kaneda’s bike from sci-fi movie akira comes to life with ryan hong’s contemporary redesign

the iconic akira motorcycle brought to life

when the famed sci-fi movie ‘akira’ was released in 1988, kaneda’s bike delivered an iconic image to the public. the scene of the bright red motorcycle, with its wide and low body and its in-wheel motors, speeding on the neo-tokyo highway was absolutely unforgettable. with the original story taking place just before the 2020 tokyo olympics, concept artist ryan hong has reinterpreted the emblematic motorcycle just in time. as a tribute to how accurately the olympic event in the movie matches up to the current day, this bike redesign aims to reinterpret the visuals and mechanics with a contemporary perspective.

all images courtesy of ryan hong

a greater need for speed

ryan hong’s reinterpretation takes shape as a more modern sportbike impression, while one of the important aspects of the redesign was to keep the overall structure aerodynamic. the air entering from the front wheel opening is redirected out to the sides of the body, and the pocket around the headlight works as an air intake for cooling the upper battery. the bike contains one lower fixed battery unit and two swappable battery sets on the sides. the swappable battery sets not only provide extra juice to the motors but also have their own heat ventilation path. in this way, the rider has more control over the battery usage with a lower risk of overheating both battery sets.

to satisfy a greater need for speed, the nitrogen tank cooling concept is introduced to keep the dual motors cool at an extremely high RPM. they would be only activated when the motors are unlocked to push toward their maximum capability for a short amount of time.

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project info:

name: kaneda’s bike
designer: ryan hong

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.