Hi Jmackenroth. Welcome to FTE!

Generally, if you have a question that's not relevant to the thread, it's a good idea to post a new topic in a forum that would be most appropriate for the subject. This forum is for general automotive discussion, rather than technical problems. For your question, you should post it in the 1987-1996 F-Series Ford Trucks forum, which you can find on the main forums page.

Also, be sure to read the "stickies" at the top of each forum, and the general guidelines of the forums.

I'm sure you can get some help with your truck! Just be sure to post it in the right place. Help will be on the way

 

To add insult to injury, I was issued a summons for hitch hiking along a state highway. That I was hitch hiking, meant (in the courts opinion) I
volunteered to put myself into a hazardous situation. That the driver was a psychopath, was irrelevant to the courts in view of my case against him.

 

Shouldn't that second video be titled "dumpEXgirlfriend.wmv??
I'll bet she buried his hiney under the doghouse!

That first one is awesome...bringing the front end off the ground at that speed, then hitting 170!!! Brought back some memories.

Scott

 

"one little goof and he was doing 100 instead of 205"

What do you consider a 'little goof"?

I did the math, came up with 205mph. Then, I redid it with 4.6 instead of 4.4 as the time, and I came up with 195. Even if he was a half a second off, the difference is ONLY 21 MPH.

If it took him 8 seconds to go 1/4 mile, he would have been doing 112 mph. So, even if you double the time the cop clocked him at, which is way outside of any reasonable margin of error, he was going well over 100 mph. I think for a trained cop, the margin of error would be +- .2 seconds or so, that's a difference of +- 10 mph.

No, I believe unless the cop had a reason to lie, that he was very accurate on his estimate. If you all would like, I'll explain the math.

 

Who says that the cop pressed the button exactly when the bike was at the marker?
Was the stop watch working correctly?.....some watches are very touchy.
There is also the fact that the cop could have pressed the button after the bike reached the first marker and then got a little anxious and pressed it too soon before he hit the second marker.

There are so many things that could factor into the time that he came up with, which is why I think that it is bogus. I think the actual speed on the ticket might be difficult to hold up in court, but the other tickets most definitely will.

By the way, do cops actually take a course for clocking people with a stop watch? Or how do they get trained? I also want to know how you got your margin of error?

 

That stopwatch crap is so inaccurate I do not know how it holds up....er, wait a min.... It holds up because there is this "agreement" between the cops and the courts to make sure the revenue stream keeps coming from speeding tickets.

In this case, 205 or 180, what's the diff, the guy was way over and should pay the fine.

What gets me is if these boys were running say, 72 or so in a 65 they probably would have tried to pinch them just the same. And in that case, yea, a little tremble on the stop watch will make enough of a difference to matter.

Cops are always after bikes. I knew a guy who was running 75-80 in heavy traffic in a hilly area. Not smart, sure. Well, he finally sees the lights and pulls over, and gets the guns out felony treatment: "You were running from us...." This was at a time when the CHP junkers (Dodge steamers with 360 smog motors) couldn't even make 100 on the flat. And so here is officer donut trying to flog his slowmobile up hill thru traffic and because he can't catch up, that makes the bike a "runner". That bike would have run 120 plus all day long if the guy wanted to run. Never heard the end of the story, but I'm sure he got nailed as the courts here are as fixed as any on these tickets.

Bunk.

They ought to relabel the cars "To Observe and Collect".

Hey, put down the radar and go run a burglary watch or an auto theft sting or something usefull. Or if you must write tickets, cruise at 65 with some cover in an unmarked on our freeways at night with all your buddies waiting down stream and see if you can catch the half dozen ricer racers going down the freeway at 100 over under and thru the traffic.....
Other than that, I have no opinion....

 

Did you bother to read my last post??? How are you gonna have that great of a discrepancy? Someone said previously that a few tenths of a second would make the difference between 205 and 100. This is not true and I can prove it.

Second, I agree cops do target bikes. I have only had one speeding ticket ever, and that was on my motorcycle, and I wasn't going that fast! The bottom line is that the cop thought he was going really fast, clocked him, and nailed him. Whether or not he was doing EXACTLY 205 doesn't matter. What matters is that no matter how skewed the numbers are, the moron was going WAY over the speed limit WITHOUT a license. Nuff said.

Third......what's the point in arguing this? He was speeding, they got him, end of story. So.....

I'll shut up now!

 

The only way that "you" can prove anything is if you had the stop watch in "your" hand. Other than that you are relying on the word of the cop. I agree he was going too fast and would be difficult trying to prove that he wasn't going that fast being that he had no liscence.....sorry that I don't trust the cop but in this country I think the saying is:

innocent until "proven" guilty!

If O.J. can get away with murder, this guy can get off his ticket.

 

Sounds like FTE needs to run a little experiment. Let's get back out there, with another bike, heavily modified, an airplane and a stopwatch and check this out. If Bill Nye can get answers, so can we. As for the driver...NOT IT

 

NOT IT! Infinite......PLUS ONE!

-Matt

 

To calculate speed:

60MPH = 1 Mile per minute or per 60 seconds.
Speed=(60seconds/# of seconds it took you to drive 1 mile) X 60

So the bikes speed=(60/17.56)X60=205.011
or 15/4.39X60=205.011

The rule is to measure your time over a distance relative to a known speed.
Again 60 is the easiest. 60MPH=1 mile per minute=1/4 mile in 15 secs

The bike did 1/4 in 4.39 which is 3.4168 times faster than at 60mph or 205.

You can do the same thing in your lifted truck to see actual speed. You must maintain a constant speed over a known distance, normally using mile markers. The longer you maintain the speed, the more accurate the calculation. If you covered a mile in 48 seconds, you are going 75 regardless of the speedometer. My X is going 75 when it shows 69.

Now take into account that this cop was in the air, and only measured 1/4 mile, (milemarkers are normally in tenth mile increments) the accuracy is very poor. The only time you would normally see a 1/4 mile marker is at bridges or overpasses. If the bike traveled .2 miles in 4.39 secs, speed is 164.01! That is only 5 hundreths difference in distance.
It takes work to make a honda 1000 go that fast. I have only seen 2 production bikes go over 200, and both were on the net, not in person, and both had turbos added.

 

On another note, I received a ticked on an F3 (600cc) that simply states

Speed: 119+ in a 70.

After I saw a cop going the other way, I was greeted by 5 cops in 4 cars spread across the interstate with guns out 2 counties away. There were 7 other vehicles stopped due to roadblock. Had I know that I was being persued, I would have gotten off the interstate but I never seen him turn around nor chasing. I got out on bond within 3 hours with a court date. The speed was dropped to 114 and it costed $325, 100 fine for speeding, 25 court cost and 200 for enforcement crap. That was a great deal considering the cop that first lazed me stated I had disappeared before he hit the brakes and turned around in the median. He said he never seen me again but hoped I had not seen him either. Had I gotten off the interstate and been caught, they could have gotten me for eluding. Nothing about manslaughter nor wreckless driving.

The speedo never got above 170 on any of my bikes. 119+ was the charge since his gun nor cruiser will go above that.

 

If he was driving a newer crown vic, it would of gone over 119, i've gone 130 in a 1999 crown vic police interceptor. and the speedo goes to 140, radar guns usually go to 200ph.

 

It was his words not mine out in the county north of new mexico near nothing. Jail was 3 miles from the garage that had the bike. I never resisted nor asked a question. The judge had a sense of humor, he did not ask why I was going that fast; mearly stated that the winner of that race recieved this ticket,huh? Then he reduced it to 114 saving me another $100. Worst part about it, I was in the army and the jailer booking me was a reservist that I outranked. I lived and I learned.

 

I think he might have been in a hurry.