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But Does it Run Linux?
tb3 writes: "Here is the ultimate superbike, powered by the diesel turbine engine found in helicopters, the Y2K weighs 460 lbs, and does the 1/4 mile in 9.8 seconds at 160 mph. The US military have expressed interest in using the bike in hostage rescue situations. The downside? They only build 5 a year, and one will set you back $150,000."
Just for reference, doing the 1/4 mile in 9.8 seconds is faster than a specially modified 777 horsepower Viper (which took 11.4 seconds). And, to give you an idea about how much horsepower that Viper has, consider that a Honda Accord has 150 horsepower.
Alex Bischoff
Alex Bischoff
HTML/CSS coder for hire
The Yamaha Yzf-ri will do 10.15 seconds.
There are faster bikes out there, especially if you go custom/turbocharged etc. So this rocket bike is fast, but not *that* fast. And if you've ever done more than about 140mph on a bike, you know that a top end of 250mph is kinda academic.
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Mod up a post Rob doesn't like and you'll never mod again
Jay Leno makes enough, and is a bike fanatic (owns several, goes on charity rides), so it very well may be the same bike. It was frustrating me that I couldn't find details.
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Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
Dude, don't you watch Dark Angel? You jump the motorcycle through a window, and shoot the terrorists before you land, then you calmly radio in for the troop transport as you unlock the front gate.
Kevin Fox
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Kevin Fox
Jay Leno hangs out at a local motorcycle joint I frequent (the Rock Store.) Last October I happened to be there, digital camera in hand, when Jay pulled up on his turbine bike. I snapped about 30 pictures of Jay and his bike, and wrote up what I heard him say about it. It's here:Leno Lands At the Rock Store
Marc Siry || interactive media professional, motorcycle enthusiast ||
Ultimate superbike? Hardly.
As someone who rides a great deal, I can tell you that this bike is really good for one thing and one thing only: straight-line speed. Much more important to any motorcycle is its handling and corner speed. Modern two-stroke GP bikes raced by the likes of Valentino Rossi in the World GP series are not designed around the engine, they are designed around the chassis. Making the engine so much more powerful than the capabilities of the chassis, suspension, and tires would literally burn up a racer's tires, which obviously isn't too good for handling.
Simply put, the engine is made the fit the chassis to provide maximum handling and speed through the corners, where it counts. While cool, this bike is basically on the same level as turboed or NOS-ed bikes; I would hate to imagine what would happen if you were to give this beast too much throttle while at full lean...
In case those pesky germans decide to kidnap american soldiers, or if the crazy gun freaks hide out on the salt lake flats.
Otherwise, I think the kidnappers in columbia would get a little suspicious if rescuers started building a really straight and flat road over the goat-trail towards the hideout.
How is the military going to use this for hostage rescue? Are they going to start up some elite force like Megaforce?
Last night I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I'll never know.
The Suzuki Habusa performs almost as well for about $12k.
. ht m
http://www.hyp4r.com/hayabusa/specs_performance
Anybody remember that cheesy mid-eighties serie ? :-)
"A door is what a dog is perpetually the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
The scary thing is that this bike really isn't that impressive. Other than the fact that it runs using a helicopter engine and that it's basically a jet below your nuts, the performance isn't that good.
Now, coming from my point of view, and experience, people do not realize how fast motorcycles really are. You can go down to the local Suzuki dealership, hand them 11,000 and get a bike that will do 190-195 out of the box. And by the way, it will do under 10 second 1/4 miles.
There are people that have bikes that do close to 225-230 top end. My bike, with my fat butt on it, has been radared at 215. I spent a lot less than 250k! I have about 30k invested in mine.
Now to the true topic at hand. What and the hell does this have to do with Slashdot? There are some serious idiots here that are making up crap stating that this bike could be used to pick up hostages. Hmm, let's see, it only has a room for one person on the bike, so is this a trade? Give you the motorcycle operator and replace them with the hostage? Also, has anyone figured out how long of a road you need to do 200+mph on a road for a minute? In that minute you cover around 3.5 miles. Anyone know of a road straight enough or pothole free enough to maintain that speed?
Topics like this make me wonder if the intellect of the Slashdot editors and readers is really anything greater than grammer school children.
Dave