A British man has set a new record for the world’s fastest wheelie.
There are several ways of measuring these records, but the most common method seems to involve holding an average speed during a wheelie of a pre-determined length. According to Wikipedia, “The world’s fastest motorcycle wheelie record is 307.86 km/h (191.30 mph) by Patrik Furstenhoff. … The world record for the fast wheelie over 1 km (0.6 mi) is 172.9 mph (278.3 km/h), set in September 2006 by Terry Calcott at Elvington airfield in Yorkshire, England.”
Gary Rothwell, a stuntman from Liverpool, managed to break both of those records last Saturday, as he managed a kilometre-long wheelie at an impressive 209.8 mph (337.6 kph) at a Top Speed event in Elvington. The clock work was done by the UK Timing Association; however, results have not yet been ratified by the country’s Autocycle Union. He achieved that mark as an average of two runs, as per the rules, similar to the rules of land speed racing.
Rothwell had won a fastest wheelie event at Elvington in August, but hadn’t broken the speed record. He was running a turbocharged Suzuki Hayabusa that supposedly made 600 hp, and returned with it last weekend to finally officially set a new mark.
[…] his exit speed at the end of that distance. He took the record from Gary Rothwell, who’d set a 337.676 km/h record last September. This year, Rothwell finished second, with a 331.6 km/h […]
I remember a guy on a GSXR1100 did the1/4 mile at Sanair in a wheelie in 10.65 seconds at 126 mph. That was pretty impressive in the day.