In 1928 Fritz Von Opel set about building the world’s first rocket powered motorcycle, dubbed the Opel Raketen Motorrad, the bike was designed to use it’s internal combustion engine to reach 75mph at which point the rider would hit a foot pedal, igniting the 6 rear mounted solid rocket boosters.
The plan was to break the current land speed record and reach a top speed of 132mph. Sadly the German authorities vetoed the attempt due to safety concerns. The rocket powered motorcycle went on to complete a number of demonstration runs and was used as a marketing tool by Opel for a number of years.
I was surprised to learn that it isn’t currently owned by Jay Leno.
Ben Branch has had his work featured on CNN, Popular Mechanics, the official Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with millions of readers around the world and hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
The Indian Powerplus V-twin powered the company’s board track racers to victories right across the country. The engine was significantly more advanced than the inlet-over-exhaust engines used in previous Indian motorcycles, with side valves and an eye-watering (for the time) rating of 16 hp. The mere suggestion that you could have 16 horsepower in a…
The Crocker Small Tank V-twin is one of the rarest and most valuable American motorcycles ever made, in fact it’s quite easily one of the most valuable motorcycles in the world alongside marques like Brough Superior and Vincent HRD. In January 2019 a Crocker V-twin sold in Las Vegas for over $700,000 USD, with values…
This BMW R100RT is a family heirloom of sorts, it belongs to Sam, a Texan with a lifelong relationship with this BMW and a deep love for daily-rideable custom motorcycles. Ever since he was a child, Sam has had this BMW in his life – it previously belonged to his father who would sometimes take…
This is a selection of 22 of the historic rally plates up for sale as part of the H&H Classics auction due to end on the 8th of September, with bidding underway now. These plates were attached to some of the most famous rally cars of their era including some race winners, as well as…
The BMW R100GS was released in 1987 as the next iteration in the GS family after the original and much loved R80G/S, a motorcycle that almost single-handedly launched the modern dual sport category. The pressure on the engineers at BMW to follow up the R80G/S with a new model was intense. The multiple Paris Dakar…
It isn’t widely known that BSA/Triumph were experimenting with overhead cam engines back in the early 1970s as a way of trying to compete with the surge of high-performance, reliable, and non-leaking Japanese motorcycles pouring into the country. We do know that at least two OHC BSA/Triumph triple cylinder engines were built, they used the…
