Sorry officer, I wasn't watching my speedometer.

[ESPNSTI]

Saw this on the local news just now :

September 21, 2004
MOTORCYCLIST CITED FOR GOING 205 MILES AN HOUR
WABASHA, MINN. (AP) _ A STILLWATER MOTORCYCLIST HAS BEEN ARRESTED FOR DRIVING 205 MILES AN HOUR ON U-S HIGHWAY 61 NEAR WABASHA. TWENTY-YEAR-OLD SAMUEL TILLEY WAS CITED FOR RECKLESS DRIVING, DRIVING WITHOUT A MOTORCYCLE LICENSE AND DRIVING 140 MILES PER HOUR OVER THE POSTED SPEED LIMIT OF 65 MILES PER HOUR. MINNESOTA STATE PATROL PILOT AL LONEY WAS WATCHING A PAIR OF MOTORCYCLES RACING ON THE HIGHWAY ON SATURDAY AND CLICKED HIS STOPWATCH WHEN ONE OF THE BIKES ACCELERATED DRAMATICALLY. OVER A QUARTER-MILE, LONEY CLOCKED THE CYCLE AT 205 MILES AN HOUR. HE SAYS THE BIKE WAS TRAVELING NEARLY TWICE AS FAST AS HIS AIRPLANE. LONEY RADIOED AHEAD TO ANOTHER STATE TROOPER, WHO PULLED THE TWO CYCLISTS OVER. ONLY THE FASTER DRIVER WAS ARRESTED.

© 2004 The Associated Press

Speeding just a tad.

[MPower]

Opps...

[p0w3r]

ONLY THE FASTER DRIVER WAS ARRESTED.

Now that's just messed up

[SiR_dude]

Wow....wonder what kind of bike he was riding? I gotta wonder at the accuracy of that though. I'm a bit confused.....Loney was in an airplane? He timed the bike using a stopwatch, and then figured out the speed of it? Maybe I'm missing something here, but how on earth can that be a reliable figure? I'm not arguing for the biker, obviously he was speeding and got what he deserved, but still.....

[ESPNSTI]

Unfortunately I only caught the tail end of the story, and all I saw was a bike shop owner being interviewed and saying something along the lines of the bike having to cost over $10,000 to be able to go that fast, and I think he hinted at questioning the stopwatch.
I sure think they'd have something better than a stopwatch, but who knows, it's Minnesota (j/k) .

EDIT: I found a more detailed description:

Al Loney couldn't believe his stopwatch.

The Minnesota State Patrol pilot had been flying near Wabasha on Saturday afternoon, watching a pair of motorcycles racing each other along U.S. 61. When one of the bikes accelerated dramatically, Loney was ready — clicking his stopwatch when the cycle reached a white marker painted on the roadside.

A quarter-mile later, he clicked it again. It read 4.39 seconds, which Loney calculated to be an astonishing 205 mph.

"I was in total disbelief," Loney said. "I had to double-check my watch because in 27 years I'd never seen anything move that fast."

The bike was moving nearly twice as fast as Loney's airplane. 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.

Several law enforcement sources said Tilley might have set the record for the fastest speeding ticket in Minnesota history.

No comprehensive records are kept, but 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, the son of a Washington County sheriff's deputy, did not return calls to his home Monday.

Few vehicles can reach speeds in excess of 200 mph. Only a handful of cars, such as the Dodge Viper, the Porsche Carrera and several Lamborghinis, can hit the 200 mark. But many of the so-called "crotch rocket" motorcycles popular with young men can top 175 mph. With minor modifications, they can top 200 mph. Tilley was riding a Honda 1000, Loney said.

State trooper Steve Stromback, one of the officers who arrested Tilley, said the biker was taking part in the semi-annual Flood Run, a motorcycle rally that started in Hudson, Wis. The ride, in which thousands of bikers participate, raised money for the Gillette Children's hospital this year.

Stromback said most of the participants obey the law, but added that police cited another eight bikers for driving more than 100 mph last weekend. Speed demons show up every year, Stromback said, which is why the State Patrol had aircraft and extra troopers in the area.

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 riding at such a velocity.

"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."

[Viper007Bond]

Besides the danger aspect of it, sounds fun.

[oliB]

God, I love our Autobahn's!

I recently read that a guy from the UK registered at pistonheads took his McLaren F1 to the A5 Autobahn near Frankfurt to test the topspeed...
The fastest he went was 217mph (350km/h) after overtaking a police car at nearly 200mph, nothing happened.

cya
Oli

PS: Traffic supervision via plane?? That's unfair!

[ESPNSTI]

Originally Posted by oliB

PS: Traffic supervision via plane?? That's unfair!

I should probably think about having a sunroof installed now .

[zeffez]

Originally Posted by ESPNSTI

Saw this on the local news just now :

Speeding just a tad.

I hate when that happens.. still 500 years till I can get my license back

/ZeFFeZ/

[SiR_dude]

Originally Posted by ESPNSTI

I should probably think about having a sunroof installed now .

If you have time to look out of the sunroof while speeding, you're either a very good driver or a crazy lunatic. My guess would be the latter