sport bikes on the BA..100 mph+

[mobboss]

ahhh springtime, bad enough dodging potholes and construction cones, but now is the time of year all the 20 year old hard ons scream down the BA at dumbass speeds on their sport /super bikes... wouldnt the police think to come down on them, you can hear the motors screaming from a distance...and aggravated speeding is a huge money maker for the city coffers

and im no killjoy, i own 7 bikes, love to ride but i keep it safe with full gear and always a helmet. i see them all season here with flip flops- shirts-tank tops... donors!

[Breadburner]

Organ donors....

[cannon_fodder]

At 100+mph the safety gear (unless you are in the racing suit) is just so much decoration.  Improves your odds, but they still aren't good.  Not sure an organ that has been that well tenderized would even be much use for donation.

And yes.  I live near the BA.  I can not hear traffic on a daily basis when I'm in my lawn, but when these guys go by I can hear it in my house.  You'd think it would be an amazing revenue stream to just nab the entire "gang."

[BierGarten]

What is really cool is when a group of them get together at 3 AM and enter the BA, go as fast as they can to the next exit, get back on, back and forth, back and forth...  As I lay in my bed awake because of this, all I can think of is how cool those guys are and how I wish I were them.

[Conan71]

I can hear them from 15th & Harvard when they go around the bend near the Lewis exit.  They are what we call "road pizza".

Did they ever find the creep EMT who emailed the photos of the kid with his head stuck in the back of a semi trailer on 169 last year?

[Wrinkle]

I was heading north on 169 after dark one night last summer when the single headlight behind me disappeared suddenly. Kept looking to re-locate it in my rearview mirror but couldn't. Next thing I know there's a motorcycle passing me on the right....on its' rear wheel. And, I was goin' 70+. I watched as he continued for another 1/4 mile or more in wheelie posture, thinking at any moment he'd hit a bump and I'd have to wash my windshield.

[sauerkraut]

Wipe out on a two-wheeler and your pretty much history helmet or not. Even slow 30mph crashes are serious if they hit a object.

[cannon_fodder]

Wipe out on a two-wheeler and your pretty much history helmet or not. Even slow 30mph crashes are serious if they hit a object.

Not necessarily so.  A friend went over the hood of a truck at 60mph with no helmet on and sustained no head injury whatsoever.  His foot was nearly severed and he had some other serious issues, but he survived to tell the tale.

I know of another incident where a group of motorcycles hit the side of a van at highway speeds (the side of the can looked like someone hit it with several over sized baseball bats).  Miraculously no one died.  Though severally were sent for lengthy stays in the hospital and will suffer long term physical and mental damage.

Yet, I knew a guy who was riding down a residential street at, by all accounts, a safe speed and swerved into a parked car to avoid running over a kid chasing a ball and died as a result.  He had on jeans, leathers, and a full face helmet.

Certainly even regular safe motorcycle use is more hazardous than driving a car.  Even if you are a safe rider.  I barely trust motorists in Tulsa when I'm in my SUV - I could never bring myself to use a motorcycle as a primary mode of transit no matter how much I enjoy it.

[sgrizzle]

[cannon_fodder]

Wow.  Points for Sgrizzle for a Gary Busey reference.

[Gaspar]

Organ donors....

+1 Karma.  When I was an EMT, this was always the time of year for good organ harvesting from the 2 wheel crowd.  Unfortunately the new bikes go so fast that sometimes they damage perfectly good organs in the process.

I propose that we pass a state law that places governors on rice rockets limiting their speed to 120 mph.

SAVE THE LIVERS!

[TurismoDreamin]

I use to be involved in this scene during high school as more of a spectator though I have grown out of it. The police are aware of the problem. Every Friday and Saturday night, police descend on Memorial between 61st and 41st (people cruise this area and the turn around points are the QT near 61st and Memorial, and the old Wal-Mart near 41st if you'd like to see for yourself). People who are looking for a cheap thrill show up to race or just watch people race. Everyone there knows Sonic is a safe area where you can park; that Midas is safe only if no one does anything stupid...and that other small businesses are the same as well; that Fontana is restricted; and don't be caught parked someplace by yourself unless you want to be harassed. The bikes all gather at the gas station on 51st and Memorial. Some of the older riders still insist on doing what's called the "Pepsi Run" where they race from that gas station at 51st to Chandler Park (and sometimes back again). Sometimes its a race from the gas station, around the IDL, then back. Some of the bikers (as well as cars too) run the BA between Memorial and either Elm or Lynn Lane (and also sometimes back). Now that the cops are catching on, groups of them who don't necessarily race but instead ride fast together, now do what I call the Riverside loop. This takes them from the gas station to either 121st Street and Memorial, 121st Street and Yale, or 71st Street and Riverside...then all the way up Riverside to downtown and back to the gas station again.

Once again, cops are aware of what goes on. There are tons of them patrolling that area every Friday and Saturday night. Even the QT near 61st and Memorial is patrolled by officers on horseback at times. Sometimes the helicopters hang around to spotlight people and intimidate them which works wonders. They know that when it's warm out, people are going to be racing...that when it's rainy, cars are going to be "drifting" and sliding around corners (intentionally and while maintaining their speed might I add). I don't think it's every going to go away. As long as kids will be kids, there will always be a Memorial for them to show off. Hell, I've even seen some kids drifting their parents van because they couldn't bring their usual car out....as long as they have something, it's fair game to them.

[EricP]

What is really cool is when a group of them get together at 3 AM and enter the BA, go as fast as they can to the next exit, get back on, back and forth, back and forth...  As I lay in my bed awake because of this, all I can think of is how cool those guys are and how I wish I were them.

I don't really think they are trying to make you want to be them or think they are cool.... sure there are a few of those, but the others are just idiots with speed addictions.

[TurismoDreamin]

Not necessarily so.  A friend went over the hood of a truck at 60mph with no helmet on and sustained no head injury whatsoever.  His foot was nearly severed and he had some other serious issues, but he survived to tell the tale.

I know of another incident where a group of motorcycles hit the side of a van at highway speeds (the side of the can looked like someone hit it with several over sized baseball bats).  Miraculously no one died.  Though severally were sent for lengthy stays in the hospital and will suffer long term physical and mental damage.

Yet, I knew a guy who was riding down a residential street at, by all accounts, a safe speed and swerved into a parked car to avoid running over a kid chasing a ball and died as a result.  He had on jeans, leathers, and a full face helmet.

Certainly even regular safe motorcycle use is more hazardous than driving a car.  Even if you are a safe rider.  I barely trust motorists in Tulsa when I'm in my SUV - I could never bring myself to use a motorcycle as a primary mode of transit no matter how much I enjoy it.

Working in a Tulsa hospital, I can say that the motor vehicle accident patients tend to be motorcycle riders....i'd say 60-70%. Only the most serious car wrecks usually ever end up in the hospital. Yes, some do say that they were either driving too fast or too reckless, but most of them are the result of people not paying attention, such as cars switching lanes without looking or a car insisting on beating a yellow light despite the fact that the biker ahead of them decided to stop for it.....or other things such as something like a patch of sand on the road while making a turn on the highway or a back road.

I remember one guy drove his bike after a fresh rain on a road he had always ridden on, and a pothole big enough and deep enough to grab a hold of and wedged his tire into place had opened up during the storm and threw him off of his bike.

[sgrizzle]

1% of the drivers on the road make up 60-70% of the vehicle accident patients?

Never heard a better sales pitch for motorcycle non-safety.