Above: Ky Michaelson, featured in a recent issue of MAKE magazine, is shown in his shop, surrounded by some of his rocket-power projects. The vehicle to his right is a rocket- propelled stainless steel commode, built in his usual style. In the background is Buddy's rocket tricycle and the rocket belt Ky's developed. The red thing he's caressing is the nose cone of a recent project, in which he and his CSXT team became the first civilians ever to launch a rocket into outer space. In doing so, it reached 72 miles high, at a speed of Mach 5 ( 3,420 MPH ). While Ky's RocketBike Project, with 150# of thrust, is unlikely to top that, he's determined to top the Swiss ETE team's peroxide-rocket-powered bicyle land speed record of over 200 KPH. . Below: Ky's wife, Jodi (The Rocketwoman) pilots his earlier rocketbike project while inaugurating a new bridge in their community. Below left, son Buddy Michaelson (The Rocketboy) and the rocket scooter he and Ky built. |
Recently, I'd heard that Tim Pickens had built a new rocket bike, again based upon a typical MTB vehicle platform. I even saw him run it on TV in Central Park, here in NYC. Still having an interest in such things, I was interested in having some rocket bike action at our Abita Springs meet, and even more so at a Bike Fest we're promoting in New Orleans, for next summer. . I got in touch with Tim's new company, Orion Propulsion, and asked about the possibility of that happening. While I was asking, it occurred to me that the only cooler thing than a rocketbike blasting down a course, would be two rocketbikes blasting down a course, racing each other! This made me wonder what Ky was up to; and whether he'd ever built that stylin' new machine he'd talked about earlier. So, I E-mailed him to ask about it. It turned out, he hadn't, but the upshot of the conversation was that he'd be up for doing it now. . Being very conscious of Ky's approach to vehicle design and construction, it occurred to me that I had the perfect set of wheels on hand for a scratch-built Michaelson Rocket Bicyle. It was a custom-designed set made for me by Steve Hutchison of Wild Wheel Werks, for a motorbike I had on my personal project list. Since the wheels were way more perfect for Ky's project than for mine, I offered for BR&K to join his project by donating the wheels, and any other aspects I could be useful at doing. . Gary Silva of 3G Bikes is also on board as a sponsor, with the donation of one of his Bouncer Forks, which Ky spotted on the 3G website, while cruising for components to fit the Ky Michaelson, Buck Rogers-esque, style. Ky plans to strip the black finish off and polish it, to match the rest of the bike. As this project proceeds, Ky will continuously be photo-documenting it, and posting it on his site: We will add a link to it on this page, so our audience can follow its progress. This process will culminate in BR&K's coverage of its debut event: "Fire On The Bayou"( 2007). |
Due to this fascination with the subject, it was a natural to devote some editorial attention to the combination of rocket propulsion and bicycles. Our series: Faster, Louder, and Much More Dangerous covered some of the people doing interesting things in this line, including Glen May and Eric Hunter. We shortly later learned of a guy named Ky Michaelson, who also had built a rocket bike, among many other rocket-powered vehicle projects. . While we were thrilled at all this attention being paid to the Rocket/Bicycle intersection, we were slightly disappointed that the rocketbikes we encountered were, shall we say- "prosaic"? In every instance of rocket-powered bicycles we encountered, all the builder's attention was devoted to the technology, and very little to the styling of the projects. Usually, it was a case of mounting a rocket engine onto a common MTB. In case you hadn't noticed before, BR&K is very much into the style of things. The little rendering shown above was one of our approaches to a stylin' rocketbike design. We'd hoped to involve Glen May and his rocket mentor Tim Pickens in that proposed project. Unfortunately, they both became involved in the design and construction for the propulsion system of Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne X-Prize-winning manned spaceflight project, and were unavailable. . When I'd originally talked to Ky Michaelson about his rocket bike project, he'd mentioned that he was interested in building a rocket bike from the ground up. Since Ky's projects are invariably beautifully-made and stylin', I was looking forward to seeing what he would eventually produce. |
P R O G R E S S O F T H E R O C K E T B I K E P R O J E C T ! |
Due to this fascination with the subject, it was a natural to devote some editorial attention to the combination of rocket propulsion and bicycles. Our series: Faster, Louder, and Much More Dangerous covered some of the people doing interesting things in this line, including Glen May and Eric Hunter. We shortly later learned of a guy named Ky Michaelson, who also had built a rocket bike, among many other rocket-powered vehicle projects. . While we were thrilled at all this attention being paid to the Rocket/Bicycle intersection, we were slightly disappointed that the rocketbikes we encountered were, shall we say- "prosaic"? In every instance of rocket-powered bicycles we encountered, all the builder's attention was devoted to the technology, and very little to the styling of the projects. Usually, it was a case of mounting a rocket engine onto a common MTB. In case you hadn't noticed before, BR&K is very much into the style of things. The little rendering shown above was one of our approaches to a stylin' rocketbike design. We'd hoped to involve Glen May and his rocket mentor Tim Pickens in that proposed project. Unfortunately, they both became involved in the design and construction for the propulsion system of Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne X-Prize-winning manned spaceflight project, and were unavailable. . When I'd originally talked to Ky Michaelson about his rocket bike project, he'd mentioned that he was interested in building a rocket bike from the ground up. Since Ky's projects are invariably beautifully-made and stylin', I was looking forward to seeing what he would eventually produce. |
We here at BR&K are just crazy about rockets. I spent a fair amount of my adolescence building and shooting off rockets. I also got into a fair amount of trouble, at various times, due to my choice of places for cooking up solid rocket fuel. A high-school science lab is a good place to do this activity; a high-school gymnasium is not. I did it in both locations, hence the trouble. |
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Recently, I'd heard that Tim Pickens had built a new rocket bike, again based upon a typical MTB vehicle platform. I even saw him run it on TV in Central Park, here in NYC. Still having an interest in such things, I was interested in having some rocket bike action at our Abita Springs meet, and even more so at a Bike Fest we're promoting in New Orleans, for next summer. . I got in touch with Tim's new company, Orion Propulsion, and asked about the possibility of that happening. While I was asking, it occurred to me that the only cooler thing than a rocketbike blasting down a course, would be two rocketbikes blasting down a course, racing each other! This made me wonder what Ky was up to; and whether he'd ever built that stylin' new machine he'd talked about earlier. So, I E-mailed him to ask about it. It turned out, he hadn't, but the upshot of the conversation was that he'd be up for doing it now. . Being very conscious of Ky's approach to vehicle design and construction, it occurred to me that I had the perfect set of wheels on hand for a scratch-built Michaelson Rocket Bicyle. It was a custom-designed set made for me by Steve Hutchison of Wild Wheel Werks, for a motorbike I had on my personal project list. Since the wheels were way more perfect for Ky's project than for mine, I offered for BR&K to join his project by donating the wheels, and any other aspects I could be useful at doing. . Gary Silva of 3G Bikes is also on board as a sponsor, with the donation of one of his Bouncer Forks, which Ky spotted on the 3G website, while cruising for components to fit the Ky Michaelson, Buck Rogers-esque, style. Ky plans to strip the black finish off and polish it, to match the rest of the bike. As this project proceeds, Ky will continuously be photo-documenting it, and posting it on his site: We will add a link to it on this page, so our audience can follow its progress. This process will culminate in BR&K's coverage of its debut event: "Fire On The Bayou"( 2007). |
Above: Ky Michaelson, featured in a recent issue of MAKE magazine, is shown in his shop, surrounded by some of his rocket-power projects. The vehicle to his right is a rocket- propelled stainless steel commode, built in his usual style. In the background is Buddy's rocket tricycle and the rocket belt Ky's developed. The red thing he's caressing is the nose cone of a recent project, in which he and his CSXT team became the first civilians ever to launch a rocket into outer space. In doing so, it reached 72 miles high, at a speed of Mach 5 ( 3,420 MPH ). While Ky's RocketBike Project, with 150# of thrust, is unlikely to top that, he's determined to top the Swiss ETE team's peroxide-rocket-powered bicyle land speed record of over 200 KPH. . Below: Ky's wife, Jodi (The Rocketwoman) pilots his earlier rocketbike project while inaugurating a new bridge in their community. Below left, son Buddy Michaelson (The Rocketboy) and the rocket scooter he and Ky built. |
