Posted on 09/21/2004 9:43:55 AM PDT by Lijahsbubbe
WABASHA (AP) - With a State Patrol airplane overhead, a Stillwater motorcyclist hit the throttle and possibly set the informal record for the fastest speeding ticket in Minnesota history: 205 mph.
On Saturday afternoon, State Patrol pilot Al Loney was flying near Wabasha, in southeastern Minnesota on the Wisconsin border, watching two motorcyclists racing along U.S. Highway 61.
When one of the riders shot forward, Loney was ready with his stopwatch. He clicked it once when the motorcycle reached a white marker on the road and again a quarter-mile later. The watch read 4.39 seconds, which Loney calculated to be 205 mph.
"I was in total disbelief," Loney told the St. Paul Pioneer Press for Tuesday's editions. "I had to double-check my watch because in 27 years I'd never seen anything move that fast."
Several law enforcement sources told the newspaper that, although no official records are kept, it was probably the fastest ticket ever written in the state.
After about three-quarters of a mile, the biker slowed to about 100 mph and let the other cycle catch up. By then Loney had radioed ahead to another state trooper, who pulled the two over soon afterward.
The State Patrol officer arrested the faster rider, 20-year-old Stillwater resident Samuel Armstrong Tilley, for reckless driving, driving without a motorcycle license - and driving 140 miles per hour over the posted speed limit of 65 mph.
A search of speeding tickets written by state troopers, who patrol most of the state's highways, between 1990 and February 2004 shows the next fastest ticket was for 150 mph in 1994 in Lake of the Woods County.
Tilley did not return calls from the newspaper to his home Monday. A working number for him could not immediately be found by The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Only a handful of exotic sports cars can reach 200 mph, but many high-performance motorcycles can top 175 mph. With minor modifications, they can hit 200 mph. Tilley was riding a Honda 1000, Loney said.
Kathy Swanson of the state Office of Traffic Safety said unless Tilley was wearing the kind of protective gear professional motorcycle racers wear, he was courting death at 200 mph.
"I'm not entirely sure what would happen if you crashed at 200 miles per hour," Swanson said. "But it wouldn't be pretty, that's for sure."
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That fact alone gives him a high probability of actually getting out of the ticket or having it seriously reduced depending on the vagaries of the state vehicle code...
ROTFLMFAO!!!
I'll bet there is a hell of a story to go with that.
If magazine articles don't count, then there isn't much I can offer. I get most of my information on bikes that aren't Harley-Davidson from magazines.
Yea, you're right...I'd buy the F4 even if it had 38 hp.
That bike give me serious wood.
Amazing packaging to squeeze that motor into such a narrow bike.
Keme: No way - Rossi would have been
doing a one handed, 200mph, wheelie - waiving
bye bye to the State'y...
This was more Haga like.
You don't steer at 200mph. You just hold the seat with your butt cheeks, close your eyes and pray to whoever will listen.
That's 'cause he was "Fast by Ferracci"
Exactly what I'm getting at. Thank you.
Could you plot that for 180hp = 200mph (that's close to reality, I think, in terms of a 'Busa)
thanks
That is amazing.
I never take magazines at their word. Too many agendas. Too many geeks.
Or giving the Italiam salute draggin' knee. haha
Haga won my "all time fav" award a few years back when after the race, the announcer asked him what he did to keep himself trained......
He paused, looked directly into the camera with a totally straight face and uttered two words.
"Jiggy-Jiggy"
Which roughly translates into sexual intercourse.
Haga rules!
Regarding your post about street-racing and speeds in the 160-170 m.p.h. range -- Remember when Kevin Schwantz (also a fine Texan) crashed his Suzuki on two different occasions at that speed and WALKED AWAY except for burns caused by friction-induced heat? That guy could ride...
I've seen about 130 m.p.h. on my Honda CBR and cars at 65 m.p.h. start to look like stationary traffic pylons! I've outgrown that silly phase.
~ Blue Jays ~
When it comes to drag racing, I like Harleys on nitromethane myself. They'll go 220 in the 1/4, but just hope you don't have to turn. Of course, like all things on that fuel, the fuse on the bomb gets awfully short after that first 1320 feet...
Well said.
Heh..heh. That's before they got their hands on the 2004 Kawasaki ZX-10R.
161hp, 412lbs.
One bad motorscooter
/jasper
"Top speed = Unknown
Estimated at 400 MPH."
Theoretically 400 mph. In the real world aerodynamic drag and tire spin would bring the fun to an end long before 400 mph was reached, nevermind ripping the rider off the bike.
"4.39 seconds over a measured 1/4 mile is indeed 205MPH."
At speeds in the area of 205 mph, a hand-held stopwatch is not an accurate enough instrument for measuring speed over a 1/4 mile. A mere 1/10 second error would change the speed calculation significantly. Of course, it can still be safely said that the guy was waaaay over the limit.
I have a Honda CX500 Turbo a 1982 the only year they made them.
I turn onto a rural road quite often, and before I can switch off the turn signal I'm hitting Seventy...with 2 gears left.
They stopped making them because so many people didn't know you don't kick in the turbo when you are making a sharp turn.
With less power at the rear wheel and a larger frontal area, I seriously doubt the new K1200RS is faster than the Hayabusa, which never managed to quite reach 200 mph in stock form.
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