Viewing bikers from Space

 Can motorcycles be seen from Outer Space? I used Google Maps
to find out. But where to start looking? Naturally I first thought of
Sturgis, South Dakota.

So I zoom in as close as possible to the corner of Main Street and
Junction Avenue. But it seems Sturgis isn't deemed all that important
because they don't have high enough resolution to see any bikes;
even cars are a tiny blur.

Then I thought, where else could I look. How about Daytona Beach,
Florida. Must be more important, because they've got imagery at
the highest resolution. And sure enough, there's what looks like
a motorcycle, southbound in the intersection of South Atlantic Avenue
and Silver Beach Avenue. Here's the link:

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll ).212284,-81.001433&spn=0.000838,0.000811&t=h&z

Now is this a cruiser or a sportbike or what is it? Hard to tell,
it's so blurry. The shadows are to the north-east so the sun is in
the south-west meaning it's early afternoon. The bike itself has
a reddish hue. Could be a Honda?

I try one last time. How about a Harley dealership. Harleys are massive;
ought to able to spot them easily from a sat cam. I pick one at random
in Los Angeles: Harley-Davidson of Glendale‎, 3717 San Fernando Rd,
Glendale, California. Success -- a row of bikes is clearly visible
parked outside the building:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q4.124286,-118.255931&t=h&sll4.124134,-118.25583&sspn=0.000795,0.000811&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll4.124134,-118.25583&spn=0.000384,0.000406&z !

Well I gotta quit for a bit. Next time I'll try finding Bob Mann's
dealership in Winnipeg -- if it isn't buried eight feet under
in wind-blown snowdrifts, that is.

SQ - '06 Boulevard S40 / '81 CB750 chopper / various derelicts
Screw it. Let's ride.

 

I never saw the motorcyclist. Honest !!!

 
Bet you didn't see the gal sunbathing sans clothing either.

 
Heh. Used to date a tall blonde anesthesiologist whose home -and pool-
were directly beneath the approach path to Fullerton Airport.

When she'd go skinny-dipping or sun-bathing the aircraft on approch
did some of the the damndest zig-zags you've ever seen!

 Twibil wrote:

That's probably purely coincidental.  I say that because back when I was
a new pilot, I'd been told that the coeds at Winthrop University would
sometimes sunbathe topless on the roof of their dorm.  Naturally, being
an intellectually curious sort, I decided this required further
investigation.

What I found was that if I went relatively low, I seemed to flash over
them so fast you missed all detail.  If I climbed to make the speed
appear slower, the extra distance made all detail disappear.  And if I
actually flew both low and slow over the rooftop, my aircraft would
stall and spin and all of us would be killed.

Actually, I only tried the first two conditions.  I'm pretty certain the
last one would apply though.

So, sorry, another urban legend destroyed!



Mortimer Schnerd, RN
mschnerd at carolina.rr.com