Thanks for stopping...

[Doc_Busa]

I just read the "lucky" thread and thought I would tell my own recent adventure. My bud and I were kicking butt across some open desert stretches (in fact some of the same as the videos posted by NickSlick). We were cruising at around 130 mph, when I saw the fuzz coming the other way in the distance. Of course I grab a handfull of front brake and make for the "slow" lane. Cop does a Dukes of Hazard move sliding the car first on the payment then completely sideways in the dirt median (looked pretty cool actually). We were already pulled over by the time he got done showing off. Normal license and registration deal. Then he asked us where we worked.?! Of course, I told him for the County. He asked if we worked together, we say yes. He told us he clocked us at 95 mph during hard braking. Then he said he realized 95 mph was slow on our bikes. Then the most amazing words came from his mouth, "I really want to thank you guys for stopping, bikes like these rarely stop out here and we end up chasing them". I immediately told him I ALWAYS stop and no problem. Gave us our stuff back and told us to take it easy on the way home and if he saw us speeding on the way back we were toast.

Amazingly enough, two nights later, same buddy and I were messing around near a straight stretch that parallels the run ways at the Vegas airport. We stopped at a red light and were talking when out of no where the blue lights came on... cycle cop!!! Clocked us at 78 in a 45 zone. Told us we did not look like trouble makers and let us go, but only after telling us he had a V-max with NOS in his garage and understood the temptation...

some cops are cool, seems it is best to give them tons of respect and no excuses from my experiences (read many).

Doc Out....

 

[Revlis]

Give them No lines, no excuses, treat em' like you would want to be treated, and so long as everything else is in order I.E. not a bunch of priors/warnings, you stand a good chance of walking. So long as you are not in the middle of town at rush hour anyway.

My experiances have been about 90% positive.

 

[NightStalker]

some cops are cool[/QUOTE]
I think most are (even the ones that DO give you a ticket), it's just that a few rotten apples ruin the whole bunch ...

seems it is best to give them tons of respect and no excuses from my experiences[/QUOTE]
The're just doin' their jobs, I respect that. And I don't think there are that many excuses for driving 1.5 times the speed limit, are there?

My experiences with the "cops" are twofold:

(I don't know the english word for: getting photgraphed by a speed-measuring device, so I'll use the translated dutch term: getting flashed)
Late night blast on the busa, got flashed doing 172 mph. They got my license plate so there was no use in running. Motorized cop came next to me, made signs to follow him, and so I did. Other cops took over on a parking by the freeway. No insults, no arrogance, just questions. Did I know how fast I was going (sure I did), did I know the speedlimit (hell yeah), did I admit to driving that fast (no point in arguing), did I dispute the calibration of the device that photographed me (no, because my speedo said I was doing more than that ;-) ...
They withdrew my drivers license, made me sign some papers, asked wether they could give me a ride anywhere, asked wether I could provide for a pickup myself, made me promise (on honor) that I would wait for that pickup (and not run of with the bike myself), and finally left (after saying they found it to be a beautifull machine) ...
I got a 2000$ fine and lost my license for 3 months. The penalty may seem heavy but to this day I still find that both the police and the judge were very correct and fair.

The other is far less funny: I was on my grandparents 50th anniversary (of their wedding, not themselves) and my uncle (who has been handicapped since birth) started to get ill in a very acute way. My sister is a Dr. and she immediatly thought he was having an allergic reaction to something in the food. He started having trouble breathing and the nearest hospital was a 25 minute drive. It was quite late and most of the "adults'' (I was only 20 at that time) had had a couple of drinks, too much to drive decently anyways. So I was asked to bring him to the emergency ward. We put him in my dads car and I sped of to the freeway. Once there I tried to drive as fast and as safely as I could under the circumstances. I ended up at about 120 to 130 mph (no traffic) because that was about as fast as it wanted to go. And for all the dumb luck in the world, I get intercepted by a motorized cop. He stops me, I get out of the car, run over to him, explain the situation (in about 10 seconds). He didn't even speak: he just nodded, gave me the "follow me" sign and got back on his bike. I followed him full speed down the freeway: sirens and all, up to the hospital. Apparently he had contacted the hospital while driving because they were waiting for us. Uncle got taken care of (had to stay for observation for three days), and sadly, I never saw that cop again.
I DID get a letter ordering me to court though. Only thing I had to declare that it was for an emergency and that I'd never do such a thing if unnecessary.

Moral of the story: you have good cops, bad cops, but most are just guys like you and me trying to do their job. And that's something that's at least worth some respect.

 

[ThunderPants]

Last week I was pulling into my condo complex and saw a guy walking away from his garage and he had an R1 parked in there so I stopped and talked to him about going riding some time and trying to get a group together since there are a few other riders in the complex. He told me he rides with a group of 6-15 riders usually and they are all fellow officers of his! I was like "You are all cops? Hell yeah I want to go riding with you!" So now I have a group of riders where I am untouchable! I can't wait to go riding with them, hopefully this weekend.

 

[Big O]

With luck like that you should hit the casinos. Was that Oscar with you?

I wasn't so lucky...last week I got nabbed for 84 in a 65. The officer was all business and didn't even give me a chance to say anything, "CanIseeyourlicenseandregistrationplease,Imwritingyoufor84ina65,I'llberightback. He writes the ticket (turn OFF the bright lights!) comes back, Iunderstandit'shardNOTtospeedonthesebikes,ifyouhaven'tbeentotrafficschoolinthelast18monthsyoucangoagian,becarefulpullingbackoutintotrafficsi
r. Sir? I'm olde enough to be your dad!

 

[Doc_Busa]

With luck like that you should hit the casinos.  Was that Oscar with you?

I wasn't so lucky...last week I got nabbed for 84 in a 65.  The officer was all business and didn't even give me a chance to say anything, "CanIseeyourlicenseandregistrationplease,Imwritingyoufor84ina65,I'llberightback.  He writes the ticket (turn OFF the bright lights!) comes back, Iunderstandit'shardNOTtospeedonthesebikes,ifyouhaven'tbeentotrafficschoolinthelast18monthsyoucangoagian,becarefulpullingbackoutintotrafficsi

r.  Sir? I'm olde enough to be your dad!

Yep, it was Oscar, I am sure showing the Newbie the "proper" way to ride. I let him ride my Busa in Death Valley with his promise to take it easy. Yeah right, that basstard blew past me (on his GSXR600) at over 120... I could not catch him, but when I did it was all ugly (not really)... sorry about your ticket.

Just be glad it did not have a 1 in front of the 84 like Nightstalker above.


Nightstalker, if you got nabbed for 172 in the US you would likely spend a night in jail. It is UGLY! But, as you mentioned, no way to hid from the camera cops!