Honda CRF250R

In the 2012 movie SkyFall, James Bond (Daniel Craig) rides a Honda CRF250R bike in the opening sequence chase scene that was filmed in Turkey.

The henchman Patrice (played by Ola Rapace) will also ride a Honda CRF250R. During the filming, twenty bikes were used to film the sequence. Henchman Patrice rides a Turkish police bike and Bond rides a merchant’s bike. Both Hondas were extensively modified by the special effects team.

Watch this great Behind The Scenes video of the stunt team working on the motor chase:

Watch on YouTube

“We needed a highly versatile and quality off-road motorbike that could be easily modified, without compromising performance or safety, for the opening sequence of SkyFall. Honda CRFs are probably the best off-roaders out there so it’s great that we’ve been able to partner with Honda as the bikes, whilst heavy modified, were superb to work with,” said Gary Powell, stunt co-ordinator for SkyFall. Two CRF450R motorbikes were used as HD camera filming machines, as only a motorbike could easily enable the camera crew to follow the various stunts.

Two Honda bikes used in the movie will be on display alongside a stock Honda CRF250R at the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu, UK, which is currently hosting the Bond in Motion exhibition that will continue untill December 31, 2012.

One of the modified motorcycles is put on auction at a Pop Culture auction at Christie's on June 26, 2013.

Motorcycles are regularly used by Bond in chase scenes. One of the most thrilling examples is the BMW R1200 that Bond (Pierce Brosnan) rides through Saigon in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997). Pierce Brosnan uses a Cagiva 600 W16 military motorcycle to jump off a cliff to catch a plane in the opening sequence of GoldenEye (1995). Sean Connery rode a Yamaha XJ650 Turbo in the 1983 movie Never Say Never Again and Daniel Craig, in Quantum of Solace, hijacks a Montesa Cota 4RT bike (heavily modified for the film) in Haiti and uses it to jump onto a boat.