What was Prince’s “Purple Rain” motorcycle?
Last night while nursing a scratchy throat with some tea, I was flipping through the channels and stumbled across the movie Purple Rain. I immediately began to feel really old when I realized that it was released 26 years ago. Sigh. I remember when I was a kid it looked like the Best Movie Ever, but as I started to watch it last night I realized that it was a really horrible movie with really great music clips.
Purple Rain
Then there was his motorcycle. My recollection of it was much different than what it actually was. Maybe it’s the giant fairing in the front, but I recall it being more flashy and impressive. A little bit of Googling ensued (and a lot of conflicting opinions later) led to a forum thread that included info from a guy named Tom Summers, who supposedly worked on the bike for the movie.
He revealed that the motorcycle was a 1981 Honda 400A (also called a Hondamatic 400) and had a Kutter fairing added on (although a lot of people say it’s a Windjammer fairing). The seat had a hot pink velour inserts and you can see the early version of Prince’s symbol painted on the fairing.
movie captures found at imcdb.org
There were three bikes in the movie, two of them stunt bikes. Prince’s actual bike was revamped in 1990, painted black and gold for the movie Grafitti Bridge. But one of the stunt bikes, still painted purple, is currently on display at Paisley Park Studios.
Graffiti Bridge
OK, there’s my useless knowledge post of the week! I will now have this song stuck in my head for at least…three days!