A French Dude Just Broke 200 mph on His Bicycle

Hydrogen peroxide is a magical thing.more

At normal strength, it'll turn a comely brunette into a blonde bombshell, and in highly concentrated form, it'll create enough thrust to propel a bicycle forward at more than 200 mph.

Proof of this came over the weekend, when French daredevil Francois Gissy climbed onto a bike equipped with three small peroxide-powered rocket thrusters and raced down the track at Circuit Paul Ricard in the South of France at 207 mph. In doing so, Gissy broke his own world record of 177 mph, which he set last November.

As Gizmag reports, Gissy reached his top speed in just 4.8 seconds. His rockets created 4.5 kN of thrust, which equals about 560 horsepower.

"In the moment it is scary, but as soon you stop, you also realize how amazing that was!" he told Gizmag after his historic run. "You cannot describe it, you have to live it."

Gissy admits he's "lucky my head is still bolted on my body," and yet he's already eying the next challenge. If he can find the right sponsor, he'll build a "monstrous bicycle" called the "Spine Crusher," which will accelerate to 249 mph in less than two seconds. "I just cross my fingers that we will have the green light soon in order to start the construction," he said. "But it doesn’t depend on me."