6 November 2008

ACT police seek help identifying speeding motorcyclists (240kph on the Parkway).

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ABC news has this interesting story on motorcycle escapades down the Tuggeranong Parkway.

2 riders, 240kph on the parkway…

Is that some sort of record?

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Knowing the road through there quite well and the weather conditions, I just don’t believe they achieved the stated speeds. High 100’s: yes. 240 km/h plus: unlikely.

I didn’t mean it would stop it completely or minimise resources dramatically.

I was talking about this as an isolated event.

oppressed_taxpayer said :

Yes, the near or actual loss of a life often elicits a chuckle from self-righteous fu#kwits such as yourself, as long as the person in question really “deserves” it. I wonder whether or not you’d gain a bit more perspective if someone close to you lost their life due to their active involvement in an all-too-human moment of stupidity?

Nope. Been there, done that, went to the funeral, and I still see amusement in topics you’d rather I didn’t.

Holden Caulfield11:00 am 12 Nov 08

Ouch! 😮

oppressed_taxpayer said :

tylersmayhem said :

Yes, the near or actual loss of a life often elicits a chuckle from self-righteous fu#kwits such as yourself, as long as the person in question really “deserves” it. I wonder whether or not you’d gain a bit more perspective if someone close to you lost their life due to their active involvement in an all-too-human moment of stupidity?

or you were driving on the hay plain and saw a bike get “vortexed” – sucked straight under a semi – bits of bike everywhere on the road. Biker wasn’t dead, but pretty close, and it seemed an eternity before we could get help for him. (back in the day of brick mobile phones, no coverage) not pretty at all.

Yes, lucky you have been trained!

LOL

Well this all adds a new dimension to biological warfare ….

*chuckle*

The fact you almost fell off a bike is probably due to all kinds of things, but at a guess I’d suggest either your reactions, or leverage forces and your centres of balance. :\

The actual damage is related to force being exerted, size of the area impacted, and the resistance involved at impact.
(a bird with a smaller beak\point of impact expends its force on a smaller area, so increases the pressure exerted on that point)

I was in the back of a ute a down a highway driving at speed a great many moons ago, when I got hit in the forehead by some kind of bug.
It exploded, I bled some, and had to pick insect legs out of my face.

what a african or european swallow?

Skidbladnir it happened here not long ago. A motorbike rider was hit by a pheasant and died as a result of the accident.

oppressed_taxpayer3:40 am 12 Nov 08

tylersmayhem said :

LOL. I find that actually very very funny! If it was a legit accident I would think it was horrible and tragic. Some tosser riding like a w**ker and endagering the life of pretty much everyone else on the road = very amusing.

Now…the tirade of abuse…

Yes, the near or actual loss of a life often elicits a chuckle from self-righteous fu#kwits such as yourself, as long as the person in question really “deserves” it. I wonder whether or not you’d gain a bit more perspective if someone close to you lost their life due to their active involvement in an all-too-human moment of stupidity?

tylersmayhem4:52 pm 07 Nov 08

How much money and resources do you think the police put in to finding the identified riders, send them to court – judge prosecutor fees staff police searches warrants, impound the vehicle – transport storage staff, speed camera – purchasing maintenance data fees staff. That’s just for one offense think about the rest to come.
If they were to put that money into a raceway in canberra it would be saving your taxes if anything and shouldn’t cost anymore then $500-750k with a small yearly upkeep.

If you honestly believe that putting in a raceway will mean there will be no more speeding and no need for the police to have the same resourcing, you disappoint me greatly Madman. I always had you pinned as one of the more intelligent folk on here.

tylersmayhem said :

It’s not a very sensible thing to condome or joke about.

Nor is riding bikes in excess of 250Km/h!

As for your race way, who’s gonna pay for it?

How much money and resources do you think the police put in to finding the identified riders, send them to court – judge prosecutor fees staff police searches warrants, impound the vehicle – transport storage staff, speed camera – purchasing maintenance data fees staff. That’s just for one offense think about the rest to come.
If they were to put that money into a raceway in canberra it would be saving your taxes if anything and shouldn’t cost anymore then $500-750k with a small yearly upkeep.
Yes there is one in wakefield but not everyone will want to ride that distance as it’s not local. There is also grocery shops that way – but people don’t travel that far to do there shopping – cause it’s done locally.

Plus never did I condome speeding at that speed i said you shouldn’t condome opening car doors on riders, speeding or not.

Plus BD84 – you’re saying alot of stuff is fact but there is nothing to support it.
You reckon by proportions. If you want to go by proportions… There are 191 763 registered passanger vehicles in the ACT and 8 022 motorcycles registered in the ACT.
If all the bikes and all the vehicles where on the road at the same time there would be 24 cars to 1 bike.
Statsitically it will show that there will be more assholes in the 24 cars then the 1 bike… say half of the motorcyclists where assholes that would mean 1 asshole to 48 cars… I’m sure there would be more then 1 asshole in those 48 drivers…

Do yourselves a favour and do your own statistical analysis on the way home. Count how many cars you see and how many motorcycles you see. Also count how many cars did the wrong thing and how many bikes. And don’t be prejudice, car does a little thing then count it. Remember also that bikes are alot more moneuverable then cars also!

tylersmayhem10:33 am 07 Nov 08

It’s not a very sensible thing to condome or joke about.

Nor is riding bikes in excess of 250Km/h!

As for your race way, who’s gonna pay for it?

it’s still typical of the motorcyclist mindset…
Well, given that you claim you’ve seen a higher proportion of motorcyclists than cars doing the wrong thing, that clearly makes it “typical”.
Sorry, not exactly a strong argument you’re pushing there. I’ll guarantee you that neither I nor any of my friends think we’re invincible – if we did we wouldn’t spend so much time getting into various bits of protective gear every time we get on a bike, nor would we spend money on advanced riding courses to try to increase our odds of staying alive.
Again, you’re right that there are dickheads on bikes, you may even be right that they represent a higher proportion of the total than those in cars, but I take serious issue with your claim that it’s in some way “typical” or an “overriding mentality” amongst those who ride.

The fellow riding his motorcycle down the shoulder of the road this morning…
The plural of “anecdote” is not “evidence”. I can give you any number of stories about cars doing the wrong thing, either deliberately or through inattention. Doesn’t make the majority of car drivers dickheads.

It illustrates the point for better driver and even more so rider training was well as periodic road rules refreshers.
We currently have what I consider an excellent rider training system in this town (though I’m guessing you wouldn’t actually know that). Since it, and similar courses around the country have been introduced, rider deaths have dropped by something in the region of 90% (don’t have the actual statistics to hand right now, but it was certainly in that ballpark) as a proportion of riders on the road. There’s also a lot of riders (myself included) who spend their own money doing extra courses that are offered.

But I guess I just have to accept that once some people have decided that all riders are arrogant, irresponsible dickheads, minor details like facts aren’t going to sway them.

Of course if you dont offer a speedway or a track then it’s going to happen on the road

My friends and I who ride sportsbikes which are capable of these speeds are quite happy to make the trip up to Wakefield Park or even Eastern Creek. It’s really not that far – if you’re desperate enough to behave this recklessly, surely a two hour return trip is nothing. Hell, I used to have to drive that far just to get to some places in the same city when I lived in Melbourne. Yes, it would be very nice if there was somewhere closer, but at the end of the day these assholes made the choice to behave like this – anything that came of it would have been their fault and nobody else’s – not yours, not mine and not the government’s.

Tooks said :

CHW said :

Oh, eeeeeeuuuuwwwwwww – gooooood look!

Next time someone sees him coming up from behind can we do the world a favour and open a car door as he goes past??

The most surprising thing about this thread is that people took this ^ comment seriously.

It’s really not something to joke about… I didn’t find it funny and i’m 100% sure the motorcycle community didn’t laugh either. It’s not a very sensible thing to condome or joke about.

Maybe if these riders had somewhere in the ACT to be riding at that speed they wouldn’t have to do it on the parkway… The Gumberment has that to answer themselves. Of course if you dont offer a speedway or a track then it’s going to happen on the road – and it all about revenue raising, they’d rather make money on the speeding fines than finding a safe place for the riders to do it.

I would much rather see a bike moving through traffic (even at close to warp speed) than the twerps I seem to see all the time in their ‘hot’ V8s changing lanes sideways, tailgating, no indicators, and (I’m guessing) no clue what’s in their mirrors. Much less room for error, in my book.

Thank you deye:

That would be because we have some stupid speed limits in place. Case in point the four lane divided section of the Monaro highway at the North end. Good surface, good visibility, wide road, wide gap, better than a lot of roads that are 110, yet it is 80.

Pet peeve right there. If the conditions are good, higher speeds can still be safe.

Anyway, stupid riders don’t get to be old riders.

nearer to 240 than 250

Lucky. 250kmh would be verging on irresponsible.

Reprobate said :

So the speed cameras caught two donorcycles doing 240+ (making them among Australia’s Worst of the Worst criminals apparently) but either couldn’t make out the plate due to the location of the plates or being removed. Meanwhile Joe the Plumber drives by at a woofle over 80kmh and gets to contribute extra to ACT Revenue and loses 2 or 3 points. I remember Hargreaves huffing and puffing a few months back about a stolen Subaru that was also trying for a new land speed record past the Parkway cameras – funny how both these publicised instances seem to both show how ineffective speed cameras are in enforcing speed limits and disprove the mantra of “drive 1 km/h over the limit and your blood will turn to sewrage” hawked by the government…

And I love the quote from today’s CT:
Traffic police Superintendent Mark Colbran said, ”This extremely reckless behaviour seriously endangers the life of the riders and all road users.
”At the speed recorded by the motorcycles and in the event of a collision, it would result in the almost certain death of the motorcyclist and anyone else involved in the collision.”
Well 1) duh, and 2) so what are you going to do about it?

RAPID

Spitfire3 said :

What?? That’s outrageous, 242kmh is nowhere near 250kmh.

nearer to 240 than 250

tylersmayhem4:50 pm 06 Nov 08

Last year in the US a guy doing about 200kph on a bike ran up the back of a truck at night. The truck driver heard a bump, saw debris going past him, slowed down, stopped, went to the back of the truck and found the rider attached to his truck head first. There is an article on snopes about it – be warned grisly pictures,

LOL. I find that actually very very funny! If it was a legit accident I would think it was horrible and tragic. Some tosser riding like a w**ker and endagering the life of pretty much everyone else on the road = very amusing.

Now…the tirade of abuse…

What?? That’s outrageous, 242kmh is nowhere near 250kmh.

The media release today (in the wrap up ) said 300 odd m for stopping, the rest made up of noticing and reacting.
Of course it also says 242 kph = “almost 250kph”

Holden Caulfield4:06 pm 06 Nov 08

p1 said :

240km/h is pretty fast, but 500m? Can anybody verify if that is actually a correct stopping distance for a sports bike?

I wouldn’t have thought so.

I was at a private test day at Goluburn airport earlier this year and the runway there is 1200 metres, or thereabouts. There was a guy on a Hayabusa in action and with a rolling start turning on to the runway he was able to reach 240-250km/h and come to a complete stop. From my eyewitness guesstimates he was still at full throttle when going past the 700m mark (500m remaining), and for some time.

Whether the police estimation is correct, though, is a bit of a moot point. I’m guessing at 240kms on the parkway, even in during clear daylight, by the time you’ve seen something you need to avoid you would’ve gone past it before being able to wash off enough speed.

Like a few others I’ve driven a car at speeds over 200km a few times, mostly on a track when in Australia, and 1000kms or so on autobahns (although never in a Magna—kieran you must have balls the size of coconuts!), and the sensation of speed does settle in quite quickly. To the point that slowing from 220+ to a more “moderate” 140 or so seems like barely moving, and down to 80-100 you feel like you could get out and walk faster.

When on a track this is not so bad as the time spent at 200km would be under 5 seconds and your focus is solely on driving (with no oncoming traffic), but on the parkway you’d have time to settle in, even if only briefly. I don’t mind a bit of a blat from time to time, but those speeds on that road, at any time of day, but especially when the road has other traffic on it, is just plan dumb.

okay, lets say this guy was doing 242kmh, and hits a sparrow head on.
I’m guessing at weights of birds, so lets say this sparrow has a mass of 50g, and was flying at 32kph (its the biggest sparrow recorded, flying at maximum sparrow flight speed).
impact takes 1/100th of a second in total.

Mbird = 0.05kg
Vbird = 32kph/3.6=-8.9m/s
Momentum(MOMbird) = Mbird.Vbird = -0.445

I’m only going to use the total mass of head + helmet.

So Mface = Head (5kg)+ Helmet (1.5kg) = 6.5kg
Vface = 242kph/3.6 = 67.2m/s
Momentum(MOMface) = Mface.Vface = 436.9

Lets assume completely inelastic conservation of momentum, because the bird is becomes part of the face:
MOMfinal= MOMbird + MOMface = (Mbird + Mface)Vfinal

Vfinal = [MOMbird+MOMface]/(Mbird+Mface)
Vfinal = [-0.445 + 436.9]/(0.05+6.5)
Vfinal = 66.63m/s * 3.6 = 239km/h

(Yes, a 50g bird at that speed slows his face down by 3km/h on impact, the rest of him is still moving at 242km/h though)

DeltaP = Force x DeltaT
Force = DeltaMOM/DeltaT
Force = -0.445/0.01 = -44.5N

Worst case on impact:
If the point of that sparrow’s beak is any less than half a square centimeter in size, the faceplate explodes and shatters into his eyes & face.
(assuming the breaking pressure of the faceplate is 1N/mm, making it very high-quality
plastic)
He then spears off the edge of the road, and breaks every worthwhile bone in his body, and splits himself in two around a tree. Or sails into the centreline divider, flips over it, into oncoming traffic or a car, then we get to do more maths on the impact of his motorcycle too.

Best case:
Bird explodes, driver temporarily blind with minor helmet damage, and he pulls over to the side of the road.

This is just from a 50g bird, on a perfectly flat road.
Heavier birds make it much, much worse.

Obviously the police are just looking in all the wrong places ….

; )

Last year in the US a guy doing about 200kph on a bike ran up the back of a truck at night. The truck driver heard a bump, saw debris going past him, slowed down, stopped, went to the back of the truck and found the rider attached to his truck head first. There is an article on snopes about it – be warned grisly pictures, you probably don’t want to look at them http://www.snopes.com/photos/accident/tulsacrash.asp
Interestingly a guy who went to his funeral died the following week doing a similar speed on the same road.

*hehehe*

Maybe that’s why they haven’t been found yet!

Maybe it was Pigbog and Greaser.

tylersmayhem3:24 pm 06 Nov 08

It looks more to me like his t-shirt is billowing out due to the wind.

…or just the dudes sizable love handles? I can’t see any crack there whatsoever!

You can’t photograph the four riders of the apocalypse.

; )

Nobody listens to me.

It’s a bit sad that the “attached” photographs don’t actually make it onto the AFP website with the rest of the media release.

So the speed cameras caught two donorcycles doing 240+ (making them among Australia’s Worst of the Worst criminals apparently) but either couldn’t make out the plate due to the location of the plates or being removed. Meanwhile Joe the Plumber drives by at a woofle over 80kmh and gets to contribute extra to ACT Revenue and loses 2 or 3 points. I remember Hargreaves huffing and puffing a few months back about a stolen Subaru that was also trying for a new land speed record past the Parkway cameras – funny how both these publicised instances seem to both show how ineffective speed cameras are in enforcing speed limits and disprove the mantra of “drive 1 km/h over the limit and your blood will turn to sewrage” hawked by the government…

And I love the quote from today’s CT:
Traffic police Superintendent Mark Colbran said, ”This extremely reckless behaviour seriously endangers the life of the riders and all road users.
”At the speed recorded by the motorcycles and in the event of a collision, it would result in the almost certain death of the motorcyclist and anyone else involved in the collision.”
Well 1) duh, and 2) so what are you going to do about it?

… except for the Darwin Awards.

I used to do a lot of long distance interstate driving in a TS Magna (driving across Hay Plains to Broken Hill, Broken Hill to Brisbane etc). The Magna was NOT speed limited – as opposed to the mid -90s holdens and fords that were limited to approx 180-90 – which used to shock them if I overtook them and they couldn’t keep up.

Things I noticed the ‘wrong side’ of 200kph…
– everything behaves differently – wipers act like tuning forks and get a harmonic
– rear vision mirrors ‘flap’
– minor curves become dangerous
– minor bumps or crests can lead to loss of contact with road
and most importantly, EVERYTHING operates on a different time curve…you get ‘conditioned’ to the speed. 120kph seems fast and then you get used to it, then the same thing at 150 etc etc…but when it comes to braking you only apply the amount of braking that you would normally do eg brake from 100- 60 when coming to a town …but you are coming down from a much higher speed and don’t notice that you haven’t braked anywhere near enough to compensate so when I checked the speedo I used to freak out because I ‘thought’ I was down to 60 but I was still 100+. And then when I did get down to 60, I felt like I could walk quicker…

It was great fun on open roads with heaps of visibility…and I only stopped when a mate doing a similar speed hit a wedgetail on the passenger side and the window exploded…no one hurt but enough of a shock to reconsider…

If these guys hit a sparrow at 240 then I imagine that it would be all over….

Tooks said :

CHW said :

Oh, eeeeeeuuuuwwwwwww – gooooood look!

Next time someone sees him coming up from behind can we do the world a favour and open a car door as he goes past??

The most surprising thing about this thread is that people took this ^ comment seriously.

I agree!! It’s quite funny actually. I’m very impressed!

: )

Why does everyone think the guy in the first photo is showing his arse?

It looks more to me like his t-shirt is billowing out due to the wind.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy1:41 pm 06 Nov 08

I still don’t think it would take anything like half a kilometre to slow a bike down form 240km/h. Also, I’m not convinced that your reaction times are any different (based on having driven at over 200km/h myself on several occasions). Of course, you are traveling quickly, so that half a second it takes to react will equate to further distance, but even still I would think 300 metres or so for a bike capable of getting to 240km/h would be more realistic.

Interestingly, at 200km/h or so the world didn’t seem to turn into a long tunnel. It actually didn’t look any different, it was simply that the road disappeared under the bonnet more quickly than normal. Braking was interesting, too, in that you could give the brakes a shove and look down and still be doing 150…

Madman said :

And what you don’t see cars doing 110-115? Everyone in Canberra, not just on the parkway does 20km over the speed limit everywhere.

That would be because we have some stupid speed limits in place. Case in point the four lane divided section of the Monaro highway at the North end. Good surface, good visibility, wide road, wide gap, better than a lot of roads that are 110, yet it is 80.

Strangely enough it also has a convenient point for groups of police to turn up and pracitce with the guns.

CHW said :

Oh, eeeeeeuuuuwwwwwww – gooooood look!

Next time someone sees him coming up from behind can we do the world a favour and open a car door as he goes past??

The most surprising thing about this thread is that people took this ^ comment seriously.

You have to remember that at those sorts of speeds you reaction time isn’t any where near as good as at slower speeds. It all has to do with your eye sight, as there is a limit on how far away you can actually see an obstical, let along recognise it as a danger. I’ll give you an example, what are you more likely to spot, a kangaroo 250m down the road, or a kangaroo 500m down the road.

To be able to react in a safe enough distance at those sorts of speeds you’d have to recognise the kangaroo from a much further distance away, then think about applying the brakes (at this time your still doing full speed or potentially even accelerating).

So it’s quite belivable that you’d need at least 500m to slow down in.

bd84 said :

It’s hardly suprising along there, I rarely see a motorcyclist actually obeying the speed limit or even come close to it along there (i.e. well above the 110-115 most people do along there).

And what you don’t see cars doing 110-115? Everyone in Canberra, not just on the parkway does 20km over the speed limit everywhere. And most of the registered vehicles in Canberra are Cars – so it’s easier to say that there are far more many cars exceeding the speed limit then bikes. Maybe you’re picking on the bikes because you think they’re different to cars when it comes to speeding – cause I can gaurantee you there are more cars speeding on the parkway then there are bikes, and your misconception is showing just because of the article itself…

CHW said :

Next time someone sees him coming up from behind can we do the world a favour and open a car door as he goes past??

You’re a low life scum – even worse then the two riders. You’re willing to kill two humans riding on a bike?

Get a grip of yourself – you will go down for murder and end up in jail like you should be already for even thinking of attempting a murder or manslaughter. Scum bag – go rot in hell.

You are still one of the smartest people I’ve ever met, Skid.

: )

I knew it would happen, but I was (and still am) eyes deep in payment processing issues and wasn’t in a formula mode.
But if you want me to predict what it will cost if we don’t fix something ASAP, I can do that easily.

Someone here can probably throw out a formula
It’s pretty straightforward – what you’re looking at is converting kinetic energy (your movement) into heat (the friction of the brake pads on the disks). That can only be done at more or less constant rate (oversimplification, but good enough for rough estimates). Kinetic energy goes as the square of the velocity – if you want a formula:
E = (mv^2)/2
At non-relativistic speeds, your mass is constant, and the coefficient is always constant, so you just square your change in velocity to calculate the corresponding change in energy. Hence, double your speed, 4x your kinetic energy and roughly 4x the stopping distance (per my previous post).

Of course, there are a multitude of other variables in real life (many of which, like brake fade, will only serve to increase that stopping distance), but for a ballpark figure that’s a reasonable rule of thumb.

something closer to an exponential curve for deceleration.
Something exactly like an exponential curve, in fact, with the exponent being 2 🙂

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy11:21 am 06 Nov 08

The general duties cop cars wouldn’t see 240km/h in this town, as they’re 6 cyl engines and probably wouldn’t wind that high anyway.

V8s would get past 240km/h, but there’s not too many places where they’d get the run up need to do it.

I’ve seen just north of 200km/h in my V8 (not around here), and it took a lot of road to get there.

Cool. People actually thought about my post seriously.

I feel sooooooo validated!

tylersmayhem11:01 am 06 Nov 08

Next time someone sees him coming up from behind can we do the world a favour and open a car door as he goes past??

It would be interesting seeing someone TRY to even open their car door when driving around 100km/h. Very difficult I’d imagine.

2 riders, 240kph on the parkway…
Is that some sort of record?

Maybe, but I’d suggest that RiotACT, as a media outlet, have given them exactly what they wanted and actually laid down an implied challenge to others. 😛

johnboy said :

On the other hand that first 100kmh of speed is a bugger to shed. In my experience it’s not linear.

D’uh.
You’re reliant on the gripping ability of your brakes, to stop the rotating disc of your wheels, using only friction and pressure.
Someone here can probably throw out a formula, but you’d be looking at something closer to an exponential curve for deceleration.

That should have read “without spike strips”

pretty easy to catch them with, as people have discussed…

Get some coppers out there who can actually chase these guys and lock them up.

ummm.. not sure how fast the police vehicles in this town go, but 240km/h is probably near the top end of the bracket. To reliably catch these guys (with spike strips) would probably require multiple vehicles and helicopter. That or identify them from the photos, as they are trying to do. Of course there is no number plate, and strangely the rider has chosen to leave off the very expensive, but probably very unique and recognisable race leathers they quite probably own…

Also interesting that they knew that the cameras were there, took precautions against being identifiable, then sped through at 240km/h. Would have been easier to go out on the Cotter-Tharwa Road, with all safety gear and number plate, then open it up on a straight bit. They very clearly made a deliberate pre-meditated decision to do it.

In the NT once I got a corolla over the 200kph mark. Reset the trip computer and measured how long it took to stop. Almost 2km. By the time I had got down to 100kph the brakes had pretty much faded. These bikes would be made of much sterner stuff though.

I can’t condone the riders actions, far too risky. Still I must say, deep down I am impressed.

My questions still stands, is this the new official speed record for the parkway?

Why is my status back to agitator ?

Thats a bit odd.

I would say slowing down too fast would be an inspiration not to do it, not slowing down too slow.

My mantra is that speed does not kill, stopping too fast does.

Re stopping distances…

Reaction time when you’re going that fast is pretty low, the whole world narrows and it’s a very strange sensation (and why people do it, it’s a rush). The rider is absolutely amped into their environment and making many corrections per second.

It’s not at all comparable to the state a driver is in pootling to the shops for milk.

On the other hand that first 100kmh of speed is a bugger to shed. It takes real time and all that time you’re still moving fast. From 60 down to zero on the other hand is much easier.

In my experience it’s not linear. The really high speeds take a really long time to come down from, so my gut feeling is it would take me at least 500m to stop from 240kmh. Good reason not to do it.

The two they actually saw must have been going a bit slower I reckon!

*hehe*

Yet another example of how speed cameras DO NOT make the roads safer….

Maybe we can ask all those involved in armed robberies, rapes and murders to also stick their hands up…

What a joke.

Get some coppers out there who can actually chase these guys and lock them up.

Granny said :

I’m guessing War, Famine, Pollution (Pestilence having retired in 1936 due to the invention of penicillin), and Death.

Good Omens for the win.

Growling Ferret9:24 am 06 Nov 08

Caf – you would get the brake fade trying to stop from that speed a second time – most sports bikes would be able to handle it once.

DJ said :

CHW said :

Oh, eeeeeeuuuuwwwwwww – gooooood look!

Next time someone sees him coming up from behind can we do the world a favour and open a car door as he goes past??

It’s idiots like you that need to catch public transport so you don’t fall prey to your own stupid ideas and thoughts.

Opening a car door on a bike doing 240 would probably result in the driver or passenger losing an arm, and the bike becoming a lethal weapon as it flew off into the other traffic, not to mention the missile the rider would become. not very smart at all.

I am not interested in dumb ideas to kill a bike rider, but how do you ping a rider so that they don’t do it again?

a spike strip wouldn’t be any good, same result as a car door.

maybe they are frustrated dragway enthusiasts.

I have come off a bike when i was younger, lost a lot of bark and was very glad for the leathers I had on. That is why i don’t ride a motorbike.

the shame of it is that these two yahoos will get other bike riders tarred with the same brush. most riders i know aren’t this moronic.

Ahh I was wrong, wer asphalt and dry concrete… I wonder why they did not base the results on wet and dry asphalt

V twin venom9:12 am 06 Nov 08

Wasn’t me. My arse is bigger…… and even I’m not that stupid!

It’d be worse than that, because when slowing down from 240km/h you’d get significant brake fade.

CHW said :

Oh, eeeeeeuuuuwwwwwww – gooooood look!

Next time someone sees him coming up from behind can we do the world a favour and open a car door as he goes past??

It’s idiots like you that need to catch public transport so you don’t fall prey to your own stupid ideas and thoughts.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy8:31 am 06 Nov 08

I reckon 1.5 secs of reaction time is to long for most decent riders (or drivers). I think 0.5 secs is more realistic, meaning about 35 metres.

That said, traveling at the that sort of speed on a public road in a city is pure insanity.

Um, yeah, what harley said.

Honda Fireblade – 64 m – 35 m – 8,5 m
Okay, so let’s assume they had one of them – decent sports bike, dry road (granted, the surface wasn’t concrete, but it takes a lot of skill to achieve the ideal stopping distance on a bike, and people with that much skill and experience don’t tend to get about in shorts and a t-shirt at 240km/h on a public road). At 240km/h you have 4x the kinetic energy of someone doing 120, so 4x the stopping distance. That puts it at 256m. But that’s from the moment you hit the brakes. Average reaction time for an unexpected event is about 1.5-2 seconds. 240km/h is 66m/s, so you’re looking at 388m. Which, while it isn’t 500m is certainly in the ballpark and certainly a lot further away than most unexpected dangers tend to pop up. And that’s assuming they don’t screw up the braking and end up coming off and sliding down the road – it would be interesting to see what the stopping distance of their flesh and bones from that speed is.

Danman said :

If I am reading those results correctly, in th emajority of cases it takes less wet asphalt to come to a stop than dry…

Surely I am wrong yes ?

Dry concrete is somewhat slippery, wet or dry, Asphalt absorbs some moisture, and is much coarser… They didn’t do tests on dry asphalt, I notice…

Yeah, its the same way I feel about drivers. Someone chased me recently and tried to forcefully knock me off my bike, therefore all car drivers are dickheads too.

Generalisations help no one. There are bad eggs in every social group whether they drive, pedal or ride scooters!

I thought the rule of thumb was double the speed, 4 times the distance (you can sorta see this from TAM’s stats). So my BMW R1100RT would stop about the same as beemer in the tests. At 240Kmh, that would be 200ish meters.

Plus 1.5 seconds of reaction time – at 240kmh, that’s 66.7 meters per second, so call it an extra 100 meters…

300 meters to stop in an emergency in ideal conditions isn’t good. the 100 meters they cover before wiping off any speed at all is just insane…

Then there’s the fact that people are hard pressed to emergency stop well – they under-do it, even I do… that adds significant distance. 500 meters isn’t that far off… It’s already 300 in ideal conditions…

If I am reading those results correctly, in th emajority of cases it takes less wet asphalt to come to a stop than dry…

Surely I am wrong yes ?

p1 said :

240km/h is pretty fast, but 500m? Can anybody verify if that is actually a correct stopping distance for a sports bike?

I think the 500 metres is a bit long as well. This site is in Dutch but you can look at the pictures
http://www.motornet.be/rijden/veiligheid/021011_remmen.html

Break Down of results
Results braketest – on dry concrete road
(vehicle – 120km/h – 90 km/h – 50km/h)

Toyota Avensis – 52 m – 28 m – 8 m
Honda Fireblade – 64 m – 35 m – 8,5 m
BMW R1150RS withABS – 55 m – 31,5 m – 8,5 m

Results braketest – on wet asphalt
(vehicle – 120km/h – 90 km/h – 50km/h)

Toyota Avensis – 46 m – 25 m – 7,5 m
Honda Fireblade – 49,6 m – 25 m – 6,6 m
BMW R1150RS withABS – 45,5 m – 28,5 m – 9,2 m

One word sums up these idiots in both their actions and dress sense on a bike ‘pathetic’. It gives those of us that ride bikes legally and safely a bad name. I’d have no problem dobbing them in if I knew who they were.

Oh, eeeeeeuuuuwwwwwww – gooooood look!

Next time someone sees him coming up from behind can we do the world a favour and open a car door as he goes past??

Aeek said :

Jeans, T shirt, and bum crack.

Not condoning the speed, but maybe the jeans were Draggin Jeans which have kevlar in them.

I’m guessing War, Famine, Pollution (Pestilence having retired in 1936 due to the invention of penicillin), and Death.

Ingeegoodbee11:44 pm 05 Nov 08

I doubt it’s an un-official record. As an undergraduate I recall racing a buddy along that stretch of road and he was pulling away from me and my speedo was showing 250km/h.

It’s hardly suprising along there, I rarely see a frustrated wannabe actually obeying the speed limit or even come close to it along there (i.e. well below the posted 100 speed limit). There’s still the overriding mentality amongst drivers that they’re safer dawdling along on the rigtht hand lane until they notice the backlog in the rear-view mirror and then they apply that great Canberra tradition of speeding up to move into the left land and then trying to pump up their ineviatably japanese or aussie built shitbox to try and outrun you as a desperate attempt to prove to themselves that they’re not ready to hand in their licence for a lawn bowls club membership.

You would think that for a bunch of Canberrans who immediately qualify for the “I’m a cert for the dick-head butt-**** club” – easily identified by their support for the Motorists Party – the way these lame-arse cock-sucking tool bags are always banging on and on about the need for more taxpayer funds to waste on them, you would imagine that they would actually try and promote sensible road use by driving in an even somewhat sensible manner instead of making sure everyone knows they’re an utter tool.

I notice lots of motorcycles (in winter many of them have L’s),
but then I ride (bicycles).

adeptacheese11:19 pm 05 Nov 08

i like that we posted nearly the exact same comment 4 seconds apart haha

It’s hardly suprising along there, I rarely see a motorcyclist actually obeying the speed limit or even come close to it along there
Bollocks. You just notice the ones that are speeding. I ride along there and stick, if not exactly on the speed limit, at least very close to it. And there are plenty of other riders that do the same.

There’s still the overriding mentality amongst riders…
No, there really isn’t – there’s just a number of them that give the rest a bad name with crap like this. And non-riders are all too happy to tar them all with the same brush.

These guys are twats, don’t get me wrong, but they’re not of the ilk of riders I know – for a start, as others have noted, that gear is just retarded. Very few riders I know even get on their bike without gloves, boots, protective jacket and pants. And that speed on a public road is far far more than any sensible rider (and yes, there’s plenty of them) would ever do.

Besides, natural selection often takes care of people like this – it’s just unfortunate that they often take innocents with them.

adeptacheese11:10 pm 05 Nov 08

bd84 said :

There was an idiot who posted a video on youtube a while ago (before speed cameras) of himself doing something similar on a motorbike on the parkway.

It’s hardly suprising along there, I rarely see a motorcyclist actually obeying the speed limit or even come close to it along there (i.e. well above the 110-115 most people do along there). There’s still the overriding mentality amongst riders that they’re safer trying to be the next Casey Stoner as they weave in and out of traffic into 2 metre gaps and ride down emergency lanes. You would think that for a bunch of temporary Australians who always on about “look out for motorcyclists” they would actually try and promote it be riding in an even somewhat sensible manner instead of with a death wish.

i’m willing to bet the only time you note and register seeing a motorcyclist in your memory is when you see one doing something wrong. Im willing to bet you see bikers every day behaving like regular respectable road-users but every time you see a squid doing 240kph down the parkway (or an imagined offense such as lane splitting) you tick off a little mental tally and go tsk tsk. There are dickheads on every mode of transport and im sick of anti-motorcyclist sentiment painting every one of us with the same brush.

It wasn’t me. My bike barely does half that speed flat out.

Police say at that speed it would have taken the riders almost half a kilometre to bring their bikes to a stop.

240km/h is pretty fast, but 500m? Can anybody verify if that is actually a correct stopping distance for a sports bike?

Vic Bitterman10:24 pm 05 Nov 08

T-shirt provides more than enough protection. Minimum is a wife beater these days.

Jeans, T shirt, and bum crack.

There was an idiot who posted a video on youtube a while ago (before speed cameras) of himself doing something similar on a motorbike on the parkway.

It’s hardly suprising along there, I rarely see a motorcyclist actually obeying the speed limit or even come close to it along there (i.e. well above the 110-115 most people do along there). There’s still the overriding mentality amongst riders that they’re safer trying to be the next Casey Stoner as they weave in and out of traffic into 2 metre gaps and ride down emergency lanes. You would think that for a bunch of temporary Australians who always on about “look out for motorcyclists” they would actually try and promote it be riding in an even somewhat sensible manner instead of with a death wish.

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