Full steam ahead: Speed freak grandfather breaks speed record on powered by superheated water

A Yorkshire grandfather has smashed the world land speed record for a steam powered motorcycle, using a bike he built in his shed.

Graham Sykes, 60, has nine grandchildren and accomplished the feat at the UK&ITA World Records Speed Week at Elvington in late May 2023, where his bike ‘Force of Nature’ claimed the title of the outright fastest steam-propelled motorcycle in the world, reaching 163mph in just 3.87 seconds over 1/8th mile.

Force of Nature is thrust driven, using the latent energy of superheated, pressurised water that is then released through nozzles, a process which is both lengthy and technical.

Graham said: “The bike docks onto what we call a mother ship, which is basically a utility trolley where there’s a firebox. We’ve got a kerosene burner which has been converted to run on Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil. 

“The flame generates around about 800 degrees centigrade of hot gas,” the Bedale rider added: “It’s not a quick process so you don’t thermally shock anything. We take about four hours to heat it up to 250° C, which brings the internal pressure of the vessel up to 40 bar, which is 600 PSI, and at that point you’ve got lots of potential energy in the temperature of the water.” 

What this means to onlookers is a bike that produces a sonic boom before it gets going as the steam is released through specialist valves at a velocity greater than the speed of sound. Force of Nature then takes off, creating 3.5G, followed by a rooster tail of steam. The bike uses 25 litres per second to generate thrust.

Graham is confident there is more in the tank, he said: “We’re about 50% into the power ability of the bike and we’re just slowly increasing the performance of the bike so that we can get acclimatised to the acceleration.”

Before Graham’s creation, the steam-powered motorcycle record stood at just 80.509mph, set back in 2014.

The northern engineer also set the British National record for the fastest three-wheeled vehicle in 2015, using a self-built V8 three wheeler named ‘SYKO’ – which reached a peak speed of 180.3mph and 171.4mph as an average over the flying 1/4 mile. The goal? To reach the hallowed 200mph mark. Watch this space.