When the world’s favourite spy rode the Turkish rooftops on a Kriega-equipped Honda
Motorcycle chases have featured heavily in Bond films over the decades, but the one from 2012’s Skyfall is our favourite. The movie was Daniel Craig’s third outing as Bond, and the biggest grossing of his five Bond blockbusters (1).
The chase starts when Bond joins Moneypenny (played by Naomie Harris) tearing around the packed streets of Istanbul, Turkey, in a Land Rover Defender. They eventually ram the bad guy’s Audi out of action and the chase transfers to two wheels.
The villain jumps on a ‘police’ bike while Bond grabs a market trader’s daily ride. Both bikes are actually modified Honda CRF250R motocrossers. According to Christie’s website the bike was, ‘provided by Honda and modified by Chris Corbould's award-winning special effects team to resemble a Turkish street merchant's bike.’
The CRF250R is a pure competition bike, so it was artificially aged and had lights added to make it look like a road-going trail bike. Ammunition boxes were added to resemble panniers and – the reason we love this chase most of all – a Kriega US-20 Drypack was strapped to the rear of the seat.
We were told at the time, the special effect’s team liked the tough, understated and utilitarian look of the US-Drypack.
Different stunt riders have been credited with doubling for Craig on the chase, but this behind-the-scenes film shows Australian freestyle motocross king, Robbie Madison in the iconic rooftop sequence.
The story of the bike continued in 2013 when it was one of a collection of Bond props and artefacts that formed a fundraising auction for the British charity, BBC Children in Need. The humble Honda, still fitted with the US-Drypack fetched £101,400 (US$162,440 at the time).
The Kriega US-Drypack range is a universal-fit, 100% waterproof, modular luggage system designed to fit just about any and all two-wheelers. It is available in a choice of sizes from 5 to 40 litres.
US-Drypacks are primarily tailpacks, and are designed to allow the aircraft-grade alloy hooks to connect to heavy-duty webbing on other US-Drypacks to create combos of up to 70-litres capacity.
The smaller packs in the range can also be strapped to the TANK CONVERTER to be used as a tankbag. They can also hook to some Kriega backpacks to offer additional capacity. We only advise using US-5 and US-10 in that way, and only hooking them to the R22, R20, R15 and HYDRO-3 backpacks.
See the full range of US-DRYPACKS
To buy, order directly from kriega.com or head to your local dealer for a closer look
Kriega UK dealer network
Kriega Worldwide importers
(1) According to Wikipedia