first !

This shit is crazy!!! I’d love to try that!!!

What is the Link? i would love to look at the documantation. I have been kicking around the idea for a gokart.

Okay, some serious issues I see here. He’s designed this thing to run off of jet thrust, unlike the Y2K jetbike Leno drives(which is a turboshaft).

His exhaust exits right in front of the rear suspension, so the rear shock, and tire, will be subjected to the ultra high temperature jet exhaust. The shock will fail in moments and the tire, not long after. Especially at startup. Since the guy in NZ has demonstrated, accelleration with the few pounds of thrust is not very high. Before the tires can rotate fast enough to have a chance to dissipate the jet blast heat, it will either melt, explode, or both.

Ducting the jet blast will seriously reduce his thrust-and there’s no room in the frame to attempt a homebuilt free power turboshaft. Perhaps ducting above the tire and then an afterburner might work. He’s gonna need serious heat shielding for the seat, and sides of the combustor and exhaust to avoid roasting the driver’s legs from radiant heat.

Damn, how do I get sponsorship for a barely half-thought-out experiment? “Super Dave” would be proud!

I remember seeing jay leno’s jet bike, made form a helicopter engine. there was like a 10 second delay in throttle response, does the same apply here?

not that i am going to be building this any time soon.

My god how long has it been since a hackaday link?
Seriously I have to come up with a hack or two.

Thanks for the link and all the great compliments on the bike. To Phugedaboudet who had some good questions, the bike will use pure thrust and will have a ducted exhaust. Although not visible in the photo above, the rear suspension has been relocated so that the exhaust plumbing will fit quite nicely through the frame in as short a length as possible. Thee will probably be a few pounds loss in thrust, but nothing to really worry about. Heat shielding will be provided by ceramic coating, heat wrap, and thermal barrier shielding inside of the body panels.

The project is more than barely though out. While the project is a bit crazy trying to put that much stuff into such a small frame, that has been the idea the whole time. I could have used a larger frame and made things easier, but then it would not have been as unique. Thanks to all who have followed the build so far, and there is much more to come. We are test firing the engine again today, and let me tell you that scary is the only word to describe it.

Russ

I’ve seen many home built jet projects but there is another guy from New Zealand who worked on a homemade turbine project built from turbochargers. However, not satisfied with a stationary engine, he made a power turbine and gearbox so he could use it on his motorcycle. I found two videos of him rideing it.

http://www.nickhaddock.co.uk/turbine_media/jetbike.wmv
http://www.nickhaddock.co.uk/turbine_media/jetbike2.wmv

whoa! is this the future?