Guy With a Death Wish Goes 207 MPH on a Rocket-Powered Bike

France’s Circuit Paul Ricard was designed for Formula 1 races, not cycling. But we’ll make an exception for François Gissy, because the guy just set an insane record: He hit 207 mph on a bicycle powered by three rocket engines.

The bike, designed by Gissy’s friend Arnold Neracher, is for the most part normal. Aside from those rockets, of course. The frame is elongated, probably to improve stability, but the pedals still work. It rides on a pair of fat tires, and the brakes are standard stuff, albeit essentially useless at that kind of speed. Gissy can use them to stabilize himself, but mostly leaves them alone. Yes, brakes are the type of thing you usually improve before subjecting yourself supercar velocities and 1.96 Gs of acceleration, but whatever.

Au revoir, Ferrari! Source: rocketman340/YouTube

The three small rockets are powered by highly concentrated hydrogen peroxide. With no seat to speak of, Gissy lies on the fuel tank, parallel to the ground and holding a second set of handlebars. (It’s like a modern imitation of Rollie Free’s 1948 motorcycle speed record run.) The accelerator is just a button that fires the rockets at full throttle. There are two speeds: off and “sacré bleu I’m gonna die.” That makes it a one-trick machine, but holy cow what a trick.

On his record run, Gissy hit 207 mph in 4.8 seconds, over a distance of just 250 meters. For comparison’s sake, he “raced” a Ferrari F430 Scudiera, a 503-horspower beast that hits 62 mph in 3.6 seconds. The prancing horse got so thoroughly trounced, it’s not even in the frame after two seconds. The speed makes the work of our favorite Rocketman, Bob Maddox, look tame.

Gissy mugs for the camera. Source: rocketman340/YouTube

With this most recent run, Gissy smashed the 163 mph speed record he set in May. And he’s not done yet. For his next trick, he wants to take a bicycle to 400 km/h (249 mph) in under two seconds. “I like the craziness of the bicycle,” he told Gizmag. “Maybe when I get too old I will start to think about the comfort of a motorcycle.”