Posted by: Redrum
Re: Motorcyclist ticketed for going 140mph OVER the speed limit - 22/09/2004 18:12
My mid-life-crisising older brother just mentioned a couple of weeks ago he hit 206 MPH. Yes, he is nuts too but at least he’s live half his life.
The article says he didn’t even have a motorcycles license. Bet he got the bike last week. I read somewhere that in the first month of bike ownership you’re 70% (or something like that) more likely to have an accident than an experienced rider. I believe it, I’ve been there, however not going 200+.
Posted by: SE_Sport_Driver
Re: Motorcyclist ticketed for going 140mph OVER the speed limit - 22/09/2004 19:21
I didn't think bikes were geared for that much top end. But even the most exotic cars can only hit those speeds on huge straights.
Posted by: pgrzelak
Re: Motorcyclist ticketed for going 140mph OVER the speed limit - 22/09/2004 19:25
The words "Darwin at work" spring to mind.
Edit: Oh, yeah. That reminds me. My DVD with "The Running Man" arrived the other day... I have to watch that...
Posted by: msaeger
Re: Motorcyclist ticketed for going 140mph OVER the speed limit - 22/09/2004 22:58
I can't believe that they found a road that was uncongested enough to get up to that speed.
Posted by: tanstaafl.
Re: Motorcyclist ticketed for going 140mph OVER the speed limit - 23/09/2004 02:11
I can't believe that they found a road that was uncongested enough to get up to that speed.
It wouldn't take that much room.
We're talking very high performance equipment here, with weight to power ratios aproaching 3:1 or better (that is, perhaps 180 HP and less than 600 lbs). The acceleration you can get under those circumstances, combined with the (relatively) minuscule frontal area is staggering. 60 MPH in under 3 seconds seconds, 100 MPH in under 5, and the rate of acceleration doesn't drop off with speed nearly as quickly as would an automobile's, because the aerodynamic drag as a function of horsepower is so much more favorable.
A little math, here...
Assume that the bike will average about 1/3 G acceleration -- say on average 11 ft/sec^2. It will do much better than that on initial launch (possibly exceeding one G), quite a bit less than that as top speed is approached.
V^2 = 2AD, so D = V^2/2A.
V = 205 MPH, near enough to 300 ft/sec as not to matter. (300.667 for the perfectionists among us.
So, D = (300x300)/(2x11), or 4090 feet -- about 3/4 of a mile.
That isn't all that much road...
tanstaafl.
Posted by: pca
Re: Motorcyclist ticketed for going 140mph OVER the speed limit - 23/09/2004 02:19
For a good example of how fast a
real bike can accelerate, try
this.
A friend of mine has the non-turbo version, and once tested it on the autobahn while on a german visit. He hit over 210 MPH, but had to slow down to a mere 150 or so when he noticed the front tyre smoking...
They are absolutely insanely fast. Over 150HP from less than 1000cc, probably 200+ for a turbo-ed one. Very light, totally ridiculous acceleration. You wouldn't get me on one for any money.
pca
Posted by: gbeer
Re: Motorcyclist ticketed for going 140mph OVER the speed limit - 23/09/2004 04:19
I believe the way they argue around it being a speed trap, is that the aircraft paces the car, and the pilot uses the stopwatch to determine the gound speed of the aircraft.
This sort of skirts one of the essential elements of a speed trap, where the offenders vehicle is the one being timed.
In an aircraft, the claim is, that the pilot is able to line up his eye with the wheel of the plane and the auto. While maintaining this view, he paces the offender and measures the time it takes for the wheel of the plane to cross from one, to another, mark on the road. The mechanics of all this just doesn't seem to make for accuracy when measuring the true ground speed of the aircraft.
Any way, the courts have accepted this fiction as precedent, so there's not much use fighting it. Although, If you could find some other record of the aircraft's true ground speed that differed with the pilots testamony, something like a radar trace. Well....
Posted by: Ezekiel
Re: Motorcyclist ticketed for going 140mph OVER the speed limit - 23/09/2004 11:06
The timing error will come from two places: perspective error and human reaction time. Perspective error (where the top edge of the car appears to cross the line before the wheel fo the car actually does) is the ratio of the distance from the top edge of the car to the ground divided by the distance from the ground to the car. This makes the perspective error very small (perhaps 8'/800'). The way to minimize human timing error is to make the ratio of distance between markings large in comparison to the car's length, which is usually the case (1/4 to 1/2 mile is about what I see around here for markings). All in all the error from both factors is small and timings accurate.
-Zeke
Posted by: Redrum
Re: Motorcyclist ticketed for going 140mph OVER the speed limit - 23/09/2004 11:23
Yea that's the kind of bike my brother has. It is just a rocket!
Its amazing you can go 200 MPH for under $10K
Posted by: Glen_L
Re: Motorcyclist ticketed for going 140mph OVER the speed limit - 23/09/2004 21:45
What about 40802 (a) section (1) right at the top? It says a speed trap is defined as either of the two, and that section has no contingency on a survey.
They ought to make it easier to figure out the heirarchy of the subsections.
Posted by: tfabris
Re: Motorcyclist ticketed for going 140mph OVER the speed limit - 23/09/2004 21:52
If speed traps made tickets illegal, then no ticket would ever stick in court. I mean seriously, the police have a lot invested in various forms of speed trap technology, they would have that if it were illegal for them to use it.