to quote The Wolf of Wall Street“Those are rookie numbers. Those numbers need to go up!”
That’s exactly what I thought when I read that the fastest motorcycle speeding ticket in the UK had been issued for…161 mph. It’s not all that fast. Especially considering that the modern motorcycle machinery we have access to is capable of going north of 200 mph right from the factory. I mean, Suzuki’s Hayabusa has been capable of reaching 200 mph for the last thirty years. Hey, I personally…I’m not going to finish that sentence based on the look that my lawyers are giving me right now.
At least, it doesn’t seem like it should be the fastest ever, given the toned-up culture of the late 1960s and the UK’s predilection for pub-to-pub speed runs. I would have thought it would have been much higher. High enough to compete with America’s highest recorded motorcycle speeding ticket. Yet, here we are.
according to our friends wizarddownPD North West of London, West Mercia Police took the motorcyclist into custody after clocking him at 161mph and then 130mph a few minutes later.
Cotswold JournalA local outlet said and more, “A motorcyclist was clocked at 161mph in the biggest speeding crime recorded by West Mercia Police in five years. The crime was discovered on the northbound A5 in Shropshire – just 12 minutes after a Yamaha rider was caught doing 130mph on the same road. A suspect has been taken to court for a previous speeding offense The second offense last year occurred at 8.49pm on the Pulley Lane over-bridge, which has a 70mph limit.
Again, 161 mph is fast, but not as fast as you’d think, okay?
For comparison, the fastest motorcycle speed ticket ever issued in the United States was for speeding at 205 mph in Minnesota, of all places. And it involved a plane.
“Above a state patrol airplane, a motorcyclist hit the throttle and possibly set the unofficial record for the fastest speeding ticket in Minnesota history: 205 mph,” it said. police1Adding, “On Saturday afternoon, State Patrol pilot Al Looney was flying near Wabasha in southeastern Minnesota, on the Wisconsin border, and watched two motorcyclists race on U.S. Highway 61. When one of the riders shot ahead, Looney was ready with his stopwatch. He clicked it once when the motorcycle reached a white mark on the road and again a quarter mile later. Clocked in. The time was 4.39 seconds, which Lonny calculated at 205 mph.”
Look, now that’s a respectable ticket! For what it’s worth, I’m not advocating driving fast, nor should you attempt to break the speed limit or these record speed tickets. Do you know that it is strange to see the difference between the two countries and their respective speeding ticket records?
