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