This YouTuber’s Harley Is Jet Powered

The Harley-Davidson Street Glide is not a mannequin that is brief on energy. In reality, the biggest Harley-Davidson stock engine you can get in 2026 might be discovered within the Street Glide Limited. But one of many fascinating elements of customized tradition is the willingness to experiment outdoors the strains of standard design. In one such mission, engineer and fabricator Matt Mikka of the YouTube channel Warped was tasked with changing a used Street Glide to run on two small jet engines.

The construct was advanced and required adjustments to a number of of the bike’s inventory parts. First, the engine and transmission have been eliminated, as this practice bike would run purely from the dual generators. But a mounting resolution for the jet engines needed to be developed, which might permit a secure and durable attachment to the bike. Mikka and his staff needed to design, waterjet-machine-cut, and weld items for a mounting system, putting in the jets instead of the saddlebags.

These generators expend a variety of gasoline as a result of they’re designed to consumption such massive quantities of air throughout operation. So, Mikka’s staff fabricated and fitted a second 11.3-gallon reserve tank (put in the place the engine was once) to provide further diesel. In addition, Mikka eliminated the charging system and constructed his personal battery utilizing Tesla cells.

Jet engine output is measured differently than one thing like a automobile engine. With the 2 small jet engines mixed, they produced round 150 kilos of thrust. While which may not sound like a lot, it is essential to think about that Mikka had eliminated each the engine and transmission, estimating the bike was solely round 350 kilos. In phrases of the numbers, throughout testing, the jet-engine bike made 0-30 mph in 16.63 seconds and received as much as almost 45 mph. Later exams would push that determine to 60 mph, which is not significantly spectacular.

However, the shopper, Sean Kerr of the YouTube channel Bikes and Beads, claimed the journey was in contrast to every other bike he’d ridden. For one factor, beginning the bike requires a collection of steps, just like an plane, and in case you observe them out of sequence, the system can brief out. Then there’s the sound of those twin-jet engines, which is blaringly loud. Kerr defined on a Bikes and Beards YouTube video, “After listening to this bike, this isn’t solely the best factor I personal, it is the loudest bike I’ve ever heard in my complete life.”

Beyond the sound, it lacked key traits of a typical Harley-Davidson journey. No vibration, no gears, simply the jet’s exhaust gasoline pushing the bike ahead. It produced a wierd feeling for each riders, although acceleration charge and velocity weren’t excessive. In the top, the spectacular feat isn’t within the type of efficiency figures, however in the truth that the mission produced a working jet-propelled bike.

There are some things that made this construct significantly harmful and required some further measures to make sure security. One piece Mikka needed to fabricate was a containment protect across the generators. One or each of those jet engines might explode if pushed too arduous. The construct needed to defend the rider, given the shut proximity to the jet engines.

Another potential situation was that when reducing the throttle, the engines might proceed to run no matter rider enter. There is an analogous phenomenon, known as a runaway diesel engine, which might be stopped a couple of other ways, together with an emergency shut-off valve. To forestall the jet bike from throttling by itself, Mikka put in a shut-off, which might shortly cease the gasoline provide and put an finish to a harmful situation.

It wasn’t simply the rider who was topic to the forces generated by these small jet engines, but additionally anybody immediately behind the bike. These generators actually shot flames on startup, so you’ll be able to think about the warmth blasting behind the bike because the throttle crept larger.