If you haven’t ridden Kawasaki’s amazing ZX-14R (in England it is called a ZZR1400), or some of the other new hyper-bikes, this video might give you some indication of the kind of power on offer. While many bikes cannot reach well over 100 mph, the rider in the video below can still accelerate hard at such speeds, even with a passenger on board. Don’t try this at home.
I agree, something’s off about that speed. Waaaaaay off.
Ben Spies said he never rides on public roads because it’s too dangerous. Looks like Ben desires to avoid criminals like the guy in this video!
I’ve watched this over and over, it seems speed posted (as mentioned of the camera bike) is faster than normal. For instance, when it first approaches the cars, he is going 80-90-100 mph barely keeping up with the bike “that’s speeding”, and the cars. So it seems, I presume, the cruising speed of the cars is 80-100mph? This video expects me to believe normal traffic in the UK is traveling at 80-100 mph? I don’t doubt the bike could easily do 148 mph, but when the video stops the bike between the cars, and the chasing bike is showing the chase bike speeds, at over 100mph, they are going about even, so are the rest of the cars, trash trucks? I guess 100 mph is ok, and 148 is just too much. Changing the mph to kph, it seems about right, then the 100mph shown would be 60kph, in reality about 60 mph. Or am I wrong and everybody drives 100mph in the UK? ( I don’t doubt the hidden camera, or cops chasing bikes, or cops using hidden speed guns).
Just to let you know Joe – normal motorway traffic here goes faster than 80……
how much faster does it often go, and what is the official posted, ‘speed limit’ ?
Slowest triple digit stuff I’ve ever seen.
What’s TD mean, Target Dunce?
Two Douches.
There are lots of erectile extenderz out there to help this sorta thing.
The police here increasingly use unmarked bikes on popular biking roads and will ride amongst a pack of riders sometimes spurring on the rest of the pack on then stopping the lot and nicking them en-mass. They have a variety of bikes including S1000RR’s and the only tell tale is a back-pack, sometimes with an antennae sticking out and sometimes a flip-up helmet – things to look out for! The only unusual aspect of this incident was that they were two-up. Also the rider was a knob; I’d suggest it wasn’t just the speed but the weaving in and out of traffic that compounded the offence here.
All the speeds shown look correct although as has been pointed out are the policeman’s speed and not necessarily the Kawasaki’s speed. The rider was banned from driving for 15 months and will have to complete an extended driving test before being allowed back on the roads.
He was also fined £400 costs and ordered to pay a £60 victim surcharge as well as completing 120 hours unpaid work as part of a 12-month community order and there’s a ZZR 1400 for sale somewhere!
Ha Ha – no way. the closing speed on he other cars is too slow for the high indicated speed. Ask me how I know. “Started closin’ in” since 1974 on an H1″
that has to be in kilometers. the trash truck was going over 120?
they got some badass trash trucks over there…
turbo diesels running twin compounds.
What makes you think that it was the truck’s speed that was being shown? That is the cop’s speed readout! In fact the cop overtook the truck at an indicated 78mph, so the truck was doing approx. 60mph.
End of story…
Is 148 two-up fast? Is this like a world record or something?
I took an ex-gf up to 133mph (indicated) on a Katana 750 once and she screamed and cried after we slowed down and stopped. Not my kinda woman.
Nope, not buying it. The speed differential with the surrounding cars simply doesn’t support 148 mph. Maybe he zipped up to 85 or 90 in a couple places but that’s it. Hoax.
It’s no hoax. The guy has been prosecuted.
they prosecute people for all kinds of crap that is BS. Happened to a dude on a gsxr1000 in nashville… claimed he was going over 150… but the cop supposedly ran him down less than two miles down the road from where he clocked him.
Do the math.
Cop sitting at the top of an entrance ramp shooting radar… if the guy had been doing 150… he would’ve been 5 miles down the road before the cop made it onto the interstate.
But physics really doesn’t matter when it comes to traffic enforcement.
Hmmm, when he was splitting lanes next to that huge dump truck, the speedo said 130+ MPH…
I don’t think that dump truck was going anywhere near 130 MPH and the closing speed between the ZZR1400 and the truck was not that much, say about 15-20 MPH.
Now if you switch those numbers to KPH, that makes a lot more sense as the dump truck could easily be doing 100-110 KPH (60-66 MPH) and the bike closing/passing at 130 KPH (78 MPH).
I think someone is trying to play an April Fools joke or something.
I think you need to watch it again, cos you’ve got the numbers wrong! This item was posted on the BBC web-site several days ago, not April 1st. It looks all too believable to me.
We’ll get to the bottom of this. Someone read the results of this google search:
intermittent lines length british road markings
then count the stripes and watch the clock as they roll down the “carriageway”.
I agree, it all seems it should be in KPH, not MPH.
What bike was the cop riding?
Prolly an old K75.
Notice it’s the cop is doing 109 as the ZZR goes between the truck and car. The ZZR has it’s brake lights on. It’s also the cop doing 148 to catch up to the ZZR. And if it’s so dangerous (and it is), why is the cop following and actually going faster to catch up?
“And if it’s so dangerous (and it is), why is the cop following and actually going faster to catch up?”
Because if they didn’t, there would be a whole lot more people doing this?
re: “Because if they didn’t, there would be a whole lot more people doing this?”
bingo… (Oracle voice)
I’m wondering what the cop was riding in order to even keep this guy in sight. Is this verified police video? Seems like the “cop” made a few maneuvers that weren’t what you would expect from a LEO.
Or, after some while, a whole lot fewer…….
Surly with the video evidence they can go get the guy later at his home or work?
Assuming the cop had lights and a siren running, it looks like British drivers are just as clueless as US drivers.
Is this why Kawasaki makes this bike?
Brits have always used mph for road speed. Most other measurements have been metric for a few years.
re: “Don’t try this at home…”
…or the racetrack unless it’s the desmosedici 2-seater for charity with Randy “Mimosa”.
148 MPH? When did the Brits stop measuring speed in KPH?
Stop? When did we ever start? Whaddya think we are: Europeans?
Indeed Nick – the old mph is quite refreshing over here!!!! It took me no time at all to completely forget kilometres/hour when I moved to the UK in 2000….