205 mph biker update

Here's an interesting update to the story of the warp-drive equipped RC-51.

http://www.startribune.com/dynamic/story.php?template=print_a&story=5041608

Hope this link works, let me know if not, and I'll cut & paste.

Edit: Here's a similar story from the Pioneer Press. The quote from the mechanic at the
end is priceless.

http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/news/local/9972559.htm?1c

^Link doesn't work, here's C&P.



'205 Tilley' downplays speed to other bikers

Tests reportedly shows Honda could go 159 tops
BY DAVID HANNERS

Pioneer Press


In the world of sport motorcycles, he has become known simply as "205 Tilley."

About the time Sam Tilley makes his first court appearance next week after being
ticketed for driving 205 mph on his motorcycle, a magazine will hit the newsstands with
his first and only interview ? in a publication called Midwest Quick Throttle Magazine.

Tilley, 20, is the Stillwater man who was ticketed near Wabasha on Sept. 18 for
allegedly riding 205 mph in a 65-mph zone. He was participating in this year's "Flood
Run," an annual motorcade of motorcyclists.

To put 205 mph in perspective, it is the minimum landing speed of a space shuttle and
42 mph faster than the take-off speed of a Boeing 777 jetliner.

While the Minnesota State Patrol has said it stands behind the speed calculation made
by a trooper in an airplane with a stop watch, Tilley says in the interview he wasn't
going that fast.

"He doesn't say (in the interview) how fast he was going, but he's more inclined to say
it was closer to 111 mph," said Pat Andrews, editor of Midwest Quick Throttle, which is
based in Eagan and distributes about 60,000 copies a month.

Tilley makes his first court appearance Oct. 25 ? an arraignment before Wabasha
County District Judge Terrence Walters.

Andrews said that in the interview, Tilley expressed concerns his legal woes might give
motorcyclists a bad name.

Tilley could not be reached for comment for this article. Although the Midwest Quick
Throttle interview is the only one he has granted, Tilley has expressed himself online in
various sport bike forums.

On those forums, contributors have reacted to news of Tilley's alleged speed with
admiration, incredulity and, in some cases, outright hostility. In a post to a forum at
www.sportbikes.net three days after he got the ticket, Tilley said, "it is time to clear
some things up."

"The stop watch method may be accurate at times, but this is un-conceivable (sic) for
my motorcycle to approach 205," he wrote.

"I hope this clears things up for everybody, I am just sick of everyone saying things
about what they don't know, making me look like this horrific person. People speed,
and if anyone knows anything about the 'Flood Run' ? I would be a #### of a lot
more concerned about the 7,000 bar-hopping motorcyclist (sic) out on the road.
Ninety-nine percent of the people you hear things from are misinformed."

Tilley was riding a Honda RC51, a 999-cc, 126-horsepower motorcycle that some sport
bikers consider a "platform," meaning that its performance can be enhanced through
various after-market modifications. One of the garages that does such work locally is
Hitman Motorsports Inc., in White Bear Lake. A couple of days after Tilley got the ticket,
he took the motorcycle there to have its performance measured on a dynamometer.

Steve Ackermann, a mechanic at Hitman who races bikes professionally said they
couldn't get Tilley's bike to go faster than 159 mph.

"The bike is basically bone stock, except the pipes and a power commander," he said.

The latter device manages the motorcycle's fuel system for peak air-fuel mixture.

How fast does he think Tilley's bike could be ridden?

"Maybe 165 mph, on a good day," Ackermann said. "With the physical capabilities of
the RC51, you can't get it up to 205. Unless you threw it out of an airplane."