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Real-life Star Wars bikes are built for speed and fan films

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Some people want to live Star Wars way more than the rest of us. To that end, we’ve found a bunch of projects simulating the speeder bike chase from Return of the Jedi that combine ingenuity, craftsmanship, and wit to render Star Wars into real life. Take it from us, it’s a fun way to kill time while waiting for The Last Jedi to open in December.

Speeding through Manhattan

Halloween Levitating Star Wars Speeder Costume

First up, YouTube vloggers Jesse Wellens and Carmella Rose (also known as PrankvsPrank) took Halloween to a new level this year by dressing up as Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, zipping through the streets of Manhattan on customized speeder bikes. Of course, a Star Wars chase always needs a stormtrooper to follow along (they’re the worst shots anyway), and YouTuber Casey Neistat played the role of an Endor-bound Scout Trooper marvelously, capturing the whole thing in a wildly viral video. This speeder bike doesn’t actually fly, tragically, but it does a great job of simulating the effect thanks to some well-placed mirrors. Wellens and Rose got some help from their pals at Lithium Cycles, who helped customize a pair of cool high-performance, long-range electric motorbikes branded as Super 73. You can check out how they customized the bikes and costumes in this behind-the-scenes video.

Speeding over water

Star Wars - Speeder Bike Jetovator Battle in Real Life!

Wellens, Rose, and Neistat aren’t the only ones racing along on speeder bikes. YouTuber devinsupertramp devised this clever fan film that uses hydropowered jet bikes manufactured by Jetovator to recreate the classic chase over water. With Devin as Han Solo, a mustachioed Chewbacca, and even a few Ewoks, the fan film is a delightful recreation of one of cinema’s most iconic scenes.

Speeding in silence … almost

Dreaming of a Star Wars Speeder Bike

Finally, The Drive discovered another classy speeder bike at the Iola Car Show in central Wisconsin. This amazing replica was built by Vintage Works in Green Bay, WI to show off their impressive, most impressive fabrication skills. It’s built around a 2016 Zero electric motorcycle that’s typically silent, but here, it has been augmented with a 400-watt four-speaker sound system to blast movie-authentic speeder bike sounds. Yes, even the blasters.

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Clayton Moore
Clayton Moore
Contributor
Clayton Moore’s interest in technology is deeply rooted in the work of writers like Warren Ellis, Cory Doctorow and Neal…

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