I think I found the helmet of my dreams: Daft Punk.

Rock Stars: no makeup and hair worries for them..

These helmets were commissioned by the Techno Houseband band Daft Punk- these helmets are custom designed stage props and cost over $14,000. While the helmets are reasonably simple in design, the cost of labor and materials make it impractical to mass produce and market them. In addition, Daft Punk owns the copyright and concept rights to the helmets.

The boys have a bit of fun with Juliette Lewis in this Commercial for the Gap

Designer/fabricator Tony Gardner- created the bands incredible headgear and sport complicated electronics capable of various LED effects enabling the artists to flash messages and images across their visors. Daft Punk stated that they donned their robot masks to easily merge the characteristics of humans and machines. However, one of the two artists that make up daft punk Chris Bangalter later admitted that the costumes were initially the result of shyness. "But then it became exciting from the audiences' point of view. It's the idea of being an average guy with some kind of superpower." When asked on whether the duo expressed themselves differently within the robotic suits, Bangalter stated "No, we don't need to.

Daft punk in their amazing movie "Electroma"

After a few albums and concerts the musical duo's outfits became slightly less complicated, consisting of simplified versions of the Discovery head gear and dark leather motorcycle styled jumpsuits designed by fashion designer Hedi Slimane.

In a brief nutshell how the lads had their helmets made:
1. A model shop cast the face of the musician. This was used to create a bust which was
used as a template for the design.
2. The next step was to modify a motorcycle helmet. The body was cut away to allow for
cables and electronics. Two pin holes were provided so the wearer could see out.
3. Clay models were created for all the unique parts. This included a back pack and an arm
band controller.
4. Electronic displays were designed using prototype PC board materials.
5. The LED display panels were assembled by placing each LED one-by-one into a plastic
sheet and glued into place. Each LED required three feet of wiring to connect it to power
and control circuitry. The finished panel was bolted to the helmet frame.
6. The LED cabling was routed around the “ears” of the helmet and out the back. The
helmet cables led down to the backpack where the main controller board was located.
7. The system was originally powered by batteries, but this was later switched over to a
power cord system.
8. The control keypad on the armband was a custom manufactured PC board.
9. Exterior plastic molding and finishing materials were custom manufactured by a special
effects studio to complete the helmet. Once these pieces were added, the helmet details
were touched up with paint.

Being very well crafted the units are still in use for performances even today.

"Grandma was a motorcycle courier"

"During the London Blitz, Grandma was a motorcycle courier working for the Ministry of Information" Via:jrjenks blog.

Bikes of burden.

From Streetuse:

"Designed to move people, bicycles and motorbikes are actually used to move almost anything that can be moved. In my travels in Asia I've seen bikes piled impossibly high with all manner of cargo, from livestock to cardboard. It's really astounding what a bike can balance and transport. Dutch photographer Hans Kemp has focused his lens on the motorbike cargo culture of Vietnam. He's gathered his collection of 148 examples of the unintended cargo of motorbikes into a very finely printed photobook, called naturally enough, Bikes of Burden. Here are a few examples from his book, which is also available on Amazon."

Via: Cyberpunk Review

"Akira Club is an art book featuring cover art, sketches and outtakes from the paperback Akira collections. It’s a little pricey at thirty bucks when most the artwork is in black and white, and another set back is the format, which doesn’t match the Akira books. Though mostly presented in black and white, Otomo Katsuhiro’s artwork will blow your socks off. The artwork in Akira Club is incredibly detailed and the author’s commentaries and sketches really show you how much work has been put into the product. While penned many years ago, it doesn’t look a bit outdated. Akira is an epic piece of work at over 2000 pages and has won awards and prestige around the world. The animated movie based on the manga re-introduced the west to Japanese animation in the nineties. The quality of animation mirrors that of the manga and although large parts of the manga were cut from the movie, it still gets the story through to the viewer pretty well.

Background: The world of Akira is set after world war three and the destruction and rebuilding of Tokyo. Themes include transhumanism, corruption, low life and high tech and Akira comes across as incredibly cyberpunk, mostly focusing on the life of those on the ground in a super industrialized and militaristic Neo Tokyo. The artwork in Akira Club pretty much represents these themes in great detail. There’s a contrast between the giant, symmetrical skyscrapers which dominate the Neo Tokyo skyline and the life on the ground where there are a lot of organic and seemingly random shapes. There’s also a recurring theme of order put in chaos, like the front cover image; smooth motorcycle parts are jumbled together in a giant mess creating disarray where there once was a finely tuned machine, everything put together neatly.

A lot of the magazine covers show a destroyed Neo Tokyo behind mostly young people. The city being destroyed by a secret weapon created by the government, this gives a pretty strong image of the world being handed over to future generations ruined by our predecessors’ lust for more power through technological advances.


Section One: The first section collects several full colour paintings of magazine and book covers, T shirt designs and promotional posters, supplemented with preliminary sketches and short comments from the author; Otomo Katsuhiro.

Section Two: The second section is the biggest and focuses on the covers used for each chapter when Akira was serialized in Young Magazine. These weren’t included in the paperback collections because they’d break up the natural flow of the story, so having them collected here is kinda nice as the artwork is generally stunning. These do not include comments on the artwork but little musings on life by the author, which I personally found incredibly uninteresting.

It's all about the bike...

Section Three: The third section collects all sorts of odd artwork used in advertising and merchandise, there’s a lot of great art, but all in all it’s not as interesting as the last section of the book. Also included here are notes on the translation of Akira.

Section Four: The fourth section is probably the coolest out of the whole book, although I wish it were longer. Titled, “Unpublished Works,” it shows panels and scenes that were never included in the finalized Akira comic books, some pages include parts that were included in the serialized version of the comic, but were cut from the paperback collections.

The Bottom Line: Having “read” through the book, I feel a little let down; it’s like there’s something missing. The artwork, though awe-inspiring, is as noted mostly in black and white, and I feel there could have been more colour illustrations put in to compensate for the large number of cover illustrations from Young Magazine. The last part of the book could also have been a little longer. At two thousand pages, I’m sure there is more unpublished material than on display here. I’d like to see the parts excluded from the paperback collections in better detail, preferably in entirety, as I’m sure others are as well. I’ve only had access to the translated collections and would like to know what I’ve been missing out on."

Youtube: The Motorcycle doctors-Riders for Health..

Film from Goodmagazine. Riders for Health can be contacted here.

The Fenir-Close up.

A few weeks (months?) ago we did a post on the PS2 game hero Cloud's bike the Fenir from the Final Fantasy series and movie. Now we have more detailed pictures of the incredible Keita Amemiya designed bike created by computer artist Wen-JR and featured on moto.caradisiac. Enjoy!

Here's a rendering showing the bikes open "doors"-allowing access to our hero's rather large swords.

Performance Art.

By Carol Vogel from the NYtimes:

"As giant billows of smoke began filling the cavernous drill hall of the Seventh Regiment Armory one recent evening, there was no panic. Rather, there were shouts of exultation, along with what sounded like a chorus of foghorns.

“Look, it’s going in the right direction,” said Doreen Remen, a founder of the Art Production Fund, a nonprofit organization that presents unusual public art projects. With her co-founder, Yvonne Force Villareal, and the artist Aaron Young she gazed upward with relief as the smoke began filtering out the open windows along the rafters.

Four smoke machines had been brought in to simulate the conditions that could develop as 10 motorcycles ride around the 55,000-square-foot drill hall simultaneously. For Thursday evening’s test run the belching, thunderous machines had some competition: Wink 1100, a professional stunt rider who performed the trick sequences in the 2003 movie “Biker Boyz.” Wearing Tom Ford sunglasses, baggy blue jeans and a red-and-blue sweatshirt, he was enveloped in his own haze of smoke as he spun the wheels of his Honda CBR 954 on a designated patch of painted plywood.

It was the prelude to a turning point in the Seventh Regiment Armory’s 128-year history: the first performance art piece ever presented there, masterminded by Mr. Young. Tonight 10 motorcycle stunt riders wearing sunglasses will ride for seven minutes on 288 panels of painted plywood covering the drill hall floor as 500 invited guests, including members of Hells Angels, watch from the bleachers above.

Picts from supertouchblog

With neon lights attached to the undersides of their bikes, the riders will follow synchronized movements choreographed by Mr. Young. The burnouts from their tires will yield colorful swirls, zigzags and snake patterns on the plywood panels, which have been coated in seven layers of fluorescent reds, pinks, oranges and yellows and then sealed with two coats of black acrylic.

Titled “Greeting Card,” after a 1944 Jackson Pollock painting that has its own tangle of spirals, the work is described as both a performance piece and an action painting. When the riders have finished, they will have created a giant fluorescent multicolored floor piece that will remain on public view through Sunday. A film of the performance will be shown on a plasma screen in the hall.

It is the first in a series of art exhibitions and performances planned for the building by a new nonprofit group, the Seventh Regiment Armory Conservancy, which in December took over management of the crenellated red-brick behemoth on Park Avenue between 66th and 67th Streets from New York State. The group still plans to hold the art and antiques fairs that have attracted throngs for decades, but Rebecca Robertson, the conservancy’s president and chief executive, suggested that the armory could become even more of a cultural destination.

“The armory is neither a white-box gallery nor a proscenium stage,” she said. “Here you make it up. Luckily this space allows work that can’t be seen anywhere else in the city.”

For now, she said, the conservancy is in the research and development phase. Still, workers have been cleaning the neglected building, and air-conditioning has been installed in the drill hall for the first time, eliminating the need for the special trucks that once piped in cool air during art and antiques fairs. The $150,000 budget for “Greeting Card” is being covered by a group of sponsors that include Tom Ford, the fashion designer, and Sotheby’s.

Mr. Young, 35, a conceptual artist and sculptor, first began talking with the Art Production Fund about the piece last December at the Art Basel Miami Beach fair. “We didn’t think we could do this in New York,” Ms. Villareal said. “It required a large space with the audience watching the performance from above.”

But as soon as she and Ms. Remen heard that the armory was seeking art projects, they met with Ms. Robertson. “Her reaction was, ‘Bring it on,’ ” Ms. Villareal said.

Working at minimum wage, gallery assistants and students from Barnard and Columbia spent three days last week painting the panels. “It was like camp,” Ms. Remen said.

Thursday evening’s smoke experiment was one of many trials and rehearsals. To ensure that the smoke from the motorcycles will not endanger the audience, the glass has been removed from the 28 windows high in the rafters of the drill hall. Still, guests are warned in small letters on the bottom of the performance invitation: “A ventilation system has been installed to reduce the smoke and exhaust. Earplugs will be provided for the noise. If you are sensitive to either, please request a protected viewing space.” In addition to a glassed-in room for warier viewers, the Art Production Fund will furnish the audience with face masks.

Mr. Young said that given the challenges of the synchronization and the safety concerns, nothing had been left to chance. A month ago he did tests in an empty parking lot in the Bronx near Yankee Stadium.

To inspire the riders involved in “Greeting Card,” he gave each a photocopy of the Pollock painting. “The spiral motion is the template,” he said. The 10 bikers — five stunt riders from Team G Unit along with five friends — will each have a designated 23- by 43-foot area on which to perform zigzags, power slides and circles. The neon lights on the bottom of each bike will allow the audience to follow the movements through the smoky haze. “I want it lit like a boxing rink, very hard-edged,” Mr. Young said.

“Hopefully this will appeal to people who know nothing about motorcycles or about art,” he said as he examined shreds of tire rubber embedded in some of the wood panels, a byproduct of Wink’s brief motorcycle whirl.


Although Mr. Young does not ride himself, it is not his first artistic encounter with motorcycles. In 2000, as a student at the San Francisco Art Institute, he created a piece called “High Performance,” enlisting a group of cyclists he met at a local motorcycle bar called the Zeitgeist. “I got them drunk until they said yes,” he recalled. The riders performed burnouts in a studio that was once used by Diego Rivera. The result was a 3 1/2-minute video that was eventually acquired by the Museum of Modern Art.

When it is time for the 288 panels to leave the armory, Mr. Young plans to select about 20 of them to sell through the Art Production Fund. He and the fund will split the proceeds. Before the panels are sold, he plans to seal each one with a coat of clear resin.

“That way it will keep the hot melted rubber fixed,” he said. Even though the ride itself will last only seven minutes, he explained, the panels will be “archival.”

"Werner is a fictional character, appearing in a number of German comic books and animated films. He was created by Brösel (Rötger Feldmann). Werner is the most successful German comic character of all time with over 10 million books sold and over 13 million film admissions.

The Werner books are known for their anarchic humour, often based on Northern German dialect and puns.

Seems like a pretty clever fella-Werner

The character of Werner is based on Brösel's own experiences. Werner is an unemployed biker who likes to modify his motorcycle — which constantly gets him into trouble with the police and the TÜV. Werner also likes to consume large amounts of beer (known as Bölkstoff in the comics). In his younger years, Werner was apprentice to plumber Meister Röhrich - the situations and characters in these stories are based on Brösel's brother Andi's apprenticeship years."

The softheaded little twit is so popular he even has his own music video...

"The bike was drawn in a biker comic (see above), but the artists brother was so enamoured with it - that he brought it in to existance!

The cylinder came out of an old tractor, as did the wheels, the tires were once made for a Ford Model A and had spent several decades in storage somewhere, the seat is an actual shovel and the fork is made from forged iron and ash (wood). Although it runs on petrol, this looks more steam-ish than most steam motorcycles- it goes ka-tchunk, ka-tchunk like real machinery schould.."

...to reality

(The bike has a) "Custom made engine block, internals, cylinder head. DOHCs operating four valves via rocker arms. Generator from a Japanese compact car. Silencers (yes, they are there) came from dirttrack bikes, one in each pipe.

1440 cc displacement, the original aim had been for 1000. Actual Vintage Ford Model A tires, found virginly wrapped in paper in a Danish tire store. Modified Harley brakes and a Harley transmission. Fork made from well-aged ash, and forged iron. Due to a lack of space, the petrol tank is part of the handle-bar arrangement. The old look of most of the parts was achieved by means of heat and applying fiendish concoctions of various brown-ish metals.

The engine is, obviously, a stressed member, and due to a lack of foresight by the designers, the four bolts holding the cylinder and head assembly to the block are the only thing that keeps the bike together (note how the steering is bolted right to the cylinder head, as are the frame tubes). it delivers about 60 something hp or thereabouts, makes a noise like a steam-engine breathing angry spanners and is, of course, utterly and totally illegal in any conceivable way."

Korean Marketplace CargoCycles.

From Michael Carnassus via Streetuse:

"These motor bikes are used to transport stuff around Dong Dae Mun Market in Seoul. I love the way that the people in the market have this fiercely independent spirit of free enterprise but also have these complicated symbiotic relationships with one other. These bikes are the grease that make the market smooth, you see them ferrying ridiculously big loads for 500 metres or so to where the products are needed.

Note the carefully street modded/welded carrying beds with 90 degree load supports. I've seen fridges, washing machines and dish washers carried on these things without trouble, even the bicycles. Note the extended rear swing arms with twin suspension coils/springs."

The Game art of Stephen Jameson.

Quad-Wheel Motorcycle

Via: Stephen Jameson

"In our world game world "Damnation"(a steam-punk fantasy western that was released as a mod for Unreal Tournament in 2004), almost all horses have died in the ongoing civil war, and the mounts of choice have become steam powered motorcycles and other such mechanical conveyances. This bike has four wheels, and does not turn the way a regular motorcycle does, but instead scissors its wheels up and down, causing it to lean into turns. Just as with the robotic Automan, an asset such as this has a great danger of appearing too modern, or even futuristic, when the intent is to make it seem just the opposite. The shapes and metal choices played a key role in accomplishing this, as well as the Native American touches."

The Ingsoc motorcycle club gets its own patch.

These patches were inspired by the novel Nine-Teen Eighty-Four written by George Orwell and designed for the comic book adaptation currently in progress at 1984comic The badge may be sewn on your coat, hand bag, pack sack or outer party uniform. US $10.00 (+ US $1.00 shipping)

Patches can also be had via: The Lionhearted

Youtube: Indian women riders.

Thanks to Helmet Hair for the great link!

Television: Street Hawk.

Desperate Television producers create a motorcycle: Street Hawk

Via: Street Hawk online:

"Street Hawk was a short lived television series that aired back in 1985 on ABC. It lasted only one season and there was only 13 episodes ever made. The show was about a cop name Jessie Mach who was picked to test a top secret government project called Street Hawk. His partner Norman Tuttle, the designer of the motorcycle, was in charge of the project. Jessie would cruise the streets of L.A. on the bike while Norman sat back at command center guiding Jessie. Together they would fight crime on the Streets of Los Angeles.

Street Hawk made its debut on January 4, 1985 on ABC at 9 PM EST and lasted until May 16, 1985. It's such a shame that this show didn't last longer than it did. Some say the show just came a little too late. All of the other "Super Vehicle" shows such a Airwolf and Knight Rider already had their fans and there just wasn't room left for Street Hawk.

There were actually a total of 15 bikes made for the show built by The Bike was constructed by Gene Winfield's 'Rod and Custom Construction, Inc.'and there were three different types of dirt bikes that were used, a 1983 Honda XL500, a 1984 Honda XR500 sand a 1984 Honda CR250's were used to make the bikes for the stunt scenes during the series.

Probert's Final concept

Street hawk was originally created by designer of "Star Treck The Next Generation"Andrew Probert. His design was used to create the bike used in the pilot episode of Street Hawk.

Probert put a lot of serious thought in to the design of the bike..like these clever hand controls

..and the must have for those irritating driving cellphone users: a cowl mounted laser.

The second bike, which was designed by Illustrator and Cinema production designer (example: the film "Aliens" for one) Ron Cobb-witch was quite different from the bike used in the pilot episode. The nose now contains a missile launcher and machine guns. The body of the bike is also very differentfrom the bike in the pilot episode. As you can tell there isn't nearly as much detail in the exhaust of the bike and the body of the bike is much wider.

One of the bikes from when it went up for sale on EBay in September 2000. It sold for $12,000 -. This bike is now owned by Chris Bromham, one of the stuntmen for Street Hawk. There are currently 2 replicas of the bike being built. One of them will be a replica of the pilot bike and the other will be a replica of the series bike"

The Jet Boy.

Little is known in the U.S. about Shonen Jet (The Jet Boy). We know he comes from Japan, and is one of the first original "Tokusatsu" ("live action science fiction" t.v. hero) to be aired. The definitive website for all things heroic in Japan is japanhero. A few images are available from their impressive and rich site- but all are the same as the one above. Tedious Googling has found nothing else-with the exception of a small indie rock band with the same name.

I'm always searching more and more about this brave little hero-its a tiny personal quest of mine. But I do know this: a crimefighting boy, his a loyal German Shepard, a Honda 50 scooter, and with the love of justice on their side....together they could take the world by storm.

Bullet proof monk.

Via: Thai Blogs

"Sales of bulletproof vests have been popular in the deep south of Thailand where roadside killings are common. Now they come in shades of orange to protect monks who have also been targeted.

...if they don't think the vest is enough, they could also try this armoured motorcycle. Notice the little window which the monk can pop open to receive alms"

It must be saturday 1974: Devlin.

"Based on the enormous popularity of daredevil Evel Knievel, Hanna-Barbera developed this cartoon about a stunt motorcyclist working in a traveling circus. Ernie, Todd & Sandy Devlin were part of Hank's circus. Ernie's the motorcycle stunt driver while Todd's his mechanic. An episode of Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law featured a washed-up Ernie Devlin after a child attempted to do a motorcycle stunt in which the boy sued Ernie after being injured."

The armoured Vespas of the Algeria and Indochina conflicts.

Via: Dark Roasted Blend

"After World War II, there was little money for defense spending while the nations of Europe rebuilt their industry and society. When there was some cash to spend, one had to be creative to stretch it as far as possible. The French probably accomplished the most astounding example of that with the ACMA Troupes Aeról Portées Mle. 56. Deployed with their airborne forces, this was essentially a militarized Vespa scooter outfitted with a 75mm recoilless rifle. Five parachutes would carry the two-man gun crew, weapon, ammunition, and two scooters safely to earth, and the men would load the weapon on one scooter and the ammo on the other, then ride away. More impressively, the recoilless rifle could be fired effectively on the move by the best of the gun crews. Total cost? About $500 for the scooter and the recoilless rifle was war surplus. Were they successful military machines? Well, the French Army deployed about 800 armed scooters in wars conducted in both Algeria and Indochina."

Cloud Strife and his bikes.

The original concept drawing of Cloud on his bike by the brilliant Yoshitaka Amano

Cloud Strife (クラウド・ストライフ Kuraudo Sutoraifu?) is the protagonist of Square's (now known as Square Enix) role-playing game Final Fantasy VII and several of its sequels and spin-offs. His appearance is marked by spiky blonde hair, vivid greenish-blue eyes. His first bike of a desperate choice was the "Hardy Daytona". (The Daytona was displayed at Shinra building and Cloud stole it to escape The Shinra Electric Power Company....

Must be helmet hair-Cloud with Hardy Daytona

In the CGI movie Final Fanatsy Advent Children, Cloud after countless conflicts retires and established the Strife Delivery Service, with the aid of friend Tifa Lockhart-and a new bike (Designed byTakayuki Takeya) called Fenrir.

In with the new: The Fenur

The DVD release of Advent Children sold over 420,000 copies in Japan (or by people who imported from Japan) in its first week, which was 93% of all published copies at the time.

Is it too early to start making fun of Evel Knievel? No,...The complete Knievel Humorography.

The "Simpsons" Captain Lance Murdock: "It's always good to see young people taking an interest in danger.."

Via: Steve Mandich.com

"To some, Evel Knievel is an icon. To most others, he's a joke.

As a footnote in the annals of oddball Americana, motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel is an easy target for comedians, satirists, talk-show hosts, comic strip artists and other purveyors of humor. His name alone practically begs for satire; consider Eva Knievel, Evil Cornevil, Evel Cownievel, Anal Knievel, Penile Knievel, Evel the Weevel, Evel Boll-Weevil, Weevil Knievel, Weeble Knievel, Weasel Knievel, Stevel Knievel, Medieval Knievel, Evel Cathedral, Evel O'Kneeful, Awful Knievel, Awful Knauffel, Orville Knorville, Stupid Ker-nupid, Rebus Caneebus, Shevil Knevils, Evel Knievelvis...

Moreover, his absurd line of work has made him a one-man punchline. According to columnist Clark Walworth of the Times-News in Twin Falls, Idaho -- site of Evel's Snake River fiasco -- "knievel" is local newspaper jargon for "a rare but hugely embarrassing error." Evel himself often participates in fun made at his own expense, though the humor usually seems lost on him. In many interviews he also recites jokes of his own, but they're not all that amusing.

In any case, here's a survey of mass-disseminated, Knievel-related humor. This includes Evel's son Robbie, whose own daredevil act is pretty much the same as his old man's; this does not include the multitudes of pets named after Evel, or Evel-related screennames, or anonymous folks on YouTube simply playing with Evel toys, or schmucks on America's Funniest Home Videos racking their nuts ("Here's Peoria's answer to Evel Knievel!").

Whether any of this is actually funny is up to you..."

So as a final tribute to the man himself, let us now get out our poorly made Stunt cyle toys and wind them up till our alcoholic parents wail in pain and have one final flying leap into the bookcase and break irreplaceable Hummel figures. The good ones-the ones that grandmother gave to the family, you know- on that one good Christmas when uncle our favorite uncle Willy just got on parole and he was still trying to get his act together and had yet to get back on the hard stuff.

Evel would approve...