Graham Sykes climbed onto a steam-powered motorcycle at Santa Pod raceway in Bedfordshire, England, and rode it past 200 miles per hour. The bike, which he calls Force of Nature, is powered by a 120-liter boiler heated to around 260 degrees Celsius. When the pressure releases at the starting lights, the bike accelerates in about three seconds.
According to a report by CNET, Sykes built almost every component of the bike himself in a workshop behind his house. The only part he did not build is the boiler, which he sourced from a company that manufactures pressurized vessels for the nuclear and oil and gas industries. The reason was safety. "If it exploded, it wouldn't just be myself that would be injured or killed," Sykes said. "It would be everyone else around me too."
The bike is long and sleek, with enormous funnel-shaped exhausts at the rear. Other than riding on two wheels, it bears little resemblance to a conventional motorcycle. Sykes is a mechanical engineer by trade, and up close the components look precision-made rather than garden-shed built.
Sykes said the inspiration for the project came from a decades-old stunt. "I always wanted to ride a rocket bike," he said. "But no one was going to ask me 'Hey Graham, do you fancy riding my rocket bike?' so the only way to do it was to build one. In the 1970s Evel Knievel tried to jump over Snake River Canyon and that was a super-heated water rocket, so that's what inspired me."
On the day of the run, Sykes helped his team with pre-run checks and signed autographs for fans who came to the team's base. He appeared calm and relaxed. But he acknowledged that nerves are always part of the experience. "Every time you get on the bike, you have trepidation," he said. "You have that adrenaline and you've got that little bit of reservation in your head that says 'when I press this button, my life is gonna chan" — the quote cut off there in the source material.
The run at Santa Pod was one scheduled attempt during a drag-racing festival. Sykes and his team were working toward a potentially record-breaking speed. The boiler pressure builds during preparation and releases in a controlled burst when the lights go green, sending the bike down the track in a cloud of steam.
Sykes offered a reporter a marshmallow before the run. "I tend to not eat a great deal before a run, except for sugary sweets -- we've all got our vices!" he said. The casual remark fit the mood of a man who has made extreme speed a routine part of his life, not a one-time thrill.
