Cool Rider! A Cool Rider!

Who can forget the gorgeous Michelle Pfiefer crooning “I’m gonna ride with a cool rider” 

Hollywood has created many motorcycle scenes, I am smitten by only one, the Cool Rider sequence from Grease2. 

When I think Hollywood and Motorbikes, there are scenes that flash before my eyes. The iconic Sean Connery in Never say Never again, sliding his Yamaha under a truck.  Ethan Hunt and his multiple bike chases, especially the Paris chase on a BMW. That was pure adrenalin. The most iconic of all, Schwarznegger in T2 on the Fat Boy. 

Each of these had a serious high-end motorcycle, hell, Bond had a rocket launcher. The riding was slick and the camera work slicker. 

Compared to these the Grease 2 scenes were rudimentary. But, what the heck! That is what set my heart in motion. It still beats to an idling rhythm. 

The lyrics and the mystery of the unknown rider on a motorbike. Fantastic! 

To make matters worse, Pfeiffer emphasized Black motorcycle. 

So, there you are. My first bike, the Hero Honda Sleek (What’s life without passion) and the next two, the RE Classic 500, the Harley Davidson Superlow 883 – all black motorcycles. The jackets, the riding pants, the boots all black.  

Finally I broke Pfeiffer’s spell when I got my current monster, a gorgeous blue and white (pic below). But yes, inside, I am still very much the cool rider dressed in black on a black motorbike. 

I love motorcycles and the idea of motorcycles, therefore I am surprised that I don’t recall more such magical motorcycle moments from movies. There are many fleeting ones but none that created magic. Rajesh Khanna & Hema Malini (Zindagi ek Safar), Amitabh (Muqaddar ka Sikandar) and Jackie Shroff (Hero) all featured motorcycles, but they were just a prop. None of them created an element of romance with the bike at the heart of it. 

Pfeifer’s allure or the mystique of a mysterious rider, not sure which one created the magic for me. But I am, forever, a motorcycle fan! 

Of course, there is the quintessential question, would Pfeiffer still prefer a cool rider after she graduated from college or would she go for the bloke with the Volvo? 

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