Maibatsu Manchez

A dirt bike with the maker's name still legible under the damage: MAIBATSU in navy on a yellow shroud, beside the same triangular mark that sits on the number board.

The camera is close enough that this is a transcription. MAIBATSU runs across the yellow radiator shroud in dark navy capitals, with a triangular mark in front of it made of three stacked chevrons in red. The same mark reappears in red on a blue field at the bottom of the front number board, so the badge is on the machine twice.

The bike is a trail machine rather than a sports one. A blue number board stands above a rectangular headlight, the front mudguard is mounted high and clear of the tyre, and the fork tubes are gold. Handlebars run wide with a crossbar and pad, and a master cylinder sits on the right. Somebody has scrawled a short word in yellow across the number board by hand; it starts with Sh and does not finish legibly.

Everything is worn. The yellow and blue panels are chipped back to grey in patches, the number board is scuffed almost opaque, and the fork tubes are dulled. The rider is in camouflage shorts with a bare leg against the shroud. Behind: palms and a chain-link fence.

How to recognise it

• MAIBATSU in navy capitals on the yellow radiator shroud
• A three-chevron triangular mark in red, on the shroud and again on the number board
• Blue front number board over a rectangular headlight
• High-mounted front mudguard, gold fork tubes
• A hand-scrawled yellow word across the number board, beginning Sh
• Paint chipped back to grey across most panels

The frame it comes from

The frame is a still from the official Press pack, which carries no timecode. It is 3840 by 2160, and the vehicle occupies 1613 by 972 of it. Also in it: a police car, Jason Duval, and Lucia Caminos.

What we still do not know

• What the scrawl on the number board says
• Whether Manchez is written anywhere on the machine. The maker is; the model name on this page comes from the published lists.
• Whether the wear is a finish or a damage state
• Everything measured: top speed, handling, price, where it spawns

A note on this record

Our own note once had this filed as a sport bike. The high mudguard, the number board and the knobbly tyres say otherwise, and the record was corrected before this page was written.