Police seek motorcyclists who sped away at more than 300km/h

[RS ZWEI]

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12064929

[brian]

Recently a local cop clocked a motorcyclist at 260kph between New Plymouth and Oakura................all he had to say was he thought the rider had a red helmet haha

[Pushbutton_auto]

Love it, but would never do it on a bike ... 

The simple fact, that they had no problems doing that speed, shows their experience, adding to that, the fact there was no further incident resulting from the riders, rings true  ...   
Just a beat up from a frustrated pig. (Oh mummy, they wouldn't stop for my red flashing knob.)       


Last week, I was planting it on a on-ramp with a bike alongside, we were doing abt 120k down the ramp, when he saw that I was going, he let looooooooooooooose, god damn, he had a 100 yards on my 20 and disappeared over the hill .. 



LOUD PIPES SAVE LIVES

[brian]

I find it a bit curious that the police are so sure that the bikes were 1000cc Japenese bikes considering they were doing 287 kph at the time, or is this a ploy, hoping someone will contradict that and provide a clue.

[Pushbutton_auto]

Yeah, I would also doubt the speed given.

but good luck suckers, they are long gone .......... 


Last time I did 120 mph on a bike was one of those days when I seriously doubted my sanity later that night.   



LOUD PIPES SAVE LIVES

[Gordo]

Love it, but would never do it on a bike ... 

The simple fact, that they had no problems doing that speed, shows their experience, adding to that, the fact there was no further incident resulting from the riders, rings true  ...   
Just a beat up from a frustrated pig. (Oh mummy, they wouldn't stop for red flashing knob.)       


Last week, I was planting it on a on-ramp with a bike alongside, we were doing abt 120 down the ramp, when he saw that I was going, he let looooooooooooooose, god damn, he had a 100 yards on my 20 and disappeared over the hill .. 



LOUD PIPES SAVE LIVES

So, did you actually put any thought into that? The issue isn't the ability of the 'bike to do that speed, not the ability of the rider to control the 'bike in the right circumstances, eg. the track, but that it was done on the open road where there are people who are unprepared for that sort of behaviour.

3.6km/hr is 1 m/s, so the supposed 300km/hr is 83.33m/s - for a comparison, a rugby field is 100m - so that is covered every 1.2 seconds. Should something unexpected occur, you're looking at ~50m for reaction time and initial response - that something could be someone pulling out from an intersection because they looked way down the road and didn't even register the bike 200m away, as at that speed it is hard to recognise the speed and risk, or it could be someone pulling out to overtake, it could be spotting a roadworks sign - whatever, braking at 1G would require ~350m to stop from initial brake application so there will be ~400m required from first seeing a problem.

[Gordo]

Yeah, I would also doubt the speed given.

but good luck suckers, they are long gone .......... 
Last time I did 120 mph on a bike was one of those days when I seriously doubted my sanity later that night.   
LOUD PIPES SAVE LIVES

Haha, what made me reconsider a love affair with bikes was a (I assume) damp patch that had the rear step out at a bit over double the speed limit in what I considered a gentle sweeper - I wasn't even pushing it - just gave a severe head shake and settled down but I figured I was eventually going to push it too far...

[Pushbutton_auto]

3.6km/hr is 1 m/s, so the supposed 300km/hr is 83.33m/s - for a comparison, a rugby field is 100m - so that is covered every 1.2 seconds. Should something unexpected occur, you're looking at ~50m for reaction time and initial response - that something could be someone pulling out from an intersection because they looked way down the road and didn't even register the bike 200m away, as at that speed it is hard to recognise the speed and risk, or it could be someone pulling out to overtake, it could be spotting a roadworks sign - whatever, braking at 1G would require ~350m to stop from initial brake application so there will be ~400m required from first seeing a problem.

Aware of all the stats recording velocity and impact, don't ever recall it coming to mind BEFORE the action ..... as I'm sure it is with most.

Wasn't meant to be a "blow everything away, every time" theme just my personal view that those guys could ride  ... 

[McDoof]

This guy could probably ride too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aSaD9Iulas

[Gordo]

Bloody hell - two crashes there - the bike on the right looked to hit/clip a van/SUV as (s)he passed the truck and was thrown into the camera guy's path.
Bit reminiscent of the picture of the guy embedded head first into the back of a delivery truck, it hit hard enough that the truck driver thought it was another truck that had hit him, BTW - note, not for the squeemish - https://www.google.com/search?q=motorcyclist+in+back+of+truck?&client=firefox-b-ab&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=MdbCOk1sVZvqGM%253A%252CElZX0OawIIqCvM%252C_&usg=__YoWSjhJtZwjOhG2A_GOa1YdZL24%3D&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjn8oL7msHbAhWJerwKHeqyCQ4Q9QEIMTAD#imgrc=3M9MqjYLOJuf9M:

[Pushbutton_auto]

This guy could probably ride too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aSaD9Iulas

Yeah, but 90% of motorcycle rider deaths are because a car driver fkd up ...   

My biggest bugbear about ALL traffic deaths is related to DISTRACTION.   

[Gordo]

Some many certainly are, but an awful lot of them are entirely down to riders being stupid or careless - you ever noticed how many reported bike fatalities were riders simply running off the road or running into things?
Yup, seems most drivers treat controlling a potentially deadly projectile as an extension of sitting in their lounge, not so much distraction as not caring or paying attention in the first place..

[wolfgang]

Interesting conversation going on here and i like to give my five cents worth.
The ability of a motorcyclist does not become much of a factor at very high speeds as has been pointed out allready. If you do 200ks you travel at  58 metres per second and given an average action/reaction time of 1.5 seconds, tunnel vision that comes with high speed and the odd corner on our roads even the reflexes of a cat wont safe you.   
To do this sort of speed on the open road is plain stupid, keep it on the racetrack. The other issue is that somebody doing this sort of speed will put everybody at risk for the single reason that their speed will be underestimated by others. When was the last time you judged the speed of somebody coming towards you and got it wrong. 
From my experience with fatal motorcylist crashes i would say that the majority were not because od a car driver but they simply ran out of talent, remember speed never killed anybody but its the sudden stop at the end that gets you, you cant argue with physics.
I have been one of those hated piggys, have years of experience as a crash investigator and done my fair share of chases but the whole world turns to crap when i had to knock at somebodys door and take my hat off. 

[McDoof]

The reality is that people make mistakes. Car drivers make mistakes, bike riders make mistakes.
Problem is, at 300km/h a small mistake is deadly. A bike going at that speed will kill an entire family if he T-bones a car full of people.
This old TV pretty much says it all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2rFTbvwteo

[schattenblau]

that ad was one of the dumbest in a history of dumb ads from the ministry of land transport namby pambys or whatever they called themselves back then.

[kiwihigh]

https://www.hoax-slayer.net/motorcycle-inside-volkswagen-accident-photographs/

Granted they say its the cars fault they were apparently on the phone but that was only 85MPh and all involved died, can't imagine what 180MPh would look like..

Doesn't take much for a farmer to be pulling out of a paddock or car from an intersection and miss judge or completely miss a bike traveling at that sort of speed.

[Gordo]

If you read the whole thing, some estimates were around 250kph - not sure how reliable that is, though.

It does remind me of a crash I came upon back in the eigties where a motorcycle had hit a Sierra wagon - the only recognisable piece of the bike was the engine and the car was bent like a banana. yes, it was on a fast sweeping bend but don't recall any intersections (it was at night). The rider(s) were traveling with others, so may have been speeding as a group.
It is rather scary when you think how many people ride bikes that don't have basic critical skills, such as being able to brake hard (I've even known some who were scared to use any front brake in case they went over the handlebars - even though I would demonstrate braking hard enough on that bike to bottom the forks and/or pull the lever back to the twist grip, without any hint of a front endo or lockup - , change line in a corner, etc.

[Stickman]

I call BS on the "speeding away at 300kph" bit. Any punter who has owned a Jappa litre bike or two will know that they are speed limited to 299 due to the Jap "gentleman's agreement" between manufacturers. Also - that's an indicated speed, not a true land speed. In saying that, many of the latest litre bikes will crack 300kph with ease - S1000rr, Yamaha R1/R1m etc. all over 200hp machines.

As for the comments on cars kill most bike riders (paraphrased) - I call BS on that too, at least for the sportsbike community. Between 19 and 28 I owned quite a few sportsbikes of varying kinds. I also had a large group of friends that I rode with. We used to often do the "Coro GP" - loop around the Coromandel plus other choice roads. of 14 of us, 7 are now dead, all during that phase of life. All were killed on their bikes and their riding was a contributing factor to their deaths. Usually speed.

I miss the speeds and the power of riding a fast bike, but don't miss the risk. I recall getting home after some of those rides and feeling a sense of relief when I parked back in the garage, knowing that it was a very real reality that I may not have made it home. It was fun but sketchy. between 28 and 31 I "grew up" and kept the fast riding for the track, however this lost the appeal after going to track day after track day on my own as I was the only one left on a bike, so I swapped to motocross. Also, now with 3 kids and a couple of significant businesses to run, the sense of responsibility definitely weighs on my shoulders more than in those younger years. It scares the life out of me that one of my kids may have the speed bug like I did. I can already see it in one of my daughters.

[schattenblau]

^  a classic case of genetics and environment

[Stickman]

^  a classic case of genetics and environment

My first word was "bike" as an infant, according to my mum yet she wouldn't even let me have a Goped as a teenager. I was stuck with my trusty BMX until my first car at 16, a little supercharged Toyota Levin.

My father was into fast cars as a young man, but had sensible ones all through my childhood. I was raised with Toyota corolla's and Previa's. My dad always liked to drive in a "spirited" fashion though - so I guess that was an influence. He also taught me to drive when I was about 9 years old haha - In a crappy Nissan Avenir - most boring car in the world. He taught me to reverse a trailer at 10. So it's fair to say he was a strong influence towards fast things and cars. Not so much bikes though.

Only reasoning I can put behind my "motorcycling" genetics is my grandfather who used to race motorcycles and was involved in all sorts of hijinx, like fitting a siren to his bike just to bait the cops in rural South Africa into a chase. He also pulled a leopard out of his house by it's tail one night when it came walking down the hallway. True story, amongst others equally hilarious. He was that kind of bloke. Would have fit well into a Wilbur Smith novel that man. It is this personality (that I share) that I see coming out in my one daughter. I am a strange mix of proud and scared witless. What to do?....