I like bikes too, but driving 144 on one is just plain crazy. The land speed record for a modified bike is 333.117 at the Bonneville Salt Flats that I know of.

Even at 30mph I sustained a few good injuries when I skided out of control on a city street during a sudden and unexpected hail flurry. I was thrown from the bike and rolled and flipped 20-25 feet, but avoided most serious injuries or death due to body armor I wear.

I don't believe that Springer Softail in the picture could even come close to 144.

The problem with stories like this is that there is little context offered.

Speeding (any vehicle) at 90mph more than the limit on any road close to a city where there is other traffic present really is homicidal and the operator should probably lose their endorsement so they can spend some time thinking about what they did while they ride on public transport.

But going that speed by a driver/rider who knows how to handle the vehicle on an empty freeway in optimal conditions with no other vehicles in site isn't any more dangerous than going the speed limit. In Germany, it's actually safer per mile traveled on the AutoBahn (where drivers routinely exceed 200mph) than on US freeways.

Southeast New York (where the rider was stopped - but it did not say he was actually speeding through the city). Looks to be a Rural town that is the junction of two freeways. http://www.townofsoutheast-ny.com/Home/

There is a big difference between being a jackass in traffic, and opening it up in the "middle of nowhere" - I think more so than how fast the rider was going.

thecomuterguy:

Due to EU economics, the Autobahns are now quite congested and a STAU channel exists (with local car radios programmable to switch directly to the announcements when they activate). Fewer stretches of highway are limitless. The "safety" record of the German highway is more due to the cultural adherence to rules (stay out of the left lane unless you are driving like a bat out of hell, no cell phones, no DUI, no passing on right) than whether they drive fast or not. Their emergency medical system is also much more advanced than ours - a physician arrives with the ambulance/helicopter and injured are wisked back to the hospital quickly. Cars move away from the center lane for ambulance/emergency vehicles rapidly. Clean up crews are meticulous and expedient. But plenty of people do die on German highways, and speed is often a factor. The carnage here on American highways, however, dwarfs their problem.

Speed reduces the chance of safely negotiating unforeseen circumstances - be it a deer, pedestrian or a dump truck. These can all be experienced even on limited access highways. I got my old Hoopty up to 245 clicks on the Autobahn, and realized that having done that once was one time too many. Yeah, but it did feel cool at the time. Then a damn Smart car passed me. God knows what they'd done to the engine.

From what I understand, the worst 20% of drivers (who cause 80% of the accidents) never get licenses in Germany - and that's as much part of the safety as anything.

The point I was trying to make was that the old mantra "speed kills" as used by countless law enforcement organizations is (pardon the pun) a cop-out.

The reason that speed is listed as a primary cause of most accidents in the US is that the organization that investigates most accidents has a vested interest in it being that way. On the Autobahn, when there is an accident, do you think that "excessive speed" is often listed as the cause? Physics isn't any different in Germany than in the US, is it?

US Freeways are by and large straight, flat and with good surface, and excellent visibility - just like the Autobahn. There are probably more German cars there, but I believe they still have many of the same models as here, so something must be different.

News stories that parrot that mantra "speed kills" lead people to believe that if they exceed some "magic number", that the vehicle will somehow spontaneously crash, and so when someone is ticketed for one of these speeds, the instant reaction is "they could have been killed!".

The story doesn't give enough information - but if it was in the middle of nowhere, and no one was in danger, my reaction is "who cares?", and "don't the police have anything else better to do?". On the other hand, if the rider was zipping past other vehicles, then he should get whatever the maximum penalty is.

According to the story, he was stopped near the town of "Southeast", New York. It sounds like it's little more than a truck stop at the junction of two roads. To me, it all depends on what he was doing. If he saw a big open expanse of road and open fields in front of him, and he decided to open it up, it's really not that big of a deal (ticket yes, loss of license, no). If he was in traffic, then by all means, take his license.

I've hit 186 on a bike on a long straight on a closed course (many, many times) and it's just not that big of a deal. I do think that people should for the most part leave that behavior at the track, but it's not like everybody drives exactly the speed limit all the time anyway. Going 80+ weaving through traffic in an SUV with passengers is way more dangerous than going 144 in the middle of no where - I see people do that all the time. Where are the stories about people doing that?