Minnesota Trooper Writes 205 Mph Ticket

[Dean]

Source, and Date unknown...

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."

[sperry]

I'm pretty sure the source is NASIOC's OT, and the date is LAST WEEK.

[Kevin M]

Speed traps are legal in Minnesota eh? Bogus, dontcha know.

[Pat R.]

Originally Posted by sperry

I'm pretty sure the source is NASIOC's OT, and the date is LAST WEEK.

And S2KI, C-C.com, Off-Topic.net, and the evo school list.

[Dean]

Originally Posted by Pat R.

And S2KI, C-C.com, Off-Topic.net, and the evo school list.

Pat wins... It was the Evo list, but that doesn't provide the original source if genuine...

[ArthurS]

Originally Posted by Pat R.

And S2KI, C-C.com, Off-Topic.net, and the evo school list.

What your name on offtopic.net?

[Pat R.]

I'm a non-posting lurker.

[ArthurS]

cool. I post to much...lol.

[dknv]

funny, I just heard this story on the radio This Morning.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by dknv

funny, I just heard this story on the radio This Morning.

Yeah, real life tends to lag behind the internet.

[Dean]

Update?

You all read about the dude in Minnesota who was clocked at 205 mph. Some
say no way.
Rich
------------------
Skeptics Question 205 MPH Speeding Ticket

Sep 24, 2004 9:43 am US/Central
Wabasha, Minn. (AP) There's little doubt that a Stillwater motorcyclist
could wind up his Honda sport motorcycle past 180 mph, but members of the
motorcycle racing world question whether the State Patrol was correct to
cite him for 205 mph last weekend.

The State Patrol is standing by its stopwatch, and the speeding ticket a
veteran trooper wrote for Samuel Tilley for driving his 2003 Honda RC51 on
U.S. Highway 61 near Wabasha on the state's eastern border.

Tilley faces misdemeanor charges of speeding, reckless driving and riding
without a motorcycle license. He has declined repeated requests for comment
from several media outlets in the past few days.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press first reported the details of the ticket, which
is unofficially the highest ever written in the state, on Tuesday. Soon
motorcycle enthusiasts were buzzing about whether Tilley really broke the
200 mph barrier.

"Theoretically, it could happen -- anything is possible -- but I don't
believe it," said John Ulrich, editor of Roadracing World, a magazine that
covers sport bike racing. "Guys who want to break speed records and go over
200 mph have to go to great lengths to get there."

Ulrich questioned the State Patrol's timing methods, in which a trooper in
an airplane used a stopwatch to calculate how long it took Tilley to cover
a certain distance. Other enthusiasts said if the timing where off by only
a half-second, it would drop Tilley's speed to about 185 mph.

While that would be still be the unofficial state record, and within the
specifications for Tilley's Honda, it wouldn't break the prestigious 200
mph mark.

Department of Public Safety Spokesman Kevin Smith there was no reason to
believe the trooper, who had 27 years of experience, was wrong. He said the
Honda could go 205 mph.

"What we have is what we have," Smith said. "That is the number he came up
with, and there's really no going back on it."

Legally, he said, there wasn't much difference between 205 mph and 185 mph
because even the lower speed wouldn't help defend against the reckless
driving charge. "Let's say he was going 186 -- that's still 121 mph over
the speed limit. I don't see the relevance," Smith said.

As it is, motorcycle experts say that most unmodified sport bikes already
top out at about 185 mph because of limits with their fuel injectors.

To get an RC51 up to 200 mph, they say, the owner would have to change the
motorcycle's transmission, fuel injectors and gears -- and might have to
add either a supercharger or pump nitrous oxide or methane into the fuel
system.

All of these changes are possible, but expensive. And anyone with those
kinds of modifications isn't likely to tool around southern Minnesota with
nitrous or jet fuel in his bike, they say.

"It's just not something that some dude can roll out of his garage and go
for a ride and do," Ulrich said. "A hundred fifty? No problem. Two hundred?
Big problem."

Tilley will get a chance to plead his case in Wabasha County District Court
on Oct. 25.

[sperry]

I was making the assumption that the guy had a well modified bike... you know a 200+ horsepower turbo beast or the like. No stock bikes go 200... once you're going 150+ every 10 mph faster is a big deal.

If the guy's bike really was stock, I guarentee you it was a timing error by the cop... not that it makes a difference, since as they said, the guy was astronomically over the limit. 180 mph vs. 205 mph is only pertinent if we're going to start keeping the Guiness Book of Speeding Tickets.

[doubleurx]

How do you stay on a bike at that speed.........superglue?

[sperry]

Originally Posted by doubleurx

How do you stay on a bike at that speed.........superglue?

I imagine you need to tuck down *real* tight to the bike, and hide behind the fairing.

[Dean]

250MPH Velcro

[MattR]

I was watching some Nascar show *go figure* ...and one of the guys that works on Dale Jr.'s #8 Budweiser Chevy has a Turbo 'Busa that was clocked at 218 MPH on an airport runway...Ridden by a pro Superbike rider.

Make em say Uhhhh!...na na na na...


Nuts

[IheartSTI]

i have a video i downloaded of a turbo busa pulling wheels at 195.......CRAZY

[MikeSTI]

I wonder with the cops 27 years on the force if his reaction time might just be slipping