then the factories sanitise and copy it which then leads to further changes on the streets.

This all suggests to me that perhaps the best way to get the factories to produce FFs is actually to build flashy FF customs, show them at the bike shows in Japan and then sell them to the kids on the street. Maybe all you would have to do is just cruise up and down the main Tokyo bike drag for a couple of weeks.

At least one Quasar was sold to Honda but I think it just ended up being dissected in their underground labs (cue the X-Files music!).

So here's the challenge. Not only do you have to build and ride a beautiful FF, You also have to have show quality paint and machine work, get it to Japan and show it off.

Don't you just love dreams!?

So what's this then?