Slightly OT. Picked up a Hop Rod (gasoline-powered pogo stick) at the Charleston WV Rod Run & Doo Wop swap meet in October. Yesterday, I mounted a bracket so I could "park" it in the Hot Rod Grille garage. The guy that I got it from found the original owner's manual and gave it to me last weekend. Now I need to find an original can of the Po-Go-Go Fuel to display with it! Jim
Saw one the other day in Halls Speed Shop. He has the fuel for his. I believe he said it was built in Wichita, Ks.
A friend of mine has one of those, the wuss won't ride it, why have it! He paid big bucks for it too!
Hey chainsaw, Awesome! How about a close-up pic of the Po-go-go fuel can? The guy that I got my Hop Rod from tossed the can years ago. I would love to find another one to go with my "ride". Jim
Pogo sticks,,especially gasoline powered and skate boards are for people braver and much younger than me,,, I envision myself busted up worse than when my Harley had a front wheel bearing freeze up at 60 miles per hour,,and I can assure you that didn't turn out too good! HRP
Thanks! Now I know what I need to start looking for. Will probably be very difficult to find, but the fun is in the hunt. Jim
I've seen the one down at Hall's, it's super cool! The youtube vid looks to be taken down at Century Two. Same place Starbird/Devlin car show uses. Chance manufacturing used to make carnival rides and maybe even roller coasters. Some neat history. I'd try one.
Hey, HRGrille; I had forgotten all about the Hop Rod. Neat thing. If you, or anyone else, actually use yours, how high can you actually get? Seriously. I remember those things, couldn't afford one then, & never got to try one, & no-one would admit, truthfully, how high they could get. I got a lot of stupid answers. I was told weight had a lot to do w/the altitude. (More weight = more "compression"/rebound). & was told that when you wanted to stop, merely "step off". That never sounded quite right, either. Marcus...
WOW! Only in america i guess No really, looks super cool. Does it run with common unleaded fuel? Or you needa special mixture? Looks like something pretty expensive too.
Hey Marcus, There are some videos of a Hop Rod in action on Youtube. I would imagine rider weight would definitely have an effect on "bounce height". I would think that a lighter rider would be propelled higher (less weight to be pushed upward). I read on Google about a young boy who was bouncing so high that he was looking in the 2nd floor windows at his school. I'm sure that it wouldn't be able to lift my old fat butt that high! I just got the owner's manual a couple of days ago, so I'm still learning about this thing. Not quite ready to try it yet. It does look cool hanging on the wall and gets some serious looks and comments from folks. Hey Bonez, The Hop Rod originally came with a can of fuel called Pogo-go (see the fuel can that I am searching for in an earlier picture). It was a gasoline/oil blend similar to what was used in the old Cox model airplane engines. I'm not sure about making a blend with unleaded, but I would think it would be fine. Wonder what would happen with race fuel? Jim
Yeah, we still have many "garden tools" that run with a 2 to 10 gas oil mix. Im sure it would take a very short research to see if its doable with unleaded.
I just use 93 octane and a couple drops of oil. I also used Traxxas top fuel model airplane fuel with 20 % nitro and some oil. No real difference between the too. If you use yours just make sure to take out the batteries , they will corrode and get stuck in the tube. I weigh 185 lbs and never got any height out of mine, but I couldnt stay on it for very long without falling off. If you watch the videos they dont go very high either, its just cool to here it pop and feel the little extra boost.
I can ride a regular unicycle just fine, just have trouble with the gas powered ones. (I know, not really a unicycle but close enough)
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