Fantasy Bike

http://www.robotech.com/infopedia/mecha/viewmecha.php?id=65

When I was a kid Robotech was the greatest cartoon in the world. Seriously. Unlike more common fare like Transformers or He-Man, Robotech was a serial that followed Rick Hunter and humanity's first experiences with alien technology, space battles and giant transformable robots piloted by people. Each episode built on the previous episodes, each season a foundation for the next. People died, mistakes were made by leaders, romance, jealousy, treachery, you name it. Robotech was a new level of story for a ten year old kid.

And it was awesome. F-14's that turned into giant robots protecting the Earth from alien invaders? How friggin cool is that?

First there was Macross, then The Masters and then The New Generation. I can't recall specifically when they were introduced (The Masters or New Generation), but in the third Robotech War the heroes spent much of their time wearing mecha armor doubling as motorcycles in lieu of fighter jets. The Cyclone series mecha. They drove on the ground, dirt roads, pavement or over open grasslands. No longer relegated to the darkness of space or fleeting through the clouds, this new mecha brought Robotech much closer to home for a 11-12 year old kid. Where I couldn't imagine myself Top Gunning it across the clouds, I could definitely see myself on the open road, flicking a button and instantly covered with armor with a really big friggin gun.

And then some genius went and made a replica of the Cyclone motorcycle mecha.

Robotech Cyclone Mecha Replica

A motorcycle that turned into armor that flew you around and beat the shit out of aliens? Fuck yeah! I wanted one, wanted one bad. Unfortunately, science hadn't caught up to cartoons yet. One could argue that science still hasn't caught up to cartoons, but that's another discussion for another day.

There is a scene from one of the early episodes in the Third Robotech War where the heroes come across a shipping container of these mecha somewhere in the desert and I can recall the shock I felt when they only took the one for the kid that didn't already have a Cyclone mecha. They left a container full of mecha to rot in the wasteland of North America. Where was my container of badassery?

The Cyclone may have contributed to my desire for a sportbike over other options when I finally decided to purchase a bike for the first time. And to this day I look for the switch on my clip-ons for a button that will transform my SV into wearable armor ready to take on an alien army.

But, my SV has no such switch.

In reality, the reason I bought a motorcycle was because my bicycle wasn't going fast enough and I craved speed. Now I'm older, wiser and fatter. I don't crave speed (as much) anymore, but I still crave a Robotech Cyclone. Not a replica, although that would still be cool, but a full-fledged grenade lugging gun toting wearable armor. I'm still waiting on that NASA!

The point is, we all have some bike somewhere that, if reality could be altered, we'd love to have in our stable. It might be a speederbike from Return of the Jedi, bike from Akira or any of a gazillion other science fiction outlets, like Judge Dredd.

What's your fantasy bike? Not something you wish you could afford but rather, what fictional motorcycle do you dream about?