I saw the super rocket bike in action and was amazed

As I watched Graham Sykes climb onto his rocket bike, I worried for a moment that I was about to film a man dying. But when he passed me at hundreds of miles per hour and engulfed me in a cloud of steam, I realized there was no need to worry — this was just a normal day for Sykes.

I was at Santa Pod Raceway in Bedfordshire, England, where I caught up with Sykes and his team as they fully prepared his motorcycle — dubbed a “Force of Nature” — for a potential speed record attempt during the Drag Racing Festival. After fighting through the crowds that had flocked to the venue, I eventually found Sykes and his team among cars and bikes of all shapes and sizes, diligently preparing Force of Nature for the one round scheduled that day.

Sykes, who seemed calmer than I expected, offered me a marshmallow when I got my first look at the bike, and said: “I don’t tend to eat a lot before a run, except for sugary sweets – we all have our vices!” He said.

The bike looked like nothing I had ever seen before. Long and sleek with huge funnel-shaped exhausts at the back, the only thing that distinguished it as a motorcycle was the fact that it was mounted on two wheels. Sykes, a mechanical engineer, made almost all the components himself in his backyard workshop.

This is not what you expect. Looking closely at the various components, I felt like I was looking at something that was manufactured in a NASA lab rather than in someone’s garden shed. At the heart of the bike’s steam propulsion system is a 120-litre boiler, heated by a burner to around 260°C (about 500°F). This boiling process creates a huge amount of pressure inside the tank, which is released when the starting lights go green in about 3 seconds, propelling the bike to speeds of over 200 mph.

The boiler is the only component that Sykes did not build, instead obtaining it from a company that makes pressurized vessels for the nuclear and oil and gas industries. The reason is simply safety. “If it explodes, it won’t be just me who will be injured or killed,” Sykes said. “Everyone around me will be too.”

Despite the very real risks involved, Sykes seemed very calm and relaxed to me that day. He was clearly enjoying himself helping the team with pre-launch checks and chatting with enthusiastic fans who came to the team base to meet Sykes and get his autograph. He was clearly in his element.

“I always wanted to ride a rocket bike,” he said, “but no one would ask me, ‘Hey Graham, would you like to ride my rocket bike?’” So the only way to do this is to build one. In the 1970s, Evel Knievel tried to jump over the Snake River Canyon and it was a super-heated water rocket, and that inspired me.”

But nerves remain frayed, even for Sykes. “Every time you ride a bike, you get scared. You have this adrenaline and you have a little reservation in your head that says ‘When I press this button, my life is going to change,'” he said. “I hope for the best.”

I stood next to the track, with a clear view of the starting line. I could see Sykes and the team preparing, and I had a good headroom to see him walk away. I was there to film the scene as well, but when each round lasts a few seconds, capturing it is no easy task. Aside from the camera in my hand and the three cameras I had on tripods, I also attached a number of GoPro cameras to his bike (using industrial clips to make sure they wouldn’t fly off under the force of acceleration).

However, I was nervous about missing the only chance I had to catch Sikes in action. And I was right about that: Before running it, I trained on other drag races, from prepared road cars to hot rods powered by literal rockets pulled from fighter planes. The speeds achieved by these vehicles were astounding to me, and the noise was unlike anything I had ever heard before.

But training helped me prepare to get the shot, and when I knew the run would start soon, I got ready. As I imagine, Sykes did. “When we got the bike to the start line,” he told me, “my wife, Diane, took out the safety pin, showed me the pin to tell me the bike was out and the bike was alive, and she gave me a pat on the head, which was like a kiss, and … we were off.”

“Nothing can prepare you for what you’ll experience. It’s like being kicked from behind — the G force pulls your body backwards.”

The lights counted down, turned green, and Sykes exploded like a bullet. A huge plume of steam erupted from the bike’s exhaust, toppling one of my nearby cameras and sending it flying 30 feet into the barrier. I quickly moved my camera as he shot past me, before the wall of steam engulfed me.

It was an amazing thing to watch and I can’t imagine what it must feel like for Sykes on the bike. I’ve driven some fast cars during my time at CNET but the quickest acceleration I’ve experienced is from 0 to 60 mph in about 2.8 seconds. It seemed crazy fast to me – fast enough that I didn’t like it. I felt the edges of my vision blurring and I didn’t want to do that again.

The Sykes accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in less than half a second.

The Force of Nature bike did not break its own records that day. But the escape, at least, was safe. “Once I see that parachute finally come out, I know everything is OK,” Diane said.

Each ride is also a spectacular performance that shows the gathered crowds the true power of what steam can do. “People think steam is an old, outdated energy source,” Sykes said. “But every power plant that generates energy from fuel actually runs on steam.”

“When we first started building (the bike), we wanted to run a 5-second quarter mile, at 200 mph – and that had never been done before steam,” he added. “We have since achieved both goals.”

Sykes and the team hope to achieve a 4-second distance in the future. From what I’ve seen of their precision, dedication and passion, I don’t think it will take long before they get there.