- Movies, they hold a huge cultural sway. They show us what's cool, right? And then we go, wow! And then we go buy those cool things. It happened with Rebel Without A Cause, and Hot Rods in 1955. It happened with The Fast And The Furious and import tuner cars in 2001. And sometimes it also
happens with motorcycles. (motor cycle roars by) By the 1980s riding was for
old guys with faded tattoos and t-shirts that said,
if you could read this, then your mom fell off. - What did you say? - Until Tom Cruise raced a fighter jet on a sleek new bike,
almost single-handedly making motorcycles cool again. Well, today we're going to
find out how one line of bikes disrupted an entire industry and with the help of one iconic scene, turned the motorcycle world on it's funny looking hat head. (motor cycle roars by) This is everything you need
to know to get up to speed on the Kawasaki. (arms whoosh) Ninja! (lively music) A big, thanks to carparts.com
for sponsoring today's video. Carparts.com provides
a quick and smart way to find what you need, when you need. - You hear that noise cousin? - Clumsy, Carl, we
talked about this, buddy. You gotta be quiet when I'm filming. - I think my suspension might be broken. - Well, it's a good thing
that we use carparts.com. It's the go-to online solution
for everything car parts. That's why they're called carparts.com. But who said you had to sacrifice quality for reasonable prices? They provide a quick and smart way to find what you want, whenever you
want, no matter what you drive. - All right, actually,
this feels pretty nice. - Okay, just don't jump too hard, buddy. Those springs could
bounce you to the moon. - Okay, I hear you loud and
clear, Captain Worrywart. - So, whether you need
something as big as suspension or something as small as a door handle, carparts.com will get
your vehicle looking good and running like new
without breaking the bank. So head on over to carparts.com, today. (Carl screams) - Memaw! - Hogs, choppers, crotch rockets, steel horses with oil for
blood and wheels for legs, whatever you want to call them. Motorcycles have been considered
mechanical manifestations of rebellion since forever ago, AKA 1947. That year Life magazine
published an article about a chaotic motorcycle
rally in rural California that went down in history
as the Hollister riot. The violent scene the magazine portrayed was largely debunked. We made a podcast about it, but not before Hollywood cemented the motorcycle outlaw image
in the national imagination at the movies. - Marlon Brando, Lee Marvin,
and the marvelous Mary Murphy star in the 1953 classic, The Wild One. A daring tale of marauding motorcyclists terrorizing small town America. - What are they trying to prove anyway? Looking for somebody to push them around, so they can get sore and
show how tough they are? - Yeah. - The Wild One took
the Life magazine piece and pushed it even further over the top. You watch it today and you'll
find that it's pretty boring. I mean, old movies suck. (laughter echoes) They do, they all suck. But, no matter, it created
a new American archetype, the outlaw biker, and it
made motorcycle sales, pop, pop, pop, baby. Though, outlaw bikers were
largely a pop culture creation, the popularity of the
narrative made it into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Bad-asses and wannabes
alike found their way on to two wheels in droves. And ironically many antisocial
types found their way into outlaw motorcycle clubs, like the infamous Hell's Angels. We did a podcast series
on the Hell's Angels that was way too long. Honestly, it's like six episodes. And we started with the
invention of the bicycle. The media painted these clubs
as violent barbarian hordes, but were they really? Gonzo journalist, Hunter S. Thompson, found out firsthand when he
embedded with the Hell's Angels for more than a year, detailing his findings in his 1967 book, Hell's Angels, a Strange
And Terrible Saga. The verdict? Not everything you read
in the papers is true, but it's based on something. The success of Hunter's book
boosted the outlaw biker image into the zeitgeists of the 1960s. No doubt inspiring, possibly the biggest motorcycle movie of all time. - Peter Fonda, Dennis
Hopper, and the murderer that is Phil Spector in
the 1969, Easy Rider. The saga of two young men on the road with nothing but their friendship and their bikes to move them. - Are we paying you or
are you someone's dad? Much like my cousin, Kyle Stash, on a cross country road trip, Easy Rider is deep up its own ass, but Peter Fonda's turn as
a free-wheeling romantic, astride a chopper, named Captain America, spiked motorcycle sales
for a decade to come. The iconic Harley Davidson hog
remained America's motorcycle of choice right up until the '80s, when the coolness factor began to dip. All those rebels without a
car who made Harley's cool had gotten older and now they were starting
to ruin the world. Their kids were starting to
look for their own wheels and they didn't want to ride
a motorcycle like their dad's. Motorcycle sales were dropping fast and the motorcycle world
desperately, desperately, needed a new flavor injection. (fast rock music) - Ninja! - Honda had tried in 1969 with
their objectively fantastic CB750, widely considered the
world's first sport bike. But the West just wasn't
ready for that yet. The bike was too far ahead of its time. Like Nolan, I swear, in 10
years, you guys are gonna get it. But this isn't a Honda story, all right? This is a Kawasaki story. So we're going to cut right to the '80s and by cut right to the '80s, I mean, we got to start in the '50s. - Linear storyteller is so overrated. You're like the Quentin Tarantino of cars. - Yeah, except I don't
like feet, I like hands. In 1955, Kawasaki Heavy
Industries, which is a sick name, built their first engine for the growing motorcycle market in Japan. And in 1960 they made their first bike, the 125 ACE, which used
their two stroke KB5 engine. And guys, I wouldn't say
it if I didn't mean it, this bad boy had some zing,
zing coming out of its ears. So right out the gate, Kawasaki
had a reputation for speed. A need for speed, and up to speed. Follow the money. Kawasaki's own early
entry in to sport bikes was the 1972's, Z1, and like all Mac, it's the stuff of legend. Motivated by a 900cc double
overhead cam inline 4, the Z1 was an absolute
monster, in a straight line. It set a 24 hour endurance
record at Daytona, knocking out 2,631 miles
with an average speed of 109 miles an hour. Can you imagine going 109 on
a motorcycle for 24 hours? You'd poop, you couldn't help it. You know that guy pooped. - Ah, yeah, dude, that guy totally pooped. - I'm saying it's like, you're on it. It's vibrating. - Yeah, just like straight
up shake the poop so loose. You couldn't help but poop. - Do you think he made like special pants or just dealt with it? - Well, I have special pants
for when I go horseback riding, that holds my poops. So I'm assuming that he
had some kind of special, like poop reservoir in his pants. - Hmm, makes sense. Z1 sales were strong internationally and Kawasaki's overpowered,
under refined, 3 cylinder, triple road bikes were gaining cult status in America's underground cafe racer scene. But these bikes could not
unseat Harley-Davidson's hogs from their vaunted position
in the American imagination. But the time, it just wasn't right. It looked like nothing
could knock King Hog from his greasy, greasy bacon throne. But little did they know,
Kawasaki had been secretly developing a hog slayer,
for six long years. Ninja! This sets up an obnoxious
joke about Kawasaki waiting in the shadows for
the perfect moment to strike just like a ninja. That's too easy. And I have too much respect
for myself to make that joke. Like most overseas manufacturers, Kawasaki noticed Harley-Davidson's fall from mythical status in
the early '80s America. They saw an opportunity to introduce a new, two wheel rebel machine. They just needed the right messaging to reach our star-spangled brains and a machine that
could deliver the goods. Now, that machine was the 1984 GPZ900R, the very first Kawasaki Ninja machine. Ninja! I totally know everything
about motorcycles, but there's someone at
Donut who knows a lot more about motorcycles than me. So I'm going to let him
explain the relevance of this awesome bike. - The GPZ900R herald a great leap forward in motorcycle technology, thanks to some truly groundbreaking
elements in its suspension and drive train. The GPZ was the first
bike to top 150 miles per, thanks to its 908cc dual
overhead cam, 16 valve, water cooled stress
membered inline 4 engine. That's a lot. So let's go through it piece by piece. The 908 cubic centimeter, in other words, big inline 4 cylinder
engine was better balanced than a big V-twin. That balance combined with a
high flow dual overhead cam, 16 valve head meant the
GPZ could rev much higher than a V-twin, which is good because that's where all the power was. So good. And there was a good bit more power than your average V-twin, but
higher revs makes more heat. So to combat that Kawasaki
put a radiator on the GPZ, making it the first
liquid cooled 16 valve, 4 cylinder engine in a
production motorcycle. As any gamer with a super
high strung PC setup will tell you, nothing's
cooler than water. - You're cooler than water! - You're bringing your cooler
water, man, you're ice! - That's right! Ice, man. I am dangerous. - The GPZ900R was also
the first production bike to use the engine as a stressed member, which means it was a rigid
part of the actual chassis. That's huge for reducing weight. Speaking of weight, the
Ninja was also the first large scale production
bike to use a crank shaft counterbalance, which,
dramatically reduced vibration, meaning it's smooth. Did I mention using the
engine as a structural part of the chassis lowered the
bike's center of gravity? Well, I should have, 'cause it did. And that's a big deal. GPZ wasn't just the fastest
motorcycle in the world, it was also extremely nimble, stable and comfortable to ride. It's front suspension,
use variable dampers, which meant better rider comfort. And the ability to break later into turn. You know, that feeling
when you get a new phone, there's some amazing features
you didn't even know existed, but now you can't live without it? That kind of stuff was all
over this freaking bike. Some of these are things that
we take for granted today, but at the time the GPZ absolutely blew people's fricking minds. Now, I know what you're saying, James, I can't keep track of all
these letters and numbers. I'm a dump (beep) I can't feed myself. Well, you'll be happy
to learn Kawasaki's U.S. Director of Marketing, Mike
Vaughn, felt the same way. He was like, "Hey, listen
guys, we're Americans. We're a bunch of dumb (beep). We can't remember numbers and letters. We need to give it up. We hate alpha numeric names. How are we supposed to know the difference between the KH125 and the KV100B!" They needed something simpler. They needed something, catchier. Mike had a sail boat called the Ninja, which obviously played on the
whole fast and Japanese thing. And the GPZ was, after
all, fast and Japanese. So why not name the
motorcycle after my boat? Ironically, when Mike pitched
this to Kawasaki's top brass, they rejected it because in Japan, ninjas are considered Outlaws and they didn't want to
be associated with that. Mike explained, "Look, these Americans aren't going to know
anything about that, right? They're just going to think
that it sounds fast and cool and sleek and sneaky and fast." And they were like, "You
know what, man, good point." Kawasaki launched the GPZ900R Ninja at the Monterey Jet Center,
to give the impression that this thing could outrun a plane. Remember that. Three months after it was released, the Ninja took first and second
place at the Isle of Man TT, the very famous and very
dangerous motorcycle race that we talked about before
in our Type R episode, so check that out. The Ninja was also named
the fastest production bike in the world in 1984. Now, all of this was amazing and the bike, the bike was truly revolutionary, but were all these cold
hard, impressive facts enough to sway the collective
American imagination? No, but luckily there's a little guy named Thomas Cruise and a little
thing called fighter jets. - Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, jets! Val Kilmer playing volleyball,
Tom Cruise playing volleyball against Val Kilmer. The sweatiest movie you've ever seen. Everyone in it is sweaty, the whole time. Was the air conditioner broke on the set? We'll never know. And did I mention jets? Jets! - Why do we keep pandering to him? That's a decision that you're making. 1986, Top Gun was the
blockbuster the world needed to take its mind off of
Chernobyl and the right flick, to turn American intention
towards the Kawasaki Ninja. If you love high-flying
action or dozens of adult men being sweaty for hours,
this film is for you. And the coolest part of the
whole movie was the jets. But the second coolest part
was Maverick's motorcycle it maybe the most iconic
motorcycle scene of all time. Thomas Cruise's character, a
Navy fighter pilot named Pete, but you know, with a nickname
of Maverick, which is cool, shows up to the base on a Kawasaki Ninja, just as an F14 fighter
jet hits the runway. He smashes the throttle, right as the jet hits the afterburners and it's a straight-up race. You can guess who won, but
gosh, dang, if that ain't neat. It's cool as heck. I can visualize in my head right now. - Maverick also rides the
Ninja when he shows up to drink wine with a young Kelly McGillis. - That's a big gamble with a
$30 million plane, Lieutenant. - And those two have more chemistry than the Manhattan project. - Who are you? How did you make it into the edit? Are you hungry for more High Low merchs? Well, have I got a shirt for you! Yota's Tacos. They're the dirtiest tacos
around, get it in black, get it in white or get them both. 'Cause they're only
29.99 at donutmedia.com. ♪ Give it the beans ♪ ♪ At Yota's Tacos! ♪ - If you don't get the joke
already, go back to school. But Toyota Tacoma, Yota's Tacos. They're the trucks we drive on High Low. I really liked this design,
more to come, donutmedia.com. - The economy in the '80s was doing well. So people could afford
to buy fancy clothes, cocaine and motorcycles as a toy. And the biggest movie of 1986,
they found the one to get. Sales went bonkers and sport bikes finally captured the hearts
of a new generation of riders, much like the big V twin
hogs had 30 years earlier. Our grandparents had Marlon
Brando and Peter Fonda, our parents had Thomas Cruise, We have Tyler, the creator. Hmm, of course, Harley still
had a massive fan base. I mean, you have to put something on the cover of AARP magazine. It comes out every month I assume. But the appeal of sport
bikes was easy to see and undeniably youthful. They were much more
focused on high performance with their lightweight and
forward riding position. They were also much easier to handle than those heavy cumbersome cruisers. Their more streamlined
look fit the '80s aesthetic and just like the hog
boys in the '50s and '60s, there was an intoxicating
element of danger about these two wheeled, freedom machines. And nothing is cooler than danger, and 155 miles per hour on a
motorcycle is dangerous, AF. The GPZ900R was the first
in a long line of legendary Kawasaki's that bear the Ninja name. In fact, almost all of their sport bikes wear the Ninja badge
because, let's face it, it's a sick name for a motorcycle. It's a great frigging branding. I mean, I guarantee that every other motorcycle company's like,
it does look like a Ninja. So does ours, we should have
named ours, the fricking Ninja. Kawasaki's next fastest bike in the world, 1988 Ninja ZX10 topped
out at 165 miles per hour, thanks to more tech improvements, like the aluminum perimeter
frame on the motorcycle. And that's pretty standard now, but it started with this bike. The ZX10 was also known as the Tom Cat, which happens to be the
nickname of the F14 fighter jet Thomas Cruise flew in Top Gun. That's great branding. Then thanks to the Ninja the 1990s became the age of the sport bike. This meant war amongst Japanese
motorcycle manufacturers. And I'm going to give
it to you straight guys, things got gnarly. (bikers yell) Honda struck first with the
1992 CBR90RR, Fireblade. When 893cc liquid cooled,
inline, 4 powered sport bike designed to snatch Kawasaki's
King of Speed crown. With a top speed of 160, I guess it didn't quite make it, did it? Meanwhile, Kawasaki had
broken their own record with the debut of the 175
mile per hour, ZX11 Ninja. This was the first motorcycle to use a ram air intake system, just like on a fricking Trans-Am. On the ZX11 an entire snorkel
underneath the fuel tank sucks up increasing amounts of air, as the bike gained speed, forcing more air into the
intake, then, you know, like a motorcycle without it. The ZX11 kept Kawasaki at
the top of the speed heat all the way up to 1996, when Honda finally snatched
the crown with their CBR1100XX, AKA, the Super Blackbird,
AKA the X-Men jet on juice. Okay, so here's the thing, guys, we got this new bike, it's fast as crap. - It is, it is. I've ridden it, it's as fast
as straight up fastest crap. - So I was thinking maybe we name it after the fastest jet in
the world, the Blackbird. - Yeah, I mean, that's pretty good idea. What if we went one step further, called it the Super Blackbird? - Yeah, dude! That's why I (beep) with you, dude! Yes! Faster! It had an incredibly
light, incredibly powerful, 1137cc inline 4, and a top
speed of 178.5 miles per hour. The designers wanted to
make something crazy fast, but with a refined ride quality. Now, where have I heard that before? Back at Kawasaki, the
Ninja line was expanding, offering Ninja quality handling to people who weren't looking to hit a buck 50 on their way to Walgreens. The ZX6R debuted in
1995 as the Ninja entry into the 600 class bikes. Since then Kawasaki's Ninja
line has expanded even further offering bikes for riders of all skill and desired performance levels. You can get everything
from a flagship face melter to a Ninja 250, a bike with
normal person level of power. Now, because of its handling
prowess, size and simplicity, that little Ninja has
become the beginner bike. If you know someone who rides
a motorcycle, it's 50/50, that their first one was a Ninja. But, the face melters are
more fun to talk about. In 1999, Suzuki got in on all that hot, fastest bike in the world
action with the GSX1300R, a little thing you might know
by its other name, Hayabusa. This batch (beep) hyper
bike obliterated the record, making a terrifying top
speed of 194 miles per hour. This thing essentially
stole the Ninja's lunch. Gave it a swirly, matched
with his mom on Tinder, made her fall in love with him, became the Ninja's stepdad,
then broke his mom's heart. And the Ninja's life was ruined. Can you imagine if your stepdad
had a 16 valve dual overhead cam, liquid cooled, 1.3 liter
inline, 4 cylinder, heart, and a sick tribal tattoo
all over his beefy bod? Well, Kawasaki's Ninja
stepdad, the Hayabusa does. To be honest, there was
nothing truly groundbreaking about the build. Suzuki just did it incredibly well. The Hayabusa had handling
and comfort down too. It could be a touring bike, or it could basically teleport
you from place to place, like a down and out
Nightcrawler, working for Uber. Since then, the fastest
bike in the world title has bounced around between manufacturers, with Japanese companies trading off with the occasional Ducati or BMW. But today the title is
back where it belongs, with the grand champion Ninja, the H2R, AKA, the super stepdad. Kawasaki took the Ninja back
to its roots of innovation. This time, introducing a supercharger that blows 200 liters of air per second into the bike's 998cc inline 4. H2R set an unofficial speed
record of 240 miles per hour. (motor bike roars by) The H2R is a track only bike,
that costs more than 50 grand, but the street version, the H2 retains a lot of the R models tech,
including the supercharger. And it does zero to 60 in 2.6 seconds, which is slower than
the Tesla Model S Plaid, which makes me beg the question again. What is the point anymore? Now, if you have the internet, you may have heard that
there's a Top Gun sequel coming out in a few
months, Top Gun, Maverick. The motorcycle Twitter went
nuts a couple of years ago when production photos of
Tom Cruise on an H2 leaked, ensuring that Top Gun would
keep the Ninja tradition alive. And does that mean that Top
Gun 2 will inject pop culture with a new dose of two wheeled fever? Maybe. But if 20th century pop
history is any indicator, the next motorcycle craze will
kick off with one undeniably bad-ass scene, on the silver screen. Moving would be Wild Ones,
Rebels and Speed Freaks to imagine themselves in the saddle. Styles change, young and
cool becomes old and lame. But speed, speed is forever. Thank you guys so much
for watching up to speed and everything else on Donut. If you're not already subscribed, hit that subscribe button. If you liked this video
hit the like button, because it really helps
us out in the algorithm. We got a whole bunch of
new merch on our website, donutmedia.com. I'm really excited about it. This is one of the hats. We named our garage, the
Inglewood Propulsion Laboratory. It's awesome. You can get this and a whole bunch of other High Low inspired Merch. Speaking of High Low,
it is airing right now. Click this link to watch it. We had a lot of fun. No one almost died again. I love you.
