Friday, November 23, 2007

Support your local Main Force Patrol: The Bikes of Mad Max.

Full of 1970's era cafe racers, the classic cult film Mad Max, is a cult icon. One of the movies main (and later tragic) hero's-the happy-go-lucky "Goose" rides a 1977 Kawasaki KZ1000, or, more correctly, a Kwaka. (Take a close look at the "Kawasaki" badge on the side of the bike when you next see the film and you'll see some clever production designer played
with the lettering)
MAIN FORCE PATROL DOSSIER - SUBJECT: Gosling-1.ASSIGNED DRIVER: James Goose
CALLSIGN: Gosling-1. CLASS: MotoPatrol Pursuit. UNIT:Patrol - Sector 26. VEHICLE NUMBER: MFP MP1.MAKE: Kawasaki 1977 KZ-1000. CURRENT STATUS: Scraped, in repairs
The bikes fairings were supplied by the Melbourne based company La Parisienne, who unfortunately closed up business within a few years of the films release.

This brochure below is from the Japanese company Whitehouse, (editors note: the link is no longer active but see below for more goods) who were making replicas of Jim Goose's bike, including the fairings, the stickers, the helmet - the whole deal as far as I can tell." Better picts of the whitehouse bike here:
Okay, if we can't find Whitehouse in Japan, we can access the great Mad Max Jp site, it appears from what I can tell, that they have taken over all the original Whitehouse product line and offer a MFP reproduction fairing/seat cowl kit:

Here is a shot of a repro being built up from this Japanese Goose Replica site:


Reproducing the bike not enough for you?- be sure to check out the Japanese MFP Clothing Branch:
The MFP badge

Of course the leather jacket

and the swell stickers...
The Japanese seem to have cornered the market on the Mad Max enthusiasts, even more than the Aussies. This site even features perfectly photoshopped box art of never created Mad Max model kits.
Had enough?-not yet, here's screenshot of the motorcycles in The PS2 game GTA hacked into the Mad Max bikes.
A final exit, a Japanese fan does his best "Goose"


7 comments:

Tim Osmond and Frank Serpico said...

Thanks for the post man. I have to tell ya, there is an entire underground movement that follows Mad Max and I happen to be one of them.

I became obsessed w/the movie in 1979, I was 12 when I saw the movie, I snuck into the theater. I latched onto that movie, it did what I could never do, inflict righteous revenge upon people that destroyed a family.

Pretty heavy stuff for most 12 year olds, for me it was reality, my dad was murdered in a bar on my 9th birthday, my childhood ended that day, Mad Max gave me a voice.

Later in life I became a deputy in Southern California and at the age of 35 I imported a 73 Australian Ford Falcon. The car will be a movie replica of the car Max drove within the next 2 years.

Once finished with that project and my 72 Pantera (whole other story) I plan on recreating a 77 KZ1000 into full Goose attire.

Again, good post.

Best regards,
"SEE YA ON THE ROAD SCAG, JUST LIKE WE SAW THE KNIGHT RIDER!"

Anonymous said...

I love this site, I have wanted a goose replica and for years can't get any help on it. Great job!!!

Anonymous said...

I have wanted a GOOSE replica for 25 years, it looks possible to get one soon some day and I enjoyed this site and fellow fans of the Goose's Kwaka.

Anonymous said...

MadMaxMovies.com is THE place on the Internet for information about the movies. If you haven't already been there, you haven't been looking hard enough.

Great article, although you've misidentified the bikers' bikes as MFP bikes (there was only one: Goose's Kwaka). Evidently "Kwaka" is Aussie slang for Kawasaki.

Anonymous said...

^^Oops. Now I get it. Never mind what I said about misidentifying. You're all good. :)

Anonymous said...

http://www.toecutterz.com

has the body kit for the goose and toecutter bikes they are located in NY

Anonymous said...

best film made ever thats it!!!!
i know every dam word and ride the bikes and know were there is one
but i aint tellin its took me 25years to find