WABASHA, Minn. - 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 ***ociated 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."
[ QUOTE ] ...and driving 140 miles per hour over the posted speed limit of 65 mph. [/ QUOTE ] I bet that wont be a cheap ticket.
Surely they have something a little more high tech then a stopwatch for working these things out ?? that sure is moving though, years ago when the first hand held cop radars were out here they didn't read over 200kph as a mate of mine foound out when a bunch of them on big jap bikes accidently bussed a cop with one...... the last bike reckoned the cop was looking puzzled and tapping the radar gun
How long will he be barred from the road? Or they (law/judge) make an example of him, and use a Draconian punishment.
Walter Matthau freak!! musta wanted to see where "Grumpy Old Men" was filmed. Either that or he wanted to see if Coffee Mill was open yet.. Jeez I grew up not to far from there. Speaking from stupid experience that is a cool highway to speed on... Justin
That is moderately amusing but I can't believe they issued a speeding ticket. I got a 119 in a 65 (in a car) here in Indiana and I didn't get a ticket. No...I got a BUNCH of tickets, an impounded car, a trip to jail, and a suspended drivers license. They can and should write you up for all kinds of stuff for that. Speeding (points vary by speed), reckless driving, fleeing an officer, speed contest (8 points alone for that here in Indiana). I also got a 104 in a 55 (also in a car) that cost me $687 (and another impounded car). I think I deserved those kind of tickets for that kind of speed on a highway as there are whole familys and other innocent people endangered out there and there isn't much time to react if and when things go wrong. I was young stupid and lucky (1992 and 1993). This guy sounds about the same. The sad thing is we all want to do it, but the good news is that there are tracks and HAMB drags to do it at without endangering other people. On a related note, some kid in Michigan made the news yesterday for getting arrested for 156 on the highway. Maybe we can have some michigan Hambers see what he got for that? Ever see the cool video on COPS of the guy in Arizona wiping out the Greenwood Corvette on the highway at astronomical speeds while running from the cops (and actually outrunning the helicopter in a straight line!)? It is pretty scary what happens at that speed. That guy walked away after being thrown from the car during the crash but clearly it was just because God and Satan both just let him live to see what he would try next. On a final note, that must be one hell of nice highway!
148 in a 65 in dad's ZR1 at the ripe old age of 16. Do not p*** go, go straight to jail. Insurance was kind of ugly there for a couple of years.
In last month's Roadracing World there was a picture of a 205 mph get-off at Suzuka track, rear tread delaminated. Guy sort of hobbled away, no broken bones. Lot of riders in MN and WI wear road racing leathers and gloves, boots etc, hope this kid was. On the way to a rally in Ontario years ago, a Michigan guy got nailed at 187 in a 65, paid big. Easily outran the little plane but stopped to smoke a cig and they found him.
it was just on the news ,they have the bike impounded a rc51 honda had pipes on it, the guy must have been doing some work o nthe engine everthing else i have seen for that bike is topped out at 173 or so,,wooohohooo we radared my buddies hyabusa at 234 out on a county road ,
Yeah that's gonna cost ya. I was only doing 97 in 55 in my car and went to jail, $500 fine, and lost license for 3 months. Reading the rest of the posts, it seems to be the trend around here. Has everyone here gotten busted for this?
i p***ed a cop at over 140 on 287 in northern nj in my tube ch***is road race car(car topped out at 174 at bridge hampton race way) lucky for me i was able to take the next exit and get the car back home before any one found me
i p***ed a county sherrif in my herb adams vse camaro, of course not road legal but safer than anything built ,about 6100 on the tach, which about 150 or so real speed,i could see in my mirror he stopped amd got out and just looked down the road it was primered but right after i went around town , spray bombed it blue,and never took it out on the street again
local station is gonna have the cop on tv tonight, 1320 feet at 4.39 seconds is 205.1139 mph the white marks are 300 ft apart and a 1/4 mile apart, traveling in a plane you can be right on top of em,and get very good results, There are 5280 feet in one mile A vehicle traveling one mile per hour will cover 5280 feet.There are 60 minutes in one hour so a vehicle traveling one mile per hour will travel 1/60th of that distance in one minute, or 88 feet. real numbers 87.9 ft There are 60 seconds in one minute so a vehicle traveling at one mile per hour will cover 1/60th of the distance it covered in one minute, or 1.47 feet. You could also state that there are 3600 seconds in one hour and divide that number into 5280 feet and the result would be the same, 1.47 feet. that beeing said, Vascar or any other form of clocking is just that. Using a stopwatch to measure time. It's the exact opposite of Lidar. With Lidar, you take a known period of time and measure how far the object in question moved. With clocking, you do the opposite, you measure a pre-determined distance, and time how long it takes an object to move that far. If it takes you 1.70 seconds to move 150 feet, then you are moving at 88 feet per second. Convert 88 feet per second to MPH... and you have 60 MPH. Ta Da. Dirt simple. But, it's just as accurate as Lidar or Radar i like this post , horse power and related subjects m*** and drag coefficent ,you racers know the amount of horse power ,but to accelerat at a given velocity is squared and my calulations the bike has 174 horse power, that is alot for this cycle,,if he wanted to goint into all the velocity equations based up accelrations he would have to accelerate at a given speed ,not knowing this the time and terminal velocity would be diiferent based upon 205 miles per hour, Aerodynamics becomes more important the faster you go because the power required increases as the cube of speed--in other words, to double your speed, you need eight times as much power to overcome aerodynamic drag anyhow cant be stock ,
125mph on the shoulder of east bound I40 about 80 odd miles west of Okc in a 66 Chevelle. Girlfreind ticketed for illegal hanging from a motor vehicle.75.00 Me wreckless driving 150.00 posted in cash via US mail at nearest post box.Garnered 6 points for afforementioned fiasco.YeeHaa! **** 'em if they can't take a joke.
Lingenfelter died in a car at speeds like this. (Well, actually he laid in a hospital only being able to follow you with his eyes for several months before dying). I can't imagine two bills on two wheels. Hell, on four with a roll cage would probably be more than I'd care to handle. At that point, I don't think full leathers and a helmet would do any good--gaurd rails, oak trees and gravel shoulders aren't things you usually have to dodge while skidding along on what's left of your *** on the race track. The fire department would probably just be able to come out and hose him off the road. "...head in ditch" -brad
I actually have some photos of the hose party you mentioned. A guy on a motorcycle with his girlfriend on the back tried to p*** a car on an uphill curve and hit a dump truck head on at an estimated 90MPH. The rider was wearing a helmet. You can tell because when his head got lodged in the grill of the truck and torn off of the rest of his body, the helmet stayed on. You couldn't tell if the girlfriend was wearing a helmet or not as there wasn't enough left to tell. The good news about the helmet law argument is you typically only kill yourself in a motorcycle accident so why bother with a law? The bummer was this guys girlfriend was an victim of his stupidity. The pictures are terribly gory but pretty fascinating. I got all seven pictures including the fire department hosing them off the street and out of the grill of the truck. So to answer your question...I guess helmets are only good for so much. The guy in the dump truck wasn't wearing a helmet and he was just fine.
I actually feel safer at high speed on a motorcycle than a car, more control or something. Yeah, I'm crazy. But about 140 is fastest I have ever ridden and that was a long time ago. Couple of years ago state trooper friend of my son in laws was on I45 near Huntsville, Tx was getting back in patrol car after a stop noticed radar bouncing 198-199, saw a speck on a hill behind him about that time a motorcycle blew past, he turned on overhead lights, just for the hell of it, brake lights came on and about a mile down the road the rider stopped. Scotty asked him why he stopped, he would have never been able to catch him. Guy replied "but your buddy down the road would have, you have a radio, & I dont want to lose my license". Scotty wrote him up for like 20 over speed limit just because the guy stopped. True story.
you know what a funny thing is though? me, Mel and StevieD and a few other were all traveling up highway 61 from wabasha that same day at about 3:00 ish, we were on that rat rod run i posted about, we didnt see em but would have we been able to?!! We were p***ed by 3 crotch rockets at a hi rate of speed but not that fast!
That is definitely fast for the guy getting busted, he will have a huge fine to pay, probably lose his license for a while. Now back to our speed discussion. At Bonneville this year I talked a bit with a guy in staging lane for the long track. He had a Hyabusa with turbo and intercooler. Claimed it was about 400 hp. Stock bodywork, extensive engine mods and tall trans gears and rear sprocket. He said a stock Hyabusa will tach out at theoretical 205 mph, his will do about 300 with the modified gearing. He had about 80 lbs of ballast mounted low on the rear swingarm, to help traction and not for stability, although I presume it also helped that a bit. He was working his way up to his buddy's record of 247 mph, I saw him crank out a 197 run (on his way up to hopefully higher speeds later in the week) while he was checking out the bike. His only safety stuff was full leathers and helmet. He used a a GPS velcroed to his dash(?) to relay his speed while making the run!! He started the bike in the lane to warm it up, it was pretty quiet considering, just a short exhaust off the turbo in front of the engine. Overall it was very stock appearing. And fast as hell........never did hear of any more runs he made.
Guilty - 120 mph in a Mercedes station wagon just outside of Kerville, Texas on New Year's eve 1998. Cost me $5k by the time is was all over. Thanks to a good lawyer, I kept my license and my "clean" record. And 60 Biscayne - Vascar is VERY slack at those speeds. If you calculate reaction time inaccuracy as a precentage of the total time it can be as much as 50 mph plus or minus - so a possible low of ONLY 155 mph or so. Still enough to cook up some real trouble, but not as insane sounding as what's being sold to the papers.
[ QUOTE ] If you calculate reaction time inaccuracy as a precentage of the total time it can be as much as 50 mph plus or minus - so a possible low of ONLY 155 mph or so. [/ QUOTE ] Or a high of 255 mph? The most I've got caught doing was 94 in a 70. I was going faster (not sure how much...the speedo was pegged), but the cop was feeling generous that day and let me off with only 24 over so he didn't have to take me to jail. I don't feel so bad about that now that I've read what some of you have got caught doing! I've been 160 mph on a bike (Suzuki GSXR)...and to tell the truth, anything over 120 mph all feels about the same to me. I personally doubt the guy was actually doing 205...but that really doesn't matter because he was definitely going fast enough to get in some deep ****.
traveling at over 100 in minnesota used to beconsidered trying to commit suicide , you had to go to a mental evaluation and all kind a b.s. ... the kid will not be able to afford insurance for sure...with this kinda media attention, they are going to use this kid as an example for sure ...hes gonna fry! i question the accuracy of the whole stop watch thing though ....the guy coulda had twitchy hands?? i got a ticket for 110 in a 30 ...didnt have me on radar .... cost me 42.50 ....basic speed i believe is what they called it all i know was that cop was pissed !! fastest ive been is 155...thought that was fast dont really plan on going there again till i build a salt car!!
i never got caught speedin (knock on wood) but comin home one night from a ex's house i felt the need the need for speed and wanted to see how fast my 50 pick up would go, the speedo topped out at 110, and right when i saw that and what did i see on the left when i p***ed by the local park by her house, them buddys in black n whites. long story short i hauled *** to my house which was about 6 blocks away and parked in the garage and was really lucky he didnt radio ahead to catch me.also as i think of it now, good thing it was 3 in the mornin, or what would worse could of happen
[ QUOTE ] I actually have some photos of the hose party you mentioned. A guy on a motorcycle with his girlfriend on the back tried to p*** a car on an uphill curve and hit a dump truck head on at an estimated 90MPH. The rider was wearing a helmet. You can tell because when his head got lodged in the grill of the truck and torn off of the rest of his body, the helmet stayed on. You couldn't tell if the girlfriend was wearing a helmet or not as there wasn't enough left to tell. The good news about the helmet law argument is you typically only kill yourself in a motorcycle accident so why bother with a law? The bummer was this guys girlfriend was an victim of his stupidity. The pictures are terribly gory but pretty fascinating. I got all seven pictures including the fire department hosing them off the street and out of the grill of the truck. So to answer your question...I guess helmets are only good for so much. The guy in the dump truck wasn't wearing a helmet and he was just fine. [/ QUOTE ] not to try and sound too morbid but would you be willing to share those photos with the rest of the cl***?
Ha!! He wasn't driving legally then either I got a ticket going over the "big bridge" in Downtown milwaukee... I was doing 110 in a 50,, oops... And only 17, the fine officers in Milwaukee were nice enought to call my dad at 2am to give me a ride home.. Wouldn't be to bad, but we actually live about an hour south at the time.... When he got there, and I got in the car, all he said ( after about 20 minutes ) was "You ****ed up" silence the rest of the way home... Long night!!!!!!!!!