Top 10 bike racing feature films
No documentaries allowed…
GIVEN its all-action appeal you’d have thought that bike racing would be the perfect background to a movie but in reality they’re few and far between.
Sure there are plenty of documentaries, whether it’s Faster, Closer to the Edge or On Any Sunday but while car racing has spawned a host of movies – either fictional (Days of Thunder, Grand Prix, Le Mans etc) or fact-based like the more recent Rush – there haven’t been so many revolving around motorcycles.
And even when an effort has been made to create a bike film, all too often the results are speeded-up footage of machines that seem to have 27-speed gearboxes (how come the hero always manages to overtake by changing gear and opening the throttle mid-straight? And why wasn’t the throttle wide open already?)
We’ve plumbed the depths to come up with the top 10 motorcycle racing movies, including some fairly obscure ones that might have passed you by. Their positions in the list are decided by their ratings from viewers on IMDB.
As always, if we’ve left any good ones out, do tell us in the comments below. No documentaries or non-racing films, remember, so don’t tell us that we’ve missed Road or Easy Rider from the list.
10. Bolidi sull’asfalto a Tutta Birra (4.1/10 on IMDB)
Not a movie that you’re likely to find easily, this 1970 movile might rate higher for bike fans than its IMDB score suggests for one simple reason; its main protagonist, Mino Ambrosini, is played by a chap called Giacomo Agostini. Yes, it’s in Italian, and no, the plot isn’t terribly original (penniless but talented rider struggles until he finds rich benefactor and starts to win), but there are real period race scenes in there. Believe it or not, this is one of three films in Ago’s acting career – all released in 1970 – but in both the others he plays a racing driver rather than a motorcyclist.
