Yesterday was Fourth of July – a day to chill out with beer and burgers And watch some fireworks while thinking about all the things that make the United States the country it is Today. Unfortunately, this year’s 4th of July festival was beset by rain in New York, so I spent my vacation doing the next best thing: Watch cartoons and play The Last Illusion.
But when you combine those two forms of communication — in this case, Kill la Kill And Final Fantasy VII Remake – I noticed something. Something so special, so unremarkable, that anyone but me would probably miss it: This unique bike design keeps going back and forth over and over and I’d love to find out. what is it.
I first noticed this shape for the first time since Final Fantasy VII Remakewhile the level where my close friends Biggs and Wedge used two of these bikes to help my other best friend Jessie Raspberry visit her parents and steal some explosives. Cloud Strife, the professional wet rag, is also there.
The bikes in FFVII is completely alien. They exist in a society that doesn’t even use gasoline — the mako power provided by Shinra might explain the lack of fuel tanks — but there’s something very familiar about them. They have elements of Yamaha’s TW200, Kawasaki’s KLR650, and Suzuki’s DRZ400. That’s neat I suppose, the designers gathered from a variety of real-world dual sports to create something that fits right in the city of Midgar.
However, something is still wrong – like I’ve seen this bike somewhere. It feels familiar in a way that alternative world art design often doesn’t. Then I watch Kill la Killand become obsessed.
I confirm that Ryuko’s motorcycle is exactly the same as the one that Cloud, Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge used. The bars are flat, wide, high front fenders, upside down front struts, rectangular headlights below the body-color bibs. Even the flat enduro saddle, which extends from the bike’s triangular fuel tank back to the rear rail, is the same – although the artistic variation between episodes makes it unclear whether the bike pedal has the word Kill la Kill with alloy wheels, like the one pictured above, or spokes like the top shot.
Seeing this bike, I suddenly realized: There’s no way these two bikes happen is a similar combination of design elements borrowed from other dual sport bikes. There must be your single motorcycle, your dual sport, as the design basis for both.
But which bike would it be? The Kawasaki KLR650 too big, too much suspension travel and fork does not reverse. The Yamaha TW200 closer to the right size, but the bikes from Kill la Kill And FFVII remake lacks the TW’s conspicuously massive rear wheel. The Suzuki DRZ-400 may be the closest bike on the market right now, but its wheel-to-fender distance doesn’t seem to match the bikes in the show or game.
The closest design I’ve found so far is the one that’s now out of production Yamaha XT225 — a bike with painted bibs, high fenders, an enduro saddle, and a triangular fuel tank that all fit the fictional bikes. But even Yamaha lacks the fork before the reverse journey typical of other bikes, standing out in the midst of the sporty sea of vertical forks.
So I bring my question to all of you: What the hell did this bike inspire these two? There may be more than one answer, but I’m willing to bet there is at least at least one that fits most of those listed criteria – something that certainly inspired both bikes I saw this 4th of July.
