This has probably been covered before but I searched the site and couldn't find it.

I read on the internet that Prince's Purple Rain motorcycle was a CB450 Nighthawk.

Is this true?

Does anyone have any good pictures of the motorcycle?

Does anyone know where the motorcycle is now?

Thanks,

io1

I Dunno What Kinda Of Motorcycle It Is But All I Gotta Say Is,,,,

I LOVE THAT MOTORCYCLE!!!!

The motorcycle is a custom Honda Goldwing. It didn't have an engine size, when I saw it on display at Paisley Park, during the 2000 Celebration. It still had 1984 license plates, and as far as I know it is still there in the garage, unless Prince destroyed it along with the purple house... j/k.

The black motorcycle is similar and it was on display during the 2002 Celebration, and for $5 you could have your picture taken while sitting on it.

I don't think that it is a Goldwing. Goldwings at the time had large 4 cylinder engines and two front disc brakes. Goldwings were very big bikes too, 1100 cubic inches and weighing over 500 pounds.

http://www.hondagoldwings...nwing2.jpg


Looking at the standard purple rain poster, it looks like a 2 cylinder motorcycle with a single front disc brake with a fairing and different handlebars added. Here's the best picture of a Honda CB450 I could find:

http://www.sfmoto.com/sal...hawkLF.JPG


Thanks for your input.

io1

io1 said:

I do believe that the motorcycle was custom made to his size. The Goldwings in the 70's and 80's were built smaller, than the newer sized Goldwings you described.

Just the fact that the engine didn't have a number told me it was a custom job.

Not that this proves anything, but Kurt Loder's '84, Rolling Stonearticle on the movie, he called it a custom made Honda.

http://princetext.tripod...._1984.html

I'm no motorcycle expert, and it would be interesting to know for sure, but if it's not a Goldwing, I can see it being a smaller Honda, with a fairing added to it.

So was the same bike used in Graffitti Bridge or was it a different make?

metalorange said:

They are 2 different motorcycles of similar make. Both were on display at the 2000 Celebration.

LovesexyIsThe1 said:

I'm pretty sure that last time I watched PR on DVD there were shots where you could clearly see the make of the bike. I'm 90% sure it was a Honda although something in my head also says "Maybe it was a Yamaha..."

It was probably customized. Like has been said before he's a small dude. They basically dressed the bike to make it look cool to scale with him. I'd say about a 450-500CC engine would be about right.

They didn't mod it to look crazy and unreal though. It was based on actual street bikes of the time, just tweaked so our boy looked maximum cool on it.

Prince is too wee to be able to handle a 500cc motorbike.
imho

muirdo said:

You might be right. I keep forgetting I'm 6' and 175 lbs. I had a 400 once and it seemed tiny to me! Maybe a 450-500 would be too much for mr. 5'1" 110 or whatever he is!!

I don't know!!

It's been a while since I though of this but my family was in the Honda Motocycle business through that time frame up until about ten years ago. I seem to think the Purple Rain bike was an early eighties CB 450 with an aftermarket windshield. It was for sure a smaller displaced Honda.

I don't think it was the Nighthawk because the tank on the Nighthawk is a bit too angular and I promise it was not a Gold Wing. The CB series was very popular and for a long time I thought it was a CB 750 but then I realized just how small the man is... it has to be a 450. I do remember that they stuck a motocross tire on the thing while they were riding it off road... Bad movie mistake... anyway,

I use to know all the specs... But time takes that away.

I was always under the impression it was a Honda 500 customised.

I think that the fairing is either a Vetter Vindicator or a Vetter Windjammer III with a custom paint job. Here's a Vetter Vindicator:

http://www.xs11.com/tips/...ndicat.jpg

(without vents in the windshield)

The Windjammer III had turn signals on the fairing. Here's a picture of the Windjammer III:

http://www.craigvetter.co...ters2.html

(with vents in the windshield)

The Purple Rain motorcycle's fairing looks like it has turn signals mounted on it in addition to the standard ones but doesn't have vents in the windshield. Maybe it is a Windjammer III with a Vindicator windshield?

Most motorcycles in the early 80s came without fairings, this changed with the Kawasaki GPz/Ninja.

io1

y'all wrong

prince's bike is a Honda CB250 'WetDream'
and i would hazzard to guess that the black bike
is the purple one resprayed
because the wetdream was not that popular
and honda stopped manufacturing them after a short run

blackcherry said:

It's not repainted. Both bikes were on display at the Celebration 2000 inside the main soundstage at Paisley Park. The only way they could be one and the same is if I was crosseyed and colorblind.

NCC2012 said:

well then obviously the brother bought himself more than one bike
when they were in production.
the bike was supposed to be called a superdream
but renamed the wet dream because it was basically shit