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From: animal@ihlpa.UUCP (D. Starr)
Newsgroups: net.cycle,net.auto.tech
Subject: Re: The story about the 85 mph speedometers
Message-ID: <1024@ihlpa.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 13-Jan-86 16:54:31 EST
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Posted: Mon Jan 13 16:54:31 1986
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Xref: watmath net.cycle:1460 net.auto.tech:586

> Back in the late seventies, Joan Clayworth of the National Highway and
> Transportation Safety Department felt that too many young people were
> riding their motorcycles very fast just so they could tell their
> friends that they went "120 mph!!"  So she was the initiator of the
> law which required all motorcycles and probably as a result, most
> automobiles, to have 85 mph speedometers.

An interesting story, which I'd not previously heard.  Sounds true, though.
Two nit-picks:  It's Joan ClayBROOK (aka Saint Joan of the Clay Feet), and
NHTSA is an administration, not a department.
 
> Well everything was going along as planned for several years until
> 1982 a man traveling at a high rate of speed (over 85) went into a
> turn and went too wide and crashed off of the outside of the turn.  He
> subsequently sued and won the suit agains the NHTSD for removing his
> ability to properly judge his approach speed to the turn and therefore
> cause him to crash.

That's got to be the ultimate Bozo Legal Argument (though, considering
lawyers, it will undoubtedly be topped).  Seems to me that, regardless
of how high the instrument goes, some squid could still pin it, crash
and sue the manufacturer using the same argument (yep, I was going at least
165, coulda made the turn if I knew I was going 175 instead of 185...).
 
> That is why most motorcycles and high performance autos now have real
> speedometers.
> 
> Bill Landsborough

I don't know, I kinda liked the 85 mph speedos.  Two of my (mid-70's)
Jap bikes featured 150 and 160-mph units, which meant that the needle was
about 5 mph wide.  This was a bit annoying when one is traveling through
some little hick town in Kansas with the local cop glued to one's tail. In
my experience, I've had no trouble figuring out my speed within about 10%
by using the tach when going over 85. 

I do agree that Saint Joan's reasoning is silly and that the government
has no business regulating how high a speedo should read, but it's also
nice to have an instrument where the legal speed limit is more than a
third of the way up the dial.  Maybe what we really need is a 100-mph
clock-type speedo (like an airplane altimeter).  One of those would be
clear and readable up to 1000 mph...

	Dan Starr