In 1987 a US senator stood on the Senate floor and read four motorcycles into the record by name, then called them killers. He wanted the government to cap how fast a motorcycle was allowed to accelerate. The bikes he was after are the same ones a whole generation of American riders learned on.

This is the story of the machines that made the '80s rider who he is: the Kawasaki GPZ900R Ninja, the first stock bike to break 150 mph, and the Suzuki GSX-R750, the race replica that reset the class. It's also the story of the three-front campaign against them, the Danforth bill, a State Farm insurance blacklist, and a network TV special, and what the government's own crash numbers actually showed once you look at them honestly. Not a clean exoneration, but not the panic Washington was selling either.

Rode in the '80s? I want to hear about it, drop it in the comments.

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0:00 The Senator and the Bullet Bikes
1:49 The Wreckage of the Early 80s
3:18 The Trade War That Changed Everything
5:08 The Birth of the Ninja
9:48 The School of Hard Knocks
16:08 The Blacklist and the Backlash