Motorcyclist Clocked at 205 MPH!

A Minnesota State Patrolman hovered in the sky along Highway 61 when he saw something faster than a speeding bullet - and it wasn't a bird, a plane or a superhero.

It was 20-year-old Samuel Tilley on a Honda RC-51 and he was going too fast for Al Loney, the patrolman, to keep up, in a plane.

"It was faster than any other vehicle I had ever seen speeding, no question, " Loney said.

In the Cessna 182 that Loney was flying, he used sight, two stopwatches and painted hash marks along the highway to measure the speed.

On the road, there are one-mile stretches here and there with rectangles painted every quarter mile. That allows "eyes in the sky" like Loney to clock speeders, using the marks on the road and stopwatches, from high above the roadway.

In this case Tilley was clocked over the entire distance of one quarter mile in 4.39 seconds. That is an average speed of 205 miles per hour.

Some question the accuracy of a stopwatch but Loney says in ten years his watch times have never been wrong. "I believe that the speed is very true and accurate, even more than a radar."

Motorcycle enthusiasts have also questioned if that Honda RC-51 can even go more than 200 miles per hour, but the patrol says if the bike is heavily modified, it can do the speeds without question.

Tilley was ticketed along with his racing partner for speeding. Neither had a motorcycle endorsement on their licenses. Neither of them were arrested and a Wabasha County Judge will decide the fine.