What Happens When You Take Your ‘Rocket Bike’ Off the Roof?
Not all of us are lucky enough to have a crazy-cool rocket bike. A Willmar man has one, and tried to take it off the roof of his home. It didn't end well, proving they aren't as cool as we thought.
Jet bikes aren't a new concept by any means. Lots of people have tried to make a bicycle go faster than you can normally petal. There's just 2 words that shouldn't go together -- rocket, and bike.
A man in Willmar, Minnesota didn't care how crazy the idea was. He built his own rocket bike, complete with snow skis and decided that nothing could go wrong with trying to jump the bike off the roof of his house.
Here's the report from the West Central Tribune about the incident:
WILLMAR — A 40-year-old man was injured Friday afternoon after attempting to jump a homemade rocket bike off of his house roof in the 800 block of Third Street Southeast.
According to a police report, the rocket bike consisted of a pair of skis, a bicycle frame and motorcycle exhaust pipe and was being fueled with Heet, an antifreeze product.
The unidentified man fell approximately 13 feet and apparently hit a fence in the yard during the fall.
When rescue personnel arrived, he was on his back on a sled, pushing himself around on the driveway with his feet. He was reportedly swearing and yelling about the pain, according to the report.
I do have to say that it's a little genius to use "Heet" to fuel this thing, but by all means it can't be cheap. Last I checked it was about $6 for a 12oz bottle of this stuff. My assumption is that you'd need a couple gallons to get a few seconds of "rocket" to thrust you and your bicycle forward.
We searched for a while to find a photo of what this contraption could possibly look like, with no luck. All we can assume is he duct-taped skis to the tires somehow. Why am I picturing "Doc" Brown from Back To The Future with his wild white hair and lab coat, standing on the roof shouting "88 miles per hour!" before plunging to the ground 13-feet?