Chopper Rocket sighting in this month's DJ Mag
If you check out the cover story in this month’s DJ Mag you’ll Space Cowboys Kit and Kirk rolling along on their Rocket Chopper. The article is about Carl Cox’s Burning Man experience, but if you ask me DJ Mag missed an even better story about the Rocket Chopper. Rather than let that story go untold, we’ve decided to bring it to you here—so now, in Kit’s words, here’s the story behind one of the coolest contraptions to cruise the playa.
The Chopper Rockets were inspired by our original Burning Man art project from 2000 which was a vertical rocket with fins that was also a burn barrel. We had built the burn barrel rocket with the help of Che Voigt up at his parent’s ranch. During the construction we talked about how cool it would be to be able to ride the rocket around the playa. Fast forward to 2009 and Kirk and I decided to build an art car for our return to the Playa. Talked it over with Che and he was completely on board with the project including building one for himself.The bodies of the rockets are fuel tanks from old military aircrafts and the classis are Honda Elite scooters. We strip the scooter’s bodies and stretched the wheel base about 10”. We upgraded the battery and suspension, and modified the kick stands. We cut out the insides of the fuel tanks and added access panels, fitted the bodies onto the bike, and added the ape hanger handlebars, some lights and decals. The whole project took two months with a lot of help and support from Che, Cairenn, and David Bothun.
They were a lot of fun riding on the Playa and we loved seeing peoples’ reactions to them. We can’t wait to bring them back next year.
