EXCLUSIVE: The man who converted his Henry Hoover into a motorbike is battling ‘intense’ requirements to make it road legal, and has already had offers to buy the motorised appliance
Video Unavailable
Henry Hoover mini-bike inventor would ‘love to race it’
The man who invented a Henry Hoover motorbike says he would “love to race” the makeshift vehicle, but firm regulations are standing in the way of making it road legal.
TikTok user @awesometoaster had been wanting to put an engine inside the vacuum for some time and was finally given the chance to do so at MK Makerspace’s workshop in Milton Keynes.
He attached the engine at the bottom and upgraded the wheels to transform the Henry Hoover into a speedy means of transport. The vacuum’s power button is now a kill switch for the engine, and a smaller wheel has been attached at the front for balance. All this means he can now ride around on Henry, as shown in videos on his TikTok channel.
Sadly though, the inventor told The Mirror “intense” requirements stand in the way of making it road legal. But despite this, he one day hopes he can race it.
He told us: “The engine itself is a two stroke 50cc pocket bike engine and it just happened to fit the Henry body shell. The real work was in building a custom frame to hold everything together, but a serious challenge was making the rear axle.
“We were very fortunate our little club shares its space with Men In Sheds, a men’s mental health charity, who happened to have matching tools. And some retired machinists helped me make up all the flanges to mount the sprocket, brake discs and wheel hubs.”
He’s since had plenty of cash offers for the incredible vehicle, but is so far refusing to sell it. He added there was little chance of making it a road legal vehicle, and has faced “some difficulties” in figuring out where he can legally ride it. He said: “We did look into making him road legal but the requirements are quite intense, it’s an eventual goal though.
“So far I’ve experienced some difficulties figuring out where we can ride it, I’ve been in touch with the local police but they’ve not been insightful. I would love to race it, and I think it may have some challengers as I’ve heard others are now building similar ‘motorised appliances’, so far we’ve learnt Henry is quite fast but still has the same issues with corners as he did as a vacuum.”
