BUSTED!!!!!!!!!!!

[v50man]

So...

 

I've been on the road for several months 'til a couple of weeks ago. Got re-acquainted with the V11 and was falling in love all over again -- riding to work 5 days in a row.

 

The Buell was being neglected -- and it was oil change time -- so I rode it on a Saturday run to my studio to do some catch up work, the plan being to change the then-hot oil upon my return home.

 

Upon my return to my neighborhood (which has some nice curvy roads), I foolishly decided that it would be fun to see just how fast I could go in a residential area. Within seconds, I heard the sirens.

 

55 in a 25 zone. Oops.

 

The cop returns my license, then begins telling me about the several bikes he owns -- asking questions about the Buell. We talk shop -- I tell him about the Guzzi -- and he writes up a warning for going 40 in a 25 mph zone. No ticket. No points.

 

He then actually followed me home (only about three blocks) and came down to the garage to check out the V11 -- which he loved!

 

We talked for a half hour -- he invited me to test ride his new V-Rod anytimne I liked -- and that was that.

 

I was guilty as guilty gets, but this cop -- a fellow enthusiast -- admitted to doing the same thing on his way to work that morning and simply asked that I take it easy in town.

 

I will.

 

A very lucky man am I.....

[supertwin1]

Ya' gotta love the Atlanta police dept. Back in the '70s I was riding down Spring St.(the wrong way)and a cop pulled me over...no ticket. A few years later I was at the dentist and for some reason the local anesthetic would not take hold. The dentist kept jacking my jaw up with anesthetic(5 shots) until I finally went numb...real numb! After I was out of the chair and driving home a cop pulls me over for what, I can't remember, but I almost went to jail for DUI 'cause I was slurring my speech. Fortunately, my girlfriend was w/me and could explain wuzzup' and the cops had a good laugh and let me go. I love the Atlanta cops, at least did back then, and I'm not partial to cops!

[jihem]

Once , in People's Republic Of Benin (Africa), I was arrested by a soldier. It was early 80's, they were in the middle of a revolution and were totally into it with martial signs like "Down With The Capitalists Pigs" and "Watch Out For The Spys", everywhere ....

So, it was at a barrage between Cotonou and Lome (Togo), just two guys with their machine guns doing vehicle controls. He immediately put his AK-47 near my neck and was extremely menacing. I came down from the Honda 500 Four I was riding, the AK still in my neck. He was getting very nervous, and ask me brutally where I come from, where I was going and what am I going to do there...In situation like that, you have no time to elaborate, so i thought about what things we had in common and could cool him down.

 

I told him"I'm going to Lome to see a woman, to see a woman".

 

The guy looked at me, and exploded in laughs, his AK 47 was no longer up, we sat down, had a couple of cigarettes. And talked about girls and bikes

 

[Richard]

 

...and he writes up a warning for going 40 in a 25 mph zone. No ticket. No points.

 

 

You guys only get a warning for doing 15 mph over the speed limit?! Over here that's license loosing territory, let alone points!!

[v50man]

You guys only get a warning for doing 15 mph over the speed limit?! Over here that's license loosing territory, let alone points!!

 

That's why America is God's country!

 

Actually, it was 55 mph in a 25 mph zone. He just wrote it as 40 so he could give me a warning!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Martin Barrett]

You guys only get a warning for doing 15 mph over the speed limit?! Over here that's license loosing territory, let alone points!!

 

A long while ago (1990) I was marked down to 85 on a motorway (70 mph limit) for the purpose of being a warning - I was able to produce documents at road side so everything was just notes on the producer that would have been issued that gets filed as an audit trail for the officers actions. Things are even tighter now with checks on abuse of the PNC (Police National Computer- links in to driving licence, vehicle records, insurance and criminal records data bases) and formal stop check records.

 

The old guide lines of 10% +2mph as a threshold are no longer official due to threats of legal action by the road safety brigade. It's purely down to officer discretion. With in car video and recording of laser images if checked could be hard pushed to justify non prosecution if subject to audit.

 

You did very well if in a built up area, (depending on quality of his evidence against you) lucky to run in to a traditional rather than a modern robocop, dealing with "education" rather than purely number crunching ticket processing.

 

The offical line from the top

[VA Sean]

v50man-

 

I had just read your post yesterday and should have known better-

 

Here's my story of yesterday:

 

First "nice day" ride of the year was yesterday. I had ridden in on Saturday but it was raining, so that doesn't count. But yesterday was was in the high 60s and sunny, so I got out of the office a little past 3:00 and decided to take a romp north on the GW parkway then head up to Seneca, MD... met up with a guy at a stoplight in Old Town who was riding a bright yeller R6, asked him where he was heading, "just up the Parkway to 495." Figured that was good enough, since the GW Parkway gets some nice sweepers heading up hill towards Maryland -- right where I was headed.

Once we past the Memorial Bridge, I past a bunch of slow moving cages and cranked up to about 80, the R6 passed the same cars and came up on my tail... I switched into 5 gear and cruised in the 80-95 range up the hill heading North towards Maryland - the Coppa loves that speed in 5th gear... by some miracle, the cars were all sticking in the right lane, so I upped it to 100, then 110 -- guy began to fade a little behind me, but then caught up... after about a minute or so at triple digits, I backed off, and damned if at that moment I didn't hear, "Woop woop" -- unmarked dark green Crown Vic that I just past blipped me with his siren. FARGGIN! US Park Police -- this ain't gonna be good.

I was thinking to myself, "my license is history." I had a ticket on the other end of the GW Parkway doing 62 in a 35 about 18 months ago, or so -- that was a mess because you have to go to Federal Court and fight against US Attorneys. So I pull over, take off my gloves and helmet and dismount. Young cop -- maybe 30 gets out of the car.

Cop: You couldn't resist, could you?

Me: Nope - first nice day of the year.

Cop: Do you know how fast you were going when you passed me?

Me: No. I wasn't looking down. [Thinking to myself -- probably 100, maybe 95]

Cop: Well, we were all doing about 60 and you and your buddy came up pretty fast. I figure about 74 or so.

Me: Yeah - okay.

Cop: May I see your license please?

Me: Yes, sir.

Cop: You have a seat, I'll be right back.

Me: Yes, sir.

Cop comes back after a few minutes.

Cop: You aren't going to find many cops like me - I appreciate a good ride. Just try to keep it down around here. [Hands me back my license.]

Me: Thank you. I will. I really appreciate that.

Before I had my gear on and the bike started, he had doubled back across the divide and headed south on the Parkway.

 

Thanks, Officer!

[Guest redguzziv10]

just last week, one of the country's finest pulls up alongside me at a set of traffic lights.

the conversation went somethiong like this

"do you know what the speed limit is back there"

"40mph, officer"

"do you know how fast you were going"

"45 - ish officer"

"don't take the piss"

"50?"

"how about we about your 50mph whilst i write you a ticket out"

"ok, i confess 55, 60 tops"

"i tagged you at 62mph"

"sorry officer, i was enjoying myself"

"i know, i saw you. Do me a favour and keep to the limits in the built up areas, go and enjoy yourself in the nationals"

he then looks at the rocker covers

"Moto Guzzi, eh...nice"

"thank you officer, good bye officer, have a nice day officer"

[Guzzirider]

I think the main thing in the UK is that the chances of actually being pulled over by a traffic policeman diminish with each year. How often do you see a bike cop these days? And how often do you see a traffic officer in car, unless it is on a motorway?

 

Instead the government relies more and more on cameras for law enforcement, so any element of discretion is removed and dangerous or drink driving goes unchecked.

 

Guy

[VA Sean]

I think the main thing in the UK is that the chances of actually being pulled over by a traffic policeman diminish with each year. How often do you see a bike cop these days? And how often do you see a traffic officer in car, unless it is on a motorway?

 

Instead the government relies more and more on cameras for law enforcement, so any element of discretion is removed and dangerous or drink driving goes unchecked.

 

Guy

 

We don't yet have nearly as many cameras to enforce speeding and red-light running as you do (let alone just having cameras on every corner watching everything we do!), but more and more jurisdictions are beginning to implement them these days.

 

I hadn't thought about situation you are raising: since the police force is relying on automation to deal with ordinary traffic offenders, the citizenry could be at greater risk of harm due to there being increased numbers of persons who would be willing to drive drunk because they are betting that a cop won't be around to stop them.

 

That is interesting... and rather scary.

 

:!:

[ferguzzi]

Back in September 02 I was taking the Tenni for Its first long spin, From Ireland to Croatia and back, about 4 weeks and 5000 miles. It was a great trip and apart from the standard pawlspring failure, miraculously fixed in Austria, problem free.

I was leaving Zadar in Croatia, with a view to going inland for the day, and then north to Slovenia. The ride down to Zadar was a spectacularly windy coast road, with cliffs over one side, and fairly well travelled with foreigners. Croatia's beautiful coastline was almost a secret then, and so not too touristy.

I wanted to go inland, away frome the tourists, and see maybe some remnants of the war. I'm a bit sick that way.

It didn't take long before I started to come across a lot of burnt out houses, and old memorials, tanks and the like. It was also a little bit daunting as I had heard stories of the landmines everywhere, and the war was only over about 10 years, and still stewing in other parts of old Yugoslavia.

One thing I did notice were the police everywhere. Before and after almost every town, there would be a squad car with a few bored looking cops lolling around. I think that what may have happened was that instead of demobbing the whole Croatian army, a lot of guys just swithched uniforms, and became coppers. Fair enough. But it still struck me I should be careful.

Anyway, long story short, after a while I started climbing a loooong windy road, climbing one of the most spectacular mountain views I've ever seen. Beautiful day, blue skies, no traffic, life is good. A couple of car arrive ahead, and I zip past , barely noticing them. I'm not going terribly fast- but I'm going a lot faster then they are!

And then in the distance, I see them. 2 bored cops, who've been watching my progress forv the last 10 minutes from on high. Oh bugger. They wave me in. It's all sunglasses and coolness.I produce licence insurace passport, the lot. They walk back to their car for 5 minutes ,letting me stew.

And I'm thinking, "how do you say ky jelly in Croatian?"

They come back, looking very unhappy. Wagging his head, I'm informed that the charge could be 2000 Croatian wotsits.

About $14.

I try to look suitably worried.

Then suddenly, he takes his shades off, gazes at the bike, smirks at me and gives me a thumbs up.

"Moto gootsi!", says he, and walks off.

Cool.

[jihem]

a few years ago, ok, a lot of few years ago , i went on a Euro trip on a bike, the japanese kind (that was a few months prior to see The Light).

 

Motorbikes used to pass borders quite easily back then, actually i usually didn't even have to really stop, just slowly passing on the side and showing your passport, having it check and stamp real fast was enough for most of the borders.

 

That day, I was passing from Italy to then-Yougoslavia. Oddly enough, the Yougoslavian guard wanted me to stop and displayed his order by doing an autoritarian STOP HERE, with his finger pointing at the ground, just in front of him. My bike had bags all over, and it wasn't very easy to manoeuvre at slow speed so i kinda made my way to him, stopped, and extended the side stand.

 

On his left foot.

 

Boy, he was mad