Badass Biker

aka: Biker Babe

Bonus points for not looking at the explosion.

"Hell hath no fury like a flaming skeleton on a motorcycle."

— Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, about Ghost Rider

So you've got a mean, dangerous setting. Police Are Useless, and usually corrupt. Half the time the place is enveloped in smoke, smog, and moral degeneracy. Violent thugs rule the streets, and you would have to be crazy to even leave your house at night if you had even the slightest excuse not to.

Only one type of badass character can move around with confidence in these parts. He's got a surly attitude, a longcoat or leather jacket, shades, and (optional) cigarette clenched in his jaw. But what really sells it is the Cool Bike: big, shiny chrome accessories, and a growling engine.

Enter the Badass Biker.

Popularized by the Marlon Brando movie The Wild One and the James Dean movie Rebel Without a Cause, the Badass Biker is the epitome of the viciously cool, tough guy. Whether they are traveling through the desert, film noir's rainy city streets, a coastal road, or up a wall, this character and bike combo exudes an aura of awesome that eclipses just about any other badass + vehicle combination.

A universal trope, as media from America, Europe, and Japan all love to depict badass bikers. They're also surprisingly versatile, since Badass Bikers can be heroes or anti-heroes, or, in gangs, they can be villain captains or mooks. Badass bikers can even be transposed into a science fiction setting by giving them a futuristic hoverbike.

A Badass Biker who is a thug or gang member usually fits into All Bikers are Hells Angels as well. Sometimes, his entrance is a Dynamic Entry. A Badass Biker might also drive while their lover hugs them tightly from behind romantically. Most of those enter Helmets Are Hardly Heroic, riding with heads fully exposed.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Courier from Akudama Drive rides a futuristic motorcycle that can travel at high speeds (even alongside walls) and can be used for combat.
• Katsuhiro Otomo is very fond of this trope and thus often includes it in his works, especially AKIRA where Tetsuo, Kaneda, and most other characters ride and fight on stylized motorbikes. Kaneda's red motorbike is iconic in the series.
• Norman Burg in The Big O is this and a Battle Butler. He is very, VERY good at the wheel, and has the sheer balls to take on massive robots with his bike......especially considering it's equipped with a sidecar mounted MLRS!
• Blassreiter has this trope distilled and crystallized. It starts at the motorcycle racing track, and quickly cranks this up all the way, introducing Made of Iron shapeshifting fencing cyborg saint riding shapeshifting jet bike controlled by sentient AI with talkative Fairy Sexy projection. And then he got a company. And then both guy and bike are upgraded...
• Priss Asagiri of Bubblegum Crisis. In at least one episode, she is seen stealing the Badass Bike, and quite possibly continues riding it in the next episode. Each Knight Saber had a bike, a "Motorslave", which transformed into a small autonomous robot (or hulking add-on battlesuit, depending on need.) So really, all four lead characters had a Badass Bike.
• Takane from Burst Angel is a biker gang leader and a Badass Longseifuku. Only Jo can be more badass than that.
• Combattler V: Hyoma Aoi was the only biker on the team.
• Cromartie High School has Kamiyama riding a badass bike that is actually robot buddy Mechazawa turned into a motorcycle, with rocket thrusters, wings, and missiles. Cue epic guitar montage.
• Cutey Honey: Honey Kisaragi when she used her Hurricane Honey form.
• Kenji in Darker than Black tried to be one, after his aniki—who definitely was, before becoming a smug minor Yakuza boss (though still badass, of course).
• Mello of Death Note has a rather large black bike. Shame it gets destroyed after Takada sets everything around her on fire.
• Devilman: Akira owns a rather fetching red motorcycle which he often rides into battle on before transforming. Iwao Himura owns a similar bike, and in his debut episode, he races Akira with it.
• Beelzebumon on his big, black cycle named Behemoth, in Digimon Tamers.
• Dominion Tank Police features the Puma sisters, a duo of criminals who are often seen duking it out with cops all while riding very powerful motorbikes.
• Durarara!!:
  • Celty Sturluson is a modernized Dullahan from Ireland riding around Ikebukuro on her horse familiar-turned-motorcycle, working as a "transporter" to earn money while she searches for her lost head. Also a Badass Adorable: her helmet has kitty ears!
  • There's also Kinnosuke Kuzuhara, who isn't too notable other than the fact that he's just a Meddlesome Patrolman, but he's the one that gave Celty her fear of cops.
  • The Light Novels later introduce Vorona and Chikage.
• The Zokugaku Chameleons of Eyeshield 21, the football team of the local ghetto high school. Every member, even the team manager, has their own motorcycle.
• Haruhara Haruko from FLCL. She alone inspired many people to get a Vespa, learn to play guitars, and live a life of endless badassery.
• Reki from Haibane Renmei is the sweet but cool Team Mom character. Her bike and her smoking are remnants of her troubled past.
• Hidaka Ken in Knight Hunters; his teammates, meanwhile, drive various flavors of cool and not-so-cool vehicles. Izumi Sena in Weiß Kreuz Glühen also rides a motorcycle, but it doesn't make him any more badass.
• Honda from Kochikame goes from a timid shy cop to a fully badass biker whenever he puts his hands on the motorcycle handles (or something that looks like one).
• Kotetsu Jeeg: Hiroshi Shiba not only is a Badass Biker with a Cool Bike but also he is an amateur racer (you can tell Go Nagai is fond of this trope).
• The titular character from Kurenai Sanshiro is a Troubled, but Cute young man who rides his red motorcycle around to search for his dad's killer. And he kicks LOTS of ass in the meantime.
• The Legend of Mother Sarah has Sarah's son Harato and his whole militia riding Cyberpunk-style motorbikes which are typical of La Résistance in the series' setting.
• In an episode of Lucky Star, Yūko Gotō appears as a parody of herself who's a badass, hypermasculine Yakuza biker chick. It's essentially a send-up of the fact that contrary to her many moe character roles, Ms. Gotou is actually a motorcycle enthusiast in real life.
• At 17 years old, Rei Kashino from Mars (1996) is the Big Man on Campus, Lovable Jock in high school with a Delinquent streak that leads him into his fair share of fights, fights that almost always end up in a Curb-Stomp Battle in his favor. He's also a motorbike racing prodigy and has already competed in competitions against adults. His dream is to go pro and everyone who sees him race are assured once he does, he'll dominate.
• Natsuki Kuga from My-HiME prefers to travel by Ducati motorbike, which only adds to her mystique of being the Aloof Dark-Haired Girl of the main trio who can kick ass even without using her HiME powers. Which makes her crashing later on in the series due to Nao setting a tripwire trap across the road while Natsuki's mind is distracted by recent revelations regarding her mother intending to sell her to District One when she was a child that more shocking.
• Duke Iker and his girlfriend Renda de Baroma from Mobile Suit Victory Gundam.
• Seki-sensei, Doremi and Co's homeroom teacher in Ojamajo Doremi.
• Raideen: Akira Hibiki, with a Cool Bike to boot.
• Reborn! (2004): Tsuna and Yamamoto in Choice. Airbikes in the anime.
• Rebuild World: The protagonist Akira gains a reputation for this. There are hunters (Private Military Contractors) known for preferring motorbikes over heavier vehicles such as tanks or Mini-Mecha, and he shows why that is. Akira, even without the assistance of his Virtual Sidekick Alpha who usually aids his movements, is able to Ramp Jump onto an assault aircraft that was attacking him. It helps to have a really technologically advanced Cool Bike.
• RideBack features nearly the entire cast on the eponymous Ridebacks, basically a cross between a modern bike and a segway, with a bit of Humongous Mecha thrown in for good measure.
• Akira Hojo from Sanctuary in his high school days had a motorcycle. He rode off on it as he dropped out of high school to join the yakuza.
• The male protagonist from School Rumble Harima Kenji and one of his rivals, Harry Mackenzie (...their names are supposed to sound similar).
• In the anime version of Sengoku Basara, Date Masamune's horse sports exhaust pipes which make it look like a horse version of Harley Davidson bike.
• Grizzly Bear from Shirokuma Cafe. That's not a nickname by the way. He's an actual Grizzly Bear.
• The Adachi tribe from Tribe Nine is a typical Japanese Delinquent biker gang. Like the other tribes, they settle their fights by matches of Extreme Baseball, using their bikes to move quickly around the game field (they pass the motorcycles off as "baseball cleats" so the robot referees don't raise objections). They are also highly competent at the game, especially when playing on their home turf, which is a maze-like city district that visiting teams tend to get lost in. Humorously, the tribe's leader, Hyakutaro, is the only member who doesn't have a motorcycle license yet, so he rides a bicycle instead.
• Nearly every named male character (and some of the female ones too) in GTO: The Early Years is a Bōsōzoku. Eikichi and Ryuji have been riding motorcycles since they were 14, and have elaborate custom ones. In the sequel series Great Teacher Onizuka, even years after Onizuka left the gang life, he still commands enough respect among the biker gangs to get them to show up when he asks (Ryuji also left, becoming a bike mechanic).
• Takeru Takemoto uses his family's motorbike to run his errands. Which he later on has enough Yen to pay for his own bike in This Ugly Yet Beautiful World.
• Venus Wars is chock full of badass bikers since it's about battle bike riders and motorbike military units with Hiro (Ken) Seno, Miranda, and Major Kurtz topping the list.
• Natsumi, Ken, and Ken's Retired Badass father Daimaru from You're Under Arrest!.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • Marik in Yu-Gi-Oh!; this is made somewhat more poignant by how it connects to his past, a motorcycle being the first thing he saw (on a television set) the first time he ever left his family's underground home. There's also Dartz's henchmen Valon, Rafael, and Allister, who all ride on motorcycles.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds: In the future, card games will be played on motorcycles. Tetsu Ushio takes this even further in the second season. He not only uses a D-Wheel, but his deck uses monsters based on demonic bikers.
  • Parodied in Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series in "Marik's Evil Council of Doom."
    Bakura: If these are all the villains in Yu-Gi-Oh!, then where are those stupid motorcycle freaks? You know, the ones from season four.
    Marik: You mean the season nobody liked?
    Bakura: That's the one.
    Marik: I didn't invite them. They're just a bunch of dorks.
    Bakura: For once we agree on something.
  • Shows up in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX as well, with Saiou, proving he could still be badass without a Superpowered Evil Side.
  • Shark rides a motorcycle - or something like one - in Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL. (Word of God explains Shark being able to drive despite not being driving age by saying that his bike is "not a motorcycle, but a futuristic vehicle that has not been named" and will not elaborate further.)
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V:
    • Yugo comes from the Synchro Dimension, which resembles the world of 5D's, where several duelists, including him, ride motorcycles.
    • Everyone in the Friendship Cup is required to duel on motorcycles, and they're all pretty badass. Extra points for Yuya, who goes rogue after winning a match and drove his bike to reunite with some friends, and for pulling a Dynamic Entry on his motorcycle to save Reira.
• Akira becomes one as soon as he gets his hands on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle in Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead, racing through the zombie-infested streets of Shinjuku without a problem and even managing to Outrun the Fireball by jumping down a flight of stairs into an underground mall without wiping out.

Comic Books

• The independent comic The Badger portrayed Santa Claus as this.
• Barb Wire is a Hell-Bent for Leather Bounty Hunter always seen on her bike. It's even one of the most enduring promotional images of the the movie, as Pamela Anderson in a Harley Davidson just looks awesome.
• Batman:
  • Nearly every incarnation of Batman and all incarnations of Batgirl have had a Bat-Cycle at some point.
  • Sometimes, Nightwing would cruise the streets on a carefully customized bike. Jason Todd, The Red Hood would also count as he rides a Harley, and is constantly wearing a red helmet rather than actual hood. Finally, you have Huntress and Catwoman, both of whom frequently use them.
  • The third Robin Tim Drake was the first Robin to get a "Robincycle" which he quickly learned to use to his advantage against superpowered opponents in addition to having fun riding it. His assassin-trained successor as Robin Damian Wayne, is often seen riding a bike that a normal ten-year-old would not be able to handle.
  • In Batgirl (2009) Stephanie Brown, who had been riding motorcycles since the first panel she appeared in, gained a sweet new transforming bike called the "Compact" for its ability to compact itself which she used to great effect to aid her fight against the criminal element of Gotham.
• Black Canary frequently travels on a bike, sometimes with her sometime love interest Green Arrow riding pillion.
• In some incarnations, Blade's was equipped to scale walls.
• Captain America most often travels on a bike. He has one in the movie as well.
• The alternate universe version of The Flash, Hot Pursuit has a Cosmic Motorcycle, which can go faster than light and time travels.
• Ghost Rider, of course. Even in his civilian identity, he's a stunt rider. Although there is an exception in the third Rider, Robbie Reyes, who is a Badass Driver in a muscle car.
• G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (Marvel) made Zartan into this, with his own gang, the Dreadnoks.
• All female characters in Gotham City Garage travel on bike and are adept at riding motorbikes, even the ones who don't need one like Supergirl or Wonder Woman.
• Judge Dredd is most often seen on his standard-issue Lawmaster.
• Lobo, the baddest bastard bastich of them all.
• Occasionally, Mystique will make an unexpected appearance on a big powerful motorbike, saying that, "Believe it or not, I'm here to help".
• Ogri: The title character of this British comic series.
• Shaman's Tears: Joshua Brand tools around on a classic Indian motorcycle.
• Sherwood, Texas is a Setting Update of Robin Hood where Robin and his Merry Men become Rob Hood and the Jesters outlaw motorcycle gang. Their biggest enemies are John Prince and his gang the Nobles.
• Spider-Man: Ben Reilly, while he was Walking the Earth and dealing withhis Clone Angst.
• Superman: Superman takes up one of Batman's motorcycles in Superman: Truth due to him losing a vast majority of his powers.
• Werewolf by Night: Jack Russel, primarily during the The Dark Age of Comic Books.
• X-Men:
  • Wolverine is the most famous comic-book example. In X-Men: Evolution, he has two that change with his costume.
  • Cyclops is a petrolhead. In the movies, after his original bike burned with his campervan, Wolverine stole one from Cyclops. Gambit as well.
  • Deadpool has... a scooter.
• Wynonna Earp: Outlaws. Mavericks. Werewolves. These are The Banditos, the biker gang Wynonna ran with in her wildest, pre-Black Badge days. And Wynonna herself is tough enough to have ridden alongside them and be considered their equal.

Fan Works

• Earth-27 has the Sons of Batman biker gang. According to the author, he took influence from Sons of Anarchy with Jean-Paul Valley looking a bit like Jax, but both groups have wildly different ideologies.
• Cross this trope with a Monster Clown on a unicycle and you got the Cycle Gang from Equestria Divided.
• The Horsewomen Of Las Vegas features the Aces And Eights, the Disciples Of the Apocalypse and the Ascension motorcycle gangs featured in the Pro Wrestling section.

Films — Animation

• In Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Cloud gets a badass bike that comes with separate slots for each of his Fusion Swords. The vehicle can survive things that would massacre an ordinary bike. He calls it Fenrir. Sephiroth's Remnants also ride bikes that look like messes of pipes.
• Raphael in his Nightwatcher guise in the 2007 TMNT movie.

Films — Live Action

• The Art of the Steal: After getting out of prison, former Getaway Driver Crunch Calhoun works as a motorcycle daredevil who takes cash from event organisers to deliberately crash, because that's what the crowds have come out hoping to see.
• Parodied by Eric Von Zipper in the '60s Beach Party movies.
• The Beast of War: Moufasta and his band of fighters are introduced driving around on motorcycles, shooting guns in the air.
• Blood Father: John is an ex-member of a biker gang, and served several years in prison for it. He and his daughter visit the old Neo-Nazi biker he used to work for to retrieve his old motorcycle and use it as transport from there on out.
• Captain America: The First Avenger: Much like his comic counterpart, Captain America gets a chance to kick ass with his motorcycle in his movie. The bike even has added weaponry for additional ass-kicking.
• Doesn't really get more badass than Batman on his freakish bike (detached from the Batmobile, no less!) in The Dark Knight, which gets its own Moment of Awesome.
  • The Batcycle goes back to at least the Adam West Batman.
• Easy Rider centers around two of them, Captain America and Billy, with the iconic opening credits having them just riding and looking cool as "Born to be Wild" plays. The film is also something of a subversion. While the main characters don't have a problem breaking the law (they survive by running illegal drugs), they're mild-mannered hippies who generally try to avoid serious trouble.
• Played for laughs in Faces of Death II when Dr. Francis B. Gross, the otherwise completely straight-faced narrator, suddenly dons a leather jacket and shades before driving away on a motorcycle, setting up a series of vehicle crash clips.
• In the 1978 version of Game of Death Billy Lo faces a lot of bikers who he has to fight. In the end, he uses a motorcycle himself to 'attack a mook with his front wheel.
• Ghost Rider (2007), but it sort of comes with the territory.
• Scarlet from G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, who spends the Paris chase on a motorcycle.
• In The Great Escape, the scene where Hiltz is trying to cross the border on the motorcycle (a TT Special 650 Triumph to be precise) was not only not in the book, but entirely superfluous. Why did they do it? Because it's cool.
• Rip and Grinder (a.k.a. 'The Plague') drive motorcycles in Hobo with a Shotgun.
• They were clearly going for this with Mutt Williams in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Mutt's look is a deliberate homage to Marlon Brando in The Wild One), but unfortunately, he's being played by Shia LeBeouf.
• The main character of the I, Robot movie, whose vintage early 21st century items he collected include an MV Agusta that is very useful when automated vehicles become compromised.
• James Bond
  • Thunderball has Fiona Volpe showing up with a motorcycle armed with missiles to save James Bond from an assassin.
  • Bond himself qualifies in three movies, Tomorrow Never Dies (where the director knew that after Bond rode a tank in the previous one he needed a smaller vehicle, and the bike chase is a highlight), Quantum of Solace (jumping between boats), and No Time to Die (jumping up walls).
• Jurassic World gives us Owen Grady, who rides his motorcycle alongside his pack of trained Velociraptors.
• A group of biker hooligans are the eponymous villains in Killers on Wheels. Headed by a pair of brothers from a wealthy family with too much spare time on their hands, the bikers spend the whole movie partaking in illegal street races, terrorizing a small coastal town, and chasing after women while on their bikes.
• The Losers (1970): A gang of bikers is recruited by the US military to undertake a rescue operation of a CIA agent imprisoned by the Viet Cong with motorcycles armed with machine guns mounted on the front.
• Pepito in the film adaption of Madeline spends most of his free time on his Vespa, rather than torturing animals like his DiC counterpart. His biking skills would happen to help him escape from kidnappers in the climax.
• In the outlaw sense, Nightrider's gang in Mad Max. (the series is mostly about badass drivers instead)
• Trinity from The Matrix Reloaded, in which she steals a motorcycle during the highway chase scene to escape through the opposite lane.
• Men in Black 3 villain Boris the Animal is a badass biker complete with an alien-looking Cool Bike.
• Aped in The Monster Squad with Rudy, a tough middle-schooler who wears a leather jacket, smokes, drinks, defends the downtrodden, and likes to pose on his bicycle.
• Trace Adkins plays a tattoo artist in Moms' Night Out named Bones who escorts the eponymous mothers around on his Harley. He helps roughs up a pothead who's obstructing them, helps chase their (presumed) stolen minivan, gives Alysson the requisite speech about faith, and ultimately arrives with his gang, The Skulls, to help find Phoenix.
• The Principal: One of the things that marks Rick as a Badass Teacher is his motorcycle. At one point he drives it straight through the school hallways to prevent a rape-in-progress.
• Ki-su from Quick, and the plot requires him to spend almost the entire film on his bike. Myung-shik would like to be one but never quite manages to pull it off.
• In Raising Arizona, "The Lone Biker of the Apocalypse", Leonard Smalls. His friends call him Lenny, but he ain't got no friends.
  • Aw, stop. You're gonna make me bust out cryin'!
• Robert Wolf, the protagonist of Jason Momoa's Road To Paloma, is a biker, and is shown riding for a good portion of the movie. His buddy Cash also has a pretty cool bike.
• Spawn rides a bike in his movie, even though he really doesn't need to.
• Star Trek Beyond has one scene where Captain Kirk storms the enemy base on a motorcycle.
• T-800 and T-1000 in the first two Terminator films respectively, as well as John Connor from Terminator 2: Judgment Day & Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. And Terminator Salvation keeps with tradition by having John commandeering a Mototerminator to ride into a Skynet base.
• Arcee from Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen is actually three badass bikes, connected by a group mind.
• A staple of the TRON franchise. Lightcycle combat is a popular blood...er...voxel sport in Cyberspace, and the protagonists all end up having to survive at least one match in their respective appearances. Tron 2.0's Mercury is explicitly coded as a lightcycle jock.
• Marlon Brando plays the leader of a biker gang in The Wild One.
• Wolverine often drives a motorcycle in the X-Men Film Series films.
• Parodied in Yes-Man when Carl gets on a Ducati that is too powerful for him to handle.

Literature

• 1632: In The Dreeson Incident, the eponymous incident involves Buster Beasley riding into a armed mob on a Harley. This combined with the Heroic Sacrifice he makes after dismounting leads to him attaining major in-universe status as a Memetic Badass.
• Riki's backstory in Ai no Kusabi reveals he was once this as the leader of a biker gang that earned himself the title "Riki The Dark".
• The Howlers of City of Devils are an entire biker gang of phantoms (as in "of the opera").
• The Cyber Dragons Trilogy: Kei loves her Nina cybercycle and is able to fight on it, do stunts, and kick some serious ass while looking good. It's also essential to her job as a Rider. We see her use it several times to escape lethal situations including drone strikes, Trikuza assassins, and nomadic marauders.
• Hell Tanner, a convicted killer and the last living Hell's Angel, the hero of Roger Zelazny's 1967 dystopia / hellride novel Damnation Alley is a Badass Biker of the first degree. The only reason he undertakes to run the titular route is that the Governor has promised him a full pardon if he tried.
• The Hounds of hell in Demon Road. The five ride a variety of bikes, a Harley is the only one Amber can recognise. One of them actually snaps his own neck when she pins him to help him get at her.
• Death from Discworld got himself a bike in Soul Music (a "triumph", built by the Librarian) because the only thing cooler than Death the Destroyer of Worlds is Death on a bike made of bones, shiny bits, and light. It should also be noted, while we're on the subject on unbearable coolness, that he needed the bike so that he could quickly save the day by shredding out some hot licks on the guitar. In order to blackmail the universe into sparing someone's existence. He also has a rose in his teeth at the start of the ride and, knowing that you need to get the outfit right, informs the Dean that "I need your clothes".
• The Girl from the Miracles District has the Bears, a badass biker gang. The two contract killers Nikita and Robin also own bikes and use them quite extensively to travel.
• The four horsemen of Good Omens. In particular, War's appearance, that of a very good-looking woman on a motorbike, makes people want to race against her.
• Sirius Black, from Harry Potter, although ridden by Hagrid in the bike's first appearance. For bonus points, it's a flying motorike.
• Fantasy Anti-Hero Kane Series and his sidekick Blacklight in "Deep in the Depths of Acme Warehouse", in which Kane appears in present-day New Orleans. Most probably because Harleys are the closest equivalent of a horse.
• Mickey Haller's new investigator Dennis "Cisco" Wojciechowski starting in The Brass Verdict is one. He has connections and an informal affiliation with the fictional Road Saints biker gang but is not a full member of the club.
• Subverted in The Girl Who Played with Fire, the second book in the Millennium Series. Alexander Zalachenko sends two thuggish bikers to kill his daughter Lisbeth Salander. The macho bikers try to be badass, they try very hard to be badass: she beats and electrocutes them, then cuts up their jackets and steals their Harley Davidsons.
• The version of Ares, God of War, from Percy Jackson and the Olympians often takes the appearance of a biker due to the gods moving to America and adapting to fit their new home. What makes him a badass is that, as expected from the God of War, he is an almost unparalleled combatant (Percy does manage to knick him but only because he got a power boost from standing in the ocean).
• Snow Crash has Raven, whose title of "baddest motherfucker in the world" is cemented by his motorcycle — specifically, the nuclear weapon in its sidecar that's set to go off in the event of his death.
• The Darksiders from Super Minion. They've got the attitude, the leather coats, and the motorcycles. they're also surprisingly friendly and civic-minded, helping out lost visitors and keeping an eye on dangerous Odd Summer phenomena.
• Star Wars Legends features "swoopers" — people who ride swoops. Swoops are civilian models of the speeder bikes from Return of the Jedi, and in the EU, Everyone from Luke Skywalker to Han Solo wannabes like Dash Rendar finds them useful.

Live Action TV

• Batgirl comes close to this in the Adam West Batman, though it's slightly undercut by the fact that the bike has Frills of Justice. Yes, the bike.
• The Book of Boba Fett: The Mods are all expert swoop riders who pull off daring stunts while chasing down the Majordomo. Additionally, they all dress in stylish clothing, with several having badass longcoats.
• Brooklyn Nine-Nine features Rosa Diaz, who is the toughest among a group of detectives and is frequently shown as having ridden a motorcycle to work.
• Spike picked up a motorcycle from a Badass Biker Demon at the beginning of Season 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and kept it until the end of the series (though he seldom used it, it was certainly badass).
  • Wesley tried to become this as a rogue demon hunter on Angel, but didn't pull it off too well.
• The Danger Theatre segment "The Searcher" is a spoof of Renegade where a biker travels from town to town helping people, solving problems, and getting into a lot of slapstick situations.
• Fonzie from Happy Days started out as a family-friendly version; as his role was increased, his badassitude was decreased morphed from traditional "tough guy" to near-super-powered nice guy.
• In Healer, the original True Companions ran a pirate radio broadcast, critical of the regime's media censorship, from the back of one of their member's trucks as he drove around the city. On occasions when the police located the source, Young Jae covered for them by blocking, distracting, and misdirecting the police pursuit.
• High&Low is a 'verse FULL of these. But the big standouts are the Mugen, and latter Sannoh teams, where each member rides a Harley. The Amamiya brothers are also very decidedly badass bikers.
• There's a reason they're called Kamen Riders.
• Kryten from Red Dwarf briefly becomes this at the end of his Season 2 debut. There is even a version of the page quote involving him and Rimmer.
• The Rising: Neve was a motocross competitor and is shown performing impressive feats during flashbacks against other bikers. She often wore a long leather coat while alive and not in driving gear, being a tough young woman overall. Neve doesn't permit a little thing like being dead stop her from trying to find her killer either, and luckily for her it doesn't stop her riding.
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Referencing the Terminators in the movies, Cameron gets to cruise around on a motorcycle, complete with sunglasses. (Except in her case, the giant motorcycle cop glasses she wears look a little silly on petite Summer Glau).
• Richard Hammond on Top Gear obviously thought he was one of these when he got to ride a Vincent Black Shadow motorcycle. Subverted all the way, as he had to scramble to get into his leathers, couldn't get the thing started without help, and spent the entire ride encountering engine trouble and rain.
  • The Stig's "Communist cousin" in a deleted scene from the Series 12 Vietnam special.
• Twin Peaks: James Hurley, the tough yet sensitive biker teen with a Dark and Troubled Past. He's a frequent suspect who gets hauled into jail a lot, particularly during Season 1 as he didn't have an alibi for Laura's death. However, James is a fairly heroic character, who can be counted on to stand up for what's right (unless he's too busy angsting). In Season 3, he has a fairly badass moment where he gets in a fight defending a woman from her abusive man. In a convoluted way, this facilitates the final defeat of BOB.
  • Season 3 also introduces us to two more biker characters: Mr. C, BOB's current host body, and an Evil Doppelgänger of Agent Cooper and Wally Brando, a comedic pastiche of Marlon Brando's performance in The Wild One... played by Michael Cera.
• Veronica Mars: Eli "Weevil" Navarro, head of the PCH biker gang in Neptune. For the first season, at least. This culminates in the second season, where he kills the guy who stole his biker gang by tasering him and taping the drugs he was carrying to the underside of the guy's bike, knowing that when he reported back to the crime family who owns the drugs that they would search the bike and "deal" with him - thereby leaving him in the clear.

Music

• The Blue Öyster Cult were pretty much the house band for New York Angels. The band adopted a leather biker look for a while in tribute, and wrote several songs as homage: Transmaniacon MC tells the story of the Altamont festival - from the point of view of the Angel chapter that became infamous there. Golden Age of Leather is about old Angels who decide to go out with a bang rather than get old. Feel The Thunder is about the death and afterlife of three Angels.
• The Memetic Mutation of "Superstar" from Jesus Christ Superstar: "Jesus Christ Superstar, burning down the road on a Yamaha,..."
• Rob Halford, lead singer of pioneering heavy metal band Judas Priest, is known for riding onstage on a large Harley Davidson motorcycle, usually performing a song or two whilst seated on the bike before getting off of it.
• Édith Piaf: Her song "L' Homme à la Moto" is about an attractive biker she likes.
• Parodied in the music video for Soundgarden's "By Crooked Steps", where it's a biker gang riding Segways.
• "Born to Be Wild", originally performed by Steppenwolf is told from the point of view of such a biker. Thesong is often invoked in both popular and counter culture to denote a biker appearance or attitude. Whenever used as Leitmotif it implies that the character is either Bad to the Bone or simply someone who thinks he is.
• The late Taiji Sawada, ex-X, ex-Loudness, ex-Cloud Nine, ex-The Killing Red Addiction. Insanely talented slap bassist, and until his injuries got too severe, a Badass Biker since the 1980s, also preferred a Harley-Davidson but could settle for a Honda occasionally...
• James, the protagonist of the classic Richard Thompson song "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" is a Badass Biker robber with (possibly) a heart of gold. His love interest, Red Molly, is also a biker ("Red hair and black leather, my favourite colour scheme"); as he promises, she inherits his eponymous Cool Bike when his life of crime leads to his early death.

Pinball

• All of the Harley Davidson pins features the player as this. The version from Sega Pinball/Stern Pinball also has the masked Mystery Rider.

Pro Wrestling

• Biker gimmicks were common in the territorial days. The Road Warriors and MagnumTA are a couple of the more famous examples.
• Real Life example: Jesse "The Body" Ventura rode with the San Diego chapter of the Mongols before entering the pro wrestling business. Ironically, his tag team partner in the East-West Connection, Adrian Adonis, was the one who actually used a biker persona as part of his gimmick.
• Tetsuhiro Kuroda rode a motorcycle and had several other bikers in his wake in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling.
• Love Machine and Héctor Garza in CMLL, the latter serving as transportation for his tag team partners and stablemates even.
• Swedish biker Slo Feng in Kaiju Big Battel. He calls his bike Sleipnir (after Odin's horse) and doesn't want anybody else to even touch it.
• Crush led The Disciples of Apocalypse (D.O.A.), a fairly popular but not very talented stable during the WWF's "Gang Wars" angle. Included Tag Team Twins Ron And Don Harris.
• When The Undertaker switched gimmicks for the first time in the WWE, he traded in his trademark Badass Longcoat for a Badass Bike to become the "American Badass". Mark Calaway, the man behind The Undertaker gimmick, is in fact a passionate motorcyclist (the American Badass character is basically Mark Calaway adapted for the world of pro wrestling).
• Chuck Palumbo tried this after the Undertaker, with less success. This gimmick was also based on the wrestler's real life, as it happens. Oddly enough, Palumbo's was Michelle McCool, the Undertaker's future wife.
• TNA's Aces And Eights stable, who are based on SAMCRO from Sons of Anarchy.
• Lucha Underground has Son of Havoc, who is among the inaugural Trios champions. Parts Unknown is justified with him, as he has no fixed residence, always riding from place to place.
• Baron Corbin in 2023 NXT run riding a motorcycle to the ring.

Tabletop Games

• Apocalypse World features the Chopper playbook, who is the leader of a post-apocalyptic biker gang, each of whom gets a custom Cool Bike.
• Dead Reign has The Reapers, badass zombie slayers led by the Big Good of the setting and also an available player class.
• Nuclear Renaissance has the possibility for many bikies and bikie gangs: there is an official mini for one Golg the Terrible, who eats any meat he can grab, has a saw for a hand, rides an enormous bike, and can quite easily be kitbashed into an [1]; and, in the fluff, Sir Stanton, a knight in scrap metal armour who is fascinated with technology, but insists upon fighting with his blade, as he believes himself to be a knight, who must fight with honour, and guns are dishonorable.
• The Others (2015) has an expansion called "Sons of Ragnarok". Said group is a biker gang composed of men and women named after Norse Mythology who fight the powers of Hell. The box warns civilians to stay out of their way and contact FAITH, as they're actually really effective at what they do.
• Shadowrun has go-gangs: themed gangs of motorcycle riders. They range from the Halloweeners, which are basically poorly equipped Mooks, to the Ancients, an all-elven gang that rivals some military forces in terms of training and equipment. And then there's the Spikes, an all-troll gang that makes up for their lack of training or discipline by being Ax-Crazy.
• Vampire: The Requiem gives us the Bruja bloodline, which is what happens when a Carthian Gangrel decides the leader of a biker gang would make a good instrument for the revolution. What happens is said Carthian ends up getting diablerized by his childe, who then goes on to Embrace his gang and raise hell all over the Southwest.
  • Danse Macabre introduced The Brides of Dracula, a whole Covenant consisting of Badass Bikers.
• Warhammer 40,000: How much more badass do you get than screaming green maniacs on ramshackle scrap-metal motorbikes laden with giant machine guns? Oh yeah, that would be the Super Soldiers on giant armoured bikes the size of cars. Or the evil Super Soldiers on hell motorbikes covered in blades and skulls... or maybe the space-elf knights on flying bikes with laser lances... or the evil space elves that can fly their bladed flying death bikes with enough skill to cut specific arteries.
  • The Orks have legendary bikerboy Wazdakka Gutsmek, who never, ever gets off his bike except to tinker with it, and never sleeps thanks to a special brew the Mad Doks make for him. His goal is to create a network of warp gates and such so that he and his army can ride from one end of the galaxy to another. He has a chainsaw hand and equipped his bike with cannons that can stop a tank in its tracks. He once killed a Warlord Titan by driving off a cliff, punching through its void shields, crash-landing in the thing's head, and slaughtering the crew. While on fire.
  • Doomrider◊. A demon price/chaos lord from older editions has become a meme with 40k fans. Now mind you cocaine is bad, but when you are the demon god-thing of sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll's favored demon prince biker of badassitude, cocaine is the weakest drug in your veins.
  • This is the White Scars Space Marines' entire schtick. They're pretty much Mongols on armoured bikes with machine guns.
  • The Adeptus Custodes get their share of anti-gravity jetbikes, which are naturally as devastating as anything the Custodes usually field, if not more. Most bikes don't have a tank-melting BFG mounted at the front, but it wouldn't be a proper Custodian vehicle without ludicrous armament like that.
  • About the only people without badass bikes are the Tau (who go with battlesuits for their badassery), the Tyranids (who are a Horde of Alien Locusts), the Imperial Guard (who actually get badass riders...seriously, they have a horse-mounted cavalry unit), and the Adeptus Mechanicus (who favour fire-breathing steampunk robot horse-dogs over bikes), although in the latter case, the Kataphron servitors^note lobotomized cyborgs on tank treads are, as of 9th edition, classed as bikers in the game rules.
  • Cadian Rough Riders ride choppers. Yes, 40k has a unit of badass normals, riding big bikes around in combat and charging people on them so they can stab them with explosive-tipped lances.
• Dokurorider from the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game is a 6-Star Ritual Monster/Zombie with 1900/1850 who rides a giant motorcycle with jaws over the front wheel. He's not especially strong, but damn he looks cool. Click here for the Wiki article.
  • Other biker monsters in the game are Chaosrider Gustaph, Diskblade Rider, Stygian Street Patrol, and Stygian Sergeants.

Video Games

• The Bayonetta series has no shortage of badass biker chicks. Jeanne uses her magic to drive vertically across a cliff face in the first game, and in Bayonetta 2 she drives recklessly into oncoming traffic, just because she can! Bayonetta herself is no slouch either, in the first game she steals a motorcycle so she can shoot up some car-shaped angels on the highway, hot-wiring it by ramming her middle finger into the ignition to magically jump-start it!
• The protagonist of Bombshell, Shelly, is described as someone who likes "kicking ass, motorcycles, [and] kicking ass on motorcycles".
• Brütal Legend, by the same designer, has two teams of Badass Bikers; the Thunderhogs, boom-trikes for your bassist medics, and the Fire Barons, choppers which ignite high-proof booze in their wake to Kill It with Fire. It Makes Sense in Context, I promise!
• Johnny from Chrono Trigger; even better, because he's a badass that turns into a bike.
• In the Command & Conquer: Tiberian Series, Brotherhood bikers rides Recon bikes equipped with twin rockets launchers.
• The protagonist of Days Gone is a former One-Percenter Biker-turned-Post Apocalyptic Bounty Hunter who makes a living taking out troublemakers and clearing out "Freaker" encampments for various survivalist communities.
• Chuck Greene of Dead Rising 2 is a motocross champ and zombie-killing extraordinaire who turns his skills fixing up his bike into the ability to MacGyver-up weaponry.
• Both Dante and Lady ride bikes in Devil May Cry. The former is a Badass Longcoat and the latter is a Badass Normal.
• James Bond qualifies for this in Everything or Nothing, whenever he rides the Q-Bike. Especially so in the nailbiter that is the Pontchartrain Bridge chase level, where he's trying to catch up with Jaws who's driving a tanker truck full of nanobots, hell-bent on destroying the levees and flooding New Orleans.
• Final Fantasy:
  • In one mission in Final Fantasy VII Cloud rides a bike. Of course, he still uses his Buster Sword.
  • Final Fantasy XII introduces Balthier and Fran this way, coming in on a hoverbike to pull a heist on the Royal Palace.
  • Snow, from Final Fantasy XIII, is familiar with a high-tech version of this trope, using massive Cocoonite riders that certainly give off a motorbike attitude (if not quite form). When he becomes a l'Cie, he gets the Shiva Sisters, whose Gestalt Mode is a more traditional motorcycle that spits ice out the exhaust.
• Freedom Planet has Carol Tea, who has a motorcycle capable of scaling walls, climbing ladders, and she can claw swipe, kick, and roll attack her enemies while on it. She can even hang on a hanging bar with the bike between her legs for extended periods, though she's obviously exerting a lot of effort that way.
• Full Throttle (pictured atop this page) is all about Badass Bikers and is generally the all-around reference for details of this trope.
• Grand Theft Auto: Motorcycles make a great choice with their superior speed, ability to maneuver through heavy traffic, fit down tight alleyways or through gaps in roadblocks, and pop a wheelie while doing so... though hitting something means flying out straight into the tarmac.
  • All the subsequent GTA games have had the bikes, but Johnny Klebitz and The Lost from Grand Theft Auto IV are the definitive men to ride them. In the first DLC episode, Johnny is the protagonist, and the gang serves as support and backup.
  • Franklin from Grand Theft Auto 5 also qualifies for this, overlapping a bit with his driver skills. His best friend Lamar lends him a green WMC Bagger (stolen from a repo job) early in the story, which becomes his second main vehicle. Mix that with his ability to enter bullet time while in a vehicle, and you'll find yourself cruising through traffic and police chases with ease.
• In Honkai Impact 3rd, one of Bronya Zaychik's abilities as Herrscher of Reason is to convert Project Bunny into a motorcycle that she can ride on. Cue the roadkill.
• The Biker from Hotline Miami, a hired killer like the protagonist Jacket, who ends up clashing with the latter as the second boss, becoming playable after Jacket's storyline. He has a Cool Bike that he rides between levels, in contrast to Jacket's Cool Car. He never fights while riding his bike, but he disguises himself with his turquoise motorcycle helmet in lieu of the animal mask he was given. Armed with a meat cleaver and throwing knives, he's determined to break free from his contract killings and find the people behind the phone calls.
• Jak from Jak and Daxter regularly uses antigrav bikes. Not particularly badass in the original game (in which he was your standard-issue Farm Boy), but in Jak II: Renegade... well... a Phlebotinum Rebel riding a gun-fitted antigrav motorbike stolen from a totalitarian police force is pretty badass.
• Left 4 Dead has Francis, a heavy-set, 6'3 biker who seems to be the only survivor that actively enjoys larger fights in the game. One soundbite of his, that plays on killing a large horde without taking any damage, "I hope you're all having as much fun as I am!" says it all.
  • Another example, when being hauled to his feet by another survivor:
    Louis: Come on now, let's get you up on your feet.
    Francis: Uuughh... heh... good thing I'm indestructible.
• Lost Judgment has Yuma Suou, a high school student who is the leader of the Made In Heaven biker gang. Not only is he quite formidable on a bike, but we also learn that he was even a motocross champion in his middle school days.
• Mach Rider, real identity unknown, is trying to help save the world from an alien invasion. His/her bike is equipped with a gun called the Power Blaster, as well as the ability to instantly reform itself in the event of a crash.
• Jack Cayman from MadWorld is shown to be one, complete with road rage level. Two, in fact.
• Mario Kart Wii added bikes to the series. Of course, in this case, the badassness depends on the rider: ones like Baby Peach or Baby Daisy can't really pull it off, but Bowser or even Dry Bowser? Heck yeah! In addition, when Peach (as well as her metallic variant Pink Gold Peach), Daisy, Rosalina and Pauline use bikes, they replace their usual dresses (which would be very impractical to wear on bikes) with body-clinging biker outfits.
• Nitro Man from Mega Man 10 also falls into the Motocycle Transformer category.
  • Ride Boarski of Mega Man X 7 as well, if we're going by that logic.
  • Zero, Axl and the "Green Biker Dude" get a ton of mileage out of the Ride Chasers, physically similar to bikes.
• Midnight Club also features motorcycles in their games, working much like the example above; quick and compact, but one collision sends you flying. The third game, DUB Edition, has choppers along with sports bikes.
• Definitely a parody: Travis Touchdown from No More Heroes rides a huge motorcycle that looks like an X-Wing.
• There are quite a few tough "Biker" and "Roughneck" trainers in some of the main series Pokémon games. A heroic case is protagonist Wes from the spin-off Pokémon Colosseum.
• Persona
  • If you consider automatic scooters to be bikes, then the Investigation Team in Persona 4 Golden absolutely qualifies. Despite automatic scooters being tame compared to actual bikes, and especially disregarding the fact that the Investigation Team are a bunch of dorky goofballs, they're no less competent or badass as the other Badass Bikers, and in some ways, are even tougher. For example, how many people in general punch out the Japanese Goddess of Death?
  • Kanji, from the same game, toys with this trope a lot. On the one hand, he has the demeanor and appearance of a Badass Biker... only he was actually a sweet kid (and still is), and actually beats up biker gangs for causing too much noise for his mother. Then he plays it straight again by having a (non-motor) bike that he uses regularly and even an outfit that looks like a Japanese biker outfit... only to avert it again by being the only member of the Investigation Team to never get a motor Scooter, alongside the biker outfit being from a gang he crushed.
  • Ryuji from Persona 5 subverts this trope. Despite having a Hell-Bent for Leather outfit and a tough demeanor, he doesn't have a bike. He makes up for it for having a badass Pirate as his Persona, which evolves into Sun Wukong, the Monkey-King.
  • The one person to play this straight, ironically, is Makoto Niijima, the Student Council President. Despite being a bit of a goody-two-shoes with some hidden anger issues, alongside a completely blushing beauty when romanced or flustered, she manages to be a badass, competent Persona-user who's Persona manifests as a nuclear-powered motorcycle based off a female Pope and later a Sumerian goddess.
• Rebuild features the NPC faction called the Riffs. They randomly show up to go on zombie-shooting sprees, and later help you out with taking out the Last Judgement.
• Resident Evil 2 has Claire Redfield, a college girl who rides a motorcycle into zombie-infested Raccoon City. Post-credit scenes in both Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil – Code: Veronica also feature Claire with different motorcycles.
• Ride to Hell: Retribution has many of the gang kind in its cast, including lead character Jake. The highest difficulty is also called "Badass Biker".
• Saints Row
  • The Boss can be played this way; just give them a Hell-Bent for Leather outfit, a couple of guns, and a Cool Bike, and boom! Instant Badass Biker.
  • The Ronin in Saints Row 2 have many members who drive powerful motorcycles. Subverted with Shogo Akuji, who according to Gat spends more time on his hair than his bike.
• Cheiron Archer, from Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love, was the leader of a biker gang before becoming a lawyer. After her Character Development, she starts riding her bike once more. Her STAR incorporates a biker motif, using a throttle-powered chain as its weapon.
• Ryo Hazuki in Shenmue. Although he doesn't actually own a bike, he fills the trope when he either borrows one from a neighbor or — more fittingly — kicks the ass of a thug and takes his.
• Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne introduces us to Hell Biker, who besides being an undead Badass Biker, is also one of the Fiends, the Incarnations of Death.
• In Slipstream 5000, Rysho was leader of a Tokyo bike gang before joining the races. His vehicle is one of the smallest and narrowest, perhaps because he wants to treat it like a flying bike.
• Shadow the Hedgehog has the title character getting a bike so the Badbutt can enter this trope too, as he is otherwise capable of running to supersonic speeds (when Amy points this in the Archie comics, Shadow explains that all G.U.N. agents must be issued with a vehicle, and he immediately liked the motorcycle enough to customize it). He still rides it in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), and it's his vehicle in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing.
• StarCraft: Jim Raynor, who already has one or two entries in badass, rides a souped-up Vulture hoverbike as his primary vehicle.
• Star Fox: Wolf O'Donnell. While he doesn't actually own a bike—he pilots a Wolfen—he does fit the trope in terms of his design and personality. The former because he wears the black leather attire that is standard for the trope in Star Fox: Assault. His design is still based on this in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but it goes a step further by giving him at least one accessory traditionally associated with the biker motif, including a chain that connects to the belt around his waist and to the holster for his blaster which, other than making a clanking noise when he lands on a platform, serves absolutely no purpose other than to illustrate that he's a big, bad tough guy because Clothing Reflects Personality.
• Street Fighter V: Juri Han, who debuted in Super Street Fighter IV, rides and stunts around on a bike, somehow driving from Brazil to London on one. Her reveal trailer for Street Fighter 6 has her enter on a bike and do a side slide before dismounting and taking to the fight.
• The Tekken series has quite a few of these characters.
  • First up that comes to mind is, Paul Phoenix. Bikes around a lot, and self-proclaimed "toughest guy in the universe". Though judging by his record of fighting (beaten several Mishimas in canon!), he's... really badass.
  • Jin Kazama is this too, owning a souped-up sports bike that has boosters on it. The Bloodline Rebellion Intro details just how good he is with his bike of his.
• Lara Croft from Tomb Raider, who downright has some driving segments in Tomb Raider: Legend.
• Tourist Trophy, a spinoff of Gran Turismo, allows you to compete head-to-head with other bikers on tracks.
• Mr. Grimm from Twisted Metal, a skull-themed motorist (The Grim Reaper himself in some continuities) who always rides a Cool Bike.
• WarioWare:
  • Wario becomes this complete with a chopper bike called the "Wario Bike", built by Dr. Crygor for him since WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$. In fact, a good few of his microgames have him riding his bike through various hazards.
  • There's also Mona who owns a scooter and puts it to good use in her stages in the first game and WarioWare: Twisted!.
• WarWind has them as an equivalent of cavalry in Obblinox army, recruitable at an inn.

Visual Novels

• Mondo Owada of Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc got accepted into one of the world's most prestigious high schools on the basis that he's one of the most badass biker gang leaders, leading the biggest Biker Gang in Japan.
• Subverted with Morgan in Double Homework. On the one hand, she used to lead a gang, and she scares Dennis enough that he takes pains not to have her around when he’s harassing the other girls. On the other, her one foray into the crime world (to prove that her gang was for “real”) was a botched armed robbery that led to her gang breaking up and Morgan herself going to prison for a year.
• In Spirit Hunter: NG, Akira's motorcycle only adds to his image as a tough, capable fighter. Seiji and Kaoru are both impressed by it and demand rides from him on separate occasions.

Web Animation

• In Dick Figures: The Movie, Red acquires motorcycle skills during a lengthy car chase.
• Lobo in Lobo (Webseries) is a space biker.
• Season 9 of Red vs. Blue has Agent Texas riding a heavy motorcycle during the big highway battle; when she's done with it, she simply sends it up a ramp and crashing into an enemy AV-14 Hornet.
• RWBY A keen motorcyclist who favours biker-influenced outfits, Yang is an elite Huntress whose pride and joy is her orange-and-black motorcycle, Bumblebee. Junior's nightclub fears her because every time she rocks up on her bike, it's to cause trouble, and Neptune is impressed when she bursts through the club's blast doors, unfazed by the club's defences. When biking through Anima, she punches a bandit for hitting on her and later sacrifices her bike in battle against Adam to save Blake; In Volume 8, she field tests a new hoverbike by performing somersaults and later leads the bike chase through the mountains when Oscar is kidnapped.

Webcomics

• In Angel Down Maria uses a motorbike as her primary mode of transport and is a well-respected paladin.
• Kalita from Furry Fight Chronicles is a biker who specializes in brawling. She can take out an enemy gang by herself, and has an Elemental Punch as one of her techniques.
• Subversion: an early sequence starting here ^note If that link doesn't work, go to the archives and start at February 13th, 2002 in Wapsi Square has Monica (looking like a goth because she's got motor oil around her eyes) looking for a phone in what turns out to be a biker bar after her car breaks down. The bikers all seem pretty badass, but it turns out that they're all rich, white-collar motorbike enthusiasts dressing up. Monica gets to ride shotgun on a Harley anyway, so she's not complaining.
• Subverted with Hades from Zeus And Sons who, despite his biker garb, badass motorcycle, and dominion over the dead, is seen crying about his inability to find a girlfriend and lovingly petting his three-headed puppy.

Web Video

• Left POOR Dead: Toby in episode 5
• Nightwing in Nightwing: The Series rides a sleek sport-cycle.

Western Animation

• Avenger Penguins revolves around three bike-riding penguins that inhabit Big City, uniting to protect it and its citizens from the evil Caractacus P. Doom, an insane and reclusive criminal scientist.
• Biker Mice from Mars is Exactly What It Says on the Tin: they're humanoid mice, they come from Mars, and they're bikers. For the Badass part... Back on Mars they routinely fought tanks one-on-one and won.
• Ulrich Stern of Code Lyoko has a monowheeled flying "Overbike" in the virtual world. Note that he's also a speedster, but the bike makes him even faster.
• Grojband'' has Mina Beff and Nick Mallory, who can ride a motorcycle.
• Vigilante from Justice League Unlimited, whom due to being an modern cowboy. Goes for the My Horse Is a Motorbike trope.
• On Metalocalypse, Nathan Explosion often drives a bike with four sidecars for his band members, which he calls the Murdercycle.
• Steve from The Owl House is revealed to have an aesthetic like this late in season 2, with a motorbike and leather jacket. He takes King on a joyride across the Isles for no personal benefit and they even help a family with cart troubles. As a member of the Emperor's Coven, he's considered badass by default.
• Mike Chilton pulls this off in the finale of Motorcity.
• Samurai Jack, of all people, becomes one after the fifty-year Time Skip in Season 5. The first scene of the season has him saving a family from a gang of robot bugs by smashing them with his bike.
• Teen Titans (2003):
  • When vehicular travel is necessary, the Titans ride in Cyborg's Cool Car... except for Robin, who rides his own Badass Bike.
  • In keeping with his status as Robin's Shadow Archetype, Red X has one too. (Johnny Rancid likes to think of himself as this, but even control over reality using Larry's powers doesn't make him badass.)
• In his biography for Total Drama Island Trent states that if he won the money, he'd use it as a down payment for his dream chopper.
• Some Transformers, such as Thrust from Beast Machines, Sideways from Transformers: Armada and Prowl from Transformers: Animated, take this even further... they are Badass Bikes. Oil Slick has yet to appear, but he looks the part and will likely fit the role to a T.
  • He finally appeared. And for those who don't know, he transforms into what is essentially a heavily modded Dodge Tomahawk, the most badass mode of transportation ever conceived. Modded meaning he has a GOAT SKULL on his handlebars and spikes everywhere. Metal incarnate. He was so awesome that while he was originally intended to be toy-only, the creators thought he was so awesome that they put him in both the show and the tie-in comic.
  • Oh, and did we mention badass bikes Prowl and Oil Slick are also ninjas? Sideways just has to get along with being a living virus and servant of an eater of worlds.
    • Tfwiki has it that he actually is a ninja as well, though more recently he's a spaceship or a car instead of a bike.
  • Arcee from Transformers: Prime is another badass bike-bot.

Real Life

• Real Life bikers can get a bad rep, especially in areas where gangs are well-known, but there are a lot of stories of how they are actually quite nice, though they often use the image to protect their own.
  • A good example are the guys of Rescue Ink, who work to help rescue abused animals while making sure that the abusers get what's coming to them. See this article for an absolutely adorable picture of them helping out puppies.
  • There are also the Patriot Guard Riders, veteran bikers who attend funerals of American servicemembers and shield the family from the evil cultists protesters of the Westboro Baptist Church.
  • Adelasian locals (Adelaide, South Australia) will know all about the Santa Bikers run. Every year all the bikers in the city buy presents for disadvantaged kids and drive down the main roads on their bikes (most decked in Santa gear because that's part of the fun) to deliver them. I'm told other countries have similar runs.
    • Many Australian cities have similar events, including Brisbane and Townsville.
  • Bikers Against Child Abuse are another charity biker group that offers support and protection to children who have experienced mental and physical abuse. They have chapters in the US and other countries. If the victim is scared at night, they will ride up to keep vigil outside their house and they also fill the entire front row of the courtroom when the victim has to testify. "It's harder to feel scared when the scariest-looking people in the room are on your side. "
• A couple of particularly dumb robbers in Australia made an unfortunate choice of place to knock over since the club had about 50 "Blackie" bikers meeting inside, who proceeded to Zerg Rush the robbers to the point that one jumped out the window to get away while the other was rugby tackled and hogtied by the bikers while trying to leave out the back door.
• Touring bikers are often an aversion. Neil Peart and Ewan McGregor are good examples of this.
• In places where the driving conditions are often chaotic and dangerous (i.e. in developing countries), people who choose to ride motorcycles become badasses by default since every day they brave hellish road conditions that can lead to severe injury or death.
• An indirect example would be the "Very Merry Un-Gangs of Disneyland." Basically, large social clubs who often adopt a tough, biker-like apparel, but visit the park to enjoy the attractions just like anyone else. When necessary, they'll leverage their intimidating looks to help keep the peace by intimidating actual troublemakers and reporting them to security.
• Kurdish militias fighting back invading Islamic State militants got some unexpected reinforcements in the form of Dutch biker gang "No Surrender" and German biker gang "Median Empire."
• Italy has a tradition of military bikers dating to before World War II when every Bersaglieri (quick assault infantry) regiment was given a recon platoon equipped with bikes, recon platoons that, if necessary, could fight◊. To this day, Italian brigades still have a recon company equipped with bikes (including, of course, the Garibaldi bersaglieri brigade), said bikes' manufacturer Cagiva sells bikes to armies of all the worlds, and the Corazzieri (the guards of the Italian president, chosen among the tallest and most badass of the Carabinieri) can be seen on large bikes when on parade or escorting the president◊.
• Motorsports involving motorcycles typically have this, with MotoGP and more extreme series taken to the extreme. Valentino Rossi, for example.
• Motorcycle cops play into the same image and have a reputation even amongst other police officers for being renegades. Many also participate in their own motorcycle clubs off-duty.

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