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news
Paramotor riderVideo: E-bikes? Pah! Meet the 50mph propeller-powered bike
What do you do when your flying machine's broken but the engine still works? The magnificent man in this video decided to strap it on and ride his bike. Like you do.
The unnamed adrenaline junkie in this clip hails from Alachua, Florida, USA and decided it would be a good idea to power his bike with a great big propeller when he broke part of the frame needed to use it to power a parachute.
“I broke part of my paramotor frame and couldn’t fly but I still wanted to play with it,” he wrote. “I tried using it with a skateboard, but that ended badly… so then I jumped on my bicycle and took off!
"The bad: it shakes at high speeds (around 50MPH).
"The good: its super fun and it’s cheap on gas.”
Noticing that the bike being used here was a Trek, we asked the bike maker's opinion on this method of propulsion. A spokesperson told us: "Warranty voided."
Given that human daftness involving engines knows no limits, it's hardly susprising that this isn't the first time someone's strapped a propeller engine to a bike. Here's a bloke riding down a beach, which you'd think has the big advantage of having nothing to hit if you come off at 50mph. You might get a bit sandpapered though.
And here's another propeller enthusiast with twin, electric-powered engines.
Do we have to say 'Don't try this at home?' Don't try this at home.
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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2 comments
Other than for fun, it makes no sense.
Propellers make sense when you are flying through air or water but why give up the efficiency of energy transfer through ground contact?
Makes me wonder if that would be legal on the road in the UK? Stupid, yes, but the motor is not on the bike so would it be legal?