Re: Hypothetical: MotoGP vs F1

Supposedly some American kid in the Midwest was clocked on a bike by a
cop in a plane doing 205 mph.
Some people said it was impossible.

I know some nut in the UK got ticketed in the past year or so doing
around 180 MPH on a bike.


http://www.startribune.com/dynamic/story.php?template=print_a&story=5050403

Skeptics doubt speed demon's 205 mph
Terry Collins
Star Tribune
Published September 26, 2004

To some, he's a folk hero. Others are calling him an idiot.

Everybody, it seems, is talking about Samuel Armstrong Tilley, the
20-year-old Stillwater motorcyclist ticketed last weekend for going 205
miles per hour on Hwy. 61 near Wabasha.

Consider it the ticket heard 'round the world.

In the week since a State Patrol pilot's stopwatch clocked Tilley's
Honda RC51 at historic speeds, every gear-head chatroom, mechanic's
garage and biker bar from Sturgis, S.D., to Los Angeles has been
buzzing about Tilley's alleged exploits.

A photo of the ticket has been posted on the Web
(http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0922042speed1.html).

Tilley was even the talk of Two-Wheel Tuesday, a national cable TV fix
for motorcycle aficionados on the Speed Channel.

All of which prompts a couple questions: How could a so-called crotch
rocket, with limited gear ratios, go that fast amid thousands of riders
on the annual Flood Run along the bluffs north of Winona?

And why has Tilley suddenly become an urban legend?

"Certainly anyone who flouts the law to that extent is seen by some as
a latter-day Robin Hood, flying in the face of authority and doing
stuff we all want to do but common sense stops us from," said David
Edwards, editor-in-chief of Cycle World, a popular magazine out of
Newport Beach, Calif.

"Basically, it's like stepping out of a small airplane, if indeed he
was going 200 mph," said Edwards, who like many experts, doubts Tilley
topped 200 mph.

"It's extremely unlikely that that bike was going that fast," he said.
"More likely, the cop with the stopwatch had an itchy trigger finger."

State Patrol pilot Al Loney, a 27-year veteran, and his superiors stand
by their stopwatch, which clocked Tilley going a quarter-mile in 4.39
seconds.

Among the doubters is former St. Paul Police Chief Bill Finney, who was
riding a Boss Hoss bike with a V-8 car engine during the Flood Run.

"The most common viewpoint is: That Honda could not have done 205 miles
per hour," Finney said. "There are Suzukis that can go 180 miles per
hour out of the crate, and racing Hondas may get there after spending a
million bucks on them. That 200 miles per hour is a tough nut to crack,
but those crotch-rocket guys are a whole other breed."

Who is Tilley?

The only one who knows for sure how fast Tilley was going isn't
talking. Tilley did not return numerous reporters' calls for his side
of the story.

He was born in New Ulm and graduated last spring from Stillwater High
School.

"He was a cocky kid, kind of arrogant," said Laurie Hansen, his English
teacher.

Records show that his father, Dean Tilley, is a patrol sergeant for the
Washington County Sheriff's Office, and his stepmother, who co-owns the
motorcycle, is a nurse.

Tilley's mother, Mary, died of a sudden illness a decade ago when
Tilley was 10. There's a toddler playground in Oakdale named after her;
she helped transform an old dump into the park.

Tilley purchased his 2002 Honda RC51 last summer from Tousley
Motorsports in White Bear Lake, where he once worked. Tousley President
Larry Koch insists Tilley is a nice guy.

"But I really want to ask him: `What in the hell were you thinking?' "
Koch said.

Meeting the legend

Devin Harrington, 32, of Minneapolis, was among the thousands of riders
on the Flood Run along Hwy. 61 on Sept. 18. Stopping for gas near
Wabasha, he remembers seeing a clean-cut kid wearing jeans and racing
boots and sitting on a curb as riders sped past.

Curious, Harrington asked him what happened. The rider said his bike
was towed because he got a speeding ticket.

In a "smart-alecky way," Harrington asked how fast was he going.
Nonchalantly, Tilley told him, "Well, they gave me a ticket for 205."

"Bull!" Harrington blurted out, only to have Tilley show him the ticket
to prove it. Harrington had a buddy take a picture of the ticket with
his cell phone for posterity.

That ticket lists fines of $215 for going 140 mph over the limit, $115
for failing to have his motorcycle endorsement with him and a reckless
driving charge. Tilley is scheduled to appear in Wabasha County Court
on Oct. 25.

Four days later, Harrington had forgotten the whole matter, when his
dentist brought it up while checking his teeth. The kid on the
sidewalk, he realized, had become a cause celebre.

"This is hilarious," said Harrington, who has been riding for 17 years.
"Now, we'll have some idiot trying to top that mark, whether it is true
or not. They will try killing themselves, for what? To see who's the
fastest?"

Reaction to Tilley's ticket has motorcycle enthusiasts across the
country spinning their wheels. Not only is it the record speeding
ticket in Minnesota, but it reportedly tops William Faenza's national
record ticket for going 182 mph in a Lamborghini Diablo in Pennsylvania
last spring. And Faenza's ride had four wheels.

"He's upset the whole sport bike world," said Erie Presley, 43, of Salt
Lake City. "Not so much that he broke the law, but he apparently broke
several racing records, and we're wondering if he really did it."

Glenn Conser, president of the Motorcycle Roadracing Association in
Denver, has tracked all the chatter on Web sites.

"It's been funny to read the different reactions that go from: `Wow,
how cool is that,' to `What a moron!' " Conser said.

Tim Carrithers, editor of Motorcyclist magazine in Los Angeles, said
his phone rang nonstop as word of Tilley's speed spread nationwide.

"The guy couldn't have gone that fast, no way," said Carrithers, adding
that his staff members once clocked an RC51 at a high of 163 mph during
a magazine review of the bike in 2000. "There's no street bike in stock
that will approach that speed."

Dean of speed

No one in Minnesota knows more about speed than Marv Jorgenson, 63,
owner of Chopper City in Fridley. He's been racing motorcycles and
boats for 45 years and holds a world snowmobile record of 190 mph.

Jorgenson was among the Flood Run riders. He even saw Loney's plane
clocking the bikers and warned his fellow riders to watch out. With
countless bikes going about 70 mph, Jorgenson wonders how someone going
three times that fast wouldn't run over riders ahead.

"It was like rush hour out there," he said. "I don't know how you can
call a trooper a liar, but if the bike's not capable of going that fast
.. . . ."

Jorgenson said the bike's fuel-injection system would cut out unless
expensive modifications were made. Nate Northrup, one of Tilley's
coworkers at Tousley said he remembers Tilley adding on a set of
slip-on exhaust mufflers.

"They're supposed to add a little bit of horsepower, but I don't think
they do anything but make a lot of noise," said Northrup.

Edwards, the editor of Cycle World, said a turbo charger would need to
be added to get Tilley's bike north of 165 mph.

"There are lots of guys who have been spending a lot of money and a lot
of years at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah trying to join the
official 200 Club and most still haven't done it," Edwards said. "It's
a pretty remarkable feat to go that fast on a motorcycle and I doubt
that's what happened here."

Edwards said he once rode a bike at 175 mph.

"Between the wind tearing at you, the engine screaming and the leather
flapping, it's not a fun place to be," he said.

And Koch, Tilley's former boss, figures the ***-kicking that the
200-mph man probably received from his patrol-sergeant father wasn't
much of a fun place to be either.

"But when this is all over," Koch said, "he can get a jacket that
reads: `I'm the fastest man in Minnesota and I have a ticket to prove
it, too.' "

Librarian Linda Scheimann and staff writer Matt McKinney contributed to
this report.

The writers are at tcollins@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and
curt.brown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

..

205 mph? Here's what they're saying

When Samuel Tilley of Stillwater was ticketed for going 205 mph on his
motorcycle, lips started flapping nationwide at equally high speeds.
Here's a sampling of what some of them are saying:

"Impossible - 200 miles per hour is fast and they just don't come out
of the store like that." - Lindsey Roe, owner of Betty's Bikes and Buns
in northeast Minneapolis, a biker-friendly coffee shop.

"You can build a street-legal motorcycle that goes that fast, but it
would cost you at least $25,000 over your original price. Then, it's
not a matter of if you're going to die, but when." - Tim Carrithers,
executive editor of Motorcyclist magazine

"Compare it to an airplane taking off, except it's more personal and
violent." - Marc Chiodo, of New Brighton, a two-time regional
motorcycle road-racing champion.

"Many who use them on the street are responsible, mature riders, but
those aren't the ones you read about in the paper. It's the small few
who promote a bad image." - Glenn Conser, president of the Motorcycle
Roadracing Association in Denver.

..

BUILT FOR SPEED

What things are capable of going 200 miles per hour?

- Conventional fast rail systems, including Japan's bullet train and
France's TGV, approach 200 mph.

- The fastest North American bird is thought to be the white-throated
swift, which is estimated to reach 200 mph in flapping flight.

- When diving for prey, peregrine falcons have been said to travel as
fast as 200 mph.

- The fastest that NASCAR drivers will go is 200 mph, and that's at
large tracks.

- By diving in a "free fall," an experienced skydiver can learn to
reach speeds greater than 180 mph. Speeds faster than 200 mph require
significant practice to achieve.

- Hurricane winds rarely exceed 150 mph, but in 1969, Hurricane
Camille, the strongest storm to hit the United States in the past 50
years, roared into Mississippi with maximum sustained winds of 200 mph.

..

News sources


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