[Dean]

Update?

You all read about the dude in Minnesota who was clocked at 205 mph. Some
say no way.
Rich
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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.