Fastest speeding ticket ever?
 

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 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."

Probably about the same if you crashed on a bike at 80mph...

I'm amazed the guy was able to hold on at that speed. I've done close to 120 before on a bike and that was more than fast enough for me.

wonder what kind of ticket $$ that would be... But Carl will probably be monitoring it to gauge how much he can charge us next year. :cuss:

Honda just earned $10,000,000 worth of advertising.

at least...

I think I sold those troopers thier stopwatches! I have them in my customer database, and they bought the Robic SC-808 which is a favorite of law enforcement. The worst thing for the driver is that you really can't beat a ticket that was given using timing.

DT

Were you are on a sport bike, cause I ummm have heard from some friends, yeah friends, that 120 is when you first can tell that you are going fast...

:LOL: I'd say even with the protective gear, he was courting death.

Honda is going to sell alot of bikes, and alot of dumb kids are going to die.

LOL exactly. Either way, it's road pizza time.

I got a ticket for going 101 in a 65. Cost me $400 for the lawyer, and $500 court costs and fines.

I once saw Eddie Lawson get off his GP bike in practice at the Hockenheimring doing over 190, and he raced the next day.
Course I’m talking about a big racetrack with lots of run off room outside the corners. The street usually has a tree or building in the middle of a corner’s “run off room”.

There really should be some kind of requirement before one can buy a Honda CBR1000RR, Kawasaki ZX-10R, Suzuki GSXR1000 or Yamaha YZF R-1. All these bikes can get low 10 to high 9 second quarters and speeds in excess of 180 stock, while only costing around $10K.
That’s just too much bike for someone with no experience to go buy.

A couple of weeks ago one of the local atlanta news helicopters videod a guy doing about 120 on I-20. He saw the helicopter, and pulled a wheelie and rode it for about 1/4 mile going 120.... now THAT takes NADS.

DT

Yeah, a guy I used to work with was just aghast once when we were talking about bikes, and he found out that any kid could just walk into a dealer and buy a new Busa or something. He was from the UK, apparently they limit your displacement for the first couple years you are riding and you have to pass a bunch of tests to move up to the next level.

A friend of mine has one of those “Extreme Videos” and one scene is a guy on an R-1 running past his buddies in a sports car, on the back wheel. As the bike passes them they pan down to the speedometer to show the car was doing 135.

I’ve heard of that before. Wish we’d do something like that here, sure would save those of us with experience a ton on insurance premiums.

I enjoy the videos of those guys doing front wheel wheelies on the sportbikes. Especially when they crash.:)

Most of the “Stunta’z” on those videos have bikes that are absolutely trashed. Not a straight piece of bodywork on’em and gas tanks riddled with dents and scratches, but they usually don’t show just how they got all that damage.

Up north here, I've seen the same group of 2 or 3 Kawasakis several times riding wheelies on 35 and passing cars like they are trying to go back in time. I noticed that one of their tanks looked like someone had been beating on it with a hammer.

I like my scoot way too much to purposely beat the snot out of it like that.

What do you have?

Out here in the People's Republic of California they would confiscate the bike as well.

Oh, I'm sure they did...

143 mph in a 45

I was doing 125 in a 25 and would have got away with it if it wasn't for those crossing guards

Damn. I bet that cost.

I was really doing about 130, but because of the situation with another car that was also speeding (basically I was trying to get away from this physco) they made it for 101.

Permanently?

By the way, is there a link for this?

Thanks.

This property forfeiture thing is really scary. If you got caught going that fast why would you ever stop?

A ’95 Kawasaki ZX-9. Know anyone looking for one? I’m selling if you do.
Lil'momma needs a soccer-mom-mobile for haul’n ‘round the diaper filling proof that my genitals work.

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When I was a kid, I had a sign right by my house that said "Slow Children At Play"


:shake:

nlm

But at least we know you can get work when we see the “slow men working” signs. ;)

North of Vinita, OK on 59 highway, there’s a sign that reads, “Warning. Hitch hikers may be escaping prisoners”. :eek:

Or a radio.

I used to elude police all the time on my bike when I was a kid, I never got caught. Why would you stop if they were going to steal your bike?

I see what your saying now but they said they radioed ahead not that they followed him.

My rule of thumb was if they pulled out right behind me I pulled over. If I looked in my mirror though and saw flashing lights way back there I wasn't stopping period. They didn't use heli's for traffic where I was raised so it wasn't a concern.

I'm guessing they had it set up that running would have been a bit more then dangerous, plus probably would have been able to see his tags so as to make it worthless to run.

Had a buddy run once, but the cop already had got his plates. His parents were rather surprised when the squat team busted into his house.

I have dodged cops on the bike on at least 3 occasions, but luckily was gone before they turned their lights on and were able to find me.

The first cop there probably scissor kicked him like he was angela landsburry

That's why I use that rule of thumb delio. :thumb:

Somehow he only got a slap on the wrist, didn't even lose his license. The scary thing is he actually got away, and they had a lot of roads blocked making sure he didn't turn. He was damn lucky.

Cool man - nice looking ride. I don't know anyone looking for one though... I just bought an SV about 2 months ago myself. But I will let you know if I hear anything.

Thanks.

That’s cool, I’m not in a huge hurry to sell it anyway. If we can’t sell her Mustang I’d prefer to keep the bike.

SV? As in Suzuki SV? 650 or 1000?

Yeah, it's an 02 SV650S. Got it used. Pretty happy with it, only have about 1500 of my miles on it so far and no trouble - seems like just what I needed.

After talking with a lot of people I didn't want to jump into anything bigger. I spent a hell of a lot of time in a school parking lot nearby but I ride it all over now. I still consider myself a newb of course but the confidence is building :thumb:

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