Cops seek 179mph net vid biker Police would very much like to speak to a biker who filmed himself apparently gunning it at 179mph on a "dangerous stretch" of the A628 Woodhead Pass in South Yorkshire, the Daily Mirror reports. The two-wheel speed merchant subsequently appeared in an incriminating video on LiveLeak UK, reportedly racing another bike while …
All of these video clips posted on the internet that involve excessive speeding are on "dangerous" stretches of road. Are they all really on roads which have a higher accident or casualty rate then average? Or are all roads by definition dangerous because they have large vehicles hurtling along them?
Or is there enough nearby scenery visible for someone to visit the site and work out the position of the bike in particular frames?
I guess someone could fiddle the frame rate of the video camera and adjust the speedo by the same amount ... and fake the sound of the engine to be at the right frequency ...
I heard a few years ago of a bloke driving a tuned Toyota Supra that simply left the police for dead on the motorway. By coincidence, when the car left the motorway, another police vehicle happened to be at the junction and pulled him over. Although the speed was never accurately recorded, a simple speed=distance/time calculation put the supra in the region of 210mph...
Im guessing that the police have nothing better to do than traul through video websites like Utube to find movies of speed freaks to arrest.
either they have a severe shortage in their arrest figures this month or some bright copper found a great excuse to spend his work time surfing the internet
I think this is the third story today i've read about dimwits posting their illegal activities on the internet
From what I've heard, a large number of these videos were reported to the police by standard citizens, not just found by a bored sherif on his iMac at 3PM. Plus I imagine that a cop would be just as likely as anyone else to spend time watching videos on the Internet when they aren't working.
We use MPH Mile Pints Lbs and all of the such like, that is until the BBC / SKY change us over via the backdoor or the EU force us to join the rest of the European wusses.
Mintyboy
Off to block the channel tunnel up and stop johnny foreigner getting in and making me drink a Kilo of Warm Beer ;)
In the UK we use a strange combination of Imperial and metric measurements.
A few examples:
all road signs etc are in miles / yards / miles per hour; beer and milk is sold in pints but fruit juice is sold in litres, when we buy our petrol (gas), it's priced in pence per litre, but we tend to express fuel efficiency in miles per gallon.
Food in supermarkets is sold by metric weight, but many supermarkets still list the price per pound for loose produce (as well as price per kilo).
Temperatures in the weather forecast are expressed in degrees Celcius, but many people will convert this mentally to fahrenheit.
Strange, eh?
@ A. Boyer - The UK have been using MPH forever.
@ joe - Bike speedos are about as accurate as car speedos, particularly on modern bikes. Mine records an approximate increase in speed of 8%, i.e. when my speedo reads 150MPH (which it only has twice with me on it - scares the crap out of me!), I'm actually doing more like 138MPH.
@ Chris Taylor - The 200mph mark was cracked some time ago on PooTube. If you do a search for "turbo hayabusa" you'll find some very silly people getting far too close to warp 1 for my liking.
To the befuddled American... Britain has used mph since the dawn of time. You're confusing us with other European countires that use metric measurments for speed. 179mph works out to exactly 179mph :)
And I'm not sure why people are so convinced that the footage is faked - why would it be? It's incredibly easy to do 180mph on a modern sportsbike, there's really no need to fake anything. Sure, the speedo will almost certainly be overreading, probably by 8 or 9% as they do on all cars and bikes equally. But not "20% or more at that speed" - the innacuracy will stay constant, it won't get worse at speed, that makes no sense. It is however possible that the gearing has been altered slightly to improve acceleration at the expense of top end speed and that would potentially make the innacuracy worse if he hadn't fitted a device to recalibrate the speedo.
But still, the speed will certainly be in the low 160s at least - not a great or difficult on a fast bike as I said earlier.
I do agree that the police have almost certainly got better things to do though than sit around watching tv.
rather confusingly, whilst we buy fuel in litres, we buy milk & beer in pints, whilst we measure distances in metres and km, we measure speed in mp/h. We weigh food in grams & kilos, but ourselves in stones (14 pounds).
As for Robin Cook the Woodhead pass is indeed quite a dangerous stretch of road.
I've (unfortunately) driven over the Woodhead Pass several times. The reason I say unfortunately is because in recent years it's turned into one of the main routes between Manchester and South Yorkshire. Which isn't very good for a road that for the most part is little more than country lane.
If it was clear, the weather good, and the driver half way decent it should be possible, (I'd guess) to do it in 25-30 mins. But it's that clogged with HGV's, vans, caravanners and other cars that I'll never know.
As for the bikers in thevideo, silly tw&ts, they get all they deserve.
Question:
179 mph?
By A. Boyer
Posted Friday 31st August 2007 14:28 GMT
Sorry, I'm confused. All of these articles lately are referring to MPH. Since when did Britain use miles per hour? Are we talking about 179 MPH or 179 KPH/111 MPH?
-A befuddled American
Answer:
Here in the old country we have used miles for quite some time. Since about 56 AD actually, after we were invaded by the Roman Legions. Romans invented miles.
From Wiki: A unit of distance called a mile was first used by the Romans and denoted a distance of 1000 paces (1 pace is 2 steps, 1000 paces being, in Latin, mille passus) or 5000 Roman feet, and corresponded to about 1480 meters, or 1618 modern yards.
The current definition of a mile as 5,280 feet (as opposed to 5000) dates to the 13th century, and was confirmed by statute in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I; the change was needed to accommodate the rod which (as opposed to the mile) was a measure ensconced in legal documents.
The USA uses miles because we were your colonial masters.
You also use inches, feet and yards, because we were your colonial masters.
You speak a sort of English, because yes - you guessed it - we were your colonial masters.
Somewhere along the way you lot got a bit bolshy, and changed the fluid measures. Thus a US gallon is smaller than an Imperial (UK) gallon - so not everything in the USA is bigger.
Here's another shocker - not every country in the world uses dollars as currency.
And another! Not every country in the world drives on the right. Old civilisations do (UK, Japan ....), because 90% of people are right-handed, so on horse-back armed with a sword, you approached a stranger whilst riding on the left of the track / road.
Driving (riding) on the right was introduced by Napoleon, as a demonstration of 'out with the old, in with the new', and you lot went for it.
I can only assume that, like this country, history is no longer on the US schools curriculum either.
Has anyone watched this? 60 seconds of relatively tame dangerous high-speed driving, followed by the last 10 dubious seconds where something sounding like a rocket motor appears on the soundtrack, and Sr T..t accelerates from 120-160mph in less than 3 camera-juddering seconds.
If this is genuine, then it's a very interesting piece of nitro work. Unless Honda have revamped their VTEC.... Either way, you only do that a few times before you either burn out the engine, or embed yourself in a field/car/sheep.
Nice. But its in kph I reckon. At one point they're riding quite cautiously (feathering the throttle) round a corner, yet its showing 120-130mph. Also the acceleration from 140-170 only takes 5 seconds. It would be longer if that were mph.
The speedo is working fine - the soundtrack matches, and the frequency of the engine is right for the revs being shown. But the world isn't passing by quick enough. At 120mph cars coming past would be a blur (closing speed would be around 120+50mph = 170mph), but you can see them approach quite easily.
Crap riders though - overtakes directly in front of cars, and over double whites.
Sorry, I'm confused. All of these articles lately are referring to MPH. Since when did Britain use miles per hour? Are we talking about 179 MPH or 179 KPH/111 MPH?
-A befuddled American
The British have always used MPH as well as Gallons ( hence Imperial Gallons not your small US gallons) feet and inches. Metrication came as part of a deal with the European Union. But our distances have stayed miles and not Kilometers.
The Video claimed 176MPH although the most i saw was 174MPH. But whatever the real indicated speed.... It has to be proven the speedo is accurate and the gearing is standard. I have a 600cc Suzuki in the Garage which hits 186MPH on the speedo very easily...But as it is a race bike and the gearing has now been changed for a smaller tight track the real top speed is only about 130MPH!
OK if the guy was clever he should have said it was at the Isle of Man.... No speed limit out of town and it would have been OK.
I've done 180mph on a bike and a lot of bike riding and that is definitely not 179mph.I think kph is showing on the LCD to the right of the speed.
The other indicated speeds are way too high as well, compared to other vehicles and the scenery. I agree the rider is crap and inexperienced which is why he can't figure out how to switch the speedo back to MPH.
He also fails understand that, riding fast up the arse of another bike, overtaking on bends and over double white lines are stupid noob mistakes.
I'm sorry for all the patronising brits who think Americans should know everything about us.... we are but a small country in a much larger world, and it is alright that you didn't know we use miles per hour.
Really people - give him a break.... how many messages telling him the same thing?? Poor wee yank.... let him be!! :)
Richard Cain:
that was a bit harsh, wasn't it? He only asked about mph/kph, and it's not exactly essential knowledge for an American to know what measurement of speed we use.
I'd like to meet one person who thinks every country uses dollars, as well, because I'd be surprised if those people actually exist.
Can someone, somewhere, fake up a bit of video shot in, say, a Trabant or a Reliant Robin, with a stuck on picuture of a bike speedo over the "real" sppedo, reading 150 MPH (240kph for the confused yanks) and shove that on You Tube.
Frig the sound and the frame rate and keep it short so the steady speed looks convincing.
GO FOR IT
That bit of the Woodhead where he hits 176mph is dead straight for over a mile and in the direction he's going in, downhill too. there's 2 lanes on the uphill side so it's nice and wide, he'd be able to see any hazards easily - a lot less dangerous than the nifty bit of overtaking into the oncoming traffic he did at 50mph on the way up the hill.
All the accidents on that road, and there are lots of them, are on the twisty bits not that straight bit. They mostly involve stoned teenagers 5-up in lukewarm hatch-backs going into the corners too quick - but probably still within the 60mph limit.
The only shrine I'm aware of on Woodhead is Jason McRoy's and he was riding a Harley, not a proper bike - nuff said.
> By A. Boyer
> Posted Friday 31st August 2007 14:28 GMT
>
> Sorry, I'm confused. All of these articles lately are referring to MPH. Since when
> did Britain use miles per hour? Are we talking about 179 MPH or 179 KPH/111
> MPH?
Ever since Britain invented the Imperial system, my friend.
Yikes, I think I've come close to this speed on the M1 (I love my Hayabusa). At least 165. Now this is like a challenge.
People seem to think there's trickery here.
That speed is not difficult on a number of superbikes. My unrestricted '99 Hayabusa can do nearly 200, and it can accelerate at a mad pace.
A quick twist of the wrist can have you up past 100, 110, 120, 130... in just a few seconds.
I think I have to start making videos.
<quote>Nice. But its in kph I reckon. At one point they're riding quite cautiously (feathering the throttle) round a corner, yet its showing 120-130mph. Also the acceleration from 140-170 only takes 5 seconds. It would be longer if that were mph.</quote>
Don't know whether speedo is just not accurate or in kph but absolutely agree the best evidence is the closing speed and the cornering especially in what seems damp conditions... the devil is in the details.
If you watch the ghost rider videos, that is real speed at 150mph+ and the closing speed of cars travelling in the same direction is faster than in this supposed 176mph video.
These guys should be done for the reckless overtaking.
so what are we talking about here, the befundled american or speeding, I think he gets the message now
As for the police prosecuting the befundled englishman on a fast bike, I cant see it happening, unless he was actually caught by a befundled english policeman, or a strangely befundled camera.If they decide to prosicute from digitally enhanced footage (due to the reg plate been totally unreadable) then they are effectivaly tampering with evidence
As for that sort of speed, if it was in MPH, but I doubt it, the a virtual slap to that man for doing it, I was out on the bike on sunday going to whitby, and I trundled along at good speed, and it seemed not much slower than what he was doing, however I did not cross double whites, I kept inside them and only done so when the vehicle allowed me to by moving to one side, most of them did as long as you gave them time enough to see you, rather than race up there orrifus and scare the living carp out of them.Like some people have said, this is why bikers are getting a bad name, and the young plastic brigade hardly ever NOD or stop anymore, only on average of 7%, so the good biker feeling is dying off
rant over
Reminds me of another one of these "super-speed on a bike" YouTube videos from a while ago. The speedometer showed 120 and there was an old VW Golf easily keeping up with the guy, in front of him, until he accelerated and passed... At the time it seemed obvious to me it was km/h that the speedo was showing. That's probably the case here too, and the numbwits just did that to look like they are flying down the road and post it on the web. To impress other, less cunning chavs, I guess...
They only do it on bikes because it is cheaper than doing it in a car. If they were real men they'd book onto a track day and scare themselves silly. They all think they can ride until they go on a track and try their hardest just to be undertaken by someone who takes corners one handed and waves at them on his way past.
I was under the impression that us yanks started driving on the right hand side due to a law to keep horses from getting spooked by oncoming vehicles. Thought they were required to have a light and honk on approach.
We now have the opposite problem is some areas. The amish feel the need to take their horse and buggies down 45+ MPH roads with hills, at night, with no lights and maybe a reflective triangle on the back. So when you drive down a rural road at night over here, you have to be aware of a possible road hazard over the hill. Kinda funny, since driving under the minimum speed will earn you a ticket for unsafe motoring.
Did not know that you guys used MPH. Will have to tell my mom about the weight in stones. She's a bit unhappy about menopause.
A person makes a simple mistake and 20+ posts reply - my god man, have you lost your marbles. We bloody invented the thing and if we didn't, we made it ours so we bloody might have well have invented it, cause our way is better than any other place in the WORLD - it's the British way I tells you. Now where's my British passport so I can smack you across the face with it...... alternatively let me get my British Pound coins out and let me pelt you with them - they're better than those bloody Euros. Our Pound coins have a better weight to them than those light mamby pandy Euros I tells you.....
It's not tampering with evidence as long as it's a repeatable procedure. That's what expert witnesses are there for. One company I know of that specializes in this is Topaz Laps, via their Moment product in particular. Based on my test it'd need a finer touch to get the plate number, even the clearest view at 0:42 requires more retouching.
The mph marker is so blurred throughout the whole video that it's impossible to say whether it might actually be kph.
It can be a bit much when you have to buy 1/4" plywood in square metres.
When it's hot weather here in England (rare but it happens), we moan about it in Fahrenheit. When it gets cold we moan about it in Celsius, so we can quote sub zero temperatures.
A shopkeeper was jailed (gaoled) for selling bananas by the pound (contrary to EU imposed law). That law has been repealed recently but the shopkeeper didn't live to see it. Sadly he's 1.8288m underground now.
That's our European neighbours for you, give 'em 2.54cm and they'll take 0.9144m
As soon as I saw that vid, I knew they were stupid. Started off by overtaking on solid white lines, in front of oncoming cars and on a bend. Stupid or what! I have ridden bikes since I was 16, had bikes from a C50 up to a ZRX1100. I didn't do stupid things like they did. I may have gone a little bit fast here and there, but in those days there wasn't as much traffic around. I agree, they should be done for overtaking on solid white lines and on a bend. And no, I don't think it was mph, more like kph.
The bike might be an import so that would explain the speed. I don't think they were doing 170mph+ in those conditions, more like 170kph. Too wet. I think the back wheel would have spun in the wet when accelerating hard. Yes, I've done that and I know what it is like.
It's like the young kids on bikes in the summer wearing shorts and t-shirts. Really stupid.
Anyone who rides a bike can easily see that the speeds reported on the electronic speedometer do not even remotely coincide with the speed of the passing landscape if measured in MPH. If you ride a bike you know 170 MPH is something you could never do on a bumpy undulating twisting winding road like we see in the clip. Not forgetting the poor light and heavy traffic.
It's KPH, get over it.
"can only assume that, like this country, history is no longer on the US schools curriculum either."
Over here in the former Colonies, the only subjects on the required curriculum are "How to vote for the right (and Right) President" and "How to sign your paycheck over to the Government." All else is elective.
But then look at their leader!!!
Bush once said during a meeting of international business people "the French don't even have a word for entrepreneur"
Oh and to answer Darryl Ashton, yep I have met one. It was at immigration in Denver. He wanted to know why I did not have dollars in my wallet when entering the US, and did not believe me that I could not get then out of an ATM machine in London Heathrow!! We had to get his supervisor!
A few people have commented that metrication was forced upon us by the EU. The UK started the move towards the use of metric measures independently in 1965 (the idea was first put on the table by a commons select committee just over 100 years before that, and the House of Lords wanted to push it through in 1904), we didn't join what was then the EEC until 1973.
http://www.metric.org.uk/press/timeline.htm
Having done approximately the speed it SAYS (I've hit 160'ish) on a bike, the scenery in the video is NOWHERE near what it looks like at that speed. It's quite obviously on the kph setting(it's adjustable you know). We can't help you brits think those are fast speeds(111 even). It's just a different layout than here stateside--like the old saying goes, To the english, 100 miles seems a distance, to yanks 100 years seems a long time. It's typical here on most of my local interstates to be cruising at 135 kph, which seems fast but is only 14kph over the limit(75mph). I've done our local I65 at nearly a hundred miles an hour for well over an hour at a time and still had people passing me. I'm conservative, so 9mph over the limit is usually my max, but when you just HAVE to be somewhere--
Mile comes from one thousand ('mille') paces of a Roman soldier -- each pace is two steps and they're short guys, 5'2" ish. Meters are Napolenonic in origin, very rational, very modern and completely unrelated to real life.
The video looks genuine. (Although I'm an unbefuddled Yank I also happen to know this stretch of road quite well since I used to be a Manc.) The bike's going a bit fast for a gixxer but its downhill so its plausible -- and, yes, they do accelerate like that. The quality of the riding is awful, its classic squid, all engine and brakes and no regard for traffic, road conditions or other users. They usually end up crashing, fortunately its usually a single bike accident.
You wouldn't catch me going anything like that fast on that road...its not 'dangerous' like Insp Knacker says, its just there are real hazards (sheep, for example) and falling off hurts. (If Mr. Squiddie wants a challenge then he should be riding Snake -- at speed.)
speedo drive converters; little gearbox 2inchs long. Very useful; had one on a recovery (wrecker) truck that had a tachograph. We used the kph scale for mph readings, hard to prove speeding that way if inspected by police or vehicle inspectorate. Use to double your speed for tubevids lol
To the gentleman that thinks "nearly a hundred miles an hour for well over an hour at a time" is something of an achievement, I invite him to drive the M40, or the M1.
I'm aware of occasions at around 3am where you'll have some moron in the middle lane doing about 70mph.... And have 4 cars go past (2 on the inside, 2 on the outside) all doing > 100mph, the group having slowed down from 120mph when they saw the person in question.
On the M40 on my bike I've been drifting along at roughly the speed limit, when another bike come on. It was only 2 junctions later when he pulled off (about 10 miles I think) that I realised I'd accelerated to stay with him (motorways are really boring/lonely on a bike) and been doing 120mph for the whole time.
Don't you just love it when someone makes a silly comment right at the start?? I'm not going to go on about the metric system vs the imperial system because that's been done to death. But we British invented EVERYTHING don't you know! The language, the measures, TV, Computers, the earth and the moon and the sun.. (I think I've gone a bit far with that last one.. That was probably the Chinese)
Anyhow.. we certainly invented Miles, unless of course it was the Italians! And I'm sure we invented radiation and DNA as well..
OK, so Mr(s?) Boyer made a silly comment, but no half as silly as the idiots in this film.. Hope the copes catch up with them before the A&E Surgeon! If they get locked away, at least they can't crash into an oncoming vehicle full of kids on a family outing, killing them all!
peter wegrzyn and Jammy Git,
thanks for the apologetic words !
"He also fails understand that, riding fast up the arse of another bike, overtaking on bends and over double white lines are stupid noob mistakes."
You call 'stupid noob mistakes' what can as well lead to that idiot never make it to any higher level than noob. And insurances paying out for hospitalisation, handicaps. With a bit of luck, he rather goes the way of natural selection.
"That bit of the Woodhead where he hits 176mph is dead straight for over a mile and in the direction he's going in, downhill too. there's 2 lanes on the uphill side so it's nice and wide, he'd be able to see any hazards easily - a lot less dangerous than the nifty bit of overtaking into the oncoming traffic he did at 50mph on the way up the hill.
All the accidents on that road, and there are lots of them, are on the twisty bits not that straight bit. They mostly involve stoned teenagers 5-up in lukewarm hatch-backs going into the corners too quick - but probably still within the 60mph limit."
So, what this twit did is as good as fine ? We just heard (and some of us saw) an idiot endangering not only his own life. A 'nifty bit' is what you call that.
There are lots of accidents, as you say, but mostly by stoned teenagers. Driving well within the speed limit, below 60. Going into corners too fast. Those corners on the 'dead straight for over a mile' section, I guess.
Would you care to supply your statistics with some official numbers of grave accidents, lethal accidents, on that strip of the road ?
Japanese bikes can be very easily switched from mph to km/h. If the bike is a parallel import it will have been in km/h in the first place. Having watched the video there is no way that bike is doing 179mph. Even in km/h however, that is still a stupid speed given the wet conditions.
What I want to know is why on God's clean earth did our American cousins decrease the Pint from 20oz to 16? that's the reason that the Gallons are now different. Both use 8 pints, but the US pint being smaller. Was someone important embarrased about their drinking abilities?
>>> ... miles, inches, feet and yards, ..., a sort of English, because yes - you guessed it - we were your colonial masters.
Up to here you are absolutely correct
>>> Somewhere along the way you lot got a bit bolshy, and changed the fluid measures.
I am sorry to disagree with you but IT IS AGAIN because New World colonies were under Empire's control at that time. When U.S.A. rebelled against the mainland the number of measures, all called gallon (!) were in use - wet, dry, grain gallon, etc. Because each one of these was measuring different ammount (even some volume were by volume while others were by weight), so Queen Victoria set the new Imperial gallon, now sometimes referred as UK gallon. U.S.A. were "sticking to traditions" all over their long-long (2 centuries) history, so are still using the gallon from 1780s. The latter is rather incorrectly called US gallon, while it is still an UK gallon but an obsolete one!
------------
P.S. Dear Befuddled American, please learn some history and educate yourself. Contrary to the widespread belief in U.S.A., even the democracy WAS NOT invented in your homeland! Actually Magna Carta was "invented" / "discovered" (maybe just written) guess where - yeeees, good job, in Great Britain indeed.
Although I only have a baby Fazer, the speedo reads 145mph max (when in fact it's doing 138mph).
There is a lovely bend off the M11 northbound as it turns into the A11 where the roads sweeps left and then a looooong right hander, which in perfect conditions can be had a 110mph (on the clock) - so a good friend tells me at any rate ;)
So, if anyone thinks this guy is doing 130mph on that left hand bend in the wet on a single carriage road then I'm inclined to think they need to have a go on a bike and see what it really feels like at those kind of speeds.
As for the top speed - I don't think so. 176kmh is about 110mph for the straight and 130kmh is about 80mph for the bend. Much more likely in those conditions. Although on a gixxer the kind of acceleration he gives it on the straight would normally have you sitting at about 130/140mph - so something aint quite right.
Since I know the woodhead pretty well, I've done a little google map of the stretch in the video which should clarify my comments a bit.
http://www.google.co.uk/maps/ms?msa=0&ll=53.498717,-1.775064&spn=0.022516,0.057507&t=k&z=14&om=1&msid=107285224253788348837.00043918d0dddcaa519b9
@ Uwe Dipple - as you can see, the straight bit is straight, if you want to see the bendy bits that catch the boy racers out, you need to pan west along the Woodhead back towards Manchester. Some lovely bends back that way, great taken at speed - unless you get it wrong, of course...
Cheers!
Those American folks use the gallon we used before 1824, the one we gave them, the Queen Anne gallon. They're clinging on to that imperialist artifact just like we're clinging on to that Roman imperialist artifact, the mile. Rome being Italy and Italy being in Europe gives a nice circularity!
Why all the fuss about measurement, we've being using metric since Victorian times, and I remember being taught it in school since the early 1970's, surely moaning about it is a stuffy affectation now?
Totally missing the point here weren't we. 100 miles per hour down the interstate is a matter of course, at 90 you aren't even in the pack, you're slow lane. The point was, that the speeds these young kids were at AREN'T very fast at all. MY point was that quite obviously the MPH is wrong and it's KPH(or fiddled with).
As to your spirited comparison, like I said, I've done 160'ish(a former poster pointed out that the speedo isn't that terribly accurate on a bike at those speeds) on a bike. And I don't know many people that do that without soiling themselves(we're not talking these easy 60-160 romps that matter not, but straight out riding for periods of time). Alas, a couple significant hospital visits put an end to my murdercycle days, and having grown older and having a family, I tend to be conservative now. As a young man though, one of the favourite pasttimes was blasting down the mountain at a high rate of speed, where they don't put the "twisty road" sign, but point out that you have 17 miles of dangerous curves.
Not that any of that matters, pretty much every kid does the same things...Which should have filled this commetary with "OBVIOUSLY NOT RIGHT".
For all those intend on teaching befuddled American history - miles were not introduced by Julius Caesar, because his 'invasions' (he tried twice) were little more than a propaganda stunt. He went away, and Britain was left to itself for almost a century before the Romans came back under the emperor Claudius (AD 43). Then we got miles, flush toilets, and our first taste of European integration.
Here's where the footage was taken:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&saddr=A628+%4053.497950,+-1.795160&daddr=53.505689,-1.736623&mrsp=0,1&sz=18&mra=mi&sll=53.505511,-1.736757&sspn=0.002122,0.004404&ie=UTF8&t=k&om=1&ll=53.498922,-1.766481&spn=0.033952,0.070467&z=14
At the start of the video he is coming across Salters Brook bridge - you can see the bridge parapet on the left hand side. He passes the junction with Windle Edge road at 33 seconds, and is just approaching the second layby on the 3-lane downhill straight by the end of the video. He's heading east, so from the colour of the sky it appears the footage was taken early morning.
He passes the start of the double white lines on the 3-lane downhill stretch 1:22 into the video, and gets to the start of the layby by the end - an elapsed time of 32 seconds to cover 1.9km, which puts his average speed at about 213KPH (132MPH). The fastest bit of the run is between the first and second laybys, a distance of 850m which he covers in 12 seconds, putting his average speed at 255KPH (158MPH), which agrees fairly well with the speedo.
If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, did it make a sound?
If the biker hadn't recorded his "stunt" the police would be none the wiser, it just goes to show how little work the police do, they sit around playing with themselves waiting for the general public to do their investigations for them. .
"even the democracy WAS NOT invented in your homeland! Actually Magna Carta was "invented" / "discovered" (maybe just written) guess where - yeeees, good job, in Great Britain indeed." Ahem... Democracy... from Greek dEmokratia, from dEmos + -kratia which I believe predates the MC by a year or two...
"Indeed, I happen to be acquainted with someone who was involved in bringing one of these UTube videos to the police's attention."
Yes, it is nice to see that we would have had as many collaborators as the French and Italians ever had in WWII. Kind of puts a huge dent in the superior nation notion!
Disgusted of Disgustington.
Why is it that whenever someone tries to do what used to be called their "Civic Duty" a few years ago (When the Germans tried to invade) some idiot starts breaking down and accusing them of being collaborators with "the enemy"???
The police aren't the enemy of the people in this country.. The country is far more liberal than many European countries (DON't EVER BREAK THE LAW IN SWITZERLAND!) and our Policemen don't usually carry guns. However, if they weren't around doing their job all hell would break loose and the idiots with the guns WOULD become our masters.. If Germany tried to invade the UK today, my feeling is, people like you would probably roll over and let them, where as people who side with the Authorities that THEY (and you) are responsible for voting into power would probably take up arms.
So take your anarchic c..p and shove it.. If this guy doesn't get caught and stopped, he's gonna wind up dead, which I don't really care about, but he's probably going to take some poor innocent with him, which I do. As someone said earlier, if he hadn't been such a t..t and filmed his stunt, nobody would have been the wiser.. He'll get what he deserves and I hope they bang him up with the other criminals.
So f..k off all you boy racers, some of us bikers want to go out and enjoy the road without getting hassled by the police because of idiots like you.. Go and take a track day if you want to see what your bike can do and leave the roads open and empty for those of us that treat it with respect.
Unbelievable, we get a story about some idiot doing 179mph on his bike, and more to the point in a way that I don't think anyone could consider "safely" by any stretch of the imagination, and out come the knee-jerk "haven't the police got anything better to do"ers. We've got posters moaning that the police haven't got anything better to do than watch videos, then when it's suggested that a member of the public reported the video to the police, we get "it just goes to show how little work the police do, they sit around playing with themselves waiting for the general public to do their investigations for them."
So, the police should be out catching murders and rapists. I wonder how many deaths last year were down to undetected murderers compared to drivers/bikers with a tragic overconfidence in their own abilities? Yeah, kill the pigs, man!
"So f..k off all you boy racers, some of us bikers want to go out and enjoy the road without getting hassled by the police because of idiots like you.. Go and take a track day if you want to see what your bike can do and leave the roads open and empty for those of us that treat it with respect."
I totally agree. I love riding, but get realy annoyed by these idiots. I noticed it the other day, when I was in a friend’s car. We were going along at 60ish (No Thats not a euphemism for 80 it was actually about 60) and a Biker came past. He must have been doing 100+ two feet from the car, and nearly hit a pedestrian crossing. I got a torrent of moaning from the other people in the car about "Idiot Bikers"...
BTW to those people complaining about unfriendly bikers, bike to work some time. It will make you feel allot better. Everyone says hi, and you can almost always find a group to ride with, within the speed limit, at least for a few miles, all because they are people who use there bikes as tools not toys.
Wot a lot of crap... I'm a brit, and I'm a biker, and I'm not so dumb as to believe this is a 179 Mph jolly. For a start the scenery isn't passing anywhere near quick enough. Closing speed against incoming traffic should be about 50Mph more, and theres no way on this earth that those cars were passing at anywhere near that speed.
And before all you morons leap down my throat and tell me of course it MPH, this is Blighty, ever heard of Imports? My mate has a ZX-6, grey import, with KPH on the clock. It's not illegal to have a clock that runs in KPH, and that's the most likely explanation for this guy clocking up 179. That's about 110MPH, which on that stretch of the Woodhead Pass (downhill, open and visible) isn't such a feat.
Yes, I know and put some thought whether to follow the chain Greeks->Romans->French->Vikings/Normans (William I), and skipped it because it is way too windy :) It seems I should have put at least some shortened version. My only excuse can be that I was afraid it would be too complex for an U.S. citizen who does not know even his own country's history what to talk about other continents.
Befuddled? Aren't all Americans? YOU got MPH from US although I'm surprised you didn't take the letter 'u' out of the word "hour" like you have done with so many other words making it miles per hor.......
As for 179 over Woodhead, I genuinely doubt it's even possible. I drove over there yesterday and there are parts I wouldn't drive at 70mph let alone 179.
As a motorcyclist/biker myself, looking at the sped of passing scenery and the angles of lean I reckon the guy/gal has reset the speedometer from mph to kph - easy enough on most modern bikes.
However nothing alters the fact that he/she is a dangerous road user and an awful biker, the overtakes are ragged and poorly planned, the timing is rough and the "line" is all over the place. If he ever meets anyone driving or riding that badly coming in the opposite direction ....
Good riddance I say his sort needs to be bred out Viva Darwin!
moron bikers do, overtaking on solid white lines into oncoming traffic (I'm not even going to mention the trecherous road conditions, that *IS* a dangerous piece of road no questions asked, and in rain?!?! WTF),
Oh and before I'm slammed, Yes I know some perfectly sensible bikers and have nothing against them as a general rule most are sane riders who aren't in a rush to meet their maker (or the 200yds of tarmac they want to smear themselves along)
Those two should be sent to jail, not pass go, and spend at least 23hrs a day dropping soap so Bubba can make them his wives.
What someone really needs to do is take a Veyron up the M6 Toll. I've never seen a police car on that road.
The fastest I've ever done is about 130mph (127mph actually iirc) in an old police Volvo (225bhp Volvo 850 T5). This speed (Obviously on a private road ;) ) was clocked on my GPS as the Speedo reads well over the actual speed of the car (police conspiracy to reduce speeding?). At the end of the film the speed seems faster than 130 to me but I'm not a biker.
The only thing that makes me wonder about people claiming it's KPH it the first few seconds, look at the speedo when the guy is following the vehicles in the front, 30kph seems just too slow where as 30mph makes far more sense. Could be wrong though.
As for 170+mph iirc the guys at Top Gear (BBC) did a test with a TVR and a speed camera. If you go past at around 170mph and above the camera wont go off. As an aside the US TV show Mythbusters tried this with a 200+ MPH capable Lambo and could only get it up to 140, hmm.
Probably quite enough comments (about everything!) here but as another biker I think I can safely say they couldn't have been doing 179MPH. The speeds earlier in the film in no way relate to scenery/other vehicles passing by. And the guy was a total cnut for overtaking on double whites.
Oh, and on my Triumph TT600 (yes I bought one..) you can switch between KPH and MPH at the push of a button.
Years ago I had a gixxer 750. According to the clock I managed 165MPH. According to the summons I was "pulling away from a police vehicle doing 140MPH..." Funny thing happened though. I was nicked at the same time as someone else in a Ferrari Testarossa ("Are you two racing?" "What me sir? No Sir". I let his expensive lawyers go to court first. Turned out the police cars speed recording equipment wasn't calibrated beyond 120MPH, so that's the speed we were done for. Oh, £300 and a 3 month ban since you ask.
are all the same people what other profession lets you drive a car you don't own as fast as you like and beat the crap out of people riding over 130 mph is too scary for most people 170 with a patch of tire the size of walnut still on the road people have to be looking for death.
...Unless he's shoved a Rolls Royce RB211 turbofan up his tail pipe, that is.
At 150+ MPH a motorbike doesn't get up to max speed that quickly - Most bikes don't even reach their stated maximums (i.e 184MPH = 175MPH real-world - tops. I don't think it was an Agusta F4 he was riding either - very few bikes can actually do 175+
...What's more troubling is that he's overtaking on corners, crossing white lines and driving like that in the wet. The police better get off their asses if they want to nick him because he's not going to be around much longer....
there is no chance that he's doing 175mph - maybe in some backwards world where "mph" stands for kilometres per hour, but not in reality.
take a look at the onramp speed (at the beginning) - THAT'S 20-30mph? looks much closer to 20-30km/h to me...
he's cruising at 130, then hits 175 in 5 seconds? certainly not mph.
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