Acme Supply Co. Presents...
June 10, 2013 1:39 PM Subscribe
And wobbly, worn-out wheels, at that!
posted by postel's law at 1:47 PM on June 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by postel's law at 1:47 PM on June 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
...helmet! HELMET! JESUS CHRIST!
posted by hellojed at 1:49 PM on June 10, 2013 [14 favorites]
posted by hellojed at 1:49 PM on June 10, 2013 [14 favorites]
Hunh. An actual, not a metaphor, crotch rocket.
Those guys are idiots, and we probably shouldn't encourage them with links.
posted by notyou at 1:50 PM on June 10, 2013 [2 favorites]
Those guys are idiots, and we probably shouldn't encourage them with links.
posted by notyou at 1:50 PM on June 10, 2013 [2 favorites]
Those guys are idiots, and we probably shouldn't encourage them with links.
I dunno, I'm pretty sure they've heard worse. I say, if you want to end up twatting yourself in the face with 60MPH's worth of dirt road while wearing a tie and a shit-eating grin, go for it. It's a free country. Someone has to set those records for the world's fastest pram.
posted by fight or flight at 1:54 PM on June 10, 2013
I dunno, I'm pretty sure they've heard worse. I say, if you want to end up twatting yourself in the face with 60MPH's worth of dirt road while wearing a tie and a shit-eating grin, go for it. It's a free country. Someone has to set those records for the world's fastest pram.
posted by fight or flight at 1:54 PM on June 10, 2013
Someone has to set those records for the world's fastest prat.
FTFY.
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:15 PM on June 10, 2013 [2 favorites]
FTFY.
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:15 PM on June 10, 2013 [2 favorites]
Put of a feckin' helmet, ya twat.
posted by pmbuko at 2:17 PM on June 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by pmbuko at 2:17 PM on June 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
Nth-ing the comments about wearing a helmet. It's all good fun until someone busts their noggin.
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 2:20 PM on June 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 2:20 PM on June 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
I get the feeling that these guys are probably no strangers to head injury.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 2:21 PM on June 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 2:21 PM on June 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
THIS ONE IS A LITTLE MORE SLEEK BUT ALSO A LOT LOUDER I THINK OH GOD MY EARS.
posted by maudlin at 2:22 PM on June 10, 2013
posted by maudlin at 2:22 PM on June 10, 2013
I get the feeling that these guys are probably no strangers to head injury.
They know the rules, and so do we.
posted by TheWhiteSkull
Epony … something.
posted by hattifattener at 2:27 PM on June 10, 2013
They know the rules, and so do we.
posted by TheWhiteSkull
Epony … something.
posted by hattifattener at 2:27 PM on June 10, 2013
I think the helmet would be the least of my concerns driving that thing. My most pressing concern would be the speed wobbles coupled with the idea of what it would be like falling with that thing coming down on top of me. Not the weight, mind you, the temperature. It's not as pronounced as on other pulsejet drives but you can still see one of the pipe sections starting to glow a faint orange. I just have visions of wiping out on that and having one of the pipes sear itself to a large section of my body as it falls on top of me. Nooooo thanks.
posted by barc0001 at 3:14 PM on June 10, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by barc0001 at 3:14 PM on June 10, 2013 [3 favorites]
I can't figure out how that thing works. There's no air intake.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 3:44 PM on June 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 3:44 PM on June 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
Unless one of the pipes is the air intake. In that case, this sucker is unbalanced, with the thrust all on one side. Ye Gods. (As if there wasn't already enough wrong with this entire idea.)
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 3:45 PM on June 10, 2013
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 3:45 PM on June 10, 2013
what it would be like falling with that thing coming down on top of me.
Really, i mean i'm a bit of a nutter. I've ridden a moped with no brakes at nearly the speeds he's going here(on public roads too. Hey, i was like 14) wearing basically the same clothes he was and generally done all manner of stupid shit like that. But i wouldn't ride this thing without some kind of fireproof race suit on, with full gloves, boots, and probably flame retardant long johns and shirt. I'd want something that would at least give me a second or two to forcefully shove the thing off of me before whatever "protective" gear i was wearing started melting and fusing with my skin. I wouldn't really be too afraid of crashing it if it was just a bike going down a steep hill or a moped, but it's getting horribly burned that scares the fuck out of me.
A friend of mine still has burns all over her arm from a polyester or something suit she was wearing igniting. It's pretty fucking gnarly, and almost looks like those videos of krokodil users but spread over a small area.
I would ride this thing because i'm fucking nuts and it looks awesome, but not in a short sleeve button up with a tie. Gotta draw the line somewhere.
I can't figure out how that thing works. There's no air intake.
See how he starts it with a leaf blower by shooting it in to one side? That is the intake. So yes, the thrust is seriously all on one side. If you look at other jet bikes through they have straight-thru ramjets on them so both all the weight and thrust is on one side. At least this one seems to balance the weight out... sort... of.
posted by emptythought at 3:53 PM on June 10, 2013
Really, i mean i'm a bit of a nutter. I've ridden a moped with no brakes at nearly the speeds he's going here(on public roads too. Hey, i was like 14) wearing basically the same clothes he was and generally done all manner of stupid shit like that. But i wouldn't ride this thing without some kind of fireproof race suit on, with full gloves, boots, and probably flame retardant long johns and shirt. I'd want something that would at least give me a second or two to forcefully shove the thing off of me before whatever "protective" gear i was wearing started melting and fusing with my skin. I wouldn't really be too afraid of crashing it if it was just a bike going down a steep hill or a moped, but it's getting horribly burned that scares the fuck out of me.
A friend of mine still has burns all over her arm from a polyester or something suit she was wearing igniting. It's pretty fucking gnarly, and almost looks like those videos of krokodil users but spread over a small area.
I would ride this thing because i'm fucking nuts and it looks awesome, but not in a short sleeve button up with a tie. Gotta draw the line somewhere.
I can't figure out how that thing works. There's no air intake.
See how he starts it with a leaf blower by shooting it in to one side? That is the intake. So yes, the thrust is seriously all on one side. If you look at other jet bikes through they have straight-thru ramjets on them so both all the weight and thrust is on one side. At least this one seems to balance the weight out... sort... of.
posted by emptythought at 3:53 PM on June 10, 2013
Also, one of my favorite things ever is the gas powered mobility scooter the same guy built. That is exactly the kind of shit me and my friends would try and build in highschool at the semi-abandoned "shop class" area. We always had a not-quite-finished shopping cart with an engine a lot like that laying around, and a bunch of other bullshit like that.
A friend of mine spent a bunch of time tuning and fucking with the carb of my moped, and got the thing from topping out at maybe 20mph to hitting nearly 40 on 8 or 9in tires with a worn out drum brake. It was only a 33cc, but you could also pick the thing up with one hand so the power-weight ratio was bonkers. We'd regularly race all of our stupid mopeds and contraptions around, and work on new more ridiculous ones. A good example was a friend of mine trying to race me and my girlfriend(we were driving normal road going speeds in her car) back to her house on the super-moped. He went straight in to a tree wearing a tshirt and shorts and nothing else. Completely amazed he walked away from that. Another time we braced the thing up against a merry-go-round to see who could stay on the longest, including a bunch of younger kids from the neighborhood. It was spinning at speeds i could only describe as "centrifuge". The bars looked like one continuous blur like the spokes on a car rim at highway speeds. Several people flew off at relativistic speeds and flew warner bros distances. Everyone walked away with minor scrapes and bruises.
Sometimes i'm amazed that none of us died doing stuff like that. I remember testing the shopping cart thing by towing it up to 30-40mph behind a shitty honda elite scooter with a rope. Guy on the scooter slams on the brakes? you either ram him or just wipe out. And we were all wearing jeans and tshirts with maybe a shitty beat up old motorcycle helmet to swap around between us.
I always wonder if there's an alternate universe where i grew up to doing stuff and making videos like this guy, instead of sitting at a desk at work and laying around on my couch at home converting beer into farts. Sometimes i kinda wish i lived in that universe.
posted by emptythought at 4:05 PM on June 10, 2013 [2 favorites]
A friend of mine spent a bunch of time tuning and fucking with the carb of my moped, and got the thing from topping out at maybe 20mph to hitting nearly 40 on 8 or 9in tires with a worn out drum brake. It was only a 33cc, but you could also pick the thing up with one hand so the power-weight ratio was bonkers. We'd regularly race all of our stupid mopeds and contraptions around, and work on new more ridiculous ones. A good example was a friend of mine trying to race me and my girlfriend(we were driving normal road going speeds in her car) back to her house on the super-moped. He went straight in to a tree wearing a tshirt and shorts and nothing else. Completely amazed he walked away from that. Another time we braced the thing up against a merry-go-round to see who could stay on the longest, including a bunch of younger kids from the neighborhood. It was spinning at speeds i could only describe as "centrifuge". The bars looked like one continuous blur like the spokes on a car rim at highway speeds. Several people flew off at relativistic speeds and flew warner bros distances. Everyone walked away with minor scrapes and bruises.
Sometimes i'm amazed that none of us died doing stuff like that. I remember testing the shopping cart thing by towing it up to 30-40mph behind a shitty honda elite scooter with a rope. Guy on the scooter slams on the brakes? you either ram him or just wipe out. And we were all wearing jeans and tshirts with maybe a shitty beat up old motorcycle helmet to swap around between us.
I always wonder if there's an alternate universe where i grew up to doing stuff and making videos like this guy, instead of sitting at a desk at work and laying around on my couch at home converting beer into farts. Sometimes i kinda wish i lived in that universe.
posted by emptythought at 4:05 PM on June 10, 2013 [2 favorites]
...helmet! HELMET! JESUS CHRIST!
His ironic tie will save him, no doubt.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 4:11 PM on June 10, 2013
His ironic tie will save him, no doubt.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 4:11 PM on June 10, 2013
It's all good fun until someone busts their noggin.
... and then it's a sport.
posted by mhoye at 4:14 PM on June 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
... and then it's a sport.
posted by mhoye at 4:14 PM on June 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
Oh, come on, people, can you get over the helmet paranoia and just enjoy the fact that this is a GODDAMN PULSEJET POWERED BICYCLE?? SO COOL.
If I were to build one of these I'd use a motorcycle frame instead of a bicycle frame, but the sheer ludicrous unsuitability of the bike appears to be part of the point of the project. Shine on you crazy diamonds, may the safety freaks of the world never completely shut you down.
posted by Mars Saxman at 4:35 PM on June 10, 2013 [3 favorites]
If I were to build one of these I'd use a motorcycle frame instead of a bicycle frame, but the sheer ludicrous unsuitability of the bike appears to be part of the point of the project. Shine on you crazy diamonds, may the safety freaks of the world never completely shut you down.
posted by Mars Saxman at 4:35 PM on June 10, 2013 [3 favorites]
That would have been tons more interesting if they had dropped the mugging, music and camera angles and just told us how the thing works and followed through the building and testing process unadorned by post-production. They'll never learn, indeed.
posted by JHarris at 4:59 PM on June 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by JHarris at 4:59 PM on June 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
I suppose this is as good a time as any to share a link to a ... modified scooter.
And by modified, I mean a scooter with nitrous and a stroker engine with a 23000rpm redline.
posted by zippy at 5:59 PM on June 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
And by modified, I mean a scooter with nitrous and a stroker engine with a 23000rpm redline.
posted by zippy at 5:59 PM on June 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
Police put brakes on rocket-powered skateboarder in outback Qld
posted by Pinback at 6:08 PM on June 10, 2013
posted by Pinback at 6:08 PM on June 10, 2013
Now that's PUNK. And I think I've found the guy I want to play the 12th Doctor.
posted by happyroach at 7:27 PM on June 10, 2013
posted by happyroach at 7:27 PM on June 10, 2013
Maybe almost as balls as the guy in Australia catching rabbits with snakes, but at least that guy didn't mug constantly.
posted by Brocktoon at 7:41 PM on June 10, 2013
posted by Brocktoon at 7:41 PM on June 10, 2013
I get the feeling that these guys are probably no strangers to head injury.
It's a delicate process - you want enough head injury that riding this sounds like a good idea, but not so much head injury that, you know, you're dead.
posted by sebastienbailard at 8:46 PM on June 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
It's a delicate process - you want enough head injury that riding this sounds like a good idea, but not so much head injury that, you know, you're dead.
posted by sebastienbailard at 8:46 PM on June 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
> I can't figure out how that thing works. There's no air intake. [....]
Unless one of the pipes is the air intake. In that case, this sucker is unbalanced, with the thrust all on one side.
It's not a ramjet, for which the force of output is dependent on the velocity of air intake.
The slightly offset thrust doesn't matter either, because the bike has the friction of its tires on the ground to counteract. If the bike went airborne, then yeah, I anticipate it would start spinning.
This guy seems to be making a career of doing gadgety Jackass-grade stunts on Youtube... I was inclined to give him some props for mad science hackery but the whole "Hey we're drunk yahoos with a metal shop!" aspect makes it too unsavory.
There was a guy in New Zealand who posted a video a few years ago of his ramjet-powered go-kart. For that one, the motor was basically one long straight bulgy tube at the top of a steel frame far over the driver's head and the air intake did face forward. The only brake was to cut the fuel line, because the faster the kart went, the more powerful the engine got, until it could overwhelm the wheels' ability to counteract the thrust. Again, the engine was far offset from the center of the vehicle without compromising stability.
posted by ardgedee at 3:59 AM on June 11, 2013
Unless one of the pipes is the air intake. In that case, this sucker is unbalanced, with the thrust all on one side.
It's not a ramjet, for which the force of output is dependent on the velocity of air intake.
The slightly offset thrust doesn't matter either, because the bike has the friction of its tires on the ground to counteract. If the bike went airborne, then yeah, I anticipate it would start spinning.
This guy seems to be making a career of doing gadgety Jackass-grade stunts on Youtube... I was inclined to give him some props for mad science hackery but the whole "Hey we're drunk yahoos with a metal shop!" aspect makes it too unsavory.
There was a guy in New Zealand who posted a video a few years ago of his ramjet-powered go-kart. For that one, the motor was basically one long straight bulgy tube at the top of a steel frame far over the driver's head and the air intake did face forward. The only brake was to cut the fuel line, because the faster the kart went, the more powerful the engine got, until it could overwhelm the wheels' ability to counteract the thrust. Again, the engine was far offset from the center of the vehicle without compromising stability.
posted by ardgedee at 3:59 AM on June 11, 2013
Chocolate Pickle: Unless one of the pipes is the air intake. In that case, this sucker is unbalanced, with the thrust all on one side. Ye Gods. (As if there wasn't already enough wrong with this entire idea.)Yeah, it took reading the Wikipedia link on pulsed jets for me to decide that was the case. I realized they only light & apply forced air to one side of the bike, and the pipe ends are asymmetrical. The jet end is widened to encourage mixing, I suppose.
posted by IAmBroom at 9:50 AM on June 11, 2013
zippy: I suppose this is as good a time as any to share a link to a ... modified scooter.I guess you and I are just going to have to agree to disagree about the definition of "modified", then.
And by modified, I mean a scooter with nitrous and a stroker engine with a 23000rpm redline.
posted by IAmBroom at 9:52 AM on June 11, 2013
Some are wondering about the rear-facing intake on this thing. Me too. As already mentioned, Wikipedia has a longish article on valveless pulse jets, but it's outside of that, on the general pulse jet page, where someone has noted:
posted by Western Infidels at 12:10 PM on June 11, 2013 [2 favorites]
Because the intake tube(s) also expel gas during the exhaust cycle of the engine, most valveless engines have the intakes facing backwards so that the thrust created adds to the overall thrust, rather than reducing it.I had assumed the U-shaped design was just to make the unit less unwieldy, but if that's true, it's actually more powerful/efficient this way. Weird.
posted by Western Infidels at 12:10 PM on June 11, 2013 [2 favorites]
I'll be deaf when I'm 80. Those guys are going to be deaf next week.
posted by Hello Dad, I'm in Jail at 6:12 AM on June 12, 2013
posted by Hello Dad, I'm in Jail at 6:12 AM on June 12, 2013
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posted by TheWhiteSkull at 1:44 PM on June 10, 2013