The Dark Knight is one cool movie – we love the fact that Mr Bat chooses to ride a motorcycle when he needs to really get going. And, of course, since he’s a Dark Knight, the caped crusader gets a fully tricked-out bike on which he can take out the baddies.
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| The Batpod Batman “The Dark Knight” |
The Bat Pod was conceptualized by Nathan Crowley, who also created the Batmobile for Warners Bros’ earlier ‘Batman Begins’ movie. The actual Bat bike was built by Chris Corbould, who built not one but six units of the bike, most of which were crashed during the filming of The Dark Knight.
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| The Batpod Batman “The Dark Knight” |
The Bat Pod actually runs, though Corbould has not revealed which engine it’s fitted with, or exactly how fast it goes. In the film, French stunt rider Jean-Pierre Goy is the man who’s ridden the Bat bike and he says the bike is quite hard to ride. But then it would be, since it doesn’t even have any handlebars – the Bat Pod is steered via shoulder shields that have sleeves which accommodate Batman’s arms
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| The Batpod Batman “The Dark Knight” |
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| The Batpod Batman “The Dark Knight” |
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| The Batpod Batman “The Dark Knight” |
The latest Batman movie “The Dark Knight Rises” is currently in production and a series of spy photos of Anne Hathaway who is playing Cat Woman in the movie have emerged with her atop her own silver version of Batman’s motorcycle, the Batpod.
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| The Batpod Batman “The Dark Knight” |
The Batpod first appeared in Batman “The Dark Knight” and was the creation of director Christopher Nolan and production designer Nathan Crowley. The Batpod uses 20 inch wheels from the Tumbler (Batmans avant-garde cubism car) and is powered by the water-cooled single from a Honda CRF450R trail bike. Aside from it’s crazy appearance and strange riding position (I think Catwoman would find the ride much more comfortable than Batman!) the Batpod has some very interesting design features.
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| The Batpod Batman “The Dark Knight” |
Firstly you may notice the bike doesn’t have any exhausts, this is due to the fact that exhaust gases have been routed through the aluminium and magnesium tubular frame. Steering the Batpod is done using shoulder movement rather than with the hands which for any rider seasoned or not would take some getting used to. The suspension is all in the front of the bike (it’s a hardtail!) and the riders feet sit 3 1/2 feet apart in what can only be described as stirrups…interesting view for motorists travelling behind Cat woman!
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| The Batpod Batman “The Dark Knight” |
Best of all the Batpod actually works! In these videos you can see Anne Hathaway (no wait…that’s her stunt double) piloting Cat Womans silver Batpod during filming of the Dark Knight Rises.
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