A team of skilled engineers, consisting of a husband and wife, set a new world record for steam-powered motorcycles by completing a 200-meter distance at record speed. “Force of Nature” is essentially a rocket on wheels, and the team claims that the next run will be even faster.
The British couple, Graham and Diane Sykes, brought their creation to Elvington Speed Week, where they set a record time of 3.878 seconds at a speed of 264 km/h over the 200-meter run.
Graham piloted the steam-powered drag bike during the race and mentioned that the motorcycle continued to accelerate, reaching over 290 km/h for some time after the finish line.
The motorcycle is a full-fledged dragster, and Graham Sykes rides it in a Superman-like position, fully aware that he’s sitting directly on a high-pressure cylinder filled with heated water. Unlike most drag bikes, this one doesn’t require a steering rack, and the rear wheel isn’t powered, so the bike won’t stand up on it.
When the green light flashes, Sykes holds on to the bike with all his strength and tries to keep it straight as steam blasts out of the rear through a pair of nozzles, sending the bike forward with stunning acceleration.
A similar engine setup was created by Scott Truax for Eddie Braun in the film Stuntman, which was a tribute to Evel Knievel. Braun’s steam rocket soared into the sky over a ramp, flew across Snake River Canyon, and crash-landed nose-down with a parachute about a mile away in a desert field on the other side.
That rocket had about 10,000 horsepower, and according to Braun, it accelerated him to around 700 km/h in five seconds. So, while “Force of Nature” is a much smaller steam rocket than the Skycycle X-2, Sykes isn’t joking when he says there’s plenty more speed to be unleashed from his dragster.
Of course, when talking about jet motorcycles, why stop at steam-powered ones? The fastest motorcycle to ever cover a 400-meter distance was a hydrogen-peroxide rocket bike, piloted with incredible bravery by Frenchman Eric Teboul.
This bike generated about 6,000 pounds of thrust and had a power-to-weight ratio of roughly 10:1. Last September, when Teboul filled it with the last liter of fuel as a final bow to his 40-year racing career, he ascended to legendary status by completing the first-ever 400-meter run in 4.976 seconds at a speed of 467.53 km/h.