We have talked a lot about remarkable listings for automobiles on the site, including the ModJobs 2012 Mustang GT, the “flower-powered” DAF Daffodil, the “Czech Porsche” or Tatra T87, the wooden chassis Marcos GT, and even the turbine-powered Batmobile, but we hadn’t found a remarkable motorcycle to feature, at least not yet.
Enter the 1929 Custom Built Harley-Davidson Motorcycle:
The custom-built jet-engine powered Harley Davidson (super)motorcycle
This motorcycle is stunning to look at, and presumably very interesting to drive, seeing as it is powered by twin jet engines. This is not a 1929 Harley with jet engines slapped on, though.
The auction description sums it up best:
“THIS HAS BEEN CLASSIFIED AS THE FIRST AND ONLY TWIN ENGINE JET MOTORCYCLE IN THE WORLD. THE BIKE HAS BEEN BASED OFF OF A 1929 HARLEY BOARD TRACK RACER. BIKE SHOWS VERY WELL AND ITS OPERATING COST FOR A RUN IS LESS THAN 20 DOLLARS. BIKE GOES STRAIGHT AND IS A BLAST TO RIDE. WILL GUARANTEE TO RATTLE YOUR WINDOWS FOR AT LEAST A FIVE BLOCK RADIUS.”
The motorcycle reportedly cruises at over 200 mph, but the very thought of having a roaring jet-powered engine between your legs could be enough to send shivers up most people’s spines. In fact, some folks have called this the “ultimate suicide machine.” We can’t say we agree with that assessment, and imagine this machine could give us the ride of our lives.
These exhaust pipes will blow you away
The auction listing notes the motorcyle is based off of a 1929 Harley Davidson board track racer. We investigated this concept further.
In the first two decades of the 20th century, motorcycle racing took place on oval wooden tracks called board tracks. The board track was similar to the velodrome used for bicycle racing. The oval track was composed of steep sides, sometimes banked at a 45-degree angle. Unfortunately, the wooden boards often warped, making racing on these tracks extremely perilous. As motorcycles got faster, the crashes became more spectacular, with the lucky crash survivors only receiving multiple splinters all over their bodies. By the early 1930s, the practice of racing motorcycles on board tracks fell out of favor with motorsport enthusiasts, and eventually it stopped completely.
What a jet-powered motorcycle could do on one of these board tracks boggles the imagination. Our guess is that if you were to own this one-of-a-kind masterpiece, you would be better off racing it on the open road.
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Editor’s note: We know there are a lot of remarkable listings out there on eBay that we may not get to. Should find something particularly noteworthy, send us a link to the listing at eBayStoriesEditor [at] ebay.com or let us know in the comments, below. We would love to hear from you!
WoW!!!!
What the @%@@##%* !
& One Again WoW!!
Wow that a nice bike …wish I had one…
Add that to my wish list LOL
I’d WANT this to be my 21st Harley!!!!!
RAWR!!! Me likey!
OK so what. I’m in midlife, but that doesn’t automatically mean I’m having a crisis…
I wonder if she would leave me when she finds it in the garage. hmmmm…….
I would ride it at least once!
… Just because you can, doesn’t necessarily mean that you should … with two jet engines, and no front brakes, minimal frame this should accelerate like he_ _ , but it won’t slow down until next century … I hope there is no need to stop with any sense of urgency …
My assessment – yes you can, but in this case you shouldn’t, unless you are in the middle of a speed run on a salt flat, and are willing to take the chance that you won’t need brakes.
On-road usage – forget about it
Kent,
“I would ride it at least once” … you say this like you would actually be in a position for a second ride as an option …
I thought 135 was fast, but at 200mph I would need a face guard because at 135 my cheeks slap my ears! 200MPH?
Cheeks slap cheeks??? LOL
This cant be for real. Has anyone actually ridden this. This chassis was made for probably 80mph max, what most Harley’s top out at. Like putting a V8 on a big wheel.
That’s Nice Pucker up and Let’s Go to Bonneville salt flats
Its ok but not all that, and its a Harley.
First off you’re not cruising at 200 mph, anyone that’s been there knows, the tires are too slim, looks like poor baking and poor handling and so on. To me it’s more of a show bike, a cool thing to talk about…
I would maybe ride it around the block, but I like to ride and ride hard for hours.
This is NOT a typical “JET” engine. It is a pair of “PULSE” jets, the most simple of all Jet engines. Simply a combustion chamber that is filled with air and fuel then ignited with a regular spark plug. The explosive expansion of the burning gas is exhausted out the rear pushing the bike forward. Other than the hinged louvers that act as air intakes there are no moving parts. These are extreeeeeemly noisy and very inefficient . they have been around sense WW2. During the war the English people could hear them coming from half way across the English Channel. Imagine a continuous sequence of 22 gun shots at a rate of 10 to 30 a second for as long as the thing is running…
This is unbelievably cool! It is a show bike, nothing more, and it is perfect. The lines are in proportion, unlike the stupid Boss Hoss junk. Modern, retro, and slick.
Looks beautiful, but I don’t think it can handle 200mph, at these speed, I think
she become very unstable, the weels have to be balance to the perfection, the
position of the rider can’t handle the speed either. But again, BEAUTIFUL.
this must be a model kit some one built ,the tires would never handle all that trust that was produced,,and you would certainly need front brakes ;0)
Jay Leno & Bruce Rossmeyer had jet powered motorcycles. Those use Rolls Royce turbines from helecopters to power the rear wheel and are real motorcycles that can and have been ridden on the highways. The red bike makes a nice Custom Show bike, but nothing else.
The funny thing is, it probably weighs less than a 46bhp Sportster883
Junk, I’d rather ride a rice burner!! ha, ha! Even the seat looks uncomfortable. Don’t think I’d want to go over 30 mph on this thing. The engines should have been put on a boat or something. Looks more like a hardly, than a harley!
I have ridden a bike like this!! I own a Suzuki Hayabusa and it accelerates like it’s powered by a jet engine or a rocket. I really don’t believe that any Harley could actually handle any kind of speed like that though!!
This IS NOT A HARLEY !!
Nice write up, but board track racing was actually outlawed in one fell swoop. It never fell out of favor as the article describes, but in one single race (in about 1922-1925), 8 men died.
It was probably one of the most deadly sports ever devised by man, as one particular track had an exposed concrete staircase which formed a terminating “wedge” on the outer side of the track. I believe it was at this very track, right after this very accident, where board track racing, as a sport, met with it’s demise.
Yes, a racer found the back side of the concrete staircase. The hard way.
Sorry I couldn’t provide names, dates & locations, but this information is very real.
Sequence start…. 10…. 9…. 8…. 7…. 6…. 5…. 4…. 3…. 2…. 1…. we have ignition!!! A traffic light just changed in New York & already this hellion bike is in downtown Los Angeles! Light speed on two wheels!!! A beeeeyoooootiful machine indeed!
Nope just a show bike I agree, no saltflats. Never get past safety inspection. If you road it anywhere else you have a death wish. If it does what it should you need rotors on it as big as the wheels.
Aha! A ground borne Doodle Bug. Last I heard those engines should they be working properly they have only one speed and that ain’t stopped and the road ain’t no place to use them. Hitler thought they worked well in Flying Bombs.
Undoubtedly has scored as the latest: “….can you believe that thing, Marcy??”….and we know it can’t “do” 200 MPH (only in your dreams!) but that is what American Tradition is all about! If you can dream it,..it CAN be built! This takes: “Harley-Davidson, an American Tradition” to the ultimate extreme…very, VERY conclusive!! Remember Ed “Big Daddy” Roth and The Rat Fink Mobile? Another one of our own:
Cool, man, Cool!
Definetly not a street bike! It would melt the wind shield and peel the paint off any car that was unlucky enough to be behind it at a stop sign……..ha.ha ! PS those are 21 inch tire and rims on it ! looks more like a glorified mountain bike.
I FEEL THE NEED YES I FEEL THE NEED I FEEL THE SPEED BETWEEN MY KNEES MAN WHAT A RIDE !!!! COOL BUT UNSAFE I LOVE IT
like most custom Harleys it was never intended to be ridden but that does not matter cause most Harley guys ride 15 minutes to the meeting spot and talk for hours ABOUT ridding.
If you believe the myth that “Loud Pipes Save Lives”, then that Harley should be able to end starvation, cure all known diseases, and raise the dead worldwide.
I’m sure it has low mileage because nobody rides it twice. The Estate of the previous owner kept it in nice condition
Dang
If my bf ever got a hold of that (or even close enough to look at it), he would NEVER need Viagra. Just sayin…. Lol!
My cbr1000rr and I have been up to 203mph. I’m sure this ride wouldnt be much different. But it looks amazing!
@Richard: Thanks for the information.
Big disc brake on the back says it probably slows ok. And for the doubters, it looks real enough to me and I’d ride it someplace like an airstrip or the flats. Suitably suited of course
mikey likes it really i do.
I would hate to see what would happen if a plastic front ended car pulled up behind this thing at a traffic light.