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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.
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.
Leno owns the first "production" example-serial number 002-of this unique species. The long, slab-sided machine is the handiwork of Louisiana entrepreneur Ted McIntyre. In simple terms, McIntyre slots an ex-Bell Jet Ranger helicopter Allison Rolls Royce gas turbine into a home-built aluminum chassis, adds controls and a seat pad, then sends you on your way. Price? $150,000.
My favourite line has to be:
Another drawback (besides the noise) is the enormous heat that billows from the outward-facing slash-cut pipes. "I was sitting at a traffic light," Leno says in slightly hushed tones. "I looked in my rear-view mirror and saw this Infinity car bumper kind of fold in on itself. I thought, 'Oh jeez, let's just pull away from here..."'
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