Yesterday was the Fourth of July — a day to sit back with a beer and a burger and watch some fireworks whereas fascinated with all of the issues that made the US into the nation it’s at this time. Sadly, this yr’s July 4 festivities have been besieged by rain right here in New York, so I spent my vacation doing the subsequent smartest thing: Watching anime and enjoying Closing Fantasy.

However in combining these two types of media — on this case, Kill la Kill and Closing Fantasy VII Remake — I seen one thing. One thing so area of interest, so unmemorable, that anybody however me would seemingly ignore it: This singular bike design retains coming again, time and time once more, and I’m determined to determine what it’s.

I first actually took discover of this form from Closing Fantasy VII Remake, throughout the extent the place my shut private pals Biggs and Wedge used two of those bikes to assist my different shut private pal Jessie Raspberry go to her mother and father and steal some explosives. Cloud Strife, skilled moist rag, was additionally there.

The bikes in FFVII are wholly alien. They exist in a society that doesn’t even seen to make use of gasoline — Shinra-provided mako power seemingly explains the shortage of gasoline tanks — but there’s one thing so acquainted about them. They’ve components of Yamaha’s TW200, Kawasaki’s KLR650, and Suzuki’s DRZ400. I figured that was neat, the designers cribbing from a number of real-world dual-sports to make one thing that matches proper throughout the metropolis of Midgar.

However nonetheless, one thing felt off — like I’d seen this bike someplace in particular person earlier than. It felt acquainted in a manner that alternate world artwork design normally doesn’t. Then, I watched Kill la Kill, and have become obsessed.

Ryuko’s bike, I posit, is the very same bike as those utilized by Cloud, Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge. The large, flat bars, the excessive entrance fender, the inverted entrance struts, the oblong headlight beneath a body-colored fairing. Even the flat enduro seat, stretching from the bike’s triangular tank again to a rear seize rail, is identical — although artwork shift between sections of the episode makes it unclear whether or not the bike from Kill la Kill has alloy wheels, just like the shot above, or spoked rims just like the header photograph.

Seeing this bike, I got here to a realization: There’s no manner these two occur to be the identical mixture of design components borrowed from different dual-sport bikes. There have to be a singular bike, an ur-dual sport, that served because the design foundation for each.

However what bike would that be? The Kawasaki KLR650 is just too massive, has an excessive amount of suspension journey, and its fork isn’t inverted. The Yamaha TW200 is nearer to the correct dimension, however the bikes from Kill la Kill and FFVII Remake lack the TW’s distinctly large rear wheel. The Suzuki DRZ-400 often is the closest bike available on the market at this time, however its hole from the wheels to the fenders appears out of proportion to the bikes from the present or the sport.

The closest design I’ve discovered thus far is the now-discontinued Yamaha XT225 — a motorcycle whose painted fairing, tall fenders, enduro seat, and triangular tank all match the fictional bikes. However even that Yamaha lacks the opposite bikes’ distinctive inverted entrance forks, which stand out among the many sea of upright-fork twin sports activities.

So, I deliver my query to all of you: Simply what within the hell bike impressed these two? There could also be multiple reply, however I’m prepared to wager there’s at least one that matches a majority of these listed standards — one thing that, definitively, impressed each bikes I noticed this Fourth of July.