Developed first as a birthday gift to Colombian singer J Balvin, this tribute to Kaneda’s red rocket will soon be available for pre-order.
I don’t know when I’ll get tired of Akira-inspired motorbikes, but we’re not there yet – although this one walks the line…
Why? Well, as much as I love the idea, the proportions are more than a little front-heavy, although it does look better with a rider on-board. (There are some riding videos in this Instagram post, or in the crappy auto-dubbed youtube vid embedded below.)
Those odd, upright proportions are due to the bike being based on the 1a electric bike from French outfit and Peugeot Motorcycles partner DAB Motors, who developed the tribute together with Balvin’s own Vita Veloce Team.
While the original Akira bike looked like it was built to tear through Neo-Tokyo at warp speed, this 3D-printed upgrade looks more like it’s made for doing constant endos.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing – and, in the end, this is a far more practical real-world design than Kaneda’s fictitious future bike. Still, it doesn’t quite look as tough as it should.
The all-electric DAB 1a underneath brings some proper credibility, though. It’s street-legal, whisper-quiet (we can debate how good that is for a motorbike), and apparently quite light for something that looks like a neon-drenched battering ram.
Whether you’re an Akira tragic or just into clean, hyper-modern design, this thing’s got presence. It might not have Kaneda’s exact stance, but it sure knows how to turn heads.
The VVT dudes say it’ll be available for pre-order soon, but it’s yet to reveal anything about pricing or total production numbers.
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