A French man named Francois Gissy is now the world’s fastest cyclist.
Last week, at the Circuit Paul Richard in South France, Gissy rode his rocket-powered bicycle to an astonishing speed of 207 mph, a feat he accomplished in just 4.8 seconds.
Kids, don’t try this at home.
The rocket bike was built by French company and “lasers experiments” specialist Exotic Thermo Engineering, a firm that excels in chemically powered drag racers.
The bike was fitted with a hydrogen peroxide-fueled rocket with three individual thrusters and NASA-like grunt to match. The cycle’s apt name? Kamikaze.
You can see why the French firm gave the vehicle its calamitous designation once Gissy takes off, his body manipulated by a ridiculous amount of g-force and secured by nothing but his vice-like hands. The propulsion system measures 4.5 kN of thrust which equals 560 horsepower, but the amount of testicular fortitude required to pull of such a stunt simply defies measure.
The rear-facing camera view of Gissy’s acceleration is the most astonishing, which comes in at around 40 seconds of the video. You can see the race team, safety crew, and fully-grown pine trees turn to ants in seconds. At other points, thoroughbred racehorses like the Ferrari 430 Scuderia and are simply left at the starting line like nothing.
Luckily, there was somebody with a video camera to document the whole thing.
The crazy cycle’s top speed of 207 mph is obviously impressive on its own, but the miniscule amount of time it takes to get there is almost comical. For reference, the record-breaking Hennessey Venom GT reaches 186.4 mph in 13.86 seconds, while Gissy rode over 20 mph faster in 9.09 seconds less.
And yes, he was wearing a helmet.
(Video hosted by Swiss Rocket Man)
