Some of you may be confused as this video seems to depict a warm sunny day, a dearth of moose (mooses? meese?), and the miscreant in question isn’t wreaking havoc with a snowmobile. But trust me, this is Canada, and this is one of our normally polite citizens tearing it up on a blue Yamaha R1 at extra-legal speeds on a crowded highway. He probably drank some bad maple syrup or something.
I know this piece of road well: it’s the 30km stretch between the provincial capital of British Columbia, Victoria, and the main ferry terminal to the mainland. It is, and I don’t think I exaggerate, one of the most highly patrolled pieces of roadway in Canada. The constabulary stack up their cruisers on a mid-point South-bound on-ramp and pick ’em off like shooting ptarmigan in a barrel. Once I even saw an RCMP officer in a tree (his horse looked a bit uncomfortable).
The footage shown is clearly extremely dangerous behaviour, roughly equivalent to firing a gun over the heads of a crowd of people. All it would take would be one swerve of a mini-van and the results at this speed would be beyond tragic. The best you could hope for would be that you were killed instantly so that you wouldn’t have to live with the burden of having injured or killed somebody.
But I lived in Victoria for the past two years and drove this road quite frequently, and I can’t quite put my hand on my heart and say that I always drove at or below the posted (and very slow-feeling) 80km/h speed-limit. What’s more, Victoria’s mild weather and relaxed lifestyle means that it is both a favourite of retirees and folks so laid-back they’d make Jeff Lebowski look like Donald Trump. That means left-lane camping like you would not believe. A Buick Century and an Astro-Van side-by-side at fifteen under the limit, giving new meaning to the term “drag race”. After fifteen miles of being stuck behind such a clot, I must confess to wishing I was on a litre-bike so that I could slip in between them and make the jump to plaid. Being a good Canadian I, of course, did no such thing.
So while I’m front-line for the public stoning, with a nice pointy rock already picked out, I have to ask myself, would this video have been okay at forty over? Thirty over? Ten over? All would be illegal in the eyes of the law: who am I to cast the first stone?
Oh hang on, I just remembered: he’s ruining it for the rest of us. TAKE THAT YOU HOSER!
Cannot condone the act. At the same time, some of the MADDEST two wheelin I seen up here in the North. We get a little loopy after such a long hibernation.
probably changed his final gearing, doesn’t quite look like the full buck-80, especially not if the prevailing traffic is in an 80k zone. What’s traffic flow like in that situation in Canada, 100k? 120k?
I mean, at an indicated 200k he’s not really flying past the traffic.
Not saying he isn’t an idiot, but he’s like a 150mph idiot, not a 180mph idiot.
80kph means that the slow people drive 90 and up to 120 is ‘normal’ depending on the prevailing mood. No kidding, this is a heavily used road that’s policed up to the hilt. On top of that, the pavement isn’t the smoothest in places either, so not ideal for a 299kph run. There’s no reason why he didn’t become road pizza other than sheer dumb luck.
It’s funny you say the pavement isn’t always the smoothest, because when I was watching the video I was thinking it looked incredibly smooth. Probably hard to tell through a helmet cam at 150 mph +.
Either way, the condition of any highway I’ve ever had to commute on would make a stunt like that impossible. In some areas it seems nuts to speed even a little in a car because the pavement is so bad, never mind a motorcycle.
Eh. I’ve seen videos of people taking sportbikes up to higher speeds on the Long Island Expressway. Canada has to step it up if they want to keep up with the US’s moron levels.
On another note, this is why I never took seriously that statistic that “you are twenty times more likely to be in a fatal accident if you ride a motorcycle.” Statistically, maybe, but me personally? The guy in the video is at least 20,000 times more likely to be in a fatal accident, so what does that do to my odds? In fact, there you go — this guy is serving a useful purpose by soaking up that statistic for the rest of us.
I’v read those statistics too. I think that by buying and wearing high quality motorcycle gear, maintaining your motorcycle, and riding with just a bit of care and caution, your already way, way, way, ahead of the odds.
I cringe every time I see someone flying down the highway in shorts and flip flops, sans shirt.
Well , whenever I see thes public road videos (the cycle ones even more so my major thought is “future organ provider” not to say that in my youth I did not vastly exceed posted limits but I did it in a car on an arrow straight road out west where you could see that there was no other traffic for 15 miles. (on one of those drives I saw no other human or habitation for over 100 miles) I was endangering no one but myself and if caught I would have “done the time” Was I dumb yes but at 25 that sort of goes with the territory doing it on such a busy highway as in this video… well its just plain anti social nuts… BTW I live in Maine and before 9-11 we were back and forth to Canada more often then we got to Mass. nice folks, and good beer too, now many of the old crossings (some of which were maned infrequently ) have been closed and long lines and trunk checks returning have meant far fewer trips,,, but I do love Prince Edward Island in the spring
don’t drink and ride and you’ll be way way ahead on the statistics
This vid is making the rounds. Supports the idea that the gearing is changed. Folks are saying that if you pace how fast the white lines are going by, it’s close to 216ish kph, which is still absurd.
**(spoiler alert)** I watched the whole thing .. expecting a crash at the end.He didn’t. I’d guess that if he rides like that all the time , he will crash eventually.
Yep. You can just about guarantee it.
But it ain’t all bad. When he gets his come-uppance, maybe someone can swap that R1 motor into an X1/9.
More like Dudley-Do-WRONG, amirite?
I seriously doubt that the rider was canadian. Their smaller brains and slower reflexes would not be able to handle the bike at that speed. It must have been a visiting American, that would also explain the lack of concern about getting caught.
Shiftless American that stole a Canadian spec bike? Yeah I can go with that.
Hoisted with own petard! Damn you ktm, sweet bike though.
Actually, Canada is the most educated developed nation on earth. They have been #1 for several years. USA is 4th.
So it can’t be that, you bunch of dummies….LOL
Where did you come up with a statistic like that? Maybe they are well educated in the left wing communist drivel that Canadian schools suppose is an education. How can a population that actually elected an idiot like Dalton McGuinty (three times) be considered educated!!! In need of medication is more like it!!!
Please spare us your silly Conservative drivel.
jjster6 . . . .
I would present your statement precisely to prove that the USA is less educated. I might add less mature, civil, and more jingoistic as well.
P.S. to my Canuck neighbors. I am a Yankee, and admit as such so as to deflect the potential emotional venom this way rather than yours.
Thank you… TTACgreg.
Insert foot in mouth….
Dalton McGuinty is NOT the leader of Canada. He’s the Premier of one of our provinces. He’s the equivalent of a US Governor. But I do agree…he’s an idiot. At least you got that much right.
Under McGuinty (in Ontario), we’re killing the Americans in all stats with respect to education levels and successful outcomes — reading levels, math skills, etc. The Koreans, Japanese and iirc the Norwegians are still ahead of us in standardized tests of achievement, but we’re fixing to get there.
Oh by the way, we’re doing much better than we did under Harris, a right-wing conservative.
“Actually, Canada is the most educated developed nation on earth. They have been #1 for several years.”
According to a statistic I made up for this post…
Here’s one study. There are others. I’m sure you can find them if you look…
http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/03/10281909-canada-tops-list-of-the-most-educated-countries
If this Yamaha’s speedo is anywhere near as optimistic as the ones were on my two Suzukis(GS500F and GSF-1250)and my BMW (R1150RT), this clown *may* be doing 260 or so. Still stupidly fast, but not as dramatic as 299. Here in Ontario, that would get you an automatic impoundment and licence suspension, but the OPP would have to catch you first. As a rider, this video makes me cringe.
BTW, Brendan, did you completely exhaust your Canadian stereotype generator for this one?
Are you down with OPP?
Yeah, you know me, and all the homies…
(Ontario Provincial Police, for those who don’t know)
How much damage would happen to a car if that bike did hit someone? Lots of pictures of high-speed wrecks for car vs car, car vs tree, etc, but I can’t recall seeing anything for car vs motorcycle. Obviously the rider would be a goner, but is it survivable for passengers in the car?
No…some occupants would be killed depending where the impact was. In the sides? For sure the occupants would be killed. A 400lb. motorcycle is essentially a high energy projectile at those speeds.
I once saw the results of a high speed collision dead head on. The motorcycle penetrated the firewall, and managed to displaced the car’s engine along the way. Bad stuff!
Depends on the collision and such. Anecdotally, I saw a story with pics of a guy once who was acting like, well, this video, and rear-ended a minivan. (The minivan was going around 60 mph, the bike at almost triple that.) The rider ended up wedged right between the very surprised minivan driver and the equally surprised front passenger. Luckily, nobody was in the back rows, and everyone lived (albeit with a hospital stay for the motorcyclist).
How hard did you look? Typing “car motorcycle crash” into google image search got plenty of hits with the poster child I was hoping for of the big crotch rocket embedded in the side of a subcompact the size of a Geo Metro for the first hit. There’s a pretty bad one of a crotch rocket *inside* a Golf too in the second row.
’tis the season;
http://www.vancouversun.com/cars/Drivers+fined+cars+impounded+after+being+clocked+speeds+reaching+through/6455119/story.html
As a regular bloke I can see that person is an utter tool, but as a rider I have to admit he has some serious chops – threading that much traffic at that speed is not easy. Count how many seconds he has to make his next decision before he is committed, maybe 1 or 2 tops, that is tough to do, especially with the adrenalin pumping and countering wind and road bumps etc. Still, it’s like russian roulette, sooner or later your number will be up no matter how good you are, just like Ghost Rider.
What’s the punishment for that kind of thing in Canada anyway? Back in England you’d be looking at a pretty long stretch, maybe up to a year I reckon. Also zero chance of riding more than a push bike for years longer than that.
The punishment varies by province. Here in BC if you are 40km/h or more over the limit, they will impound your vehicle on the spot for 1 week, there is a very large fine, license points, impound and towing fees, plus the cop is very likely to leave you standing by the side of the road to make your own way home. Repeat or gross violators get hit harder yet.
For this part of the world it’s considered severe, the only way you would end up in jail would be to kill or injure someone. Even then…..
Visitors to our province, particularly Albertans, have found to thier sorrow that there is no leeway for tourists. Quite a few vacations (and a few marriages I suspect) have been ruined since these laws came in last year.
In Ontario its 50 klm over. By the time your done, with compound fees and all,your looking at 2 grand.
> What’s the punishment for that kind of thing in Canada anyway?
In British Columbia, excessive speeding is a speed greater than 40 km/h over the speed limit:
– More than 40 km/h — $368 fine; more than 60 km/h — $483 fine plus three penalty points
– Immediate impoundment of the vehicle – 7 days for a first offence plus towing and storage costs ($210), 30 days for a second offence (towing and storage costs of $700), 60 days for any subsequent offences (towing and storage costs over $1200)
– Car public insurance will go up
http://www.pssg.gov.bc.ca/osmv/road-safety/speed.htm
In Ontario, 50 km/h over the limit is “street racing” or “stunt driving”:
– Minimum fine is $2,000, up to $10,000
– Immediate seven-day driver’s licence suspension and seven-day vehicle impoundment
– First conviction, maximum licence suspension of 2 years; up to 10 years for a second conviction
– Car private insurance will probably go up
http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/about/bill203.shtml
In March, an off-duty Ottawa police officer was caught doing 202 km/h on his bike on Highway 174 east of Ottawa, where the max is 100 km/h…
wait, off duty cops do not have to obey traffic laws and when caught are generally let off the hook.
Chicago now starts ticketing at 9.6km/h (6mph) over the speed limit. Glad I no longer live there….
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/clout/chi-emanuel-speed-camera-ticket-measure-approved-20120418,0,4714568.story
In Alberta, 50 km/h or more gets you 6 demerits, $482 and a visit to the judge. You used to be able to dicker down the fine or the demerits, but now the judge can’t go below those numbers.
One thing about BC and Ontario is that there is no photo radar in either province, whereas in Alberta they tend to slap those cameras almost everywhere. They are pretty easy to avoid though, most of the times they don’t hide the photo radar units very well and the ones at intersections are signed, so just slow down in front of the camera and you should be ok. Ontario and BC, just don’t speed through short stretches where the limit drops (i.e. 90 to 60), they like to hide there.
What happened to Ghostrider?
His head caught fire.
>>at extra-legal speeds on a crowded highway<<
"Crowded Highway" hahahahahahahaha!!
Former LA resident.
Do love B.C. though.
Quite an amazing performance. I lived in Canada for six years and can attest to the fact that the percentage of morons is at least the same as the USA.
Yeah it really is. Especially here in Alberta.
Yes, I moved to Alberta 21 years ago and have been astounded at the appallingly poor standards of driving. It varies from the “I don’t give a shit about you, just get out of my way” kind of attitude that is creeping in all over the world, down to the “holy crap I have absolutely no idea what the hell I’m doing” and everything in between.
Stop signs are merely a suggestion and it seems to offend many people’s masculinity to actually obey them.
That said, the overall road design and signage application is 3rd world-ish so I do have a slight sympathy for ignoring some of them. Just a few days ago I stopped at a 4-way stop on a secondary highway where I could see well over a mile in all directions and I was the only vehicle in sight. Did seem a bit unnecessary.
Anyway, I’m digressing…Alberta is full of horrible drivers, no question.
I almost had an accident the the other day with a motorcyclist. I was driving down the highway, put my turn signal on to change lanes, physically turned to check my blind spot and then as I’m changing lanes a guy on a sport bike comes FLYING down the road. I was traveling at about 70, and in my unscientific opinion he was doing over twice as fast. I almost merged into him, but honestly he was going so fast that he simply wasn’t there when I looked. I ride my motorcycle almost every day, but this just makes me cringe.
Almost makes you wish for a tiered licencing system. The fact that anybody can buy these without being the least bit qualified is a bit terrifying.
With motorcycles, at most speeds the rider bears all the risk of personal injury in an accident with anything but a pedestrian. This video is insane and it sounds like this rider put everyone at risk, but at common highway speeds I have to think the risk of an injury to someone in a car colliding with a bike is low.
What really scares me is anyone can buy a 5,000 lb SUV without being the least bit qualified.
What really scares me is anyone can buy a 5,000 lb SUV without being the least bit qualified.
True, true.
At least you can’t multitask on a bike like in a car.
My voice mail on my phone says, “if your hearing this recording, I’m out riding…”
Probably time to pony up for one of those Bluetooth helmets so i can yak away while dicing traffic. *sarcasm*
Here in Australia the traffic authorities tell us that motorcycle riders have 38 times the risk of death or serious injury. However, since we get 100 times as much fun riding, the risk-to-reward ratio is clearly in our favour :)
That said, this guy is crazy – the high-speed lane splitting is terrifying. At these speeds on a racetrack your fate is in your own hands and those of other professional riders. On the street it’s in the hands of any numb-nut about to make a lane change. As stated above, his excess risk factor must be in the thousands and his number will almost certainly come up one day if he keeps riding like this.
I have my doubts about the speed displayed here. The speed differential seems a little less than it should be. Unless of course it was 20 minutes before sailing time. Then EVERYONE seems to be doing 200 klicks.
Many years ago I was stopped for speeding on this same road. It was Friday night and I was headed for the mainland, a cold beer and a warm girl. Friday night sailings, then as now, are busy year round so I was definately in a hurry. The cop who stopped me gave me a choice. A fast ticket and maybe enough time to still catch the boat, or what he called a “10 minute misconduct”, no ticket but a 2 hour wait for the next boat. I had enough points on my license that I couldn’t really afford another ticket ( and the possible suspension) so I took the misconduct and missed the boat.
That was a different time and would never happen today.
That’s a milkrun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwicTKbWam4&feature=related
Average speed on this about 188
Stockholm to uppsala in 15 minutes, 42 miles.
ok not a good idea. but fun. Yea very exciting.I thnk you. but I Hope the rider can ride at normal mph in the future. Not worth another try. Lucky to be alive.
Go to YouTube. Search “Black Devil – Moscow Ride on R1”. Makes the video above look like grandma out for her Sunday constitutional.
@GS650G- WOW! That guy is lucky he didn’t end up a Swedish Meatball !
Organ donor.
Woah,
This dude is carazy.
While the road at that time didn’t look overly busy, it’s busy enough that the rider had to split lanes, flying between cars at an ungodly speed, hardly slowing up for ANYTHING and seeing how the bike leaned to one side or the other, I was waiting for him to slip up and that’d be the end of the video, bike and perhaps the camera – and him too.
That is the island hwy ,not the hwy going to the ferry.He or she started after just going thru a traffic light at mckenzie ave and slowed down before the next traffic light at spencer rd. Is 4.6 miles in 1 min 56 sec 138mph avg? Ive been on that hwy hundreds of times.Within seconds of him or her starting there is a huge regional hospital that is just out of site of the camera on the right.
The mere fact his video is playing on every single car blog means he’s already won.
When I see people do stuff like this I want to scream. It’s already hard enough to get respect as a rider without d-bags like this having a license.
Epic ass hattery. This is like watching a video game as he zips by in some places close to 4X faster than the traffic he/she is weaving through. There is part of me that thinks this is so incredibly stupid and another part of me that thinks I wish I had balls that big.
Brendan, that isn’t the Pat Bay Highway out to the ferry, its the Island Highway heading north. The road signs are a ‘dead’ giveaway if you slow the clip down. I live in Sidney btw and have lived on the island on and off since 1966.
I have never traveled that fast on that road due to a dearth of adequate equipment, not for lack of ambition.
Spending my teenage years there, you were always spoiling for anything stimulating to do.
That stretch from town out to Colwood in the video is a pig to commute over, full of old people going way too slow. I can understand the urge to run that fast although I don’t condone it.
But eh, girls just wanna have fun!!
Its going to drive the cops nuts figuring out who that was.
Geo
Pshaw – I can do that!…Here hold my beer.
When you’ve got to get fully leaned over just to make a gentle turn you’re going 5x too fast for the street
Hate to break it to you, but I don’t think this guy is travelling on Highway 17 up to Sidney. It looks to me more like Highway 1 heading towards the Malahat. I think he starts out just before the Helmcken Rd overpass and ends just after the Highway 14 overpass in Langford. Not to mention, Highway 17 has a ton more lights on it and usually has a backlog of cars waiting for a ferry.
Good thing he stopped when he did, after that point the road drops down to about 70 km/h and has some really sharp corners. Like most roads in BC, you either end up smacking the side of a mountain or jump off a cliff into water if you make a mistake.
By reputation, Victoria is the city of the “newly wed and the nearly dead”. This guy is one of the few that could fall into both categories. The boredom of living there has probably driven the poor man insane.
paging Jack Baruth, white courtesy phone… Jack Baruth, white courtesy phone…
The introduction is wrong. This is NOT the road between Victoria and the Swartz Bay Ferry to Vancouver. Anyone who lives here recognizes its the Trans Canada Hwy leading west out of Victoria. When the video ends the rider has just passed the Millstream exit (Costco) and is almost at the Spencer Road exit.
I own motorcycles and I know how to do that, and I have done it, but especially in Canada, I only ride like that when I really, really, need to pee.
Dude had to catch a Ferry.
As to the question asked in the post – speeding is safer than following the speed limit as long as you are moving with the flow of traffic (if everyone else is doing 80 in a 65mph zone you become an obstacle by following the speed limit). Taking it a step further, I don’t have a problem with speeding as long as the speeder isn’t weaving in and out of traffic. If there is an empty lane and/or you are only passing once every now and again, it’s not that big of a deal.
I think this guy went off the rails the second he split the difference between two cars in adjacent lanes by riding on the dotted lines. Is that legal in Canada? I’ve heard it’s legal in CA, but I see motorcyclists doing it in FL and it pisses me off to no end. Motorcycles should have to follow the same rules as cars, and that means no splitting lanes.
I’d also love to see tickets issued to every single biker whose riding around with loud pipes that wildly exceed acceptable noise limits for vehicles. If cars can get pulled over for too much window tint, cycles should get pulled over for too much exhaust noise. First ticket should be a fine and a fix-it order, if the owner doesn’t correct the problem with a proper muffler the bike should be impounded and sold at auction.
Splitting lanes is legal in California, though the spirit of the law is certainly not what this guy did. The idea is to do it cautiously during slow moving (maybe 20 mph) commuter traffic.
I say more power to them. If it upsets you to see motorcycles splitting lanes when traffic is all but stopped, I think you are just jealous of their advantage. What’s the alternative, to have them occupying space in front of you the same way a car would and adding to the traffic jam? It’s the same thing when I see them parked on sidewalks or other out of the way spots not available to cars (or technically legal). Instead of getting worked up about how bikes get to break the rules, I’m thankful that there is one more legit parking spot to pick from.
As to the noise they cause, it really is a safety feature. Driving in CA where it is legal for motorcycles to split lanes, I try to be extra vigilant in checking my blind spots. That said, they are small and accelerate very quickly, making them easy to miss. The noise helps to find them. That same noise can be aggravating in residential areas, but considerate riders will keep the RPM down in those areas.
Why would motorcycles need to follow the same rules as cars when they aren’t cars?
+1 on burgersandbeer, Motorcycles lane splitting reduces congestion, just like speeding in cars reduces congestion.
Just because it’s a law doesn’t make it right or smart.
In Great Britain, you’ll fail your advanced riding test if you fail to filter when a reasonable opportunity presents itself. In Japan, intersections have two limit lines: one rearward for car/trucks/buses, and one forward for two wheeled vehicle to filter up to. In the rest of the civilized world, drivers understand that flow of traffic is more important than car drivers’ getting their panties in a bunch because someone gets to go ahead of them.
In California, if you swerve to attempt to block the path of a splitting bike and get caught, you’ll face vehicular assault and/or attempted murder charges.
And given the prevalence in my area of brain-dead drivers plowing into stopped traffic in front of them, I don’t give a damn HOW much it pisses you off. I’m going where it’s safer, between lanes to the head of the line.
I’ve heard motorcycles are allowed to split lanes to keep air flowing over the engine, most don’t have fans.
What a total clown! Can ride an R1 at insane speeds thru traffic but can’t position the camera at an angle that captures all the action. Good shot of the headstock nut tho, can’t ever get enough of that.
They found him. He is a complete azzhat:
http://www.calgaryherald.com/Video+police+seize+motorbike+driven/6487619/story.html
(All of which reminds me, it’s time to get the Ninja out…)
I have a friend who had a son. The son loved motorcycles. He was involved in a collision with an SUV that ran a stop sign. Major injuries, but not debilitating. SUV drivers insurance paid a bunch of money. Kid bought a used Porsche 911. I only saw it one time, sitting in the garage with a bashed in nose. Kid got it fixed. Posted video on Facebook showing speedometer climbing well over 100. Coming home at 4:30 AM, kid missed curve. Hit tree, died at the scene. I call him a kid, he was 30 years old. His mother is shattered. I don’t think she will ever recover. Both wrecks, I won’t call them accidents, happened within 2 blocks of his home.
I love motorcycles, too. I love to accelerate from a stop to past a hundred, but I don’t anymore. Your decisions come back on others. When I lived in Alabama, I could go to a track day and enjoy the riding without endangering anyone else. There is no place to do that down here in Mexico.
When you are tempted to do something stupid on the road, think about my friends wife. Dieing is not bad. Leaving grieving parents and siblings is very bad.
Canadian B.C. women are well known to be hard asses. Still, I’m surprised to find out that a middle aged mother is the Canadian Ghost rider. Seems like she could have taken that last bend faster but lifted like that kid who crashed his 911. You can see she was being conservative after that spirited lane splitting. When the break in period is over you have to air out those litre bikes but that was reckless. I don’t know which is worse, speeding or texting?