Althouse: "MPD: Witnesses report motorcyclists going 140+ mph in downtown Madison."

October 26, 2022

"MPD: Witnesses report motorcyclists going 140+ mph in downtown Madison."

A local headline prompts disbelief on Reddit.

ADDED: Stand back, nonbelievers, there is footage of the incident:

35 comments:

Will Cate said...: "Heyyyy, where do I get one of these jazzy suits? I wanna look like a street cleaner too!"

Best. Dis. Ever.; 10/26/22, 11:10 AM
Enigma said...: In the modern era that's not so hard for a motorcycle.

Suzuki Hayabusa -- top speed is close to 200 mph, and takes only 10 seconds to reach 145 mph. It has 188 horsepower and weighs just a fraction of a small car.

https://www.cycleworld.com/story/motorcycle-reviews/2022-suzuki-hayabusa-first-track-and-performance-test/

https://www.topspeed.com/2023-suzuki-hayabusa-performance-price-and-photos/; 10/26/22, 11:18 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "In the modern era that's not so hard for a motorcycle."

In downtown Madison? There's nowhere you could go 10 seconds that fast and not wipe out at a stop light.; 10/26/22, 11:22 AM
Original Mike said...: The only thing I can think of is East Washington, and damn the stop lights.

Yeah, I'm not believing it either.; 10/26/22, 11:25 AM
Owen said...: In terms of public safety the difference between a claimed 140 mph and a mere 80 mph is pretty much nothing. If you hit something you die. If you hit somebody they die.

Really. Do the math. Kinetic energy goes as the square of the speed but m= 600 pounds of rider and bike with v squared at 80 mph is WAY more than enough to obliterate anything of interest.

I think a good temporary fix for Madison is to string piano wire at neck height all over the downtown.; 10/26/22, 11:31 AM
Tom T. said...: Indeed, at that speed, ten seconds takes you more than a third of a mile. That's a lot of obstacles to avoid.; 10/26/22, 11:31 AM
Kevin said...: Reminds me of this very famous Ferrari speed run across Paris

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeEeyOCJ1OA; 10/26/22, 11:44 AM
Mason G said...: Mostly peaceful, I'm sure.; 10/26/22, 11:45 AM
Leland said...: I didn't think Madison was big enough for something to get up to that speed before passing it by.; 10/26/22, 11:46 AM
Enigma said...: @Althouse wrote: "There's nowhere you could go 10 seconds"

Errrrrrr...I was once a passenger in far weaker street car that went 120 in a downtown area. I'd not have believed it except for seeing the speedometer for myself. Never underestimate the reckless schemes and priorities of (young) males. Getting to that speed may have been plotted and tested. Time the traffic lights, have a scout lead/block traffic, use an alley or bike lane without signals to slow down, etc.

There have been all sorts of illicit cross-country races (see the film "Cannonball Run") where males crossed the entire USA at 'record speed.'; 10/26/22, 11:47 AM
Owen said...: Kevin @ 11:44: I totally LOVED that footage!

Crazy stuff but done, it seems as responsibly as possible: in Parisian streets emptied at 3-4 AM...

Plus? A Ferrari. All is forgiven.; 10/26/22, 11:50 AM
Eva Marie said...: “ There's nowhere you could go 10 seconds that fast and not wipe out at a stop light.”
If the lights are timed so that you hit all green lights moving at 35 mph, then they’ll be green for you at 70 mph and also at 140. Or so I’ve been told by someone who supposedly did this many, many years ago - at 70 mph not 140.; 10/26/22, 11:51 AM
Kevin said...: I looked up more on that Paris speed run, and it turns out that it was really done with the director's Mercedes and then dubbed with the sounds of the director's Ferrari. That makes it no less spectacular, and does explain how at one point the car seems to mount a curb and go up on the sidewalk to get past a truck. A Mercedes would definitely be able to do that easier than a Ferrari.; 10/26/22, 12:00 PM
mikee said...: Every rental car I've ever paid to drive has gone past whatever their speedometer reads as a maximum. Why shouldn't motorcycles?

But certainly not on congested urban streets, unless the cyclist waits until 4am.; 10/26/22, 12:18 PM
Big Mike said...: There's nowhere you could go 10 seconds that fast and not wipe out at a stop light.

Whether it’s 140 mph or 140 kilometers per hour (87 mph), if you’re going to go that fast on ordinary city streets you probably aren’t going to have much respect for stop lights either.; 10/26/22, 12:20 PM
Owen said...: Eva Marie @ 11:51: Interesting, this idea that if something is "open" at frequency X (35 mph) it will also be "open" at 2x and 4x and so on. Superficially attractive idea but --can it be true?

At a minimum it implies that those trying to access the "open"gate at 2x or 4x the original frequency, do so at exactly the right instant. Their effective window of access will shrink by 2x or 4x, n'est-ce pas?

It gets very hinky.; 10/26/22, 12:23 PM
rhhardin said...: The whole fun of police chase videos is how often you can run red lights and not hit anything. The faster you do it, the better your odds, I'd imagine.; 10/26/22, 12:24 PM
Tina Trent said...: Friday night on Georgia 400. Hell, Friday morning.

Or HW even 53.

Keeps the trial lawyers busy and transplant centers often benefit, but the camera footage is nauseating. With the South American racing gangsters, I try to avoid Gainesville entirely. And out uninsured driver insurance is among the highest in the nation, largely due to illegals.

Everything gets shittier all the time when the King has no head.; 10/26/22, 12:24 PM
Dan from Madison said...: Obviously it wasn't 140 - if you know anything about the area as that would be a mandatory crash. But why the number 140 reported by some rando? Why not 130 or 150?; 10/26/22, 12:25 PM
Expat(ish) said...: A few weeks ago on one of our more crowded roads I saw a girl in a bikini top and blue jeans weaving through traffic on her crotch rocket doing a wheelie.

All motorcycle organ donors are not young men. This is maybe progress.

My big old adventure bike (2012 Yamaha Super Tenere) with my big-ol self on it can do 0-60 in 3.4 seconds. I've done it in 4.5 and scared myself ginger.

I completely believe the speeds claimed in the article.

-XC; 10/26/22, 12:29 PM
MacMacConnell said...: I the The Wild One Brando is riding his personal 1950 Triumph Thunderbird. 1950 Triumph Thunderbird only had a 34HP engine. It's top speed was about 105MPH, although the speedo would probably read 115 or 120 MPH. British Smith speedos read about 10% high. A "Ton UP" is very exhilarating or any bike old or new. Anything over that gets scary. I'd rather ride a slower bike well than a fast bike poorly,

The Professor's "music god" Dylan rode a Triumph (see album cover). I think a Bonneville. No offence intended, I grew up with him too.; 10/26/22, 12:33 PM
Quaestor said...: Something similar happened in my hometown, though even worse.

There were two scofflaws riding dirt bikes along the downtown main thoroughfare at night at a time when the restaurants and clubs were open, the sidewalks crowded with strollers and diners, and many people were crossing the street. Neither bike displayed registration tags nor were they minimally equipped for operation on public streets or highways. The riders operated those off-road motorcycles at speeds far in excess of 100 mph. They also performed illegal stunts, wheelies mostly.; 10/26/22, 12:41 PM
MacMacConnell said...: mikee most retail street bikes are detuned, they won't go their potential out of the crate. Most most motorcycle deaths I personally know about are auto driver not paying attention or inebriated motorcyclist, not speed. Inexperienced riders are also a problem, kids buying a "rice rocket" as their first bike. Adults that rode minibikes back in jr high buying a Harley as their first real motorcycle thinking it the same.; 10/26/22, 12:48 PM
minnesota farm guy said...: I just happened to run across a headline that Darrell Brooks of the Waukesha driving massacre was found guilty on all 76 counts against him. The man is an argument for the death penalty.; 10/26/22, 1:07 PM
Expat(ish) said...: @Mac - right on.

The #1-3 accidents for motorcyclists are: turning and running off the road (single vehicle accident), running into something (car, curb, ditch), getting run over while stopped at an intersection.

Number three is tiny compared to the first two.

The #1 injury for bikers is lower leg and food, and the next is hands and the third is road rash not hand/leg.

-XC

PS - I highly recommend a good Motorcycle Safety Course (MSC). I hadn't ridden in 30 year and a fair bit had changed and the bikes were WAY more powerful.; 10/26/22, 1:33 PM
TreeJoe said...: I don't know how many commenters on here are familiar with quarter mile times, but allow me to do some basic education. I'm not a sports bike/superbike follower, but the math is the same either way. Here's some education:

1. A suzuki hyabusa, commonly considered one of the fastest street bikes, can go from a dead stop to a quarter mile in distance in 9.7 seconds. It takes about that time to reach 140mph - again from a dead stop. It's a good amount less than that from a fast roll.

2. I don't know "downtown madison" but I looked at it on a map. Tons of areas to achieve this that I can see. If you are rolling at 50-60mph and see a clear quarter mile in front of you, you could easily zip up to 120-140mph and back down within normal distances if you are willing to tolerate the risk of a car/pedestrian coming out of nowhere.

...

Bottom line, this isn't a SAFE thing to do at all - but the distances involved are entirely possible given modern superbike/sportbike capabilities.; 10/26/22, 3:26 PM
TreeJoe said...: P.s. I have owned cars that could go from a stop to a quarter mile distance in ~12 seconds, which is considered very fast. 425-480hp cars.

The difference in speed/power/acceleration of those cars compared to a modern superbike cannot be over-stated. A superbike would walk away from my 2008 911 turbo like it was standing still, and that 911 turbo had a (detuned) engine from Porsche's lemans winner.; 10/26/22, 3:28 PM
Tom T. said...: If the lights are timed so that you hit all green lights moving at 35 mph, then they’ll be green for you at 70 mph and also at 140.

Nope, this is incorrect. It's the other way around. If the lights are timed to be all green at 40 mph, then they'll be green for you at 20 mph and also at 10. Not at 80.

Put another way, if you go slower, you can hit every other green light cycle. If you go faster, you're always going to be in between green lights.; 10/26/22, 3:59 PM
Michael McNeil said...: Very interesting. Are modern police bikes also that powerful?; 10/26/22, 4:17 PM
Greybeard said...: Old EMS helicopter speaking:
Saw photos of a Mustang convertible carrying two teens girls that was T-boned at the driver's door by a "pocket rocket" going 140. The bike cut the car nearly in half and killed the occupants AND the rider.
(See kinetic energy mentioned above.); 10/26/22, 5:23 PM
Humperdink said...: "The Professor's "music god" Dylan rode a Triumph (see album cover). I think a Bonneville. No offence intended, I grew up with him too."

Steve McQueen rode a Triumph in the movie The Great Escape. I rode a 1968 Triumph TR6 until an errant black lab made solid contact with my front tire.; 10/26/22, 5:27 PM
Rusty said...: Expat(ish)
Yeah. I'm lucky to be alive.(Kawasaki Mach 3 cafe racer); 10/26/22, 6:08 PM
Josephbleau said...: "The whole fun of police chase videos is how often you can run red lights and not hit anything. The faster you do it, the better your odds, I'd imagine."

If you are going to drive for a certain number of minutes, the best odds would be to go very fast thru the intersections and then go very slow in the street, then your exposure to being hit by cross traffic is minimized over total trip time.

If you are going to drive for so many miles you should drive as fast as you can.; 10/26/22, 6:22 PM
Owen said...: I used to ride. Never crashed. I think the experience has made me more mindful of riders —anticipating where they may come from, giving them leeway. Some of them ride like idiots and to those I give even more leeway, just hoping they don’t screw up; at all, or at least not near me.; 10/27/22, 8:06 AM
MacMacConnell said...: Rusty said...
Expat(ish)
"Yeah. I'm lucky to be alive.(Kawasaki Mach 3 cafe racer)"

Rusty you were insane in your youth. I rode one once in the spring of 1970. The scary part wasn't the top speed it was how fast you got there.; 10/27/22, 11:59 AM