What 'Top Gun' Left Out About the Famous Motorcycle
Two-Wheel Truth
17,856 views
Everyone remembers the bike Tom Cruise rode down that runway in Top Gun. Almost nobody knows the film scrubbed the name clean off it, that it was very nearly a Honda, and that the machine underneath was a six-year secret and the first production bike widely credited with passing 150 mph.
Enjoyed this one? More deep dives into the machines that shaped motorcycling: @two-wheeltruth
This is the real story of the Kawasaki GPZ900R, the first bike ever to wear the Ninja name. How Kawasaki's US marketing man Mike Vaughan refused to hand Paramount free bikes and nearly lost the placement to Honda. Why Honda walked away over a helmet. How the GPZ900R was developed in secret over six years, why its liquid-cooled 16-valve inline-four set the template for the modern sportbike, and how a lightly prepared production model went 1-2 at the 1984 Isle of Man Production TT before Hollywood ever showed up. And how a bike the movie hid the name from became the most famous name Kawasaki ever built.
0:00 The Most Famous Motorcycle Scene in Cinema
1:44 The Phone Call That Almost Changed Everything
5:39 The Helmet Argument That Cost Honda the Deal
9:14 The Secret Six-Year Engineering Project
18:33 Proving the Performance on the Isle of Man
20:52 How a Scrubbed Name Created a Global Dynasty
20 Comments
Completely different, more stable frame. More stable under breaking, at high speed and making the brutal onset of the turbo-powered variant almost easy rideable. Well - skip the easy.
And that design was iconic. And the bike a legend. Drooled over one as a boy, made my day, still remember that occasion.
A friend of mine had the turbo driven variant. Extreme bike to ride.
It was a hell of a ride. The last generation with a very poor frame, poor brakes, poor steering. And heavy! But the motor had power far beyond the abilities of the rest of the bike.
I got an FZ750 two years later, also a used model, but that thing was out of another era. In hindsight I do not know how I survived the Z1000.
What 'Top Gun' Left Out About the Famous Motorcycle
Two-Wheel Truth
17,856 views
Everyone remembers the bike Tom Cruise rode down that runway in Top Gun. Almost nobody knows the film scrubbed the name clean off it, that it was very nearly a Honda, and that the machine underneath was a six-year secret and the first production bike widely credited with passing 150 mph.
Enjoyed this one? More deep dives into the machines that shaped motorcycling: @two-wheeltruth
This is the real story of the Kawasaki GPZ900R, the first bike ever to wear the Ninja name. How Kawasaki's US marketing man Mike Vaughan refused to hand Paramount free bikes and nearly lost the placement to Honda. Why Honda walked away over a helmet. How the GPZ900R was developed in secret over six years, why its liquid-cooled 16-valve inline-four set the template for the modern sportbike, and how a lightly prepared production model went 1-2 at the 1984 Isle of Man Production TT before Hollywood ever showed up. And how a bike the movie hid the name from became the most famous name Kawasaki ever built.
0:00 The Most Famous Motorcycle Scene in Cinema
1:44 The Phone Call That Almost Changed Everything
5:39 The Helmet Argument That Cost Honda the Deal
9:14 The Secret Six-Year Engineering Project
18:33 Proving the Performance on the Isle of Man
20:52 How a Scrubbed Name Created a Global Dynasty