Give this man a medal

Gonz

Gonz

molṑn labé
Staff member
WABASHA, Minn. (AP) - With a State Patrol airplane overhead, a 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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Can we safely say he has earned his motorcycle endorsement?
 
Motorcycle endorsement...a "tag" on your license showing you've paid the fee...sorry, passed the test... so you're now legal to operate a motorcycle.

Anybody who can operate a bike at 200+MPH has proven their ability.
 
*Has crashed a motorcycle at 130 mph (on the track) and walked away*

Of course, where I got up was probably 1000 yards for where I went down.
 
Gonz said:
Motorcycle endorsement...a "tag" on your license showing you've paid the fee...sorry, passed the test... so you're now legal to operate a motorcycle.

Anybody who can operate a bike at 200+MPH has proven their ability.
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Anyone attempting to do so has shown that they're nowhere near responsable enough to be allowed to touch one again. Ever.
 
Those kind of motorcycles scare me. They have power-to-weight ratios that make a Viper seem like a Renault LeCar, but if someone drives one 200 miles on a public road and hits even the tiniest piece of debris, it can be certain death for the driver as he gets driven through the middle of a tree. It's dumb enough to drive one that fast on a race track with a crew that keeps the pavement spotless. So you can imagine how I felt when I was doing 80 on the freeway once and got passed--almost as if I were standing still--by three sport bikes doing wheelies.
 
Inkara1 said:
Those kind of motorcycles scare me. They have power-to-weight ratios that make a Viper seem like a Renault LeCar, but if someone drives one 200 miles on a public road and hits even the tiniest piece of debris, it can be certain death for the driver as he gets driven through the middle of a tree. It's dumb enough to drive one that fast on a race track with a crew that keeps the pavement spotless. So you can imagine how I felt when I was doing 80 on the freeway once and got passed--almost as if I were standing still--by three sport bikes doing wheelies.
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Frankly, I couldn't give a rat's ass about the driver. If he get's juiced, the world's a better place without him. But idiots like that seldom wreck alone. Usually the bike will kick him off and keep going on it's own. Right into oncoming traffic.
 
It doesn't take much imagination to wonder what a bike like that going 200+mph would do to the average minivan.
 
Professur said:
Frankly, I couldn't give a rat's ass about the driver. If he get's juiced, the world's a better place without him. But idiots like that seldom wreck alone. Usually the bike will kick him off and keep going on it's own. Right into oncoming traffic.
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Yep, it's really hard to make a motorcycle fall down at speed (ever have a gyroscope?). This guy needs his license revoked and some jail time. I saw what was left of a very large cow after someone hit it at well over 100. Acuatlly, except for the bit still in the helmet, it was kind of hard to tell what happened to the cow and what happened to him. I like riding motorcycles fast, but I reserve lunacy for the track.
 
chcr said:
Yep, it's really hard to make a motorcycle fall down at speed (ever have a gyroscope?). This guy needs his license revoked and some jail time. I saw what was left of a very large cow after someone hit it at well over 100. Acuatlly, except for the bit still in the helmet, it was kind of hard to tell what happened to the cow and what happened to him. I like riding motorcycles fast, but I reserve lunacy for the track.
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He didn't have a license. That's what Gonz was spouting. That this should qualify him to get his license. Perhaps Gonz also thinks that a license for a semi ahould be availible to anyone who can steal one and drive it into a mall.
 
Professur said:
Anyone attempting to do so has shown that they're nowhere near responsable enough to be allowed to touch one again. Ever.
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Definitely agree with ya there, proff. This was an irresponsible act that could have had very real tragic circumstances. These were not controlled conditions, and anything could have happened.
 
Professur said:
Perhaps Gonz also thinks that a license for a semi ahould be availible to anyone who can steal one.
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That's fairly well the case already.
 
The local radio guy says he had a similar incident today...he was getting ready to pass on a freeway, looked in the mirror, saw nothing, started to change lanes & had a cat on a bike whip past him like nobodies business. He says he'd guesstimate 150MPH.

This guy went on a rampage that these bikes shouldn't even be allowed or should be choked down or whatever.

I disagree with him. If some idiot chances fate & nothing bad happens, what's the problem? I am not endorsing this action. He got caught. He'll pay a hefty fine. He may lose his license. These things may or may not stop him, or others like him from doing stuff like this. We have laws but they didn't stop him did they? It's a crap shoot. Predominately young men with a testosterone induced high have been around since testosterone was introduced. Much has been accomplished as a result of such stupidity. They've climbed the highest mountains & flown the fastest planes & dove to the deepest depths. Many have died due to their recklessness. Many have died because of their recklessness. That is the chance we take living in a world full of people.

I see people every day, talking on the cell phone, eating, drinking, applying make-up, reading War & Peace, planning meetings, discussing the market, daydreaming about last night, daydreaming about tonight...in other words not paying attention to the task at hand. I'd rather have some fool racing at 10PM on a desolate road than some fool looking at the Wall Street Journal on I-80 at 7am.
 
Well all right daddio. Im hip to that man. :smoke3:

This happens to me on almost a daily basis around here. There are bands of macho dudes all dolled up in brightly colored leather suits on their brightly colored japanese bikes who enjoy weaving through traffic at ungodly speeds. Ill be driving along at 60 (this isnt even a highway mind you) and some guy on a bike will blast past me BETWEEN me and the guy next to me probably easily doubling my speed at a minimum. Id say thats a regular weekend occurance where i live. Im guessing its the influence of the racing movies that have made this a cool thing to do.
 
I'm not that old :p

If these idiots would only have the cajones to take it to the track.
 
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