Motorcycles are often treated as the modern day equivalent of horses. Some works take this an extra step and have the protagonist engage in jousting from the back of a motorbike.
Do Not Try This at Home unless you are on a closed stunt course and are trained in stunt riding and are either left-handed or have a modified brake. Waving or pointing an object, especially if you're right-handed, means taking your hand away from the handbrake, which is often in and of itself a lethally stupid idea. (Unlike motorcycles, horses can be commanded to stop or slow down verbally as well as via the reins, and reins can be held in either hand. Unless a motorcycle is modified, its handbrake is on the right hand, and until voice command technology improves, a vehicle cannot be commanded to stop or slow down via voice.) If you attempt to "joust" a motorbike without proper training, the bike will most likely flip over and crush you underneath it.
Left-handed people or a specially wired handbrake can prevent that, but holding out or waving a long object can also cause your bike to become unbalanced or the object to catch on something - which will also often cause a crash. Note the Darwin Award winner and the guys that managed to crash each other in the examples...
Examples:
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Comic Books
- 2000 AD: In the adaptation of The Stainless Steel Rat, "Slippery Jim" diGriz lands on a Feudal Future planet and finds the nobility jousting with flying motorbikes. He finds this rather dull and quickly adds his own unique spin.
Jouster: 'Pon my word! The chap's upside down! Is that allowed in the rules?
Slippery Jim: Course it isn't, you snark! Nobody's ever bothered to write any rules! - Knight and Squire: The titular characters (England's equivalent of Batman and Robin) have lances they use from the back of their motorcycle steeds.
Fan Works
- A one-sided version occurs in Fall of Liberty. The Lost MC ride their bikes into zombie hordes while taking them down with baseball bats.
- Kay'la from Vow of Nudity takes part in a jousting competition shortly after summoning her first magic horse, but quickly realizes she has no idea how to ride a horse. So, taking advantage of the fact that one competitor is a warforged on a clockwork steed, she shapeshifts her own horse into an identical copy (to qualify it for the tournament) and then rebuilds it into a motorcycle.
Film — Live-Action
- The 1981 George Romero film Knightriders is all about a motorcycle jousting ren faire troop.
- Dhoom 3 has Jai and Sahir (Or is it Samar?) motorcycle jousting in the end chase.
- There is some motorcycle jousting in the city where the girl goes to get help in the 1990 z-grade flick Dune Warriors.
- In a variant involving cars, in Herbie Rides Again there are people who are called Knights and who dress in wacky costumes who joust in one scene.
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: Indiana Jones charges a Nazi motorcyclist using a flagpole as an improvised lance (to his medieval historian father's visible delight).
- At the climax of Mission: Impossible II, Ethan and the Big Bad do this — with guns.
- In Pig Hunt, the gasmask redneck is mounted on a dirt bike and uses a makeshift lance in an attempt to run down Ben inside the cabin. Of course, as Ben does not have a bike or a lance, its not exactly a fair fight; making this more of a case of 'Motorcycle Pig-sticking'.
- Project A has bicycle jousting, when Jackie Chan grabs a laundry pole to take down a pair of mooks.
- In another variant, Quick Change gives us a bizarre (and apparently lethal) bicycle jousting scene. Loomis panics and yells that "it's bad luck just seeing a thing like that!"
- RoboCop 2. Alex Murphy has a joust with Cain: Murphy on a motorcycle, Cain in an armored car.
- Fred in the live-action movie Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed rides a motorcycle to duel the Black Knight Ghost.
- Terence Hill and Bud Spencer do it in Watch Out, We're Mad. After being chased by mobsters on motorcycles, both protagonists enter a meadow with cows to perform this, using long branches as weapons.
Literature
- The Dresden Files: Done as a team by Harry Dresden and Karrin Murphy in Blood Rites. The normal difficulties are somewhat alleviated by Harry handling the "lance" (a magically charged wizard's staff in this case) while Murphy drives the bike. A heaping helping of magic supercharged with hellfire smooths out the rest.note
Live-Action TV
- Arrow: In "Sara", Komodo and the Arrow ride motorcycles at each other while shooting arrows.
- Doctor Who: The Doctor has a motorcycle jousting match against one of the Bannermen in "Delta and the Bannermen".
- Get Smart: In "The Mild Ones", Max has to infiltrate a biker gang called the Purple Knights. The initiation test is jousting on motorcycles.
- In the "Camelot Capers" episode The Goodies had to joust a horseback knight while mounted on their iconic three-seater bicycle. It doesn't go well for them.
- Happens infrequently in the Kamen Rider franchise. The most famous example is Kamen Rider Kuuga, where the titular Kuuga had a bike specifically known for maneuverability, and could joust just about anywhere (roads, beaches and even inside buildings).
Manga
- In Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, Shigure once does a motorcycle joust against an armored horseman.
Music Videos
- In the music video for "Team", Lorde heads up a secret society as two guys participate in motorcycle jousting as part of the initiation process.
New Media
- Unconfirmed Darwin Awards nominee: two guys, fighting over a girl, jousted on motor scooters and died
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Tabletop Games
- In Deadlands: Hell on Earth, the Omega Knights are a group based in Junkyard. They ride motorcycles and battle other biker gangs with lances.
- Shadowrun 1st edition supplement Shadowbeat. In the Combat Biker game the Lancebiker player carries a 2 meter long lance that he can use against other players.
Urban Legends
- A Mugging the Monster story from the Society for Creative Anachronism gives us an unintentional version; A group wanted to hold fight practice with functional replica weaponry. This required a few permits and a change of venue from their regular park. There was one available, but the police warned them that the local motorcycle gang considered it their turf and may not take too kindly to strangers. Seeing no other options, the SCA risked it. Sure enough, the motorcycle club showed up and started hassling the re-creationists. Seems that the battle pikes and other implements that were useful for removing mounted knights from their horses worked just as well for taking riders off their hogs.
Video Games
- Another Eden: Once Galliard takes enough damage, he rips off the machine gun on his bike and pulls out a giant electro lance to fight the player, while still riding his motorcycle.
- Henry Stickmin Series: in Stealing the Diamond, during the Agressive scenario, Henry can pick up a medieval lance when rushing through the museum on his scooter. However, he fails to hold it properly, which causes it to hit the ground and catapult Henry off his scooter. The fail screen even comments on this.
Jousting. It's harder than it looks.
- Yakuza 0: Kuze confronts Kiryu for the second time by charging at him on a motorcycle while wielding a lead pipe. But after striking Kiryu, he loses control of the bike and falls off.
Western Animation
- Biker Mice from Mars: When the Biker Mice traveled back in time they had to fight with their bikes in a tournament against Limburger's robotic knights to save Camelot. The effect was even greater since they were wearing the armors Charley built for them.
- A cutaway in an episode of Family Guy upped the ante by having Peter and his father-in-law partake in "limo jousting."
- Grojband: In "Dreamreaver", Grojband confronts a dream version of themselves inside Trina's mind. Dream-Corey uses his guitar as a lance while charging on a dirt bike.
Real Life
- There's a video out there where two guys joust on bicycles. It ends in a Cross Counter.
