Motor-sport and drag racing enthusiast Graham Sykes proudly gave visitors to the Fluid Power & Systems 2018 exhibition (held at the NEC in April) a preview of his steam-powered rocket bike — named Force of Nature.

It is the culmination of almost six years’ work by the precision engineer, who designed the bike and then produced all the prismatic parts on a Hurco vertical machining centre — mostly from DXF files output from AutoCad and input directly into the machine’s proprietary Ultimax CNC system.

Mr Sykes holds five motorcycle land speed records on his V8-powered drag bike, which is named The Syko; his top speed was 181.39 mph.

Dynamic testing of Force of Nature on the track will follow after more static tests.

These have already seen 600kgf of peak thrust over 6sec, which should allow the bike to reach over 200mph in a quarter mile.

A public launch will take place later this year, when all tests are complete.

In preparation for a test run, a 60kW bio-fuel burner will be attached to the bike to heat 50 litres of water in the pressure vessel to 250°C and a pressure of 40 bar via a flame-holder tube running through the centre.

Meanwhile, Graham Sykes Performance Engineering Ltd (www.sykoracing.com) continues to design and manufacture components for other racing teams — and for customers in the food industry — at its workshop in North Yorkshire.