Ok, how cool is this? A roller skate powered by a nitro- burning 2 stroke engine. Just your average '50's girl's steel wheeled sidewalk roller skate powered by a .23 ci. engine, that turned 13,000 RPM according to the letter Dutch sent Hot Rod magazine that showed up in their Nov. '55 issue. You'll notice that in the specs Dutch painted on the skate, it says 1,300 RPM. Dutch said the ignition was via glow plug, and the engine had a counterbalanced, double ended crankshaft mounted in ball bearings. The rear wheels mounted directly to the crankshaft ends. Holy cow.
This thing actually worked. Somewhere I have a photo of Von Dutch tearing down the street on the skates, with a teather string for a throttle. I can't find it right now, but when I do, I'll post it up for you to see.
Some people have said that both the pair of skates were powered, but Dutch only powered one of them. That was how you "stopped" yourself - when you had scared yourself silly on them, you raised the powered skate off the ground to "stop" yourself. Sidewalk cracks must have been a bitch!
Here's a drawing of a 2 stroke pogo stick that Dutch sent along with another photo of his roller skate to Hot Rod magazine, that they published in their Nov. '55 issue. Dutch said in part, in the acompaning letter, that the pogo stick ".....is under construction now (pilot model), to be available in one, two, and three story hop models".
Now, I've never seen a photo of the finished pogo stick, and I've always read that Von Dutch never actually built one, but.......I have a friend that I trust when he tells me something, and he told me that Dutch actually had this pogo stick almost finished, then he traded it off. Now, my friend says that a person he knew very well had possession of the pogo stick at one time, and he also saw the pogo stick himself. He said that person who had it was none other than Slave Lewie Roseberry. Take it for what it's worth....
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